Dr. Mike Craig serves as an Adjunct Research Fellow in the School of Agriculture and Environment at The University of Western Australia. Born in England, he emigrated to Australia in 1976, attended school in Perth, and pursued his higher education at UWA, earning a BSc (Hons) in Botany and Zoology in 1992 and a PhD in 2001 with a thesis titled "The short-term impacts of logging on the jarrah forest avifauna." His professional career encompasses teaching, consulting, and research roles focused on ecology. After his PhD, he was Rainforest Ecology faculty at the School for Field Studies' Centre for Rainforest Studies from March 2000 to September 2002. He operated as a freelance environmental consultant via Michael Craig Consulting Ecologist from September 2002 to March 2004 and served as Senior Zoologist at Biota Environmental Sciences from March 2004 to April 2005. Craig held a Research Fellow position at Murdoch University from April 2005 to January 2016, becoming an Adjunct Research Fellow at UWA in January 2009. Since February 2015, he has been a Research Fellow in the Ecosystem Restoration & Intervention Ecology (ERIE) group at UWA, led by Professor Richard Hobbs.

Mike Craig's research centers on conservation biology, vertebrate ecology, and restoration ecology, emphasizing human impacts on ecosystems and restoration techniques to ameliorate them. He develops methods to accelerate faunal recolonization in restored bauxite mine sites, partnering with Alcoa of Australia to refine adaptive management for biodiversity conservation. Current efforts integrate Red-tailed Black-Cockatoo conservation with mining, logging, and water catchment activities in the northern jarrah forest, using water provision to offset resource extraction impacts. Possessing an A-class bird-banding licence and expertise in vertebrate sampling (cage, Elliot, funnel, pit traps, bird censuses), he identifies Australian vertebrates and global birds. Notable publications include "Characterizing the habitat of road trauma hotspots for threatened black cockatoos in metropolitan Perth, Western Australia" (Coyle et al., 2026, Pacific Conservation Biology); "Cross-Continental Analysis Shows That Disturbance Effects on Reptile Body Condition Do Not Predict Abundance Responses" (Macdonald et al., 2025, Global Change Biology); "Long-term post-fire succession of reptiles in an urban remnant in south-western Australia" (Davis & Craig, 2024, International Journal of Wildland Fire); "A review of methods for detecting rats at low densities, with implications for surveillance" (Davis et al., 2023, Biological Invasions); and "A review of progress of a research program for the endangered northern quoll in the multi-use landscapes of the Pilbara" (Gibson et al., 2023, Australian Mammalogy). With 84 research outputs, his work advances conservation in multi-use landscapes.

Professional Email: michael.craig@uwa.edu.au