Louisa Bartels

Growing up in Sydney, Louisa has always had a natural curiosity for animals which led her to study a Bachelor of Animal and Veterinary Bioscience majoring in wildlife conservation and management at the University of Sydney.

Her enthusiasm for entomology at university then led her to pursue an honours project investigating reproductive interactions between two closely related native bee (Tetragonula) species. Her research demonstrated that males showed attraction to queens of their related species, although no evidence of hybridisation was found.

During university she completed placement on the Great Barrier Reef at the Cairns Turtle Rehabilitation Centre aiding injured sea turtles. She has also volunteered with the AWC on a biodiversity survey in Pilliga National Park and assisted a PhD project on mass mortality events in Kosciuszko National Park.

Louisa enjoys learning about wildlife behaviour and is passionate about restoring threatened native flora and fauna populations. This desire has been strengthened from working across a range of ecological communities as a bushland regenerator where she has witnessed the native wildlife that rely on these ecosystems.