Emeritus Professor Harry F. Recher

Dr. Recher joined the Department of Environmental Management at Edith Cowan University in 1996 as Foundation Professor and retired as Professor Emeritus in 2002. Prior to joining Edith Cowan, he was an Associate Professor in the Department of Ecosystem Management at the University of New England, Armidale, NSW. Before joining the University of New England in 1988, Dr. Recher was a Principal Research Scientist at the Australian Museum, Sydney. After undergraduate work at the College of Forestry and Syracuse University, Dr. Recher completed his Ph.D. at Stanford University (California) in 1963 where he worked with Paul Ehrlich on the ecology of migratory shorebirds. After receiving his degree, he held post-doctoral fellowships at the University of Pennsylvania and at Princeton University with Robert MacArthur before coming to Australia in 1967 as a Lecturer in Zoology at Sydney University. During his postdoctoral years, Dr. Recher studied the foraging ecology of herons, but also worked with Howard Odum on rainforest birds in Puerto Rico as part of an Atomic Energy Commission study investigating the effects of radiation on tropical rainforests.

Since arriving in Australia, Dr. Recher has been active in the conservation and management of Australia's natural resources. He has studied the effects of fire on forests and heathlands and has been deeply concerned with the effects of logging and habitat fragmentation on forest animals. His research has taken him to the Great Barrier Reef, Western Australia, the Northern Territory, Tasmania, and New South Wales where he has studied the ecology of fish, birds, mammals, and forest arthropods, as well as participating in studies of heathland vegetation, and mangrove and seagrass ecosystems. He was appointed as a Senior Fellow at the Australian Museum in 2007.

BSc, PhD

Adjunct Professor Murdoch University, Murdoch, WA

Serventy Medal (RAOU)

AMRI Lifetime Achievement Award (Australian Museum)

Fellow Royal Zoological Society (NSW)

Order of Australia (AM)

Publications 2014-2019

• Recher, H. F. and Davis, W. E., Jr. (2014) Response of birds to episodic summer rainfall in the Great Western Woodlands, Western Australia. Australian Zoologist 37: 206-224.
• Recher, H. F. (2015) Failure of science, death of nature. Pacific Conservation Biology 21: 2 – 14.
• Recher, H. F. (2015) Politics, Emotion, and Ideology: The Reality of Reserve Selection for Nature Conservation. Australian Zoologist: DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7882/AZ.2015.024
• Recher, H. F. (2016) The winter foraging behaviour of birds in a mixed eucalypt forest and woodland on the Southern Tablelands of New South Wales. Australian Zoologist 38 (1): 1-15.
• Recher, H. F., Calver, M. C., and Davis, W. E. Jr. (2016) Ecology of honeyeaters (Meliphagidae) I: Resource allocation among species in the Great Western Woodland during spring. Australian Zoologist 38 (1): 130-145. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7882/AZ.2015.022
• Majer, J., Recher, H., Norwood, C., and Heterick, B. (2017) Variation in bird assemblages and their invertebrate prey on eucalypt trees across a rainfall gradient in southwestern Australia. Pacific Conservation Biology: 23: 372-386.
• Recher, H. F. (2017). Politics, Emotion, and Ideology: The Reality of Reserve Selection for Nature Conservation. Australian Zoologist 39: 257-271. doi org/10.7882/AZ.2015.024
• Recher, H. F. (2017). Field guides, bird names, and conservation. Pacific Conservation Biology 23: 315-323.
• Recher, H. F. (2017). Values, credibility, and ethics: public advocacy and conservation science. Pacific Conservation Biology (in press) doi org/10.7882/AZ.2015.024
• Recher, H. F. and Davis, W. E., Jnr. (2018). Foraging behaviour of mulga birds in Western Australia, I. Use of resources and temporal effects. Pacific Conservation Biology 24: 74-86.
• Recher, H. F. (2018) Foraging behaviour of mulga birds in Western Australia, II. community structure and conservation. Pacific Conservation Biology 23: 315-323.
• Keast, J. A., with Recher, H. F. (2018). James Allen Keast – bird watcher and ecologist: an autobiography. Pp. 363-429 in ‘Contributions to the History of Australasian Ornithology III’. ed by W. E. Davis Jr., W. E. Boles, and H. F. Recher. Memoirs of the Nuttall Ornithological Club, No. 22, Cambridge, Mass., U.S.A.
• Davis, W. E. Jr., Boles, W. E., and Recher, H. F., (eds) (2018). ‘Contributions to the History of Australasian Ornithology III’. Memoirs of the Nuttall Ornithological Club, No. 22, Cambridge, Mass., U.S.A.
• Davis, W. E. Jr., Boles, W. E., and Recher, H. F., (eds) (2018). ‘Contributions to the History of Australasian Ornithology IV’. Memoirs of the Nuttall Ornithological Club, No. 23, Cambridge, Mass., U.S.A.
• Recher, H. F. and Saunders, D. S. (2019). Tribute to David William Goodall DSc., AM. Pacific Conservation Biology 25: v-vii. doi.org/10.1071/PCv25n1_OB
• Recher, H. F. (2019) Values, credibility, and ethics: public advocacy and conservation science. Pacific Conservation Biology 25: 22-25. doi.org/10.1071/PC17025