Doctor Christopher Turbill

• Biography
• Areas of Research / Teaching Expertise
• Grants / Current Projects
• Selected Publications
• Memberships and Engagement
• Contact Details

Biography

I gained my current position as a Lecturer at the University of Western Sydney in September 2011. Prior to this, I spent three and a half years as a postdoctoral fellow at The Research Institute for Wildlife Ecology in Vienna Austria. In Vienna, I worked primarily with Thomas Ruf and Walter Arnold on a range of experimental and comparative/evolutionary research projects. We carried out a large experimental study to distinguish the effect of food intake and seasonal cues on the heart rate and rumen temperature of red deer. We also studied the effect of daily torpor and hibernation on survival and life history strategies among a large range of mammal species.
I was granted a PhD in 2006 from the University of New England in Armidale NSW, where I supervised by Fritz Geiser. Hence, I can claim to be an outer twig of the illustrious academic lineage of George Bartholomew. During my PhD I studied the thermoregulatory physiology and ecology of Australian tree-roosting bats.
Interspersed with my academic career, I have been employed on several occasions with government conservation departments. After my PhD, I worked as a Project Officer for the NSW Scientific Committee to research nominations of populations, species and ecological communities for listing on the threatened Species Act. Prior to my PhD, I worked for three field seasons conducting vertebrate fauna surveys in the Pilliga Forests, Darling Riverine Plains and elsewhere in central western and northern NSW.

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Areas of Research / Teaching Expertise

Physiological Ecology; Metabolism and Energy Expenditure, Torpor and Hibernation; Evolution of Life History Strategies; Ecology of Chiroptera (bats); Telomeres as a Biomarker of Ageing

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Grants / Current Projects

University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna ‘Start-up Project’ EURO €15,000 2010
‘Telomere dynamics as an index of biological aging.’ Applicants: S. Smith, C. Turbill and F. Suchentrunk

Austrian Science Fund (FWF) ‘Stand-alone Project’ EURO €273,775 2008-11
Project title: ‘Food availability as a cue for physiological mechanisms of winter energy conservation by red deer (Cervus elaphus).’ Applicants: W. Arnold and C. Turbill

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Selected Publications

Bieber C., Turbill C. and Ruf T. (2011) High survival during hibernation affects onset and timing of reproduction in a small hibernator. Oecologia In press.

Turbill C., Smith S., Deimel C. and Ruf T. (2011) Daily torpor is associated with telomere length change over winter in Djungarian hamsters. Biology Letters, Published online: 14.09.2011.

Turbill C., Bieber C. and Ruf T. (2011) Seasonal dormancy increases survival and is associated with the evolution of slow life histories in hibernating mammals. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, Published online: 30.03.2011. (Editor’s Choice, Science 332: p.284)

Smith C, Turbill C. and Penn D. (2011) Chasing telomeres not red herrings in evolutionary ecology. Heredity. Published online: 16.03.2011.

Turbill C., Ruf T., Mang T. and Arnold W. (2011) Regulation of heart rate and rumen temperature in red deer: effects of season and food intake. The Journal of Experimental Biology 214: 963-970.

Turbill C. and Ruf T. (2010) Senescence is more important in the natural lives of long- than short-lived mammal species. PLoS ONE 5(8): e12019.

Smith S., Turbill C. and Suchentrunk F. (2010) Introducing mother’s curse: low male fertility associated with an imported mtDNA haplotype in a captive colony of brown hares. Molecular Ecology 19: 36-47.

Geiser F. and Turbill C. (2009) Hibernation and daily torpor minimize mammalian extinctions. Naturwissenschaften 96: 1235-1240.

Stawski C., Turbill C. and Geiser F. (2009) Hibernation by a free-ranging subtropical bat (Nyctophilus bifax). Journal of Comparative Physiology B 179: 433-441.

Turbill C., Körtner G. and Geiser F. (2008) Timing of the daily temperature cycle affects the critical arousal temperature and energy expenditure of lesser long-eared bats. The Journal of Experimental Biology 211: 3871-3878.

Turbill C. (2008) Winter activity of Australian tree-roosting bats: influence of temperature and climatic patterns. Journal of Zoology, London 276: 285-290.

Turbill C. and Geiser F. (2008) Hibernation by tree-roosting bats. Journal of Comparative Physiology B 178: 597-605.

Turbill C. and Geiser F. (2006) Thermal physiology of pregnant and lactating female and male long-eared bats, Nyctophilus geoffroyi and N. gouldi. Journal of Comparative Physiology B 176: 165-172.

Turbill C., Körtner G. and Geiser F. (2003) Natural use of heterothermy by a small tree-roosting bat during summer. Physiological and Biochemical Zoology 76:868-876.

Turbill C., Law B. S. and Geiser F. (2003) Summer torpor in a free-ranging bat from sub-tropical Australia. Journal of Thermal Biology 28:223-226.

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Memberships and Engagement

Society for Experimental Biology
Australasian Bat Society
Associate Editor for Australian Mammalogy

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