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ContactWill Rayment image

Office 310 Castle Street, room 211a
Tel +64 3 479 8304
Email will.rayment@otago.ac.nz

Academic qualifications

BA Oxford
MSc University College London
PhD University of Otago

Research interests

  • Ecology and conservation biology of cetaceans
  • Capture-recapture methods and analyses
  • Species-habitat relationships
  • Efficacy of Marine Protected Areas and MPA networks

Will is also a member of the Coastal People: Southern Skies collaboration that connects communities with world-leading, cross-discipline research to rebuild coastal ecosystems.

Coastal People: Southern Skies

Teaching

  • ECOL 111 Ecology and Conservation of Diversity
  • MARI 112 Marine Biology: The Living Ocean
  • MARI 302 Biology and Behaviour of Marine Vertebrates (course co-ordinator)
  • MARI 401 Advanced Methods in Marine Science
  • MARI 429 Coastal Marine Environment (course co-ordinator)
  • MARI 431 Antarctic and Southern Ocean Science
  • ZOOL 418 Conservation Biology of Marine Mammals

Postgraduate students

Current students

  • Steph Bennington, PhD: Transferring statistical models between populations and species
  • Leah Crowe, PhD: Variability and vulnerability of the critically endangered Fiordland bottlenose dolphin
  • Nicholas Daudt, PhD: Spatiotemporal patterns and environmental drivers of seabird assemblages in Australasia, a world hotspot of seabird diversity
  • Stella Simpson, MSc: Investigating the effects of oceanic conditions on sperm whales and their prey at Kaikōura
  • Hanna Ravn, MSc:  Pakake / NZ sea lion diet analysis – a participatory science approach

Completed students

  • Lindsay Wickman, PhD: Population modelling of Hector's dolphins at Banks Peninsula, NZ.
  • Namrata Chand, PhD: Ecosystem Functioning and Role of Soft Sediment Macroalgal Communities
  • David Johnston PhD: Sentinels of the Southern Ocean: southern right whales (Eubalaena australis) as indicators of oceanic productivity
  • José Emilio Trujillo Moyano, PhD: Insights into neonate reef sharks' vulnerability to predation: a behavioural, physiological and ecological approach
  • Gaby Keeler-May, PhD: Undaria pinnatifida management and control in Southern New Zealand
  • Moss Thompson, MSc: Pup survival of the New Zealand sea lion on the Otago Coast
  • Hannah Williams, MSc: Abundance and distribution of Hector's dolphins in Otago and effectiveness of current protection measures

Publications

Dawson, S. M., Slooten, E., & Rayment, W. J. (2025). Hector's dolphin Cephalorhynchus hectori (Van Beneden, 1881). In T. A. Jefferson (Ed.), Ridgway & Harrison's handbook of marine mammals (Vol. 1): Coastal dolphins and porpoises. (pp. 395-419). London, UK: Academic Press. doi: 10.1016/B978-0-443-13746-4.00014-7 Chapter in Book - Research

Patton, P. T., Pacifici, K., Baird, R. W., Oleson, E. M., Allen, J. B., Ashe, E., … Johnston, D. R., … Rayment, W. J., … Bejder, L. (2025). Optimizing automated photo identification for population assessments. Conservation Biology. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1111/cobi.14436 Journal - Research Article

Dawson, S. M., Barlow, J., Guerra, M., Leunissen, E. M., Webster, T. A., & Rayment, W. J. (2024). Shepherd's beaked whale (Tasmacetus shepherdi) produces a diverse variety of ultrasonic pulses [Note]. Marine Mammal Science. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1111/mms.13199 Journal - Research Other

Bennington, S. M., Bourke, S. D., Wilkinson, S. P., Englebert, N., Bond, D. M., Jeunen, G.-J., Dawson, S., Slooten, E., Dillingham, P. W., Rayment, W. J., & Alexander, A. (2024). New insights into the population structure of Hector's dolphin (Cephalorhynchus hectori) revealed using environmental DNA. Environmental DNA, 6, e70024. doi: 10.1002/edn3.70024 Journal - Research Article

Bennington, S., Dillingham, P. W., Bourke, S. D., Dawson, S. M., Slooten, E., & Rayment, W. J. (2024). Testing spatial transferability of species distribution models reveals differing habitat preferences for an endangered delphinid (Cephalorhynchus hectori) in Aotearoa, New Zealand. Ecology & Evolution, 14, e70074. doi: 10.1002/ece3.70074 Journal - Research Article

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