Gisela Kaplan
Professor, School of Science and Technology
Qualifications
B.A. (Hons., First Class), Grad. Dip. Ed., M.A. (Monash), Ph.D. (Monash University, Melbourne), Ph.D. (Veterinary Science, University of Queensland)
Contact
| Email: | gkaplan@une.edu.au |
| Room: | C34 |
| Phone: | 02 6773 2733 (or +61 2 6773 2733 overseas) |
| Fax: | 02 6773 3452 |
| Homepage: | http://www.une.edu.au/cnab/ |
Professor Gisela Kaplan is Professor in Animal Behaviour in the Centre for Neuroscience and Animal Behaviour. Prior to her current role she was professor in Social Science. A prolific writer of over 250 research articles, she has so far also written 20 books, some jointly with Prof. Lesley Rogers. Prof. Kaplan is contributor to many prestigious events and research publications concerned with animal behaviour, specifically primatology (primates) and ornithology (birds/birdsong). She has also been commissioned to write about animal behaviour in popular magazines and printed media (such as Nature Australia, GEO, Endangered Species, The Australian and others) and is regularly heard on radio reporting her research, is also consultant on television documentaries and expert in the behaviour and rehabilitation of native Australian avian species. Prof. Kaplan usually lectures in third year Animal Behaviour and supervises Honours projects and is otherwise located in the graduate research program in animal behaviour, specifically avian and primate research and animal welfare projects.
Affiliations
She is currently a
- Life member of the International Primatological Society (IPS)
- Elected member of the committee of the International Ornithological Congress (IOC)
- Member of the Royal Society of New South Wales
- Patron of the Dingo Conservation Society of Australia
She has been recognized
- by a Federation Community Services Award 2001 winner for community services to wildlife
- as Winner of a Wilderness Society Award (2005)
- as 2005 winner of the Australian Publishing Association Award single book category
- 2005/6 book (Magpies) on CSIRO bestseller list
She serves on various government panels for Australian research, on USA and European national granting bodies, is member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Applied Animal Behaviour Science and a regular assessor for over 20 international journals.
Research interests
Prof. Kaplan's main research interests are in primate and avian behaviour (separately and in comparison, focussing on topics of higher cognition and communication). Over the past decade, she has particularly used one of the foremost Australian songbirds (the Australian magpie, Gymnorhina tibicen) as a model species to make important points about vocal learning and brain plasticity. Her interests are specifically in vocal communication, cognition, and the functions of song and mimicry. Her research on Australian magpies has offered an extremely rich field of discovery. Professor Kaplan has discovered (and has extensive records of) mimicry, discovered referential signaling in this species as well as stages of vocal development akin to stages of vocal development in human infants. In terms of the international importance of the topic of birdsong in neurobiology these findings are significant. Her research has been supported by Australian Research Council (ARC) grants.
Selected publications
Books on animal behaviour
Kaplan Gisela and Rogers Lesley J., Birds. Their Habits and Skills, e-book: originally published by Allen & Unwin, Sydney, ISBN 1 86508 376 3, 272 pages, 2008. http://www.amazon.com/Birds-Habits-Lesley-J-Rogers/dp/1865083763/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1220918682&sr=1-1
Rogers Lesley J. and Kaplan Gisela, Spirit of the Wild Dog, e-book: originally published by Allen & Unwin, Sydney, ISBN 186508 673 8, 229 pages, 2008. http://www.amazon.com/Spirit-Wild-Dog-Coyotes-Jackals/dp/1865086738/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1220918653&sr=8-1
Kaplan Gisela, Tawny Frogmouth, CSIRO, Melbourne, ISBN 9780643092396, 155 pages, 2007.
Kaplan Gisela, Australian Magpie: Biology and Behaviour of an Unusual Songbird, Natural HistorySeries, University of New South Wales Press, Sydney and CSIRO, Melbourne, ISBN 0-643 09068 1, 142 pages, 2004, 2005, 2006.
Rogers Lesley J. and Kaplan Gisela, eds., Comparative Vertebrate Cognition: Are Primates Superior to Non-primates, Kluwer Primatology Series: Developments in Primatology: Progress and Prospect, Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, New York, Boston, Dordrecht, London, Moscow, ISBN 0-306-47727-0, 386 pages, 2004.
Refeered papers
Vallortigara G., Snyder A., Kaplan G., Bateson P, Clayton NS and Rogers LJ, Are animals autistic savants?, PLoS Biology 6 (2) e42, doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.0060042, 2008. http://biology.plosjournals.org/perlserv/?request=get-document&doi=10.1371%2Fjournal.pbio.0060042
Kaplan G., The Australian Magpie (Gymnorhina tibicen): An alternative model for the study of songbird neurobiology, In P.Zeigler and P. Marler (eds), The Neuroscience of Birdsong, Cambridge University Press, pp.153-170, 2008.
Kaplan G., Alarm calls and referentiality in Australian Magpies: Between midbrain and forebrain, can a case be made for complex cognition?, Brain Research Bulletin, 76, 253-263, 2008.
Rogers L.J. and Kaplan G., All animals are not equal: the interface between scientific knowledge and the legislation for animal rights?, In C.R. Sunstein and M. C. Nussbaum (eds.), Animal Rights: Law and Policy, Oxford University Press, Oxford, ISBN 0-19-512176-4, pp.175-204, 2004.
Kaplan G. and Rogers L.J., Patterns of eye gazing in orangutans, International Journal of Primatology, vol. 23, no. 3, pp. 501-526, June 2002.