Dr Leanda is a Nyungar conservation ecologist with a passion to protect kin that are subject to discrimination.
Welcome to their web page!
This web page is a window into the urban ecology of trapdoor spiders and their kin, to understanding conservation of spiders, toolkits for ensuring that spiders will persist for future generations. See their thesis ‘Living on burrowed time: mygalomorph spiders of Perth city‘. It is also a place to find updates on their current research and student opportunities.
In their spare time, they enjoy walking through the bush while only staring at the ground, talking about spiders, and making puns. Their scientific research expertise is focused on the ecology of mygalomorph spiders and other short-range endemics, but their interests are much broader. Science communication and outreach has become increasingly useful as a means of educating and stimulating the interest of communities in environmental and social justice. They find effective communication of science highly rewarding and a means to produce a more widespread positive change for a sustainable future, a future where the conservation of non-charismatic critters is of the same priority assigned to charismatic species.
Dr Leanda also enjoys writing in the third person. Not only does it sounds like they have someone writing for them, but it is much easier to write about yourself when you are writing as if you are someone else. They hope that last sentence made sense.
Note, this website is a personal website created and maintained by Leanda D. Mason and not endorsed or affiliated with their employer, Edith Cowan University.