She says she feels honoured to win the award and lucky to have been able to realise her childhood ambitions.
鈥淚 grew up rurally. My mum always had a collection of animals around her as she had wanted to be a vet. So, I grew up in that environment, and my dad always encouraged me to follow my interests so I would end up in a job that I enjoyed.
Animals, and mammals in particular, have always piqued her curiosity. 鈥淚鈥檓 fascinated by what animals do, and why they do it,鈥 she says. 鈥淚鈥檓 interested in why animals can behave very differently to one another and what causes that individual variation.鈥
Professor Cameron, who did her master鈥檚 research at Christchurch鈥檚 Orana Wildlife Park in 1992, spent seven years living in Africa and she has returned there regularly to do field work with a range of mammals including meerkats, zebras, lions and giraffes. She is returning to Africa in December to study giraffes and mole-rats.
Giraffes interest her because so little is known about them. 鈥淵ou would think we know a lot since they are big and obvious, but they live in a different sensory world which makes it hard for us to understand the world from a giraffe鈥檚 perspective.鈥
She enjoys finding out about 鈥渃ryptic鈥 social bonds between animals. 鈥淚n the past there was a lot of concentration on aggression as a shaping force in animal societies and until relatively recently friendship was thought to be something just humans have,鈥 she says.
鈥淏ut through our research with Kaimanawa wild horses in the North Island, we鈥檝e shown animals do have friendships and social relationships and they鈥檙e really strong determinants of their success in life. Their behaviour also changes according to who they鈥檙e with and their environment, which is very similar to humans.鈥
Another key area of research has been how animals can biologically influence the sex ratio [number of males and females] of their offspring. Professor Cameron has shown that the condition of mothers, including their glucose levels, can have an effect on whether they produce male or female babies. Her research in horses and mice has shown that fathers can also have an impact on sex allocation depending on the timing of fertilisation.
She is currently carrying out what she describes as a 鈥渇un project鈥 studying how possums learn from watching the behaviour of other possums.
Professor Cameron was Director of the Mammal Research Institute at the University of Pretoria in South Africa from 2006 until 2010 and also worked at the University of Tasmania, in Australia for five years. She was part of the Tasmanian Devil Programme Steering Group from 2012 to 2018 and serves on several other international committees, including being co-chair of the听International Union for Conservation of Nature Species Survival Commission Giraffe and Okapi Specialist Group, a globally significant role.
She has also been an advocate for equity and diversity within science. 鈥淧romoting equity, diversity and inclusion is really important to me,鈥 she says. 鈥淭hrough mentoring roles I鈥檓 doing what I can to make sure some of the obstructions I experienced myself aren鈥檛 there for other people. I like to tell people that their difference is their super-power and if I can do it then anyone can. We need a diversity of views to achieve all we can as researchers.鈥
She has encountered challenges as a woman scientist, mainly because of other people鈥檚 attitudes.
鈥淐ertainly, the numbers [of women working in science] are changing, but the thing that concerns me is that it鈥檚 changing at the bottom end, in terms of postgraduate students rather than professors. We do pretty well in New Zealand and there鈥檚 definitely been positive change, but more change needs to happen.鈥
Read more about UC Council鈥檚 2022 medallists听here.
