Lesley Brooker is an Australian ornithologist based in Western Australia following retirement from a career with the CSIRO's Division of Wildlife Research. There she worked, as a database manager and computer modeller, on developing methodologies for the re-design and restoration of agricultural lands for bird conservation. Since then, she has collaborated with her husband Michael Brooker in studies on cuckoo evolution, population ecology of fairy-wrens[1] and spatial dynamics of birds in fragmented landscapes.[2]
Brooker has contributed to ornithological research in Australia, in various states across Australia, including Western Australia, and Queensland, as well as researching and publishing on Explorers, as well as biodiversity, for over thirty years.[3][4] Her work involved research on Wedge-Tailed Eagles, Blue-breasted Fairy wrens[5][6] and ecosystem connectivity.[7] Booker was also a trip leader for the Western Australian Branch of Birdlife Australia and contributed to the Birds in the Great Western Woodlands, a joint project between BirdLife Australia and The Nature Conservancy [8]
Brooker has also contributed to research on paternity of bird families, in Molecular Ecology.[9]
She has published on animal dispersals, and habitat quality, on corridor use and connectivity.[10] Brooker served on the Emu advisory committee.[3]
Selected works
Brooker, Lesley (2002), Enhancing biodiversity values in the Latham Landcare district, CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems
Brooker, Lesley (2006), Explorers routes revisted: Expedition eastward from Northam by the Dempster brothers, Clarkson, Harper and Correll, July–August 1861, Hesperian Press, ISBN978-0-85905-390-7[12]