Tasmania Premier Birding Guides Biographical Sketch
Cat Davidson and Nick Mooney
Cat Davidson
Cat Davidson has explored and guided in several parts of the world before making Australia (and specifically Tasmania) her home. Cat has been a professional guide for nearly twenty years, and a professional bird guide for over a decade. She began as a bird and wildlife guide in Canada before moving to Australia in 2013.
Cat has guided mostly in southern Australia (Queensland and Tasmania) and has dedicated the last four years to guiding for birds and wildlife in Tasmania and the Inala Reserve.
Before Inala, Cat worked in Lamington National Park in lush subtropical Queensland as a bird guide and prior to that as a wildlife and bird guide in the remote and windswept Falkland Islands and in parts of Canada.
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Besides birding, Cat loves the mammals and other fauna of Tasmania. Cat has a diverse background in nature guiding. She also has a strong grounding and love for botany, starting early in life in her parent’s gardens.
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Nick Mooney
Nick Mooney has been a birding and nature guide at the Inala Nature Preserve for almost a dozen years. In this role, he has lead groups all around Tasmania in search of birds and wildlife. Besides guiding over the last decade, Nick also remain busy on other projects as a conservationist, biologist, writer, wildlife expert, and ecological educator.
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Nick has been involved in studying and managing Tasmania's wildlife for over 30 years (starting in the 1980s) in his capacity as a wildlife manager at the DPIPWE (the Department of Primary Industries, Water and Environment for Tasmania). Some of the highlights of this part of his career include some of his many roles as an educator, conservationist and scientist.
•Nick started at DPIPWE as a raptor specialist doing peregrine surveys.
•He diversified his work into seabird research, marsupial carnivores and invasive species, plus whale rescues.
•Nick is best known for his work with the Tasmanian Devil. In addition to efforts to learn about the diseases facing and threatening the Devil population, Nick also educates farmers about the benefits they provide.
•Nick has also been involved with government efforts to search for the elusive, and some believe extinct, Tasmanian Tiger.
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He is a keen educator and hopes to increase public appreciation of wildlife through training and guiding.
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Nick has also participated in a number of expeditions, including studies on Macquarie Island in Antarctic waters, and for many years lecturing on marine mammals and seabirds while guiding and driving zodiacs in Antarctica.
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In 2006 Mooney received an Australian of the Year Local Hero award.