Above picture: Otto Whitehead takes a selfie on Marion Island in 2011

Dr Otto Whitehead describes himself on his personal website as a “storyteller”.  He is also an ecologist who earned his PhD from the University of Cape Town’s world-renowned FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology for his study of the foraging ecology of crested penguins on Marion Island as a member of the 68th Overwintering Team in 2011/12 (with shorter return visits made in 2013 and 2017).  A long-term supporter of the Mouse-Free Marion (MFM) Project, Otto has sponsored a most generous 32 hectares, at the time of writing an amount more than twice as much of any other island overwinterer.

Macaroni Penguins on Marion Island

 

He writes to MFM News: “I was privileged to overwinter on Marion as a seabird researcher, which to date has been the most profound experience of my life.  The island remains the most incredible place I’ve ever been, and I honestly feel indebted to it for all that it has given me.  It has been instrumental to my development as an ecologist, filmmaker and, most importantly, as a person.  The isolation and wildness that one experiences there has a profound influence on anyone visiting its shores, and it’s a great privilege to be able to contribute towards the preservation of this wilderness through the MFM Project.”

Otto continues: “Marion Island is where I developed my passion for visual storytelling.  When I found out I was going to spend a year on Marion I knew I had to get a camera, so I saved up by sorting freshwater invertebrates under a microscope and bought my first single-lens reflex camera, learnt to shoot video and was soon editing films to share my experiences with friends and family back home.  This very quickly evolved into a yearning to spend all my creative energy telling science and conservation stories.  It’s been extremely rewarding to share imagery from my time on Marion with the MFM Project, which I hope has helped inspire others to contribute to this vital initiative to ensure that the island remains a haven for seabirds long into the future.”

Otto at work filming Wandering Albatrosses at the nest on Marion Island in 2017

Photographs taken in 2017 while he worked on the island documenting its seabird diversity with National Geographic photographer Thomas Peschak appeared in the magazine’s July 2018 issue as part of a global seabird story – “Lost at sea: why the birds you don’t see are fading away” and a follow-up article which focused specifically on the MFM Project – “Saving a remote island’s birds – by getting rid of its mice.”

Otto’s island photography has also contributed to the Sentinels of the South exhibition in the Iziko Museums of South Africa in Cape Town.  Following his sojourns on Marion Island, Otto took up a postdoctoral fellowship at the South African National Biodiversity Institute, where he led writing of the sub-Antarctic chapter of South Africa’s 2018 National Biodiversity Assessment.

Since then, he has worked as a field ecologist and storyteller for the ongoing Saving Sandfish project, working to help protect the Endangered and endemic Clanwilliam Sandfish from extinction and strengthen stewardship among communities in the Biedouw Valley in South Africa’s Western Cape.  During 2022-2024 Otto collectively spent more than a year in South America documenting remote parts of the Amazon River basin for the National Geographic Society.

An incubating Wandering Albatross under a Marion Island starry sky; all photographs above by Otto Whitehead

All the team members of the MFM Project, most especially those who have spent time there, feel the same passion for Marion Island that Otto eloquently expresses.  We are glad to have him with us as a valued supporter!

Selected Publications by Otto Whitehead

Connan, M., Dilley, B., Whitehead, T.O., Davies, D., McQuaid, C.D. & Ryan, P.G. 2019.  Multidimensional stable isotope analysis illuminates resource partitioning in a sub‐Antarctic island bird community.  Ecography 42: 1948-1959.

Green, C.-P., Green, D.B., Ratcliffe, N., Thompson, D., Lea, M.A., Baylis, A.M.M., Bond, A.L., Bost, C.-A., Crofts, S., Cuthbert. R.J., González-Solís, J., Morrison, K.W., Poisbleau, M., Pütz, K., Rey, A.R., Ryan, P.G., Sagar, P.M., Steinfurth, A., Thiebot, J.B., Tierney, M., Whitehead, T.O., Wotherspoon, S. & Hindell, M.A. 2023.  Potential for redistribution of post-moult habitat for Eudyptes penguins in the Southern Ocean under future climate conditions.  Global Change Biology 29: 648-667.

Reisinger, R.R., Corney, S., Raymond, B., Lombard, A.T., Bester, M.N., Crawford, R.J.M., Davies, D., de Bruyn. P.J.N., Dilley, B.J., Kirkman, S.P., Makhado, A.B., Ryan, P.G., Schoombie, S., Stevens, K.L., Tosh, C.A., Wege, M., Whitehead, T.O., Sumner, M.D., Wotherspoon, S., Friedlaender, A.S., Cotté, C., Hindell, M.A., Ropert-Coudert, Y., Pistorius, P.A. 2022.  Habitat model forecasts suggest potential redistribution of marine predators in the southern Indian Ocean.  Diversity and Distributions 28:142-159.

Whitehead, T.O. 2017.  Foraging ecology of macaroni and rockhopper penguins at the Prince Edward Islands.  PhD thesis, University of Cape Town.  295 pp.

Whitehead, T.O., Connan, M., Ropert-Coudert, Y. & Ryan, P.G. 2017.  Subtle but significant segregation in the feeding ecology of sympatric penguins during the critical pre-moult period. Marine Ecology Progress Series 565: 227-236.

Whitehead, T.O., Kato, A., Ropert-Coudert, Y. & Ryan, P.G. 2016.  Habitat use and diving behaviour of macaroni Eudyptes chrysolophus and eastern rockhopper Eudyptes chrysocome filholi penguins during the critical pre-moult period.  Marine Biology 163: 19-39.

Whitehead, T.O., von der Meden, C.E.O., Skowno, A.L., Sink, K., van der Merwe,. S., Adams, R. & Holness, S. (Eds) 2019.  South African National Biodiversity Assessment 2018 Technical Report Volume 6: Sub-Antarctic Territory.  Claremont: South African National Biodiversity Institute.

John Cooper, News Correspondent, Mouse-Free Marion Project, 15 October 2024

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A Sooty Albatross on its cliff-side nest on Marion Island, poster design by Michelle Risi, photograph by Sean Evans

The Mouse-Free Marion Project is a registered non-profit company (No. 2020/922433/08) in South Africa, established to eradicate the invasive albatross-killing mice on Marion Island in the Southern Ocean.  The project was initiated by BirdLife South Africa and the South African Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment.  Upon successful completion, the project will restore the critical breeding habitat of over two million seabirds,