Colleen Sims

Dr Colleen Sims is Senior Project Officer on the Dirk Hartog Island Ecological Restoration Project with the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions (DBCA). She is a wildlife ecologist and veterinary conservation biologist with 22 years of experience in biodiversity conservation research and management with DBCA (and its predecessor agencies CALM, DEC & DPAW), focusing on the captive breeding of threatened species, wildlife health, reintroduction biology and introduced predator management. Currently based in Perth, her work has focused on conservation of arid threatened mammals, especially those of the Midwest, Gascoyne and Goldfields of Western Australia. These include the greater bilby, rufous hare-wallaby and mala, banded hare-wallaby, Shark Bay bandicoot, golden bandicoot, mulgara, Shark Bay mouse, boodie, woylie, brush-tail possum, malleefowl, and mulgara. In 1996, Colleen carried out reintroductions of bilby and malleefowl to Peron Peninsula, with the populations of both these species still persisting over 20 years later. She has also had a long association with monitoring threatened mammals on islands (Shark Bay and Montebellos). Colleen has collaborated extensively with individuals, universities, government agencies and NGOs across a range of professions and disciplines related to wildlife health, biological conservation, fauna reconstruction, and ecological monitoring. Colleen is a member of several Recovery Teams for threatened terrestrial mammals present in the Midwest and arid areas of Western Australia.