Alison Cree

Alison Marion Cree CNZM is a New Zealand herpetologist. She is currently a professor at the University of Otago.^[1]

Alison Cree CNZM
Cree in 2024
Nationality	New Zealand
Alma mater	University of Waikato
Scientific career
Fields	Herpetology
Institutions	University of Otago
Thesis	Water relations of the endemic New Zealand frogs Leiopelma archeyi, L. Hamiltoni and L. Hochstetteri  (1986)

Academic career

Cree graduated from the University of Waikato in 1986 with a D.Phil. for her thesis titled "Water relations of the endemic New Zealand frogs Leiopelma archeyi, L. Hamiltoni and L. Hochstetteri".^[2] Prior to this she had attained a diploma on environmental pollution in Christchurch, through the University of Canterbury.^[3][4]

Cree's work has been on a number of species, but her work with tuatara has attracted the most media attention.^[5][6][7]

In the 2023 King's Birthday and Coronation Honours, Cree was appointed a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to herpetology, particularly tuatara.^[8]

Selected publications

Book

• Cree, Alison (2014). Tuatara: Biology and conservation of a venerable survivor. Christchurch, New Zealand: Canterbury University Press. ISBN 978-1-927145-44-9. OCLC 888553607.

Journal articles

• Scott Jarvie; Tim Jowett; Michael B. Thompson; Philip J Seddon; Alison Cree (1 July 2018). "Effects of Warm Temperatures on Metabolic Rate and Evaporative Water Loss in Tuatara, a Cool-Climate Rhynchocephalian Survivor". Ecological and Evolutionary Physiology. 91 (4): 950–966. doi:10.1086/698495. ISSN 1522-2152. PMID 29863954. Wikidata Q57178857.
• Ricardo de Sá Rocha Mello; Scott Jarvie; Lindsay Hazley; Alison Cree (2019). "Comparison among three body parts and three software packages to optimise photographic identification of a reptile (tuatara, Sphenodon punctatus)". Amphibia-Reptilia. 40 (2): 233–244. doi:10.1163/15685381-20181059. ISSN 0173-5373. Wikidata Q101402446.
• Josef Virens; Alison Cree (6 September 2019). "Pregnancy reduces critical thermal maximum, but not voluntary thermal maximum, in a viviparous skink". Journal of Comparative Physiology B. 189 (5): 611–621. doi:10.1007/S00360-019-01230-Y. ISSN 0174-1578. PMID 31493184. Wikidata Q93164259.