Margaret Christine Stanley (born 1975) is a New Zealand ecologist, and is a full professor at the University of Auckland, specialising in understanding and mitigating human environmental impacts, including the impacts of urban intensification and of introduced pests and weeds.
Born in 1975,[1] Stanley grew up in Dunedin,[2] and studied zoology at the University of Otago, graduating with a Bachelor of Science degree with first-class honours in 1997.
[3] She completed a PhD titled Factors influencing fruit choice and seed dispersal by the silvereye (Zosterops lateralis) at Monash University.
[1] Stanley joined the faculty of the Centre for Biodiversity and Biosecurity in the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Auckland in 2007, rising to full professor in 2023.
[5] Stanley has written about the lack of long-term monitoring of New Zealand biodiversity, particularly insect populations,[6] and on research that showed hundreds of pet birds escaped each year, leading to suggestions that pet parrot sales should be banned to protect native birds.