Mavis Melville Davidson OBE (née Gedye; 10 February 1910 – 27 May 2004) was a New Zealand zoologist, biologist and mountaineer.
[1][2][3] Davidson was born in Te Karaka, Poverty Bay, the seventh of nine children of Thomas James and Dagmar Martha Melville Gedye (née Hansen).
[4][5] Davidson studied at Victoria University College and graduated with a master's degree in zoology in 1950, specialising in forestry and deer ecology.
[6] She worked in the zoology department at Victoria as a demonstrator and junior lecturer between 1946 and 1950, then in 1958 Davidson was appointed a biologist with the New Zealand Forest Service.
[2] In the 1992 New Year Honours, Davidson was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire, for services to science and mountaineering.