Role
Angelo is Deputy Dean in the School of Animal, Rural and Environmental Sciences.
Angelo supports the Dean in leading the strategic direction of the School, with particular responsibility for the oversight of work to enhance learning, teaching and student experience. Angelo is a particularly strong advocate of the value of positive and developmental feedback on assessments, having won the Brighton Students Union feedback excellence award in 2015 and being a finalist again in the 2024 Brighton Students’ Union Awards.
Angelo maintains a research interest in the pedagogy of teaching of environmental disciplines and the consequences of anthropogenic impacts on species of conservation concern.
Career overview
Prior to joining NTU Angelo was Associate Dean for Education and Student Experience in the School of Applied Sciences at the University of Brighton (2021-2024). Angelo joined the University of Brighton in 2009 as a Lecturer in Environmental Biology and was promoted to Principal Lecturer and programme lead for the joint honours degree provision on the Hastings campus in 2012. In 2013 Angelo was appointed Assistant Director of the Hastings campus before becoming Deputy Head (Learning and Teaching) in the School of Pharmacy and Biomolecular Sciences (2016-2020).
Angelo holds a BSc (Hons) in Zoology from the University of Aberdeen and an MSc in Applied Ecology & Conservation from the University of East Anglia. He secured a NERC funded PhD at the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology and the University of Southampton (2005-2009), examining the impacts of habitat fragmentation on the population ecology and conservation genetics of the smooth snake (Coronella austriaca).
Research areas
Angelo is a conservation ecologist with particular research interests in the consequences of anthropogenic impacts on animal populations and communities. His research focuses on questions of an applied nature and spans a range of disciplines including ethology, ecology, conservation biology and population genetics. Much of his previous work has been on reptiles and amphibians, but more recent collaborative projects are focusing on white rhinoceros conservation, marine and freshwater fish and invertebrate ecology and ecotoxicology, elasmobranch behaviour/physiology and British plant conservation genetics.
Angelo has successfully supervised a number of PhD students to completion within conservation science and is currently involved in the supervision of four further students. Angelo is happy to hear from prospective PhD students who share a broadly similar research interest.
External activity
- 2017 – Present: Zoological Society of London - Edge Fellowship Programme Reviewer
- 2020 – Present: British Ecological Society – Member of Grant Review College
- 2010-2023: Editorial board - North-Western Journal of Zoology
- 2015-2016: Editor – The Herpetological Journal
- 2014: Book Review Editor – Biodiversity
- 2011-2016: Council member - British Herpetological Society
- 2008-2012: Editorial board - Herpetology Notes
- 2006-2010: Co-Editor - North-Western Journal of Zoology
Publications
Tolhurst, B.A., White, R.L., Friscia, A., Berg, M.J., Pernetta, A.P. & Crooks, N. (2023) Improving real-world impact from research-focussed experiential learning in higher education: a call-to-arms centring on field ecological monitoring. Journal of Perspectives in Applied Academic Practice 11(2): 170-179.
Penny, S.G., Withey, M. White, R.L., Scott, D.M., MacTavish, L. & Pernetta, A.P. (2022) Changes in social dominance in a group of subadult white rhinoceroses (Ceratotherium simum) after dehorning. African Zoology 57(1): 32-42.
Penny, S.G, White, R.L., Scott, D., MacTavish, L. & Pernetta, A.P. (2021) No evidence that horn trimming affects white rhinoceros horn use during comfort behaviour and resource access. Animal Biology 71(3): 243-259.
Cooke, J., Araya, Y., Bacon, K.L., Bagniewska, J.M., Batty, L., Bishop, T.R., Burns, M., CharalambousI, M., Daversa, D.R., Dougherty, L.R. Dyson, M., Fisher, A.M. Forman, D., Garcia, C., Harney, E., Hesselberg, T., John, E.A., Knell, R., Maseyk, K., Mauchline, A.L., Peacock, J., Pernetta, A.P., Pritchard, J., Sutherland, W.J., Thomas, R.L., Tigar, B., Wheeler, P., White, R.L., Worsfold, N.T. & Lewis, Z. (2021). Teaching and Learning in ecology: a horizon scan of emerging challenges and solutions. Oikos 130(1): 15-28. 5.
Penny, S.G., White, R.L., MacTavish, D., MacTavish, L., Scott, D.M. & Pernetta, A.P. (2020) Does dehorning lead to a change in inter-calf intervals in free-ranging white rhinoceros? Pachyderm 61:191-193.
Outram, L., Hurley, J., Rott, A.S., Crooks, N. & Pernetta, A.P. (2020) No evidence of microplastic consumption by Temora longicornis (Müller, 1785) in Chichester Harbour, United Kingdom. Nauplius 28: e2020033.
Hill, M., Pernetta, A.P. and Crooks, N. (2020) Size matters: A review of live feeds used in the aquaculture of marine ornamental fish species. Asian Fisheries Science 33(2) 161-174.
Penny, S.G, White, R.L., Scott, D., MacTavish, L. & Pernetta, A.P. (2020) Negligible hormonal response following dehorning in free-ranging white rhinoceros (Ceratotherium simum). Conservation Physiology 8(1): coaa117
Williams, R., Horrocks, J & Pernetta, A.P. (2020). Habitat use by an endemic and a non-native gecko: Natural habitat provides a last refuge for the Barbados Leaf-Toed gecko. Neotropical Biodiversity 6(1): 127-137.
White, A., Pernetta, A.P., Joyce, C. & Crooks, N. (2019). Increased mortality, delayed hatching, development aberrations and reduced activity in brown trout (Salmo trutta) exposed to phenethyl isothiocyanate. Water, Air and Soil Pollution 230: 231.
Crooks, N., Parker, H. & Pernetta, A.P. (2019) Brain food? Trophic transfer and tissue retention of microplastics by the velvet swimming crab (Necora puber). Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology 519: 151187
Penny, S.G, White, R.L., Scott, D., MacTavish, L. & Pernetta, A.P. (2019) Using drones and sirens to elicit avoidance behaviour in white rhinoceros as an anti-poaching tactic. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 286: 20191135
Crooks, N., Marriott, C.E., Clifforth, H.R., Ahmed, Z.A., Xhikola, A., Penny, S.G. & Pernetta A.P. (2017) Rudolph the red nosed reindeer had a very bioluminescent nose? A reply to van den Hoven et al. Deinsea - Online Journal of the Natural History Museum Rotterdam 17: 39-42.
Williams, R., Pernetta, A.P. & Horrocks, J. (2016). Out-competed by an invader? Interference and exploitative competition between Hemidactylus mabouia and Phyllodactylus pulcher for diurnal refuges. Integrative Zoology 11(3): 229-238
Williams, R., Horrocks, J. & Pernetta, A.P. (2015) Natural history, distribution, and conservation status of the Barbados leaf-toed gecko, Phyllodactylus pulcher Gray, 1828 (Squamata, Gekkonidae). Herpetology Notes 8: 197-204.
Pernetta A.P. (2014). Book Review: Conserving Dryland Biodiversity. Biodiversity 15(2-3): 237-238.
Pernetta A.P. (2014). A disappearing drylands icon? White rhinoceros conservation and the need for public–private partnerships. Biodiversity 15(2-3):231-233.
Pernetta A.P. (2014). Book Review: Conservation. Biodiversity 15(1):58-59.
Pernetta A.P. (2012). Effective and sustainable farming of green pythons requires a sound chain of custody and conservation taxation of end consumers. Biological Conservation 147: 1.
Pernetta A.P. & Dell, M.C.P. (2012). Predation of a cape genet (Genetta tigrina, Schreber 1776) by a southern African python (Python natalensis, Smith 1840). Herpetology Notes 5: 31-32
Pernetta, A.P., Allen, J.A., Beebee, T.J.C. & Reading, C.J. (2011) Fine scale population genetic structure and sex-biased dispersal in the smooth snake (Coronella austriaca) in southern England. Heredity 107: 231-238.
Pernetta, A.P. (2009). Redesigning the wildlife trade system. Science 324: 1389 23.
Pernetta, A.P. (2009). Monitoring the trade: using the CITES trade database to examine the dynamics of the trade in live monitor lizards (Varanus spp.). Biawak - Journal of Varanid Biology and Husbandry 3: 37-45.
Pernetta, A.P. & Reading, C.J. (2009). Observations of two melanistic smooth snakes (Coronella austriaca) from Dorset, United Kingdom. Acta Herpetologica 4: 109-112.
Pernetta, A.P. & Reading, C.J. (2009). Coronella austriaca (smooth snake) Paraphimosis. Herpetological Review 40: 95.
Pernetta, A.P., Reading, C.J. & Allen, J.A. (2009). Chemoreception and kin discrimination by neonate smooth snakes (Coronella austriaca). Animal Behaviour 77: 363-368.
Pernetta, A.P. (2008). Just give them fellowships. Science 321:1776-1777.
Ross, T.N., Pernetta, A.P., Bell, D.J. & Jones, C.G. (2008). Sexual size dimorphism and microhabitat use of the orange-tailed skink (Gongylomorphus sp.) on Flat Island, Mauritius. Amphibia-Reptilia 29: 349- 359.
Hartel, T., Sas, I., Pernetta, A.P. & Geltsch, I.C. (2007). The reproductive dynamics of temperate amphibians: a review. North-Western Journal of Zoology 3: 127-145.
Pernetta, A.P. (2007). Mentors could support a student reviewer database. Nature 448: 129.
Pernetta, A.P., Bell, D.J. & Jones, C.G. (2005). Macro- and microhabitat use of Telfair’s skinks (Leiolopisma telfairii) on Round Island, Mauritius: Implications for their translocation. Acta Oecologica 28: 313-323.
Pernetta, A.P., Ross, T.N. & Jones, C.G. (2005). Leiolopisma telfairii (Telfair’s skink): Caudal Luring. Herpetological Review 36(3): 320-321.
Pernetta, A.P. (2005). Gongylomorphus bojerii bojerii (Bojer’s skink): arboreality, Herpetological Bulletin 91: 31-32.
Pernetta, A.P. (2004). Book Review: A photographic guide to snakes and other reptiles of Thailand and South-East Asia. Herpetological Bulletin 90: 32.
Pernetta, A.P. (2004). Book review: Expedition Field Techniques: Reptiles and Amphibians. Herpetological Bulletin 87: 32.
Pernetta, A.P. (2004). ‘Non-destructive’ aquarium trade fishery – a misnomer. Oryx 38: 3-4