Tony Friend is a wildlife biologist who was employed for almost four decades as a research scientist with the by the Western Australian state conservation agency, to carry out research and conservation actions to recover threatened marsupials. In this dream job, he worked mainly in the south-west corner of Australia, making many discoveries about the ecology and habits of threatened, iconic species, such as the numbat, dibbler, red-tailed phascogale and the critically endangered Gilbert’s potoroo.

In 1998 he was awarded a Churchill Fellowship to travel overseas to study the use of dogs and satellite technology in wildlife research and management. He has been an active member of the Australian Mammal Society, winning the society’s Scruffy Award in 2005 and serving as President from 2009 to 2012.

He lives in Albany on the south coast of western Australia with his partner Anne, a retired seed conservation biologist and owns a cat.