A senior lecturer at the department of zoology, Dr Bishop had a childhood fascination with frogs, which inspired a career that has seen him appointed to help lead efforts to halt a threatened extinction of amphibians.
Dr Bishop has been appointed by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature as a chief scientist in the fledgling Amphibian Survival Alliance (ASA)"The most important thing for us to do to help amphibians is to prioritise our list of projects and organise funding for their protection," Dr Bishop said.
Amphibians were the "environmental sentinels" of nature and the rapid rate of their worldwide decline signalled the harmful effects being wrought on global habitats, he said.
A survey of amphibious species in 2004 showed at least 32% of the more than 6000 amphibian species worldwide are threatened with extinction.
These rates had been accelerated in recent years and studies have also shown even frogs living in the middle of pristine national parks were declining in numbers, Dr Bishop said.
The English-born scientist has been appointed to the ASA alongside Dr Jaime Garcia-Moreno, of the Netherlands, who will investigate potential breeding programmes with the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria.
"Taking up the [ASA chief scientist] position is an exciting yet sobering challenge," Dr Bishop said.
A former co-leader of the New Zealand Native Frog Recovery Group, Dr Bishop is chairman of the Amphibian Specialist Group working group for New Zealand.
He was also one of New Zealand's two frog ambassadors during the Year of the Frog in 2008-09.
