Randall William Davis (born 10 May 1952) is an American educator and researcher who studies the physiology and behavioral ecology of marine mammals and other aquatic vertebrates. His physiological research focuses on adaptations of marine mammals for deep, prolonged diving. Davis has continually emphasized the importance of studying aquatic animals in their natural environment and has spent many years developing animal-borne instruments that record video and monitor three-dimensional movements, swimming performance and environmental variables to better understand their behavior and ecology. His academic endeavors and 94 research expeditions have taken him to 64 countries and territories on seven continents and all of the world's oceans.
Education and early career Randall Davis is the oldest son of Charles Davis and Beverly Sheldon who met and married in Los Angeles after the Second World War. His father, who was from Iola, Kansas, moved to Southern California in the 1930s, and his mother was a native of Los Angeles. In 1958, at the age of five, Davis moved from Los Angeles to the nearby San Gabriel Valley. During his early childhood, he developed an interest in marine biology and diving. He kept marine aquaria, collected his own specimens of vertebrates and invertebrates, and obtained his SCUBA certification at age 15. He was the Salutatorian in his graduating Nogales High School class in 1970 and was inducted into the California Scholarship Federation. Davis attended the University of California at Riverside as a pre-medical student, but spent his third year in the Department of Physiology at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland as part of the UC Education Abroad Program. It was there that he developed his keen interest in physiology, but he also traveled across Europe and had cultural experiences that motivated him to also study art history, comparative literature, music appreciation and medieval philosophy. He graduated from the University of California with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Biology in 1974 and was inducted into the Phi Beta Kappa Honor Society because of his simultaneous interest in the Liberal Arts. Davis married Coco Melgoza in 1974, and the two of them returned to St. Andrews where he continued his studies in the Department of Physiology. After one year, Davis was accepted into the Physiology and Pharmacology Doctoral Program in the School of Medicine at the University of California at San Diego.
His first graduate advisor was John B. West, high-altitude respiratory physiologist. In early 1976, Davis conducted an internship with Gerald Kooyman, a comparative physiologist working at Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Kooyman was studying the diving physiology of harbor seals and had recently developed the first animal-borne time-depth recorders (TDRs) to study the diving behavior of free-ranging marine mammals. Davis decided to study the physiology of marine mammals and became Kooyman's Doctoral student in 1976. He spent that summer attaching TDRs to northern fur seals on the Pribilof Islands in the Bering Sea, then sailed on the National Science Foundation's research vessel Hero to South Georgia Island in the Southern Ocean to study the diving behavior of Antarctic fur seals.Kooyman GL and Davis RW. (1986) Diving behavior of Antarctic fur seals. In: Fur Seals: Maternal Strategies on Land and at Sea. (RL Gentry and GL Kooyman, eds). Princeton University Press, pp 115-125 He returned to South Georgia Island in 1979 and deployed the first microprocessor-based dive recorders on King Penguins, the results of which were published in the journal Science.Kooyman GL, Davis RW, Croxall J, Costa DP. (1982) Diving depths and energy requirements of king penguins, Aptenodytes patagonica. Science 217:726-727
Davis was a member of Kooyman's 1977 Weddell seal study in McMurdo Sound, Antarctica that led to the concept of an aerobic dive limit (ADL) and transformed the field of marine mammal diving physiology.Kooyman GL, Wahrenbrock EA, Castellini MA, Davis RW, and Sinnett EE. (1980) Aerobic and anaerobic metabolism during voluntary diving in Weddell seals: evidence of preferred pathways from blood chemistry and behavior. Journal of Comparative Physiology 138:335-346Kooyman G (2015) Marine mammals and Emperor penguins: a few applications of the Krogh principle. American Journal of Physiology 308:R96-R104 During his five years as a doctoral student at Scripps, Davis studied the intermediary metabolism of harbor seals during forced submersion by using isotopic tracers and was one of the first researchers to use this technique with marine mammals.Davis RW. (1983) Lactate and glucose metabolism in the resting and diving harbor seal (Phoca vitulina). Journal of Comparative Physiology 153:275-288 He interacted with Per Fredrik Scholander, the comparative physiologist who established the Physiological Research Laboratory at Scripps in the late 1950s.
In 1980, Davis graduated with a Doctoral Degree in Physiology and immediately departed for Antarctica where he, his wife Ana Maria, and two colleagues spent a year (including the austral winter) in a remote field camp at White Island studying the diving behavior of Weddell seals.Japenga A (January 2, 1981) The Long, Dark Winter Way Down Under. Los Angeles Times, Part IV, pp 1,10-11Castellini MA, Davis RW, Kooyman GL (1992) Annual Cycles of Diving Behavior and Ecology of Weddell Seals. Volume 28. University of California Press, 54 pp For his effort, Davis received an Antarctica Service Medal with Winter Ribbon and a U.S. Geological Service Antarctic Site Designation 18773 (Davis Bluff; 79°09’ S, 167°35’ E) on White Island and was inducted into the Explorers Club.The Explorers Club Handbook (2008) Membership Roster, p 123 Upon returning to Scripps, he received a National Institutes of Health Post-Doctoral Fellowship where he continued his research on harbor seal metabolism during submerged swimmingDavis RW, Williams TM, Kooyman GL. (1985) Swimming metabolism of yearling and adult harbor seals (Phoca vitulina). Physiological Zoology 58:590-596Davis RW, Castellini MA, Kooyman GL. (1991) Fuel homeostasis in harbor seals during submerged swimming. Journal of Comparative Physiology 160:627-635 In 1983, he became a Research Scientist at the Hubbs-SeaWorld Research Institute in San Diego under the direction of William Evans. While at Hubbs, Davis and his colleagues studied the thermoregulatory effects of oil on sea otters and developed methods to mitigate the harmful impacts.Davis RW, Williams TM, Thomas JA, Kastelein RA, Cornell LH. (1988) The effects of oil contamination and cleaning on sea otters II: metabolism, thermoregulation and behavior. Canadian Journal of Zoology 66:2782-2790Williams TM, Kastelein RA, Davis RW, Thomas JA. (1988) The effects of oil contamination and cleaning on sea otters I: thermoregulatory implications based on pelt studies. Canadian Journal of Zoology 66:2776-2781 In March 1989, he was asked by the U.S. Department of the Interior to direct an Oiled Sea Otter Rehabilitation Program following the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Prince William Sound, Alaska.Fan M (1989) Los Angeles Times, Sea World Scientists to Put Disaster Study on Sea Otters to Use https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1989-03-31-me-616-story.htmlFan M (1989) Los Angeles Times, Sea World Experts Hope to Save Last of 5 Otters Sent From Alaska Oil Spill https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1989-04-13-me-1639-story.html This program rehabilitated 225 oiled sea otters and became the basis for a book that Davis co-authored on methods for rehabilitating oiled sea otters and other fur-bearing mammals.Williams TM, Davis RW, (eds) (1995) Emergency Care and Rehabilitation of Oiled Sea Otters: A Guide for Large and Small Oil Spills Involving Fur-bearing Marine Mammals. University of Alaska Press, 279 pp
He also designed and patented (U.S. Patent 5315965,) an aquatic vivarium for sea otters and aquatic birds, of which 40 are now installed at the Marine Wildlife Veterinary Care and Research Center in Santa Cruz, California. After this one-year effort, for which he received a Distinguished Service Award from the Exxon Corporation, Davis joined the faculty in the Department of Marine Biology at Texas A&M University where he has continued his teaching and research.
Teaching Davis teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in Comparative Physiology, Physiological Ecology of Marine Mammals, Marine Science of the Pacific Rim and a field course on the Coastal Marine Biology of Alaska. He advises the oil industry and state and federal agencies on oil spill contingency planning and response,Berg C (2014) Getting the Band Back Together: Rescuing Sea Otters. Office of Response and Restoration, National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, U.S. Government http://response.restoration.noaa.gov/about/media/getting-band-back-together-rescuing-sea-otters.html and teaches an annual training course on the rehabilitation of oiled sea otters for members of the public that would like to volunteer in the event of another spill in Alaska.Cejnar, Jessica (2008) Sea otter rehab training offered. Peninsula Clarion, Kenai, Alaska People that complete this course receive an 8-hour First Responder OSHA Certificate that allows them to work in an oiled otter rehabilitation facility. As part of this training, Davis has an open-access web site (www.wildliferesearch.com) that also includes information on the life history of sea otters for students and the general public. He has published educational articles for primary and secondary students and the general public on the effects of oil on marine mammals and methods to mitigate the harmful impacts.Davis RW (1991) [Advances in Rehabilitating Oiled Sea Otters: The Valdez Experience https://theiwrc.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/Volume-13-No-3-Fall-1990.pdf#page=31]. Wildlife Journal 13:30-41Davis RW, Williams TM (1991) The Saga of Alaska Sea Otters. World and I Magazine. 6(3):314-319 Davis has been featured in or helped to produce six educational films on marine mammals, one of which received first place in the Jack Ward Competition for Non-Commercial Films.
Research