Are we losing potential zoologists because of our laws?

July 13th, 2016

When I was young I spent a lot of non-school time looking in dams and creeks for tadpoles, frogs and fish, or in the bush looking for small snakes and lizards. I kept tadpoles, frogs, lizards and fish in appropriate containers and was fascinated by these animals. I’m pretty sure that it was this early […]

Sometimes things just don’t work out as planned

July 6th, 2016

A couple of years ago, Terrestrial Ecosystems undertook a fauna relocation job south-east of Port Hedland. It was large project area and our task was to catch all the Mulgara (Dasycerus blythi) that were present and relocate them to an area specified by the client before the vegetation was cleared. Four staff worked hard each […]

Seldom do we consider ‘edge effects’ in EIA

June 29th, 2016

Edge effects can be abiotic or biotic. Murcia (1995) indicated that abiotic edge effects included lower biomass and lower or different structural complexity that alters the microclimate, with the air temperature, air moisture, soil moisture and light intensity varying between edges and the interior in forest fragments, and these were modulated by orientation and physiognomy. […]

Blind Gudgeons

June 22nd, 2016

Western Australia has either two or three blind cave gudgeons: Milyeringa brooksi from Cape Range (Chakrabarty 2010), M. justitia from Barrow Island (Larson et al. 2013) and M. veritas also from Cape Range (Humphreys 2001). Larson et al. (2013) reported the allozyme analysis of Humphreys and Adams (1991) and Adams and Humphreys (1993) of the […]

Managing genetic diversity in relocated Golden Bandicoots

June 15th, 2016

At a recent workshop which investigated genetic considerations for fauna translocations, Dr Kym Ottewell explained that the effectiveness of fauna reintroduction programs is often limited by the availability of source animals. In particular, genetic diversity often declines along with associated fitness in relocated populations that have small source populations and/or maintain small long-term population size […]

Cat management – is there a silver bullet?

June 8th, 2016

Predation by feral cats is one of the greatest threats facing threatened species and fauna assemblages across Australia. The ongoing management of the impacts of feral cats is a challenging task and although there are many techniques being trialled, we don’t seem to have found a ‘silver bullet’ for successful control. Across Australia trapping, using […]

Environmental Offsets in WA – are we getting value for money and can we do it better?

June 1st, 2016

The basic premise behind all environmental offsets is that they should be – efficient, effective, timely, transparent, proportionate, value for money, scientifically robust and the agency responsible should be accountable. In 2011, the WA Auditor General released a report which was critical of aspects of the state government policy on environmental offsets and the implementation […]

Reducing the impacts of Cane Toads on Northern Quolls

May 25th, 2016

Drs Ben Phillips and Jonathon Webb are implementing an exciting research project that has the potential to limit the impact that cane toads are having on Northern Quoll in Western Australia. As we all know, cane toads have moved from northern Queensland across the top of the Northern Territory and are now impacting on the […]

Feral predator impacts exacerbated during times of environmental stress

May 18th, 2016

The role of the cat and fox are well documented as predators of native species and they have had a particularly high impact on threatened species across Australia, however, there have been few long term (>15yrs) studies of a fauna assemblage that are highly susceptible to these impacts. One such long-term research project has just […]

Fish of Lake Eyre and its tributaries

May 11th, 2016

The infrequent flooding of Lake Eyre (Kati Thanda) by major episodic rain events in western NSW and Queensland often results in the partial filling of Lake Eyre. The massive increase in wetland and marine birds breeding on the periphery of the lake and on the many small islands and the rivers to the north has […]