The Spectacled Flying-fox has declined by 75% over the past two decades, falling in status from vulnerable to endangered even while a recovery plan was in place. This review is the first in 13 years and is necessary to bring the knowledge of the species up to date and to identify some of the most pressing issues in the bat’s conservation. Foremost among these are the already apparent extreme heat events which were not anticipated in earlier studies and plans, compounded by continuing habitat loss and declining habitat condition, deterioration of food resources that support the species, community and political pressure to disperse roosts in urban areas and diseases that disproportionately affect young and mothers in this slow-reproducing species. Perceptions of this keystone species have been coloured by the advent of Covid-19 and fears that these bats transmit coronavirus directly to humans (which they do not). It has been difficult to change negative attitudes, so better approaches to changing community perceptions are needed. Greater diligence is required to ensure recovery action is taken, to avert the threats to this keystone species and to obtain the resources to help it recover.
{"title":"Endangered Spectacled Flying-fox: a review of past and current knowledge and future needs to re-start its recovery","authors":"Noel Preece","doi":"10.7882/az.2024.007","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7882/az.2024.007","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 The Spectacled Flying-fox has declined by 75% over the past two decades, falling in status from vulnerable to endangered even while a recovery plan was in place. This review is the first in 13 years and is necessary to bring the knowledge of the species up to date and to identify some of the most pressing issues in the bat’s conservation. Foremost among these are the already apparent extreme heat events which were not anticipated in earlier studies and plans, compounded by continuing habitat loss and declining habitat condition, deterioration of food resources that support the species, community and political pressure to disperse roosts in urban areas and diseases that disproportionately affect young and mothers in this slow-reproducing species. Perceptions of this keystone species have been coloured by the advent of Covid-19 and fears that these bats transmit coronavirus directly to humans (which they do not). It has been difficult to change negative attitudes, so better approaches to changing community perceptions are needed. Greater diligence is required to ensure recovery action is taken, to avert the threats to this keystone species and to obtain the resources to help it recover.","PeriodicalId":35849,"journal":{"name":"Australian Zoologist","volume":"93 9","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-02-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140433696","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Many freshwater turtle species have spread beyond their natural distributions through human agency, but introduced populations can be difficult to differentiate from natural ones. The occurrence of an Australian freshwater turtle, Emydura macquarii, in the Greater Sydney region, Australia’s most populous urban and peri-urban area, has alternatively been assumed to be natural or deduced to be due to anthropogenic introduction. I apply multiple lines of evidence to show that the occurrence of E. macquarii in the Sydney region is not natural and that the species has proliferated and spread there much more than the notoriously invasive red-eared slider turtle, Trachemys scripta elegans. The E. macquarii population of the Sydney region is highly diverse morphologically, with individuals variously resembling E. macquarii from Queensland, the north coast of New South Wales, and the Murray–Darling Basin. Better understanding is needed of the population genetics of E. macquarii in the Sydney region, the interactions among the region’s native and introduced turtles, and the impacts of E. macquarii on biota other than turtles.
许多淡水龟物种在人类的作用下已经扩散到其自然分布区之外，但引入种群与自然种群很难区分。大悉尼地区是澳大利亚人口最多的城市和近郊区，在该地区出现的澳大利亚淡水龟 Emydura macquarii 被假定为自然种群或推断为人为引入种群。我运用多种证据表明，E. macquarii 在悉尼地区的出现并非自然现象，该物种在该地区的繁殖和传播远远超过了臭名昭著的入侵红耳滑龟 Trachemys scripta elegans。悉尼地区的E. macquarii种群在形态上高度多样化，其个体与昆士兰州、新南威尔士州北海岸和墨累-达令盆地的E. macquarii有各种相似之处。需要更好地了解悉尼地区 E. macquarii 的种群遗传学、该地区本地龟类与引进龟类之间的相互作用以及 E. macquarii 对龟类以外的生物群的影响。
{"title":"A misconstrued alien: the freshwater turtle Emydura macquarii in the Greater Sydney region","authors":"B. Chessman","doi":"10.7882/az.2024.006","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7882/az.2024.006","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Many freshwater turtle species have spread beyond their natural distributions through human agency, but introduced populations can be difficult to differentiate from natural ones. The occurrence of an Australian freshwater turtle, Emydura macquarii, in the Greater Sydney region, Australia’s most populous urban and peri-urban area, has alternatively been assumed to be natural or deduced to be due to anthropogenic introduction. I apply multiple lines of evidence to show that the occurrence of E. macquarii in the Sydney region is not natural and that the species has proliferated and spread there much more than the notoriously invasive red-eared slider turtle, Trachemys scripta elegans. The E. macquarii population of the Sydney region is highly diverse morphologically, with individuals variously resembling E. macquarii from Queensland, the north coast of New South Wales, and the Murray–Darling Basin. Better understanding is needed of the population genetics of E. macquarii in the Sydney region, the interactions among the region’s native and introduced turtles, and the impacts of E. macquarii on biota other than turtles.","PeriodicalId":35849,"journal":{"name":"Australian Zoologist","volume":"24 12","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-02-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140438831","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
On a remote sandstone outcrop within the Royal National Park, New South Wales, numerous instances were documented involving the aggregation of Brown Tree Snakes Boiga irregularis. Over the period from 2018 to 2023, a total of 8 visits to the site were logged, revealing 3 observed aggregations. Notably, the occurrences of these aggregations appeared to be influenced by seasonality, with each observation being made during late autumn or winter. The peak aggregation count documented involved six adult snakes.
{"title":"Communal aggregation of Brown Tree Snakes Boiga irregularis at the southern limit of their distribution","authors":"Jesse Campbell","doi":"10.7882/az.2024.005","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7882/az.2024.005","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 On a remote sandstone outcrop within the Royal National Park, New South Wales, numerous instances were documented involving the aggregation of Brown Tree Snakes Boiga irregularis. Over the period from 2018 to 2023, a total of 8 visits to the site were logged, revealing 3 observed aggregations. Notably, the occurrences of these aggregations appeared to be influenced by seasonality, with each observation being made during late autumn or winter. The peak aggregation count documented involved six adult snakes.","PeriodicalId":35849,"journal":{"name":"Australian Zoologist","volume":"22 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-02-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140438599","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Opinion: Missing half the picture, focus on scleractinian corals during bleaching events has left critical knowledge gaps in our understanding of reef-scale bleaching and recovery","authors":"Rosemary K. Steinberg","doi":"10.7882/az.2024.004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7882/az.2024.004","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":35849,"journal":{"name":"Australian Zoologist","volume":"55 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-02-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139850105","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Opinion: Missing half the picture, focus on scleractinian corals during bleaching events has left critical knowledge gaps in our understanding of reef-scale bleaching and recovery","authors":"Rosemary K. Steinberg","doi":"10.7882/az.2024.004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7882/az.2024.004","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":35849,"journal":{"name":"Australian Zoologist","volume":" 32","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-02-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139790240","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Despite being a hotspot for reptile diversity, there is a chronic knowledge gap surrounding the ecology of Australian reptiles. Understanding the complex interactions between species, such as predator-prey relationships, can be key to informed and effective management, particularly of rare and threatened species. The Spotted Mulga Snake (Pseudechis butleri) is a key example of an understudied endemic reptile, limited to the Mid West region of Western Australia. Here, we present the first recorded observation of a Spotted Mulga Snake consuming a Pygmy Spiny-tailed Skink (Egernia depressa). This predation event has implications for the susceptibility of the similar-sized juvenile endangered Western Spiny-tailed Skinks, another understudied reptile co-occurring in the Mid West.
{"title":"First record of Egernia predation by the range restricted Spotted Mulga Snake Pseudechis butleri","authors":"Holly S. Bradley, Damien Hirsh, Damian Lettoof","doi":"10.7882/az.2024.003","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7882/az.2024.003","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Despite being a hotspot for reptile diversity, there is a chronic knowledge gap surrounding the ecology of Australian reptiles. Understanding the complex interactions between species, such as predator-prey relationships, can be key to informed and effective management, particularly of rare and threatened species. The Spotted Mulga Snake (Pseudechis butleri) is a key example of an understudied endemic reptile, limited to the Mid West region of Western Australia. Here, we present the first recorded observation of a Spotted Mulga Snake consuming a Pygmy Spiny-tailed Skink (Egernia depressa). This predation event has implications for the susceptibility of the similar-sized juvenile endangered Western Spiny-tailed Skinks, another understudied reptile co-occurring in the Mid West.","PeriodicalId":35849,"journal":{"name":"Australian Zoologist","volume":"367 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-01-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140473345","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Jellyfish populations experience fluctuations referred to as ‘bloom and busts’, with numbers rapidly increasing followed by their sudden disappearance. When jellyfish numbers are blooming, they have a complicated relationship with their surrounding environment (predators, competitors, but also a food source), and with humans (sting swimmers, but also source of income and food). As a result, it is important to have a precise and efficient tool for monitoring jellyfish populations. In this extended abstract, we will review studies that have used drones to monitor and track different species of jellyfish, identify the advantages and limitations across these studies, and suggest methods to be adopted when using drones to monitor jellyfish.
{"title":"The effectiveness and applications of drones for monitoring jellyfish","authors":"Claire E Rowe, Shane T Ahyong","doi":"10.7882/az.2024.002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7882/az.2024.002","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Jellyfish populations experience fluctuations referred to as ‘bloom and busts’, with numbers rapidly increasing followed by their sudden disappearance. When jellyfish numbers are blooming, they have a complicated relationship with their surrounding environment (predators, competitors, but also a food source), and with humans (sting swimmers, but also source of income and food). As a result, it is important to have a precise and efficient tool for monitoring jellyfish populations. In this extended abstract, we will review studies that have used drones to monitor and track different species of jellyfish, identify the advantages and limitations across these studies, and suggest methods to be adopted when using drones to monitor jellyfish.","PeriodicalId":35849,"journal":{"name":"Australian Zoologist","volume":"52 9","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-01-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139594099","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Matthew Mo, Libby A. Timmiss, Tim Pearson, Maree Treadwell Kerr, Sera Steves, Justin A. Welbergen
Negative public attitudes toward particular species can have significant impact on their conservation. Traditional approaches to improving public perceptions of flying-foxes include defending them, encouraging co-existence with them and promoting empathy for them following publicised mortality events. We propose a shift toward “normalising” flying-foxes, in which they are portrayed as interesting species and a natural part of our highly esteemed biodiversity. This has somewhat already begun in a piecemeal fashion, and we provide examples of flying-foxes being represented in a range of formats, including museum and photography exhibitions, public artwork and street décor, books, preschool and school education, wildlife-based tourism and community events. However, there remains paucity in flying-foxes being represented alongside portrayals of Australian wildlife at a broader scale. We suggest that proponents fearing public backlash or impacts on market responses are a likely barrier to seeing flying-foxes being represented more widely; but conclude with hope that current participation in depicting flying-foxes as interesting and part of biodiversity will gain momentum. Ultimately, through normalising flying-foxes, public attitudes adopting their intrinsic value may eventually overshadow the perspectives of flying-foxes connected to contentious issues.
{"title":"“Normalising” flying-foxes: a bold vision for improving the public perceptions of our largest and most conspicuous bats","authors":"Matthew Mo, Libby A. Timmiss, Tim Pearson, Maree Treadwell Kerr, Sera Steves, Justin A. Welbergen","doi":"10.7882/az.2024.001","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7882/az.2024.001","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Negative public attitudes toward particular species can have significant impact on their conservation. Traditional approaches to improving public perceptions of flying-foxes include defending them, encouraging co-existence with them and promoting empathy for them following publicised mortality events. We propose a shift toward “normalising” flying-foxes, in which they are portrayed as interesting species and a natural part of our highly esteemed biodiversity. This has somewhat already begun in a piecemeal fashion, and we provide examples of flying-foxes being represented in a range of formats, including museum and photography exhibitions, public artwork and street décor, books, preschool and school education, wildlife-based tourism and community events. However, there remains paucity in flying-foxes being represented alongside portrayals of Australian wildlife at a broader scale. We suggest that proponents fearing public backlash or impacts on market responses are a likely barrier to seeing flying-foxes being represented more widely; but conclude with hope that current participation in depicting flying-foxes as interesting and part of biodiversity will gain momentum. Ultimately, through normalising flying-foxes, public attitudes adopting their intrinsic value may eventually overshadow the perspectives of flying-foxes connected to contentious issues.","PeriodicalId":35849,"journal":{"name":"Australian Zoologist","volume":"57 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-01-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139600963","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Barry W. Brook, Stephen R. Sleightholme, C. R. Campbell, Ivan Jarić, J. Buettel
The Thylacine or ‘Tasmanian tiger’ (Thylacinus cynocephalus), an iconic canid-like marsupial predator and last member of its taxonomic family (Thylacinidae) to have survived to modern times, was declared officially extinct in the early 1980s, half a century after the death of the last captive animal. However, the regularity and frequency of sightings of the species over more than eight decades since has not only created a zoological mystery, but also made it challenging to reconstruct the timeline of the fate of the species. To help resolve this intriguing historical-ecological problem, we compiled and curated a comprehensive inventory of documented sighting records from Tasmania from 1910 to 2019. By examining sources spanning official archives, published reports, museum collections, newspaper articles, microfilm, contemporary correspondence, private collections and other miscellaneous citations and testimony, we have amassed 1,223 unique Thylacine records from this period and resolved previous anomalies and duplications. Each observation in the database is dated, geo-tagged, categorised, quality-rated, referenced and linked to an image of its source material. Although purported observations have occurred every year, reporting rates vary across the decades in terms of frequency, type, location, and quality rating. Here we describe the database in detail, highlight its value for research, interpret the major patterns revealed by this archival compilation, and discuss the broader implications of the result of this work on the likely time and place of the Thylacine's extinction in the wild.
{"title":"The Tasmanian Thylacine Sighting Record Database (TTSRD): 1,223 quality-rated and geo-located Thylacine observations from 1910 to 2019","authors":"Barry W. Brook, Stephen R. Sleightholme, C. R. Campbell, Ivan Jarić, J. Buettel","doi":"10.7882/az.2023.044","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7882/az.2023.044","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 The Thylacine or ‘Tasmanian tiger’ (Thylacinus cynocephalus), an iconic canid-like marsupial predator and last member of its taxonomic family (Thylacinidae) to have survived to modern times, was declared officially extinct in the early 1980s, half a century after the death of the last captive animal. However, the regularity and frequency of sightings of the species over more than eight decades since has not only created a zoological mystery, but also made it challenging to reconstruct the timeline of the fate of the species. To help resolve this intriguing historical-ecological problem, we compiled and curated a comprehensive inventory of documented sighting records from Tasmania from 1910 to 2019. By examining sources spanning official archives, published reports, museum collections, newspaper articles, microfilm, contemporary correspondence, private collections and other miscellaneous citations and testimony, we have amassed 1,223 unique Thylacine records from this period and resolved previous anomalies and duplications. Each observation in the database is dated, geo-tagged, categorised, quality-rated, referenced and linked to an image of its source material. Although purported observations have occurred every year, reporting rates vary across the decades in terms of frequency, type, location, and quality rating. Here we describe the database in detail, highlight its value for research, interpret the major patterns revealed by this archival compilation, and discuss the broader implications of the result of this work on the likely time and place of the Thylacine's extinction in the wild.","PeriodicalId":35849,"journal":{"name":"Australian Zoologist","volume":"94 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-12-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138978547","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"In the Name of Sharks: François Sarano Polity Press Release date in Australia February 2024","authors":"Adrian Peace","doi":"10.7882/az.2023.043","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7882/az.2023.043","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":35849,"journal":{"name":"Australian Zoologist","volume":"44 45","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-12-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138588515","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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