Dugong health project in Queensland’s Moreton Bay

 government, research, threatened species, waterways/wetlands
Jun 132014
 

orginal story by Russell Varley, ABC News

A marine researcher on Queensland’s Gold Coast says conditions for dugongs in Moreton Bay have improved after the environment was badly affected by Brisbane’s 2011 floods.

A dugong feeding on seagrass in Moreton Bay.

A dugong feeding on seagrass in Moreton Bay.

Sea World on the Gold Coast, the University of Queensland, and the Sydney Sea Life Aquarium are checking dugong health in a project that started seven years ago.

Up to 20 dugongs will be captured to carry out the health assessment, with Sea World welcoming a federal grant of $250,000 for whale and dolphin research. Continue reading »

Outrage over car park plans for wetland

 community, environment, government, threatened species, waterways/wetlands, wildlife
Jun 072014
 

Original story by Damien Larkins and Russell Varley, ABC Gold Coast

Racehorse trainers and conservationists are angry at plans to fill in a wetland area near the Gold Coast Turf Club.
The wetland is home to a nesting black swan and dozens of other bird species. Photo: Damien Larkins

The wetland is home to a nesting black swan and dozens of other bird species. Photo: Damien Larkins

Trainers received an email on Thursday afternoon that work was going to start the next morning, as preparations continue for the Gold Coast Show to move to the Turf Club.

The email says the 2.75 hectare swamp area will be used for parking at the show and large race days but otherwise will be free for trainers to walk their horses the rest of the time. Continue reading »

New crayfish traps will save platypus from drowning

 Australian native freshwater species, community, research, threatened species, waterways/wetlands, wildlife
Jun 052014
 
The platypus is vulnerable to opera house traps set to catch crayfish.

The platypus is vulnerable to opera house traps set to catch crayfish.

Original story at Wildlife Extra

The Australian Platypus Conservancy (APC) has been carrying out trials on a new design of a type of crayfish trap called an opera house trap. Opera house traps are widely sold in Australia to deploy in rivers to catch crayfish for eating. Unfortunately, these same rivers are populated by air-breathing platypus that cannot escape from the traps once they have entered them and so drown. The new design is fitted with a circular escape hatch in the roof, through which platypus can find their way back out. The research, funded by the Taronga Conservation Society, involved 34 adults and 24 juvenile platypus to establish how easily the animals found the escape holes.

Of the four animals tested during daylight hours, all escaped within one minute of being introduced to a trap. At night, 63 per cent of tested animals managed to find their own way out within one minute and 19 per cent in 1-2 minutes. All exited via the escape hatch in the roof. Given that a platypus can hold its breath for approximately two and a half minutes when active, these findings suggest that a large proportion of wild platypus are likely to escape from a modified trap before they drown. Continue reading »

Call to ban trade on iconic nautilus seashell

 fisheries, research, threatened species
Jun 022014
 

Media release from The University of Adelaide

An internationally renowned palaeontologist, who has recently joined the University of Adelaide, is calling for a global ban on the trade of the highly sought-afterNautilus seashell – including from Western Australian reefs.
Nautilus belauensis, Palau. Photo: Manuae/Wikimedia Commons

Nautilus belauensis, Palau. Photo: Manuae/Wikimedia Commons

Peter Ward, new Professor in the University’s Sprigg Geobiology Centre, has just returned from the Philippines where he discovered the Nautilus was close to extinction at sites known for Nautilus fishing.

Professor Ward is taking his findings from the Philippines and other expeditions to a meeting in Washington DC next week of the US Fish and Wildlife Service. This meeting will determine US policy on Nautilus trade before the next round of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). Continue reading »

Warmer world might push sea turtles numbers up

 environment, research, threatened species, waterways/wetlands
May 192014
 

Original story by Rachel Sullivan, ABC

While warming temperatures will produce more female than male sea turtle hatchings, sea turtle populations will not crash — at least for the next few decades, a new study suggests.
A few male loggerhead turtles will go a long way as temperatures warm. Although females will rule, males breed more often and can fertilise multiple clutches.

A few male loggerhead turtles will go a long way as temperatures warm. Although females will rule, males breed more often and can fertilise multiple clutches.

In fact, sea turtle populations will increase because males breed more frequently than females, report researchers today in Nature Climate Change.

Sex in many reptile species is determined by temperature during incubation. For sea turtles incubation temperatures below 29°C produce male hatchlings; above that temperature females are produced. Continue reading »

How wildlife tourism and zoos can protect animals in the wild

 community, Interest, research, threatened species, wildlife
May 192014
 

Original story by Stephen Garnett, Charles Darwin University and Kerstin Zander, Charles Darwin University at The Conversation

Big Ritchie looks up from his pile of bananas, unperturbed by the flock of tourists taking his photo. Sprawled around him, mother orangutans* and their fluffy orange babies groom affectionately, chase each other, hang upside down, or wander off and vanish into the nearby forest canopy.
new research shows seeing orangutans like Big Ritchie in conservation areas can raise vital support to protect his cousins in the wild. Photo: CC BY-SA

new research shows seeing orangutans like Big Ritchie in conservation areas can raise vital support to protect his cousins in the wild. Photo: CC BY-SA

Fewer than 2,000 orangutans are left living in the wild in the Malaysian state of Sarawak, with nearly all truly wild ones confined to a remote site on the Indonesian border. It’s why thousands of tourists and local Sarawak people come to places like this – the popular Semenggoh Nature Reserve – to see orangutans semi-wild in a reserve or captive in a rehabilitation centre. Continue reading »

Alien fish boom shows difficulty of replenishing Murray-Darling

 Australian native freshwater species, fisheries, pest species, research, threatened species, waterways/wetlands, wildlife
May 032014
 

The ConversationOriginal story by Tom Rayner, Charles Darwin University and Richard Kingsford at The Conversation

Wetlands and rivers need water – not least in the case of Australia’s biggest river system, the Murray-Darling Basin, which has been the target of an “environmental watering” plan designed to preserve its water levels and quality.
Water management in the Murray-Darling may be inadvertently helping the common carp at the expense of native fish. Photo: Tom Rayner

Water management in the Murray-Darling may be inadvertently helping the common carp at the expense of native fish. Photo: Tom Rayner

But our research shows that, during the 2010-11 floods, measures taken to manage water levels and preserve local wildlife ended up helping alien species, such as the troublesome common carp.

A helping hand for fish

Environmental watering programs are used worldwide to replenish previously degraded catchments. One of the ways to test how well they are working is to look at what happens to native fish. Our evidence suggests that efforts in the Murray-Darling, although on the right track, might need some refinement to ensure we help the right species.

The 2010-11 episode also highlights the difficulty of performing what amounts to “environmental triage” on degraded river systems such as the Murray-Darling, while still ensuring that everything stays in balance. Continue reading »

National Parks under the Boot

 community, environment, government, threatened species, wildlife
May 022014
 

Wildlife Preservation Society of QueenslandOriginal story by Peter Ogilvie, Wildlife Queensland

The assault on nature conservation in Queensland

Why has the Newman Government chosen to comprehensively neutralise nature conservation and its associated legislation in Queensland, particularly in relation to national parks?

There doesn’t appear to be any political imperative, as is the case in NSW where a party with the balance of power in the Upper House is demanding hunting access to national parks. The Liberal National Party (LNP) government in Queensland has had complete and unassailable control of the uni-cameral parliament since it reduced the Labor opposition to seven members following the March 2012 election. Neither can it be explained purely as a matter of ideology. Coalition governments in Queensland and elsewhere in Australia have been responsible for some significant advances in nature conservation. After all, the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act) was enacted by a Coalition government in Canberra, as was the latest strongly protective zoning plan for the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. There has been the suggestion that the government is undoing what was created by former Goss, Beattie and Bligh Labor governments. However, several matters that have been neutralised are actually products of earlier Coalition governments. Which leaves one other possible explanation, perverse though it may be, that they are doing it simply because they can.

Kondalilla falls, Sunshine Coast, Queensland. Photo: Damien Dempsey/Wikimedia Commons

Kondalilla falls, Sunshine Coast, Queensland. Photo: Damien Dempsey/Wikimedia Commons

Nevertheless, what they have done needs to be clearly documented so this government can be held to account, perhaps sadly not in its lifetime, but by future generations that will want to know where the blame lies.

The Banishment of National Parks

Continue reading »

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