wildlife – Page 4 – ANGFA Queensland

Noosa River underwater footage: Noosa Underwater Biodiversity

Feb 022014

One of life’s great questions is about to be answered… “What’s going on below the surface of the Noosa River?” That would be the baffling question I’m sure we’ve all pondered for hours. Yes, I see you nodding as you read. Well, don’t worry, the Noosa Underwater Biodiversity Assessment—the NUBA—has begun its mission to find the answers.

http://www.underseaproductions.com/

Following the “think global, act local” mantra, my life’s ambition to film every fish in the Indo-Pacific (formally, the planet) has followed me home to the Noosa River.

Why film every species in the Noosa River? Would anyone even care? I reckon the reason people don’t care much about what’s underwater is that they never learned about it in school, and they can’t see it for themselves as they walk the dog on Gympie Terrace. Yet, I’ve rarely shown underwater footage without getting a “Wow, what’s that?”… with a further “And what’s that?” to my reply. The nudibranchs and ascidians and other mysterious critters that live in every square inch of underwater habitat are fascinating to learn about and observe. And since I’ve never seen any of the thousands of annual visitors or residents of Noosa scuba diving in the river (although I’m sure they are out there and I’d love to hear from them), I have to assume that most people don’t get in to see it firsthand. So it’s up to me to bring the vision up to the surface. To give a voice to my unseen little aquatic mates. To help my fellow fishermen have greater fishing success while leaving a smaller impact. To raise awareness with the locals and foster community-wide stewardship of the river.

Once we know what we have, and combine that with research into what we used to have (through historical fishing and other records), then we can begin to bring our river back to its former glory. Which means a healthier river and coastal ecosystem, with more and bigger fish for everyone. That’s my goal for every community, starting with my own.

Since moving to Noosa, our local diving efforts have been somewhat limited, mostly due to the closure of both dive operators and the unusually poor visibility from flooding that hit Queensland in recent years. However, select days over the past few months have provided some filming opportunities: when the moon and tides and winds combine to create those magic Noosa River days where kayakers and outriggers can see the river bottom over vast stretches of shallow seagrass and sand bars teaming with… what exactly? Not sure really. Flathead, whiting and bream… but what else?

Generations of fisherfolk and visitors know and proudly show what we can catch here, but there’s more to the system than that. What about the stuff that doesn’t take the hook or get caught in the net? Those other creatures that are quietly working away to keep our river ecosystem ticking nicely along?

This little highlights video shows some of what I’ve found so far, almost all filmed at the river mouth car park rockwall. My species count to date is 102 (73 of them being fish).

I’m fairly confident I can film the majority of the 122 previously recorded fish species, and most likely come up with at least a few more. I’ll be keeping the stats with links to the footage of each species updated on the NUBA webpage as the project progresses:
http://www.underseaproductions.com/no…

This is a long term project that I hope will involve a wide range of river community groups, schools and businesses. My initial presentation to the Noosa Integrated Catchment Association (NICA) was enthusiastically received, and I’m looking forward to speaking to other members of the community over the coming months.

If you’d like to learn more or get involved, contact me:
http://www.underseaproductions.com/co…

—Josh

Camera: Josh Jensen http://underseaproductions.com/
Music: “Phase IV”, lo-fi is sci-fi http://lofiisscifi.com

Sea turtles will feel the heat from climate change

environment, threatened species, wildlife

Jan 312014

Original story by Tim Dempster, University of Melbourne; Ella Kelly, University of Melbourne, and Tim Jessop, University of Melbourne at The Conversation

Last year was Australia’s hottest on record and this year started with heatwaves. Animals feel the heat too – so how will they cope and adapt as the climate changes?

Sea turtles and climate change are not a good mix. Photo: SteFou

Take, for example, sea turtles. These large reptiles have swum the oceans for more than 150 million years and survived numerous climatic changes, from warmings to ice ages. Yet human-induced climate change may lead to their downfall.

Historically, turtles were everywhere. They were so abundant in the Caribbean when Columbus first sailed to the Americas, it was said his crew complained of lack of sleep due to the continuous thudding as his ship bumped into sea turtles at night.

A species under threat

Today, sea turtles are threatened on a number of fronts. Rapid climate change expected in the coming century could seal their fate once and for all.

Over the past century, populations of all seven species have declined dramatically, according to the IUCN Red List. Over-harvesting of turtles and eggs, accidental capture by fisheries, pollution, and nesting habitat loss through coastal development, have all played their part.

Human activity is having disastrous effects on sea turtle populations. Photo: flickr/ SteFou

Add climate change to the mix, and sea turtles’ future is not looking bright.

As a reptile, sea turtles rely on their environment to regulate biology. Rising temperatures will disrupt a whole suite of different processes. Temperature impacts every stage of a sea turtle’s life – and as such, a rising global average will likely upset many important ecological and biological actions.

Girls like it hot

Temperature even controls the sex of sea turtle hatchlings. Instead of being set by genetic factors (such as X and Y chromosomes), the gender of a turtle is determined by the temperature that the eggs experience while in the nest.

Eggs in hotter nests produce females, while cooler nests produce males. This phenomenon is called temperature-dependent sex determination, and is also shown by many other reptile species.

So if sex is determined by temperature, how will global warming cause a problem?

Warming temperatures will heat beaches and make nests hotter. Hotter nests produce more females, to the point where there may be no males left at all.

In 50 years, sea turtle hatchlings may be all female. Photo: USFWS Southeast

Martina Fuentes from James Cook University examined green sea turtles nesting on islands along the Great Barrier Reef. She found that these beaches were likely to produce exclusively female offspring by 2070. Similar predictions exist for loggerheads in Western Australia and from our own results on olive ridley turtles from the Northern Territory.

Now we know what is happening, is there anything that can be done?

Couldn’t they just dig deeper?

This is the most frequent question we get asked about our research – along with “couldn’t they just move beaches or lay eggs in winter?”

These are important questions – much speculation has focused on whether the turtles will be able to change their behaviour to combat warming temperatures. However, these theories are difficult to test due to the very long lifetimes of sea turtles (think Crush in Finding Nemo).

Some of the possible behavioural changes also have issues associated with them:

Digging deeper: smaller turtles, with shorter flippers, cannot physically dig their nests any deeper. Digging deeper also takes longer. Beaches are risky places for lumbering sea turtles, and they can physically overheat or get eaten by big crocodiles.
Moving beaches: female sea turtles return to the beach they hatched from to lay their eggs. A change in beaches only occurs when a turtle makes a navigation mistake, which is unlikely to occur often enough to result in cooler beaches.
Changing the time of nesting: some evidence of changes in nesting time has already been shown. We speculate that warming oceans could alter signals to turtles so that they begin breeding at different times on the year – whether this will do any good, however, is yet to be established.

A flatback nesting in Northern Australia: not always a safe activity.

Considering that often mother turtles will sometimes nest in completely inappropriate locations (like in the water) – we must take their ability to choose the perfect location with a grain of salt.

What we stand to lose

The loss of sea turtles would be felt by humans and the environment alike. Sea turtles are an important part of their habitat, and in particular, they play a key role in the regulation of seagrass beds (a key habitat for a multitude of organisms).

Sea turtles are also important culturally. They are a significant resource for northern indigenous cultures in Australia, as well as being a highlight for many tourists visiting the Great Barrier Reef.

Understanding and predicting what will happen is the first step, but now we must plan for it. Unfortunately, management is difficult due to the widespread and remote habitat of these species.

Much like many other species, the survival of sea turtles now relies on humanity’s ability to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This is the key step we must take if we want to mitigate disastrous effects on sea turtles and their habitat.

What we stand to lose.

Tim Dempster receives funding from the Commission of the European Communities 7th Research Framework Programme, Norwegian Research Council, Herman Slade Foundation, Mazda Foundation, Fisheries Research and Development Corporation and the Norwegian Fisheries and Aquaculture Research Fund.

Ella Kelly is affiliated with The Conversation, working as an editorial intern on the Science and Technology desk.

Tim Jessop has received funding from the Mazda Foundation and ANZ Charitable Trusts.

This article was originally published at The Conversation.
Read the original article.

World Wetlands Day 2014: Wetlands and agriculture

community, environment, threatened species, waterways/wetlands, wildlife

Jan 302014

more at RAMSAR…

Penguin Mexican waves follow traffic rules

Interest, wildlife

Dec 172013

Original Story by Katie Silver, ABC Science

The co-ordinated way Emperor penguins move in a huddle follows the same stop-and-go movements of cars navigating their way through traffic, researchers have found.

One small move by an individual penguin affects its neighbour and creates a wave of movement that ripples through the huddle, say the researchers publishing today in the New Journal of Physics.

“A travelling wave can be triggered by any penguin in a huddle,” says co-author Dr Daniel Zitterbart from the Alfred Wegener Institute in Germany.

The findings follow more than two years of observing colonies of emperor penguins in Antarctica.

The Penguins can behave like a Mexican wave to stay warm while they move. Photo: BernardBreton/iStockphoto.

Earlier research has shown that penguins move “in a co-ordinated way, like a Mexican wave in a stadium,” according to Zitterbart.

“So if they want to move, they don’t need to break up – they can just move together.”

This means penguins can keep moving while still huddled together to keep warm.

Now, Zitterbart and colleagues have analysed time-lapse videos of male Emperor penguins to develop a model to explain what triggers this Mexican wave.

Traffic jam rules

They have found that penguins move in a similar way to cars in a traffic jam, where one small move by an individual affects neighbouring individuals, creating a wave of movement.

The researchers also found penguins move so as to find other penguins to increase their numbers – and their warmth.

In this way a group of animals can increase from roughly 100 to 3,000 penguins, Zitterbart says.

The penguins also move to find fresh water and to eliminate the gaps in their huddle.

“It’s a crystal-like structure but it’s never perfect,” says Zitterbart. “By moving closer together they help to eliminate space.”

The findings quash previous ideas that the movement is triggered by a leader, or penguins on the outer trying to push to the middle.

And if two penguins make a move at the same time, and the waves meet?

“They don’t pass each other like waves in the ocean – they merge,” says Zitterbart. “And from there on they travel as one big wave.”

But while the new research explains why penguin huddles move en masse, there are still some unanswered questions:

“We don’t know yet what actually drives them to make a step,” says Zitterbart.

But with each penguin in the huddle incubating an egg, the researchers have a theory.

“We think they use these little steps to rotate the egg while they’re in the huddle,” says Zitterbart. “We are testing it now – we will see.”

Croc behaviour: the good, bad and the ugly

Australian native freshwater species, threatened species, wildlife

Dec 122013

Original story by Anna Salleh, ABC Science

Researchers have revealed the antics that hatchling crocodiles get up to when they think they are not being observed.

While some species use quite violent techniques to prove their dominance, others seem to be quite refined and gentle, says first author of the study, PhD student Matthew Brien from Charles Darwin University.

The shocking truth about how these young saltwater crocs behave after dark has been revealed. Photo: Jemeema Brien.

The research supported by Wildlife Management International is published today in PLOS ONE.

Little is known about the behaviour of crocodiles especially in their first year or two of life, says Brien.

Because hatchling crocodiles are so vulnerable to prey, they are more secretive and harder to observe than adults.

In a previous study, Brien and colleagues used “big brother style” filming techniques to study the interaction of juvenile saltwater crocodiles (‘salties’).

“The first night we filmed, we were shocked at the level of aggression and interaction in the salties,” says Brien.

Brien and colleagues decided to extend their research to looking at the social and aggressive interactions between juveniles from seven species of crocodiles and alligators from around the world.

They studied Australian freshwater and saltwater crocodiles, the American alligator, the South American dwarf caiman, a New Guinea freshwater crocodile, an Indian gharial, and a Siamese crocodile.

Two-year study

The researchers put animals in groups of four in an enclosed tank containing an area of water and then used cameras to observe what happened throughout the day and night.

During the two-year study they found that both male and female animals tended to have aggressive interactions for short periods of 5 to 15 seconds, mostly in the water, and mostly between the hours of 4 pm and 11 pm.

“While there are certain behaviours that are shared by a lot of species, some species have their own unique behaviours,” says Brien.

For example, he says the narrow-snouted Australian freshwater (‘freshie’) avoided getting its delicate thin jaws embroiled in arguments.

“They would raise their head out of the way when they engaged in any sort of battle,” says Brien.

To show its dominance, the freshie would climb on top of other crocs and push them down, while keep its vulnerable snout out of the way.

Snout swipe

By comparison, the Australian saltwater crocodile used its broad snout to hit others over the head.

“More than any other species, the saltie would swing its head quite violently into the other like a side head strike and bite. They were by far the most aggressive,” says Brien.

Brien says these behaviours seemed to “instinctive and innate”, and were confirmed in saltwater crocodiles by comparing footage taken in the lab with that taken in the field.

“The next most aggressive was the New Guinea crocodile.”

To show its dominance, this species would raise itself up as far as its legs extended, and swish its tail violently from side to side as it chased and bit the other crocs.

“It’s basically a display to say ‘I’m coming to hurt you so you better get going’,” says Brien.

Real sweethearts

By contrast, the bizarre looking narrow-snouted gharial rarely interacted.

“The gharial are real sweethearts,” says Brien.

Juvenile alligators and Siamese crocodiles were also not aggressive.

“Siamese spent most of the time lying together and hanging out,” says Brien. “They would talk to each other, and lightly nudge or rub each other.”

Brien says such findings provide useful information for raising crocodiles in captivity.

“For example you can’t raise salties like you do alligators,” he says. “You can have more alligators in enclosures and they’re okay with each other, but salties are not as tolerant of each other.”

Knowing more about the behaviour of juvenile crocs could help optimise densities and design enclosures, for example with barriers or separate compartments, to improve survival of juveniles in captivity, says Brien.

Research shows single-use plastic contaminating our oceans

environment, fisheries, research, waterways/wetlands, wildlife

Nov 292013

Original story by Beau Pearson, ABC News

An academic studying Australian water pollution, is encouraging people to use less single-use plastic products in order to reduce marine pollution.

The University of WA’s Julia Reisser says every square kilometre of Australian surface sea water is contaminated by around 4,000 tiny pieces of plastic.

A recycling symbol on the side of a water bottle. Julia Reisser is encouraging people to reduce single-use plastics such as disposable water bottles. Photo: Giulio Saggin, ABC News

The research found most of the particles were a result of a breakdown of disposable products such as water bottles, plastic cups and fishing gear.

‘The sun and the heat makes the plastic weaker and it breaks down with time,” she said.

“So let’s say a plastic bottle that someone throws at the beach goes into the ocean and as it gets older and older it breaks down into little particles.”

Ms Reisser says the plastics soak up pollutants, are harmful to marine life and also humans that ingest the seafood.

“When they are in the ocean it acts like a sponge for oil pollutants, for example fertilisers, so any oil pollutants that float in the water with the plastic will be attracted to the surface of the plastic and then this plastic is loaded with many kinds of pollutants,” she said.

“When an animal eats it, it can be released to the animal and will intoxicate the animal, not only in the animal that ingested the plastic but also any predator of this animal, so this problem can even come to us as we eat seafood.”

She says water bottles and plastic cups are a large part of the pollution.

“The solution is not simple and can involve more than one action, but I still believe that one important point is to decrease the amount of plastic waste that we are producing and to do so perhaps one of the easiest ways will be to decrease the amount of single use throwaway plastics that we use,” she said.

“We need to decrease plastic waste and toxicity, regulate plastic disposal on land at an international level, and better enforce the laws prohibiting dumping plastics at sea.”

Steve Irwin’s Reserve in Cape York granted all-time protection

community, environment, government, waterways/wetlands, wildlife

Nov 202013

Original story by Amy Remeikis, Brisbane Times

There will never be mining in the Steve Irwin Wildlife reserve on Cape York.

Terri and Bindi Irwin thank the premier, after he announced that Steve Irwin Wildlife Reserve would be protected. Photo: Amy Remeikis

Premier Campbell Newman announced the reserve “will be protected for all time as a vital environmental reserve” as a “strategic environmental area”.

Terri and Bindi Irwin were at parliament for the announcement. Bindi, who was unaware of why she was there, said it was “probably the greatest day of of my life”.

“This is so exciting, it is completely incredible and we are totally thrilled,” she said.

“The Steve Irwin Wildlife Reserve was truly set aside in honour of my dad and the legacy he had, to mark all the incredible work that he achieved during his life for wildlife and conservation. It is the most pristine land on planet Earth and we are just thrilled.”

Different to a national park, which is owned by the people, a strategic environmental area designation is a planning instrument and will restrict land use to the ones considered appropriate.

In the case of the Steve Irwin Reserve, the only land use which will be permitted is an environmental one.

Which means Cape Alumina’s $1.2 billion bauxite mine project, previously granted significant project status by the government, is out.

“This has a very direct impact on their proposals,” Mr Newman said.

“They wanted to go into this area and that won’t be feasible in this location.

“There will be no mine, on this location, on this designated land, on this reserve. The government has made this call and we have advised them of that.”

It also spells the end of Labor’s Wild Rivers legislation, which the government promised to repeal during the election campaign.

“The vital environmental areas on the Cape are going to be protected, the Steve Irwin Wildlife Reserve is a prime beneficiary or example of that, there will be economic opportunities for Aboriginal communities on the Cape, which is the other thing we promised,” Mr Newman said.

“We said we’d get rid of Wild Rivers because it is a fundamentally flawed way of doing business. This new approach gives greater certainty, also opportunity, as well as protecting the vital areas of environmental interest.”

The Wenlock River will also be declared a Strategic Environmental Area, but the Stewart, Archer and Lockhart River basin’s will not.

Deputy premier Jeff Seeney will introduce the legislation in parliament on Wednesday afternoon.

Egret photo the people’s choice in ANZANG nature photography competition

Interest, wildlife

Nov 152013

Original story at ABC News

Sydney wildlife photographer David Stowe has won the people’s choice award in the ANZANG Nature Photographer of the Year competition.

Egret feeding, by David Stowe. Most popular pic: Little Egret, little fish. Photo: SA Museum, (c) David Stowe

The South Australian Museum said his Little Egret, little fish photo impressed many of the thousands of people who visited the exhibition in Adelaide.

What do you think of David Stowe’s image? Share your thoughts below.

Stowe expressed his delight at winning the people’s choice vote and its $500 prize.

“It means more to me than if I had won the overall prize. I was rapt to be a finalist in this competition, which is important both artistically and scientifically in celebrating the best of our wildlife,” he said.

A wedding photographer in his main work, Stowe also enjoys travelling in the outback and northern Australia to capture images of landscapes, birds and lizards.

“There are very good international wildlife photography competitions, but it’s nice to see an Australian one like this promoting what we have in this country and in the region,” he said.

“The biodiversity is just so rich and we have so much to work with.”

His winning photograph was snapped at dusk at Chili Beach on Cape York.

West Australian wildlife photographer David Rennie won the overall prize this year for his photo Near Miss.

The exhibition continues in Adelaide until November 24 and then tours Western Australia and Tasmania.

Into the jungles of Papua New Guinea: a personal journey

community, threatened species, wildlife

Nov 072013

By Euan Ritchie, Deakin University at The Conversation

Much of my time as an ecology lecturer has been spent teaching students about the wonders of this planet’s biodiversity, but also regrettably, how much of this biodiversity is under severe threat. Hundreds, if not thousands, of species become extinct each year.

You never know what you’ll catch on camera in PNG. Photo: Tenkile Conservation Alliance

With such a disastrous outlook for the species with which we share Earth, it’s easy to get disheartened about where we’re headed. More personally, I often question whether my own fields of science (ecology and conservation biology) are really enough to help stem the extinction tide.

But this week I’m embarking on a journey to Papua New Guinea’s remote Torricelli Mountains. It’s part of a crowd-funded project, Discovering Papua New Guinea’s Mountain Mammals that is a partnership between myself at Deakin University and Jim and Jean Thomas of the Tenkile Conservation Alliance. Together we will count and identify mammals as part of conservation efforts in the region, including some very special species of tree kangaroo.

Just how many Tenkile tree kangaroos are left and where are they found? Our cameras will provide these answers. Photo: Tenkile Conservation Alliance

Who or what is a Tenkile?

The Tenkile (pronounced ten-kee-lay) is one of 14 tree kangaroo species found in the tropical rainforests of New Guinea and Australia.

In 2001 there were only 100 Tenkile left in the Torricelli Mountains of PNG. To put that in perspective, there are thought to be around 1600 Giant Pandas in the world today. That made the Tenkile one of the world’s most endangered animals. The reason they’re still with us today is largely thanks to the work of the Tenkile Conservation Alliance.

People are a big focus and reason for the TCA’s success. Photo: Tenkile Conservation Alliance

The conservation alliance sets itself apart from many others by focusing on causes rather than symptoms of extinction. The Tenkile had become endangered due to over-hunting, so rather than ignore the needs of local people, the alliance places a strong emphasis on these communities who share the region with the Tenkile.

The reason for the bounce back of Tenkiles is a switch from hunting to more sustainable and reliable sources of protein, including farmed rabbits and chickens. Along with improved education about the local community’s wildlife, and health and living conditions, there has been a real reversal in the once dire trajectory of the region’s wildlife. Thanks to these actions there are now more than double the number of Tenkile there were in 2001.

The Tenkile Conservation Alliance has a community-based approach to conservation

Professor Tim Flannery, himself no stranger to the wilds of PNG, wrote:

A decade on, the Tenkile Conservation Alliance is the most successful conservation organisation in Melanesia … and no other organisation I know of in a developing country has had anything like this degree of success.

What do we hope to achieve in PNG this time?

Our upcoming trip will take us to the northwestern Torricelli Mountains near the Waliapilik area in Sanduan Province. Over two weeks we’ll place 35 remote, motion-sensing cameras out along lines and an elevation gradient ranging from 500 to 1500 m above sea level. These will help us determine a number of things, including:

Are tree kangaroo species (including the Weimang, Tenkile and Yongi) found within the region?
If present, how many individuals of each species are there?
What habitats are most important for each species?
Are species only found at specific elevations and in particular climates, and hence how susceptible could species be to the impacts of global climate change?

To say this trip is full of anticipation is putting it lightly. Along with the critical information we aim to collect on tree kangaroos, we also suspect new species are to be found in the area, including miniature wallabies and echidnas.

When we retrieve our cameras in a few months time it’s going to be exciting to see what we find, and it’s almost guaranteed that there will be many firsts for science. Because camera traps detect and record anything that moves past them, we’ll collect valuable data on a large range of species.

What secrets are waiting to be discovered in these remote forests? Photo: Tenkile Conservation Alliance

Thanks to all who have helped get us this far. This is just the beginning, and if you’d like to contribute or stay in touch please contact me here.

Euan Ritchie receives funding from Pozible www.pozible.com/tenkile

This article was originally published at The Conversation.
Read the original article.

Economy and ecology on North Stradbroke

community, government, wildlife

Oct 302013

Original story by Melinda Howells, ABC News

Resource company Sibelco says it did not get everything it wanted in negotiations with the Queensland Government over its sand mining leases on North Stradbroke Island.

A parliamentary committee is examining new laws that would extend sand mining on the Island off Brisbane until 2035.

Sibelco CEO Campbell Jones was questioned about meetings with Premier Campbell Newman to negotiate the proposed legislation.

The sand mine on North Stradbroke Island. Photo: Giulio Saggin, ABC News.

“No we didn’t get everything that we wanted,” he said.

“There is not a restoration of all of our tenure.”

Sibelco says it injects $130 million a year into the region and the new laws balance economic and environmental interests.

It says the previous government’s plan to close the largest mine by 2019 would have hurt the local economy.

But environmental groups say an extension of sand mining on North Stradbroke will harm the island’s ecosystem.

Evan Hamman from the Environmental Defenders Office says the legislation states that the Government must extend mining leases with no avenues for appeal in the courts.

“There shouldn’t be special legislation in this regard, it’s unprecedented,” he said.

Paul Donatiu from the National Parks Association of Queensland says lakes and wetlands are under threat.

“It puts at risk these incredible, beautiful and rare places,” he said.

Cleveland MP Mark Robinson’s electorate takes in North Stradbroke.

He questioned the motives of some people giving evidence, asking about their links to the island.

“Are you just anti mining? How many of your members actually live on the island, are residents?” he said.

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