Applied ecology and conservation research groupWow: An endorsement from Stephen Fry!
Please support crucial conservation work helping to save endangered mammals in Papua New Guinea http://t.co/lAh0Kh1zni @EuanRitchie1
— Stephen Fry (@stephenfry) June 4, 2013
Help us to reverse the extinction crisis and save some of Papua New Guinea’s most special and irreplaceable animals.
Pledge your support at pozible.com/tenkile
Tony Peacock, CEO of the Cooperative Research Centres Association, was kind enough to give me a voice on ABC Radio today with Alex Sloan.
In this interview we talk about the potential of crowdfunding for Australian research, and the role it may play in my own project: discovering the mountain mammals of the Papua New Guinea mountains.
Tensions between state and federal government are rising over the issue of how to manage national parks.
Today I chatted with Radio National’s Cameron Wilson about state / federal relations when it comes to our natural parks.
Experts are warning Australia’s National Parks are facing a ‘death by a thousand cuts’. As protections against grazing, hunting and logging within the parks relax, we are at risk of finding out first-hand just how fragile these eco-systems are, and why they desperately need protecting.
Professor Bill Laurance and I speak to The Wire’s Graham Backhaus.
![Kakadu National Park. Image: Thomas Schoch [CC-BY-SA-2.5], via Wikimedia Commons](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d9/Yello_Water_Kakadu_National_Park_Australia.jpg)
National parks on land and in the ocean are dying a death of a thousand cuts, in the form of bullets, hooks, hotels, logging concessions and grazing licences. It’s been an extraordinary last few months, with various governments in eastern states proposing new uses for these critically important areas.
Did you miss today’s show on Triple R’s Einstein A Go-Go about extinction, crowd funding and trees kangaroos?
Don’t worry, you can listen to it here.
Funding is getting harder and harder to find right? And, the future doesn’t look great, well, at least in Australia. But, before you get depressed and start contemplating another career there is a way we can find funding to undertake important research. It doesn’t rely on governments or funding bodies, it relies on you, me, anyone! It’s called crowd funding.
Read my guest post on Professor Joern Fischer’s blog: Ideas for Sustainability
The Papua New Guinean mountains are home to amazing and endemic animals including the critically endangered Tenkile and Weimang tree kangaroos. Many of this region’s fauna are under severe threat of extinction.
Our project, a partnership between Deakin University and the Tenkile Conservation Alliance is the first comprehensive camera-trapping study of animals in the spectacular and remote Torricelli Mountain range. We will use automated, motion-sensing cameras to collect crucial information about these animals to establish the habitats that are most important – critical information if we are to save them.
I’m excited to be part of an Australian university first – using ‘crowdfunding’ to raise money for research. Our goal is $20,000, and we’re using the Australian crowdfunding website Pozible.
Please consider donating or, equally important, help us to spread the word.
Pozible: Discovering Papua New Guinea’s Mountain Mammals
Facebook group: Discovering Papua New Guinea’s Mountain Mammals
This morning I spoke on air with Geraldine Coutts about the threats to Papua New Guinea’s endangered tree kangaroos, my research plans, and the new crowd funding campaign to raise the capital.
Perhaps society’s biggest challenge, and arguably our largest failure, is the continuing loss of species from Earth.
We still have little idea of how many species exist on Earth. Only a fraction have been formally described, and even fewer assessed for their conservation status.
How do we conserve what we don’t know exists?
If Earth were a house, it would be as though we had listed the contents of only one room, and even then were not aware of their true value, while simultaneously the house was being demolished.
Species extinction happens and will continue to happen so should we care about it?
The most notable extinct species in Australia is the Tasmanian Tiger and its demise did have wide reaching impact on the local ecology.
I spoke to the ABC’s Chris Coleman to discuss this issue.
The state of extinction, what we know about declining species, and why biodiversity is so important.
![Lonesome George, the last Pinta Island Tortoise. Image: putneymark [CC-BY-SA-2.0] via Wikimedia Commons](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e5/Lonesome_George_-Pinta_giant_tortoise_-Santa_Cruz.jpg)
Despite my wife and I working as biologists, our five-year-old son came to make this statement independently.
He is highlighting what I and many others consider to be society’s biggest challenge, and arguably failure: the continuing loss of species from Earth.
In this interview with The Science Show’s Robyn Williams, I discuss encouraging dingoes as a top predator to help control lower predators such as a cats and foxes.
Plans to extend Western Australia’s historic ‘rabbit-proof fence’ have been described as cruel and clumsy by environmental groups, who say native wildlife will be the victim.
Dingo expert Dr Euan Ritchie, from Deakin University in Melbourne, says that Australia has an outdated and inefficient approach to pest management. He argues that excluding predators such as dingoes can be counterproductive, leading to more kangaroos and rabbits where those predators are absent.
“We know from other places that setting up barriers can have unforeseen consequences, and we shouldn’t forget the original rabbit-proof fence didn’t keep the rabbits out,” he says. “And why is animal welfare not being talked about in relation to building a fence of this scale?”
I was interviewed by Victoria Laurie for this article in Australian Geographic
Home to some of the most extravagant, eccentric and dangerous animals, Australia also has some of the most endangered wildlife in the world.
Our unique marsupials and monotremes are a source of pride, but Australia also has the dubious honour of the highest extinction rate of any nation.
![The orange-bellied parrot, Neophema chrysogaster, is one of Australia's most endangered species. Image: JJ Harrison [CC-BY-SA-3.0] via Wikimedia Commons](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ca/Neophema_chrysogaster_female_2_-_Melaleuca.jpg)
Authors: Leila A Brook, Christopher N Johnson and Euan G Ritchie
Apex predators can benefit ecosystems through top–down control of mesopredators and herbivores. However, apex predators are often subject to lethal control aimed at minimizing attacks on livestock. Lethal control can affect both the abundance and behaviour of apex predators. These changes could in turn influence the abundance and behaviour of mesopredators.
We used remote camera surveys at nine pairs of large Australian rangeland properties, comparing properties that controlled dingoes Canis lupus dingo with properties that did not, to test the effects of predator control on dingo activity and to evaluate the responses of a mesopredator, the feral cat Felis catus.
Indices of dingo abundance were generally reduced on properties that practiced dingo control, in comparison with paired properties that did not, although the effect size of control was variable. Dingoes in uncontrolled populations were crepuscular, similar to major prey. In populations subject to control, dingoes became less active around dusk, and activity was concentrated in the period shortly before dawn.
Shifts in feral cat abundance indices between properties with and without dingo control were inversely related to corresponding shifts in indices of dingo abundance. There was also a negative relationship between predator visitation rates at individual camera stations, suggesting cats avoided areas where dingoes were locally common. Reduced activity by dingoes at dusk was associated with higher activity of cats at dusk.
Our results suggest that effective dingo control not only leads to higher abundance of feral cats, but allows them to optimize hunting behaviour when dingoes are less active. This double effect could amplify the impacts of dingo control on prey species selected by cats. In areas managed for conservation, stable dingo populations may thus contribute to management objectives by restricting feral cat access to prey populations.
Brook L A, Johnson C N, Ritchie E G (2012) Effects of predator control on behaviour of an apex predator and indirect consequences for mesopredator suppression. Journal of Applied Ecology, 49: 1278–1286. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2664.2012.02207.x
The pressure is on. More and more universities and academics are working in a culture that is untenable and cracks in the ivory tower have already begun to appear.
The work environment is now characterised by excessive hours, unrealistic benchmarks, high levels of competitiveness and inflexible work arrangements.
In this article, Joern Fischer and I discuss the growing trend to measure universities and academics by the numbers of papers they produce, the number of citations they receive and the grant dollars they are awarded.
We ask: is more always better?
When we talk of conserving an animal species, what do we actually mean? We might think of a rhinoceros (or any other species, for that matter) pursuing its natural way of life in its native environment, perhaps in a reserve or national park. And why should we want to conserve species? Our thinking may not go much beyond the idealistic position that they have a right to exist and that we (and our children and grandchildren) have a right to see them.
![Is the only way to save the rhinos to commodify it? Image by Trisha M Shears [public domain], via Wikimedia Commons](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cb/Southern_White_Rhine_001.jpg)
The 5500 kilometre long dingo fence is a monument to predator xenophobia and costs millions of dollars annually to maintain, but is it worth it?
It turns out the dingo is a sorely under-utilised weapon in our feral animal arsenal. Pretty much everywhere we’ve looked across Australia, when dingoes are abundant, foxes and cats aren’t, and native marsupials are. It’s called the mesopredator effect, and highlights the important role of predators in maintaining healthy ecosystems.
![The dingo fence is a blunt instrument; we can do better. Image [CC-BY-SA-3.0] via Wikimedia Commons](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/92/Dogfence.jpg)
Applied ecology and conservation research group