ABSTRACT Dingoes ( Canis dingo ) are known for hunting and killing animals to meet their energetic requirements, but like almost all predators they also scavenge animal remains. To improve our understanding of dingo scavenging ecology, we investigated the role of abiotic and biotic factors in shaping carcass utilisation by dingoes and further determined whether dingo scavenging influenced carcass persistence in the landscape. To do so, we monitored visitation and scavenging by dingoes using remote cameras positioned on 119 kangaroo carcasses in open and closed canopy habitats and in warm and cool seasons. The carcasses were monitored across multiple study sites, which incorporated forest, alpine and desert ecoregions in Australia. We found that season played an important role in shaping carcass utilisation by dingoes, as well as carcass persistence. Warmer seasons increased the rate of carcass discovery 6.3-fold in the Forest study site and 4.8-fold in the Alpine study site, and also increased the time dingoes spent feeding on carcasses in the Alpine study site. Further, across all study sites, carcasses persisted at least 4.7 times longer in cool compared with warm seasons. On the other hand, carcass utilisation by dingoes was not influenced by habitat, although carcasses were more likely to persist in open compared with closed canopy habitats in the Alpine study site. Finally, our study showed that dingo scavenging may contribute to substantial carcass removal in certain contexts. Indeed, decreased carcass persistence in the Forest study site was evident in the cool season, when dingo scavenging occurred during the first two weeks of monitoring. The variability in results highlights the complexity of patterns in dingo scavenging and, more broadly, of vertebrate scavenging. It emphasises the need to consider multiple abiotic and biotic factors to properly understand the functional roles of different scavenger species. Longer-term studies with additional seasonal replicates may also yield a more detailed picture of the role of dingoes as apex scavengers.

Pollination is an essential process in the life cycle of most flowering plants and thus maintenance of the process is necessary for the long-term maintenance of rainforest ecosystems and their associated biota. As rainforest stands become fragmented will disruption of plant/pollinator relationships result in further decline of ecosystem diversity? The spatial and temporal distribution of resources in rainforest is reviewed, and the patterns of resource availability suggest that generalist rather than specialist plant-pollinator relationships will be more common, and this may confer resilience to the ecosystem in the face of environmental perturbation. However, individual plant species, in particular those with highly co-adapted plant-pollinator relation� ships, and species in which breeding success is strongly population density-dependent, may be at risk if rainforest ecosystems are fragmented. Information on pollination in rainforests is reviewed, with especial attention being given to subtropical rainforests such as occur in New South Wales. The evidence supports the prediction of the importance of generalist insect dominated pollination systems, at least for trees and large shrubs, but attention is drawn to a number of cases where specialist interactions have been demonstrated. It is suggested that thrips may be the pollinators of a number of species. There are few data on the pollination ecology of Australian subtropical rainforests. In view of the importance of pollination for long-term conservation of rainforest, a number of important avenues for future research are suggested.