ABSTRACT The potent defensive chemicals of cane toads ( Rhinella marina ) protect them against predators that lack coevolved physiological tolerance to those toxins. That relative invulnerability may explain why major injuries (such as limb loss) appear to be rare in cane toads from most of their global range; however, we noted frequent predator-induced injuries (>4% of adults) in samples from within the toad’s native range (in French Guiana) and from a site (Lake Argyle) in north-western Australia. Toads at Lake Argyle enter the edge of the lake at night to rehydrate, exposing them to foraging freshwater crocodiles ( Crocodylus johnstoni ). Crocodiles rarely consume toads, but the attacks often result in loss of a limb. Because limbs contain relatively little toxin, attacks to the limbs expose a crocodile to nauseating but non-lethal amounts of toxin; and hence, facilitate taste aversion learning by the predator. The context of the encounters, such as differences in geography, may help to explain why the invasion of cane toads has not significantly impacted on crocodile populations at this site, in contrast to heavy impacts reported from nearby riverine systems.

ABSTRACT Nomadic birds move around the landscape in complex, irregular patterns, making it difficult for conservation managers and planners to decide where and how to act to mitigate threatening processes. Because of this uncertainty, nomadic species are poorly represented in protected areas in Australia. We outline approaches to discover nomadic species distributions, their dynamics and their consequent vulnerability to extinction. Using citizen science initiatives like eBird Australia and the BirdLife Australia Atlas, combined with new ways of applying species distribution modelling that take into account temporal patterns of movement driven by weather and productivity, we demonstrate how to map and predict the key sites for conservation action for nomadic species. We explore recent advancements in decision–support tools to incorporate species movements into systematic conservation planning, and highlight challenges in traditional approaches for protected area designation for conserving nomads. Due to the spatio–temporal dynamism of nomadic species distributions, the projected costs of managing nomads across Australia using traditional, static, protected areas are prohibitive. Landholders, including graziers and indigenous landholders, will play a key role in safeguarding these species on pastoral lands into the future, and future conservation efforts should be focussed on these stakeholders, through a combination of community engagement, market–based incentives (such as biodiversity farming or payments for artificial water source and ephemeral wetland management), cross–boundary and cross– agency collaboration policies, and new legislative instruments. Accounting for the movements of nomadic species and incorporating new approaches to integrated land management will help design conservation solutions that are effective, cost–efficient, and robust to uncertainty in this rapidly changing world.

ABSTRACT Invasive predators are identified as an important threatening process implicated in native species decline and extinction in Australia. This study aimed at developing our understanding of landscape-level spatial patterns in the red fox diet. We established prey importance based on dietary composition of red fox scats, and related this information to landscape structure. The relationship between scat composition and the frequency of detection and spatial patterns of occurrence of small mammals based on survey data from the same region was also evaluated using ordination analyses. We found that native vertebrates, dominated by Sminthopsinae , were the most important prey. However, Mus musculus were detected significantly more than Sminthopsinae across the region. Sminthopsinae were detected most frequently in traps in grazing landscapes; however, red fox scats from grazing landscapes were dominated by invertebrates. We propose these patterns may be partially driven by M. musculus abundance attracting predation pressure to the landscape and Sminthopsinae exhibiting prey naivety resulting in their disproportional representation in red fox scats.

Interest in urban nature has grown rapidly over recent years in Australia, and not just amongst ecologists and conservationists. Policy makers, social scientists, community groups, the media and urban residents in general have also begun to think about, represent and interact with the ‘natural’ elements of cities in new ways. There has been a proliferation of perspectives about urban environments and a proliferation of debates about the sustainable management of animals, plants, water, climate and landscapes in cities. Such debates are indicative not only of an unsettling of the terms of nature in Australia, but also of an unsettling of the terms of Australian society by global social flows. Having placed Australian cities in the context of such turbulence, this paper considers implications of the contested status of urban nature for the practice of nature conservation. It is argued that as they engage with the ideas, values and behaviours of urban residents, nature conservation professionals will be challenged to broaden their understanding of nature conservation and to question the present dominance of the goal of biodiversity conservation.

Previous approaches to indirect detection of koala presence have been proposed, however, the present paper identifies issues of bias, pellet detectability and over-analysis of information inherent in those prior techniques. We recommend an approach that reduces bias, can be consistently applied and enables information on presence of koalas Phascolarctos cinereus to be used to inform larger survey programs, ‘ground-truth’ predictive habitat mapping, etc. We describe a rapid assessment methodology based on indirect signs that provides a reproducible, statistically valid, time-efficient and resource-efficient protocol for determining the presence of this species. The application, advantages and limitations of this ‘koala rapid assessment method’ (KRAM) are discussed with reference to its role in the design of detailed and landscape scale P. cinereus surveys.

The koala Phascolarctos cinereus is the only member of the once diverse marsupial family Phascolarctidae to have survived the Last Glacial Maximum. A climate envelope model for P. cinereus was developed to predict the range for this species at present and at the Last Glacial Maximum. The model was compared to the contemporary koala records and the known fossil records of P. cinereus during the Quaternary. The predicted current core range for koalas was concentrated in southeast Queensland,eastern New South Wales and eastern Victoria. At the Last Glacial Maximum their predicted core range contracted significantly to southeast Queensland and northeast New South Wales. Our findings concord with other studies that find species experienced range contractions during glacial maxima. In the context of the future conservation planning for koalas in the wild, our historical perspective demonstrates the past adaptations of koalas to changes in climate and their probable range contraction to climatic refugia. The future survival of wide-ranging specialist species, such as the koala, may depend on identifying and protecting, future climatic refugia.

ABSTRACT Social-ecological system (SES) frameworks offer a way of diagnosing the economic, environmental, and social issues driving human-canid conflict, and can assist in the development and testing of management interventions. SES-based approaches to carnivore management in the context of conflicts with humans are limited and highlight a growing need to develop new initiatives involving a broad spectrum of interested parties. To help identify management opportunities provided by using a SES applied to human-canid conflict, we apply the principles of Elinor Ostrom’s multi-tiered framework and develop a SES relating to dingo management in the Australian rangelands. This SES posits variables influencing management practices for dingoes and identifies key management opportunities. We use the framework to categorise first-tier sub-components of the SES, propose second-tier variables specific to the SES (referring to past history or experiences of relevant actors and government resource policies), and identify pathways or interactions for testing (e.g., the influence of scientific evidence on policy, development of educational packages, uptake of new knowledge, and impact of socio-economic status). The proposed SES demonstrates the potential for such approaches to help resolve human-dingo conflict, highlights variables that may influence dingo management practices, and presents opportunities for testing these variables empirically.

ABSTRACT This paper explores the place of pest species in agricultural landscapes in Australia. Drawing on historical, ethnographic and philosophical research, we consider the very particular—reductive, utilitarian, monological—ways of understanding and valuing landscapes that lead to some animals being classified as pests. We propose that paying attention to pests might offer a productive way into challenging these logics and opening up more creative and inclusive agricultural possibilities.

Tree hollows are a major feature within Australian habitats and an important functional resource for many species in terms of shelter, reproduction, and thermoregulation. Water-filled tree hollows, or phytotelmata, also function as a valuable resource, but their use is only scarcely documented. We used camera trapping to determine which vertebrate species were utilising a known water-holding hollow in dry woodland habitat, and assessed whether antagonistic behaviour, such as hoarding of the resource, was occurring. Camera footage was obtained over a period of three days and nights, and species’ use of the hollow analysed. A total of seven vertebrates (one frog, two reptile and four mammal species) were recorded using the hollow, which included diurnal and nocturnal species. Use by the Feathertail Glider was the most frequent compared to other species. The study highlights an ecological significance of water-filled hollows that should be considered in the management of dry woodland habitats, where the availability of these resources may be depleted by land clearing and loss of existing hollow-bearing trees.

The vocalisations emitted by adult and juvenile Grey-headed Flying-foxes Pteropus poliocephalus (Chiroptera: Pteropodidae) within daytime camps and night nurseries were studied using audio and video data. The calls were differentiated via discriminant analysis and the motor action associated with each call type was categorised. Five distinct call types were emitted by adult P. poliocephalus within daytime camps; ark calls, harsh chuckles, tonal calls, tonal chuckles and chups . The following classification was then applied to distinguish between these calls types; (I) the harsh chuckles and ark calls as ‘harsh’; (2) the tonal calls as ‘tonal’; and (3) the tonal chuckles and chups as ‘intermediate’ between the previous two. Ark calls and harsh chuckles occurred predominantly in association with agonistic behaviours such as fighting and retaliating after being investigated by another individual; tonal calls were emitted most frequently when an individual was crawling or flying away from an agonistic encounter; and tonal chuckles and chups were emitted by females when a male instigated a reproductive attempt. The physical structure of the isolation call of juvenile P. poliocephalus differed among individuals in terms of call length, fundamental frequency and bandwidth of the fundamental component of the call. These differences may reflect a form of ‘vocal signature’ that assists the mother in recognising and locating her young. It is suggested that vocal signals emitted by adult P. poliocephalus predominantly provide information about the arousal state of the emitter and occur in association with specific motor actions that enhance the meaning of the vocal signal.

In 1921 a photograph of a thylacine Thylacinus cynocephalus carrying a chicken in its mouth appeared in The Australian Museum Magazine with the caption “copyright photo from life - H. Burrell”. In 1926, A.S. Le Souef and Harry Burrell used the same photograph to illustrate the entry for the thylacine in The Wild Animals of Australasia . Robert Paddle (2000) considers the picture to be one of the chief causes of a “blossoming of the construction that the thylacine was a significant poultry predator” and notes that the photograph has been used in many published works. However, a former associate of Burrell suggests that the figure in the photograph is not a live animal, but a mounted specimen placed against a “bush background”. With the assistance of digital imaging programs, a close analysis of the glass plate negative of this photograph is undertaken to determine the veracity of the claim. I conclude that the figure in the photograph is indeed a mounted specimen. Certain circumstantial evidence connected with the historical and textual contexts in which the image was produced and published is also discussed. As one of the last in a series of negative representations of the thylacine in zoological works, the photograph's prolonged uncritical reception demonstrates the deceptive potential of photography and suggests that we see what we are conditioned to see.

Present day Australian landscapes are legacies of our colonial history, while future landscapes will be legacies of ecological processes and human impacts occurring today. This paper investigates the legacies of European settlement of Noosa Shire, South-east Queensland, with particular emphasis on the economic and political drivers and the resultant loss and fragmentation of Koala Phascolarctos cinereus habitat. Patterns of habitat loss between 1860 and 1970 were quantified at a coarse level from historical and land tenure records, while changes over the past 30 years were mapped at a finer spatial resolution from aerial photography and satellite imagery. Periods of high economic growth and to lesser extents depression are linked to increased vegetation clearing. Fifty per cent of P. cinereus habitat has been lost since 1860, with habitat class 2A (30-<50 per cent of preferred habitat trees) and 2C (10-<30 per cent of preferred habitat trees) suffering the highest proportion of loss. The period of greatest habitat loss was between 1890 and 1910, linked to the development of the dairy industry in the western half of Noosa Shire. A second significant phase of loss occurred since 1970, linked to the planting of exotic pine plantations, urbanisation and rural subdivision, with 35 per cent of remaining habitat being cleared, mainly in the southern part of the Shire. The cumulative loss of habitat has been accompanied by increasing levels of habitat fragmentation indicated by reduced patch size and increased patch linearity. Further analysis of the temporal aspects of habitat change is required in order to test the hypothesis that there is a relaxation period between the timing of habitat loss and current pattern of habitat occupancy of P. cinereus populations.

The koala population in southwest Queensland is a large low-density population of important conservation value which is vulnerable to habitat loss, drought and climate change. The nutrient quality of Eucalyptus food trees favoured by koalas is an important factor influencing the survival of the koala on a low-nutrient-and-high-toxin diet. This study investigated the relationship between the diet of koalas, and food tree characteristics. Vegetation surveys, cuticle analysis and leaf chemical analysis were conducted in 14 study sites in southwest Queensland during the winter of 2010. Koala diet composition was different to eucalypt tree species availability, with Eucalyptus camaldulensis (56.5%) the most important tree species, E. coolabah (15.4%) and E. populnea (12.4%) of secondary preference. Leaf chemicals (moisture, total nitrogen, total phenolics, and a nutrition index = (moisture*nitrogen) / total phenolics) were significantly related to tree species, surface water availability, soil type and proximity to major creeks. Only leaf moisture was significantly correlated with koala food tree species preference. The presence of surface water appears to be a crucial characteristic of suitable koala habitat while riparian habitats dominant by E. camaldulensis are critical for conserving the koala populations in southwest Queensland.