ABSTRACT Historically, reports of insectivory in family Pteropodidae have largely been anecdotal and thought to be an incidental corollary of flying-foxes feeding on plant products. More recent direct observations of flying-foxes catching and consuming insects, as well as advances in techniques that increase our ability to detect dietary items, suggest that this behaviour may be deliberate and more common than previously thought. Usually, multiple insects are consumed, but it appears that flying-foxes hunt and eat them one at a time. However, we have collected and photographed oral ejecta pellets under trees with high flying-fox activity, some containing evidence of multiple masticated insects. Further genetic analysis proved that these pellets came from Grey-headed Flying-foxes Pteropus poliocephalus . We propose that flying-foxes use an array of insect feeding strategies, most likely in response to variation in insect abundance and activity, as well as abiotic factors such as light and temperature.

ABSTRACT Traditionally the concepts of terrestrial protected areas have been used in designating marine protected areas. We discuss the differences between marine and terrestrial protected areas and highlight the need to consider the movement of species through marine protected boundaries. The source of most productivity differs; in terrestrial systems it is all attached whereas in the marine environment much occurs in the water column and cannot be restrained by artificial boundaries. This has major implications for the management of marine protected areas.

ABSTRACT Loss of habitat is considered to be one of the major threats to biodiversity. This is of concern because habitats created by bioengineering species support and enhance local biodiversity. The present study investigated the abundance and distribution of polychaetes among distinct patches of the biogenic habitats created by the tubeworm Galeolaria caespitosa , the Sydney rock oyster Saccostrea glomerata and the turfing red alga Corallina officinalis on natural rocky shores within Sydney Harbour, NSW, Australia. Assemblages of polychaetes were compared among the habitats, species of polychaetes restricted to single habitats were identified (1 species was unique to oysters or Galeolaria , and 7 species were unique to coralline turf), estimates of their contribution to diversity at the patch and landscape scale, and unique species were made. The relative cover of each of the habitats throughout Sydney Harbour is patchy but within the marine dominated sections of natural rocky shores, they are widespread. All habitats supported unique species of polychaetes and overall assemblages differed among the habitats. Loss of biogenic habitats due to climate change, harvesting or other anthropogenic activities, will result in loss of many species of polychaetes and will have larger scale implications. Future management of marine biodiversity, including the potential for a marine park network in Sydney Harbour, needs to take into account the importance of biogenic habitats in supporting these diverse assemblages of invertebrates.

ABSTRACT The thirtieth anniversary of the nomination of New South Wales rainforests for World Heritage listing provided an opportunity to reflect on the process by which the nomination came about. I discuss the development of ideas about ‘heritage’, as it applies to the natural environment, the development of the World Heritage List and changing perceptions about the values and importance of rainforest in subtropical and temperate Australia. The concept of a serial nomination and its relevance to a geographically widespread collection of sites is considered. The nomination included sites which contained a range of vegetation, not just rainforest. The significance of the interactions between rainforest and wet sclerophyll forest displayed in New South Wales rainforest is recognised as one of the outstanding values in the nomination.

ABSTRACT The aplysiid sea hare, Syphonota geographica has a predominantly circumtropical distribution. Over the last 15 years, it has spread throughout the eastern Mediterranean Sea where it is regarded as an alien, Lessepsian migrant. Observations from southern Europe and the Middle East illustrate the capacity of S. geographica to invade and establish populations in novel locations. Whilst historic records from the Australian east coast indicate a latitudinal distribution from northern Queensland south to Sydney, observations reported in this paper confirm that its range extends to the southern east coast, an area regarded as an important climate change hot-spot. These records not only represent an important southward shift in range, but are also the most southerly global observations for this tropical taxon. Observations from the Mediterranean and those reported here, were generated by citizen scientists, highlighting the substantial benefit of public engagement in ongoing programs that document, and monitor changes in, marine biodiversity.

The Red-whiskered Bulbul Pycnonotus jocosus naturally occurs from the Indian subcontinent to the northern Malay Peninsula. Its anthropogenic spread also encompasses Australia, Japan, the southern Malay Peninsula, Singapore, Florida, California, 11 islands in the Indian Ocean, and Oahu, Hawaii. The earliest known introduction occurred in Sydney in 1865, with subsequent releases in the 1900's leading to establishment. It was first released in Melbourne, Victoria in 1915, with a population establishing in the late 1950's. Sightings have been reported in Coffs Harbour since 1972, forming a population in the Northern Rivers region. There has also been a small population in Mackay, Queensland since 1983. Red-whiskered Bulbuls had been recorded in South Australia between the 1940's and 1980's, but did not proliferate and are no longer present. The main ecological impact identified is the dispersal of exotic weeds, although evidence in Australia remains anecdotal. There has also been preliminary evidence of interspecific competition on islands and predation of nestlings. While aesthetically appreciated and a predator of some invertebrate pests, it causes crop failure in soft-fruit and citrus orchards and damage to garden plants. Impacts should be further investigated to justify management directions. Eradication in Australia may be achievable due to populations being mostly restricted to settled areas.

ABSTRACT Science thrives on ideas, and within its domain no idea is inherently dangerous. However, interpretations of science, and applications of misinterpretations in policies have potential to be dangerous to scientists, science itself, the broader society and the environment. I discuss a number of examples of dangers from outside science where conclusions reached by practitioners in other in other disciplines may lead to confusion as to what the science says. In particular I present an extensive discussion of Gammage's Biggest Estate , suggesting that the evidence for universal application of one Law applied to land management over the entire continent for many thousands of years is not strong, and that other interpretations should be tested. Assumptions that the British colonists were unfamiliar with fire in the environment are questioned.

When disasters occur, media reporting tends to focus on the impacts on humans and their property, with only occasional references made to impacts on natural assets such as wildlife. We looked at a range of print and internet media sources to examine the way the media treat wildlife in their reporting of disasters. We found a growing media interest in wildlife problems from earlier analyses, at least partly generated by growing awareness of the risks to wildlife posed by global warming, a hot media topic. Scientists were rarely directly reported, but when they were the message came through loud and clear, calling for better bases for government actions to conserve wildlife. The media industry is separate to academic science and the policy and management world of governments, but has a responsibility to carry important information from these bodies to the wider community. For their part, wildlife scientists should make more effort to set priorities and to inform reporting, recognising that the media influence the political agenda. If global warming is making Australia more disaster-prone ( New York Times 30 September 2009), the consequences for wildlife need to be understood and widely communicated, as a precondition for protective actions.

The Green and Golden Bell Frog Litoria aurea is threatened with extinction, but generally occurs in disturbed sites and has successfully colonized some sites that are essentially artificial. It should therefore be possible to promote recovery of the species by increasing the availability of suitable habitat through habitat modification or creation and, where necessary, translocating individuals into these habitat areas. Apparently suitable habitat for this species had been created at Long Reef Golf Course in the northern Sydney suburb of Collaroy. We translocated approximately 9,000 captive-bred tadpoles from Taronga Zoo into these habitat areas over 7 years. This program has not led to the establishment of a self-sustaining population of the Green and Golden Bell Frog at Long Reef Golf Course and must therefore be considered unsuccessful. It has had partial success as some released tadpoles metamorphosed into frogs, some of these developed into adults, and a few males were recorded calling. However, breeding by these introduced animals has not been recorded, and, in the absence of continuing tadpole releases, the number of bell frogs has declined to zero. It has, however, provided a number of guidelines for future similar programs. Success with this program has been limited by fish, time of tadpole release and water temperature, and hence we recommend that future translocations of Green and Golden Bell Frog tadpoles should be carried out during spring or summer and should target ponds that are warm and fish-free. Program success was also limited by the numbers of tadpoles available for release. The lack of tadpoles for spring/summer release since the 2003/2004 breeding season has prevented evaluation of new, relatively warm ponds. Any captive-breeding program for this frog species must therefore be successful, in its own right, if it is to provide tadpoles for release. Disease is unlikely to have influenced the outcomes of this program, but should always be considered a potentially-important factor.

In August 1994 a Bryde's Whale Balaenoptera edeni entered and became entrapped in the Manning River, New South Wales. The individual was an immature male of the rare pygmy form of Bryde's Whale: it was 10.3 m long and weighed approximately 7.7 tonnes. The whale remained in the river for 100 days, during which time observations were made of its movements, diving habits, feeding behaviour and body condition. Apart from the risk of stranding, the entrapped whale also faced the potential threats of starvation, entanglement in fishing nets, collision with boat traffic, and exposure to low salinity and high acidity. In view of these threats, a rescue bid was launched to return the whale to the ocean. Five rescue attempts were made the last culminated in the whale being successfully towed to sea and released several kilometers offshore. Despite its emaciated condition the whale was rescued from the river before the onset of ill health or irreparable physiological damage. The whale swam away strongly on release, and its chances of survival appeared to be good. The success of the operation together with the physical state of the animal on release justify the decision taken to mount such an ambitious rescue bid, even though such action was itself life-threatening.

This study provides an account of cetacean incidents in New South Wales, Australia. Incidents comprise reports of carcasses, injured and debilitated animals found stranded onshore, entrapped in shallow water, entangled or floating offshore. Marine mammal incidents were reported to the New South Wales National Parks and Wildlife Service (NSW NPWS) and recorded into the NSW NPWS Marine Fauna Events Database. Cetacean incident data was used to look for trends in cetacean mortality and debilitation, and baseline information on population dynamics including age and sex ratios. The database contains 891 cetacean records between 1790 and 2013. There were 33 cetacean species reported into the database, consistent with the known species richness of cetaceans in NSW waters. Incidents were categorised into one of 14 types. The cause of mortality or morbidity could not be established for the majority of cases. However, more incidents were related to anthropogenic causes (e.g. entanglements, vessel strike) than natural causes (e.g. disease, calf mortality). The largest known cause of incidents was entangled cetaceans (134 individuals), most of which were Humpback Whales caught in fishing gear. The results of this study highlight the utility of cetacean incident data for monitoring changing population dynamics and quantifying the magnitude of key threatening processes. Improved consistency in reporting over time has greatly improved the value of the database as a conservation monitoring tool.

The multimillion dollar Tasmanian Atlantic Salmon aquaculture industry grew from a shaky beginning with just 36 ripe females in the 1970's. The early unsuccessful attempts to introduce Atlantic Salmon ( Salmo salar ) to Australia which started in 1841 are summarised. By 1960 no known populations of Atlantic Salmon existed in Australia so Dr D.D. Francois arranged the import of Atlantic Salmon ova in 1963, 1964 and 1965. By 1972 when I took over management of Atlantic Salmon in N. S.W., the remaining stocks had become very low, only 36 ripe females remaining, and the importation of new stocks were prohibited. By 1979 1,000,000 ova were laid down for that year although mortalities were high. In the 1980's several shipments of these Atlantic Salmon ova were supplied to Tasmania, and from these, the multimillion dollar Tasmanian Salmon aquaculture industry has developed. Lake Jindabyne is still stocked annually with Atlantic Salmon and reasonable angler returns result, but no breeding in the wild has been reported.

Fauna surveys to determine the species richness, relative abundance and community structure of reptile assemblages are often important first steps in their conservation. Several sampling techniques are commonly used. Most involve trapping and assume a simple relationship between the absolute abundance of a species and the index of abundance obtained by sampling. However, comparing the effectiveness of different trapping techniques reveals biases among techniques. Therefore, without knowing absolute abundance, bias in a trapping technique can only be determined relative to other, biased techniques. To investigate this issue, measures of absolute abundance of reptiles were obtained by intensively searching measured quadrats (total removal plots), usually 5 m by 5 m, in two areas, with results compared with those obtained from pitfall trapping in one of these areas. Pitfall trapping was extremely biased towards large, surface-active lizards compared with the reptile assemblage determined by total removal, which was numerically dominated by small, fossorial species. Trapping data are influenced by the morphology and life history of a reptile species compared with results from total removal plots. Therefore, searching may provide a baseline for interpreting abundance data from trapping techniques, and for studies of population dynamics critical to assessing a population's robustness and its response to impacts.

348 species have been recorded for the Riverina area between 1940 and 2011. 291 were recorded by me between 1964 and 1972, 95 of which were banded at the Inland Fisheries Research Station, 23 banded elsewhere in the Riverina and 173 sight records. An additional 28 species were recorded over the 1962-78 period by other workers (A.Davies, J.Izzard, J.Hobbs, P.Wilson and other joint authors) giving a total or 319 species in the Riverina over that period. The more recent lists of the Bird Atlas I and 2 1988-2001 and the Bird Trails document up to 2011, which cover a large proportion of the areas covered in this study, add 29 species to the overall list making a total of 348 species.

The acidification of oceans is predicted to fundamentally alter marine ecosystems. Previous studies have found that elevated CO 2 has an effect on adult calcification, fertilisation and larval development,perhaps because of the organisms' inability to regulate acid-base status, but little is known about the mechanisms that underlie such responses. This study investigated the growth response of larvae of a wild and selectively bred line of the Sydney rock oyster, Saccostrea glomerata , to elevated CO 2 and measured the pattern of expression of proteins. Overall exposure to elevated CO 2 caused a significant reduction in the shell length of D-veliger larvae of the wild, but not in the selectively bred line. Prior to this study, differences in growth between selectively bred and wild oysters have only been found following settlement. Proteome analysis of D-veliger larvae using two-dimensional gel electrophoresis detected a significantly greater number of protein spots in selectively bred compared to wild oyster lines. In addition, a comparison of the proteins expressed between selectively bred and wild larvae exposed to elevated CO 2 and ambient conditions showed that a number of proteins were up- or down-regulated and in some cases, switched on at elevated CO 2 in selectively bred lines, but not found in the wild lines. Identification of these differentially expressed proteins may assist to "climate proof"of important aquacultural industries.

Despite their great socio-economic importance, sandy beaches have attracted little ecological research. This is unfortunate since, contrary to popular belief, they support diverse ecological assemblages whose species are mostly small and buried and which deserve protection as part of ecologically sustainable development (ESD). Moreover, the management of beaches and linked adjacent ecosystems is becoming increasingly important because of their vulnerability to burgeoning human pressures including climate change. Although there are large uncertainties involved, some of the climate-related environmental changes and their ecological consequences for sandy beaches are explored in this paper, some management issues discussed and research proposed. Temperature-related changes include the likelihood that the geographical ranges of some species will change, some cool-adapted species will decline in abundance, possibly to extinction, and the rate of processes such as decomposition and photosynthesis will increase. The increasing acidification of the ocean may affect many beach species directly via reduced calcification and indirectly via changes to the phytoplankton on which some beach species depend for food. Changed hydrology may affect both nearshore primary productivity and the larval movements of many species. Increased storminess may change the morphodynamic state of beaches with consequent effects on the diversity, abundance and composition of beach assemblages. The combination of storm surges and sea-level rise may enhance erosion rates, the most extreme effect being the total loss of sandy beach habitat, especially if sea-walls are deployed to protect coastal assets. Alternatively, in some areas there may be a slow retreat of the coastline with few effects on beach ecosystems. Concerning management, both mitigation and adaptation strategies are needed to meet public ESD goals. The former would seek to constrain the increase in atmospheric greenhouse gases by addressing the underlying causes (i.e., population and economic growth) and by applying appropriate technologies. Adaptation strategies would recognise the linkages between beaches, dunes and surf zones and maintain sand movement and storage and allow for the landward migration of beaches. Failing this, the active maintenance of beaches in their present location by soft engineering (e.g., the transport of sand to the intertidal beach from elsewhere, a process called beach nourishment) is far preferable to hard engineering (e.g., sea-walls) from the nature conservation and socio-economic points of view. Since beach ecosystems are poorly understood even at basic descriptive levels, future management, monitoring, and predictions of the possible impacts of large-scale phenomena (such as global climate change) will be assisted by basic research into documenting biodiversity, community dynamics, autecology, and eco-physiology of beach fauna and the linkages with adjacent ecosystems. As well, the use of human interventions (e.g., beach nourishment) as scientific experiments combined with optimised monitoring is recommended.

Casual observations of the Green and Golden Bell Frog Litoria aurea were made in the Station Creek area of Yuraygir National Park between 1980 and 1995. A description of the habitat, including details of water bodies and vegetation communities is presented. Calling males were located during 1994 and 1995. No amplexing pairs, eggs or tadpoles were found. Yuraygir National Park is one of only four New South Wales national parks that contain populations of the Green and Golden Bell Frog. The preservation of this population should be a major conservation initiative.