Wildlife

The Victorian Farmers Federation (VFF) is urging the Victorian government to renew the highly successful Wild Dog Management Plan that has seen an enormous drop in wild dog attacks on livestock since launching in 2012.

An endangered native mouse species that nests in forests around the New South Wales Tablelands is showing strong signs of recovery post the Black Summer bushfires. The Hastings River Mouse, Pseudomys oralis, a small native rodent with brownish-grey fur and white feet, was one of NSW’s most severely impacted endangered species following the 2019-2020 fires.

Felicity Howard. The reach of the Kangaroo Art Auction which closed on Monday 31 July as part of the Maldon Inc Maldon In Winter Festival, was far and wide ... The lovely June Kiff of Reservoir Melbourne was the highest bidder of ‘Goldie’ created by the Mount Alexander Girl Guides.

The revival of the Nymboida River, which was devastated by fires then floods over the past three years is well underway and the endangered Eastern Freshwater Cod are already benefitting from work by the Clarence chapter of Oz Fish … 5km of exotic weeds being removed from the riparian zone and 1000 local native plants established in their place. 

Chlamydia is a significant and widespread threat to the koala, impacting their reproductive health and causing infertility. This project will trial a new vaccine implant which would allow for koalas to receive their ‘booster’ dose of vaccine via the implant.

From eBird.org, we learned that the long-billed visitor to Donald last week is identified as Threskiornis spinicollis – or more familiarly, “the straw-necked ibis”. A flock of forty of the feathered fliers alighted in the grassed area across Byrne Street from St. Mary’s School playing area.

Australia’s iconic grass-trees – aka yaccas – are hardy, drought-tolerant, and strikingly beautiful. Now, new research has revealed another, far more important, feature: their ability to protect wildlife from deadly weather extremes.

Vic Jurskis. Laura Chung from Sydney Morning Herald tells us “Members of one of the healthiest koala populations in Sydney are dying at an alarming rate, as chlamydia-infected koalas and housing development” get closer. Makes you wonder how many different koala ‘populations’ there are in our State Capital ... Premier Chris Minns has a terrible dilemma.

Their actions have saved countless native wildlife and where they go, the cameras follow. Conservation dogs are back on the Sunshine Coast, with up-and-coming canine Cooper taking the lead and his protégé Hakka in tow.

Researchers at Charles Sturt University are preparing to visit Lord Howe Island for the last time as part of a study on the impacts of a rodent eradication project on two native bird species. The study, ‘Effects of an island-wide rodent eradication programme on two threatened bird species’, was recently published after years of research both on and off the island.

Introduced foxes, dogs, cats, rats, and other predators kill millions of native animals every year, but what if they were conditioned to associate this prey with food that made them ill? A team of international researchers have shown the potential to do just that, burying baits containing capsules of levamisole, a chemical that induces nausea and vomiting when consumed by predators.

Sunshine Coast Council’s Environment and Liveability Portfolio Councillor Maria Suarez thanked the photographer for reporting the koala sighting at Palmview Forest through the Queensland Government’s QWildlife app and is calling on others to do the same. “There are some amazing images of Sunshine Coast koalas being uploaded to QWildlife”: Councillor Maria Suarez.

ARR.News sought the response of FCNSW regarding recent protests against native forest logging, recent timber harvesting and plans for harvesting in the site of the proposed Great Koala National Park and measures to prevent injury to koalas and other wildlife.

Vic Jurskis. The facts haven’t deterred the ecowarriors of North East Forest Alliance (NEFA) from trying to hasten the demise of the sustainable, renewable, solar-powered native timber industry. They don’t care about habitat for people, other than themselves. They’ve launched an application for an injunction to ‘save’ the overcrowded koalas that are breeding more rapidly than ever on all the soft new growth resprouting after the Black Summer holocaust that they helped to create.

John Anderson. If ever there was a family of birds that exhibits supreme mastery of the skies, albeit those close to the ocean, it is the albatross family. The CSIRO Australian Bird Guide lists 17 species of albatross that can be seen in Australian waters. They range over vast areas of the Southern Ocean, nesting on Sub-Antarctic Islands such as Macquarie Island and in winter push northwards to patrol the southern coastline of Australia.

Member for Benambra, Bill Tilley, fears farms in the Upper Murray will again be under constant threat from wild dogs if the rules for trappers are watered down. On Tuesday night in the Victorian Parliament, Mr Tilley called on the Agriculture Minister to visit the region and hear from the landholders who lived through the carnage of the early 2000s.

The NSW Government has acquired Comeroo, Muttawary and Maranoa stations (known collectively as Comeroo). The purchase will see more than 37,000 hectares containing endangered ecological communities and an array of threatened species added to the NSW national park estate, managed by the National Parks and Wildlife Service.

Scientists have been out in the field surveying wetlands and waterbirds across the region’s floodplains. With many wetlands and creeks still containing water due to recent flooding, there has been an influx of water-birds across our region. Scientists have been monitoring bird abundance, diversity, and breeding activity to assess aquatic ecology health to compare data collected from dry years.

The Mountain Cattlemen’s Association of Victoria (MCAV) is calling on environmental groups to consider the long-term ramifications of their actions after it came to light that a Federal Court case against planned burns was underway... President of the MCAV, Cass McCormack, said it was yet again proof that continued scientific, academic and anecdotal evidence was being ignored.

Narrandera Landcare and Murrumbidgee Landcare were blessed with perfect winter weather for their frog hotel making workshop during the school holidays. The workshop at the Community Food Garden was very well attended and the tree frogs around Narrandera will have no shortage of accommodation places in the immediate future.