Latest News
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Self-fumigating birds and manna from heaven: The remarkable forty-spotted pardalote
Tue, 12 Mar 2019Endangered forty-spotted pardalote nestlings are falling prey to the larvae of a blood-feeding fly parasite. Researcher Fernanda Alves, reports on experiments that encourage forty-spotted pardalotes to ‘self-fumigate’ their nests by incorporating chicken feathers treated with a bird-safe insecticide.
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Talking night parrots on Paruku Country
Tue, 12 Mar 2019Paruku Indigenous Rangers and elders recently hosted a workshop on night parrots for other rangers and conservation groups from the southern Kimberley and northern Western Deserts. The TSR Hub’s Nick Leseberg from The University of Queensland went along to learn from the rangers about the night parrot population in the Great Sandy Desert, the Paruku Rangers’ work with the bird, and to share findings from his research on the bird in western Queensland.
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The ghosts of digging mammals past
Tue, 12 Mar 2019Once upon a time, not that long ago, Australia hosted an abundance of digging mammals like boodies, bilbies and potoroos. With the loss of these species from many parts of the landscape comes the loss of the work they did as ecosystem engineers.
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Trending now: The new Threatened Species Index for Australian birds
Tue, 12 Mar 2019An exciting new tool called the Threatened Species Index offers a window into how threatened species are faring and if our collective conservation efforts are stacking up for imperilled wildlife. The index has been made possible through unprecedented collaboration and data-sharing by over 40 research partners led by The University of Queensland, working closely with BirdLife Australia.
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Citizen scientists collaborate on mammal surveys in urban gardens
Tue, 29 Jan 2019Citizen scientist residents are working with researchers to survey urban gardens in Albany and Bunbury for mammals in January and February. They hope to find critically endangered western ringtail possums.
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Threatened Species Recovery Hub rejects false media claims
Sun, 20 Jan 2019Reports by The Courier-Mail that the Threatened Species Recovery Hub is an anti-coal activist group involved in a review of Adani coal mine environmental plans are totally incorrect.
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Invasive species and habitat loss our biggest biodiversity threats
Mon, 10 Dec 2018New research by the Threatened Species Recovery Hub has identified invasive species as the no. 1 threat to Australian biodiversity with habitat loss a close second.
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Curlew globe-trotting update
Tue, 04 Dec 2018The exceptionally long-beaked far eastern curlew is the world’s largest migratory shorebird. It is also one of the most well-travelled. This globe-trotting bird was listed as Critically Endangered in Australia in 2016, with its numbers in rapid decline since it was first listed as Least Concern in 2004.
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Life of quolls in the Pilbara
Tue, 04 Dec 2018A new video summarises the findings of a University of Queensland PhD project on northern quolls in the Pilbara. Once found all the way from Brisbane to the Pilbara, quolls are now listed nationally and internationally as Endangered, and are restricted to just a few isolated populations, mostly on rocky habitats.
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Australian threatened bird populations drop by half in 30 years on average
Tue, 27 Nov 2018On average, populations of Australia’s threatened birds have decreased by half since 1985, according to Australia’s new Threatened Bird Index.
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Crisis? What crisis? Our response to the Senate Inquiry into Australia's faunal extinction crisis
Tue, 27 Nov 2018Many researchers in, and stakeholders of, our Hub have long expressed concern about the loss of biodiversity in Australia. Recently, this concern has been recognised by politicians as a national problem, with the Australian Senate currently holding an Inquiry into ‘Australia’s faunal extinction crisis’.
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David Coates: A dedication to Australia's plantlife.
Sun, 11 Nov 2018Since my early childhood I have had a keen interest in wildlife. A fascination from my school years with aquatic life and maintaining aquariums is a passion held to the current day. As a child, I read numerous books on nature and wildlife and was fascinated by wildlife biologists and their conservation work.
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Plant translocation: New guidelines a game changer
Sun, 11 Nov 2018Translocation is a very important tool in the fight against plant extinctions. Knowing when to do translocations, how to do them and how to measure their success can be a complicated business, especially considering the huge range of threatened plants in Australia. So where do you find the answers? Luckily, they are now all in one place, in new guidelines that will be a game changer for plant translocation. Dr Lucy Commander lets us know what is on offer.
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Race against time for Endangered leek orchids
Sun, 11 Nov 2018The Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria is a world leader in endangered native orchid conservation, growing and reintroductions, and is giving new hope to species that seemed doomed to extinction. However, the outlook for our many threatened leek orchids (Prasophyllum) has not improved in recent years. With dozens of leek orchid species dwindling rapidly toward extinction, time is running out for PhD candidate Marc Freestone from the Australian National University and Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria to work out how to grow them. He takes up the story.
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Red listing our national icon, the gum trees
Sun, 11 Nov 2018People are often quite surprised to hear that relatively common plant species can be threatened and in trouble. But many species were once so widespread and abundant, that although they are still relatively easy to find, their numbers are only a tiny fraction of what they once were. So it is with many eucalypts. Although many of these icons of the bush have hugely declined, very few are listed as threatened and this prevents them getting the protection and conservation attention they need. Rod Fensham from the University of Queensland and the Queensland Herbarium is leading a new project to tackle this challenge.
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Getting strategic with havens
Thu, 08 Nov 2018In Biblical times, Noah made a plan to secure the Earth’s creatures during the almighty flood. He loaded seven pairs of the most valued land animals and birds, and one pair of everything else, onto his Ark. In Australia today, mammal conservationists also need to plan for floods – but not of water, rather of introduced predators. With a bit of systematic planning, havens could serve as modern-day arks for threatened species. Sarah Legge has a story to tell.
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Plants Red Hot List: No surprises, no regrets
Thu, 08 Nov 2018Threatened plants tend to receive less attention than threatened animals, even though they make up 72% of all threatened species listed under national law. To draw attention to our species in trouble, a TSR Hub project has identified the top 100 Australian plant species at greatest risk of extinction. We’ve also identified the 21 types or groups of plants under greatest threat. Jen Silcock from The University of Queensland talks about the findings.
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Bundles of quoll joy in Booderee
Mon, 24 Sep 2018Fifteen tiny quoll pouch-young have been born to three female eastern quolls from a pioneer group of 20 animals released into Booderee National Park. In a big win for the reintroduction project, these are the first eastern quolls known to be born in the wild on the Australian mainland for more than 50 years.
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Detecting and protecting the Kangaroo Island dunnart
Mon, 24 Sep 2018Mouse-sized carnivorous marsupial the Endangered Kangaroo Island dunnart has only rarely been seen in the past 20 years. TSR Hub researcher Rosemary Hohnen is on the job working with local partners to develop better monitoring methods for the elusive species, and to evaluate the impact of feral cats on its persistence. Here she gives us a taste of the action, and despite the tiny size of the mammal there is a lot of heavy lifting…
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Filling the breeding knowledge gap: Bioacoustic monitoring of Endangered black-cockatoos
Mon, 24 Sep 2018Monitoring the nests of endangered species of cockatoos has not always been practical using traditional methods. However, new bioacoustic methods are now being applied to the monitoring of two endangered sub-species of cockatoo in southern Australia, the south-eastern red-tailed black-cockatoo and the Kangaroo Island glossy black-cockatoo. Daniella Teixeira, PhD candidate at The University of Queensland, takes up the story.
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Researcher Profile: John Kanowski, A life in ecology
Mon, 24 Sep 2018Dr John Kanowski manages the Australian Wildlife Conservancy's science program. We asked him about his life and he had a colourful tale to tell, which started in a big family in country Queensland, included jungle fever and deportation in Malaysian Borneo and a lot of hard work.
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No surprises, no regrets: Identifying Australia's most imperilled animal species
Mon, 24 Sep 2018The gnawing question ‘what if we had known earlier...?’ is a recurring theme of frustration and failure in much conservation biology – as it is in human experience generally. When recognition of the imminence of a serious and irretrievable loss is belated, opportunities for better outcomes are fatally lost.
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The missing mammals of Booderee
Mon, 24 Sep 2018Fifteen years of comprehensive biodiversity monitoring in Booderee National Park has revealed a major ecological surprise: localised collapses of populations of many of the park’s mammal species over the period. At many long-term sites across the park, the number of native mammals almost halved between 2003 and 2016.
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Refuges offer hope for the spotted tree frog
Mon, 24 Sep 2018The spotted tree frog is facing twin threats from chytridiomycosis and predation on tadpoles by non-native fish. While the research team is seeking sites that are refuges from these threats for translocations, they are also celebrating partnering with the recreational fishing community for the protection of the spotted tree frog. Matt West from the University of Melbourne describes some of the challenges and achievements in conserving this threatened frog.
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Tiwi Island mammals: Saving the brush-tailed rabbit-rat
Tue, 11 Sep 2018The Tiwi Islands are one of the last regions in Australia with an intact mammal community, but they may be showing the first indications of decline. This is a major concern for Tiwi Islands Traditional Owners. Hub researcher Hugh Davies talks about the findings of recent surveys and new collaborative research.
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Protected areas alone won’t save all threatened species
Tue, 04 Sep 2018Protected areas alone are not enough to save Australia’s threatened species, according to research from the Threatened Species Recovery Hub. The research team, led by UQ PhD candidate Stephen Kearney, investigated major threats facing threatened species and considered how protected areas could alleviate such threats.
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Video: Results of a national review of threatened species monitoring in Australia
Sat, 01 Sep 2018Good monitoring helps us understand how threatened species are faring in Australia, where and when to act and if management investments are working. So how well are we monitoring threatened species? A short video looks at the results of a national review.
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Race to unlock secret to save endangered orchids
Wed, 22 Aug 2018Scientists from the Threatened Species Recovery Hub and Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria are in a race against time to save some of Australia’s most endangered native orchids.
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The unnoticed toll of cats on reptiles
Mon, 25 Jun 2018Most people know that cats kill many birds and mammals, but they also have impacts on less charismatic species. Australian cats are killing about 650 million reptiles per year, according to new research published in the journal Wildlife Research.
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From genes to saving species
Tue, 29 May 2018You have to be pretty lucky to make a living by combining your passion and interests, and that’s exactly how Dr Daniel White feels about his current state of affairs. Dan began his career studying genes, and has since applied his science to saving species. Here he describes how.
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Indigenous engagement vital to saving species
Tue, 29 May 2018The TSR Hub recognises that outcomes for threatened species will be improved by increasing Indigenous involvement in their management. In response to this, the Hub is guided by an Indigenous Reference Group and has a number of projects across Australia that are collaborating with Indigenous groups on threatened species research on their country.
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Myrtle rust is here
Tue, 29 May 2018A new contagious fungal plant disease has entered Australia, myrtle rust. It’s highly mobile, can reproduce rapidly and is infecting many species across a broad geographic range. Containment and eradication responses have so far been unsuccessful.
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Protecting our mountain giants
Tue, 29 May 2018Australia is losing large old hollow-bearing trees in our mountain ash forests due to logging, fires and climate change. A team at the Australian National University have been investigating the importance of these trees, the implications of their loss and things we can do to ensure we have enough mountain giants for the future.
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Recovering Australian threatened species - Reasons to be hopeful
Tue, 29 May 2018While media reports often focus on the doom and gloom of species sliding to extinction, it is important to also take note of where we are succeeding. Hub Deputy Director Professor Stephen Garnett talks about the importance of learning from conservation successes and celebrating how far we have come.
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Saving species at the development frontier - Strategic assessment, offsets and no-net-loss
Tue, 29 May 2018The development frontier is where decisions on new land developments are made. It’s a space where conflicts between biodiversity and multi-tenure land-use needs are constantly encountered. However, it’s also where ecological knowledge has some of its greatest potential to reduce biodiversity losses by guiding development to locations and practices with the least negative impact.
