Can we increase wildlife recovery post-mining through targeted feral cat removal?

Murdoch University is seeking a highly motivated PhD candidate to join an exciting interdisciplinary research programme developing innovative solutions for feral cat management and conservation of Australia’s native biodiversity. This project suits a candidate who wants to make a positive contribution to conservation of threatened species across post-mining landscapes.
Disturbed areas, such as mine sites, are often attractive to feral cats, where access is easier and supplementary food (e.g., refuse, rodents) is often available. These areas may have an increased cat population that then spills out to the broader landscape. While camera monitoring has detected feral predators across mine landscapes in the Northern Jarrah Forest, most data have been collected as part of environmental impact assessments prior to mining or incidentally through other research projects.  Consequently, there is limited understanding of how feral cats and red foxes use areas under rehabilitation and how predator activity changes throughout the rehabilitation process. Addressing this knowledge gap is important for understanding predator dynamics during ecosystem recovery and informing future management strategies.
This PhD project will make use of long-term fauna datasets, involve camera trapping and live trapping across a chronosequence of mine-site areas under rehabilitation, and explore the effectiveness of feral cat removal and artificial refuges for protection of native species. The successful candidate will gain direct hands-on experience working with industry in an applied ecology field to improve conservation outcomes for Australian native species. Candidates with backgrounds in zoology, wildlife biology, or conservation sciences with a keen interest in applied experimental research and invasive predator control are particularly encouraged to apply.  

This project will investigate:

• How feral cat activity varies with rehabilitation age, vegetation structure, and prey availability?
• How feral cats use the mosaic of unmined forest and post-mining areas under rehabilitation?
• Whether targeted feral cat removal reduces feral cat activity and increases native fauna activity across post-mining areas under rehabilitation?
• Whether artificial refuges increase the activity of small native fauna and reduce predation risk?

Candidate Requirements:

• An Honours or Masters degree (or equivalent) in Ecology or other related discipline
• Interest in interdisciplinary research linking ecology and behaviour of native species and feral cats
• Strong field skills and scientific communication abilities

Desirable skills:

• Statistics and modelling
• Invasive species management
• Ecology, animal behaviour, or conservation science

Further information, contact Trish Fleming, Melissa Thomas, or Justine Barker.

Industry Partners: Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions (DBCA) and Alcoa Australia.

‘Kiwicat’ – a novel lure for feral cats

Murdoch University is seeking a highly motivated PhD candidate to join an exciting interdisciplinary research programme developing innovative solutions for feral cat management and conservation of Australia’s native biodiversity. This PhD project will investigate the development and field validation of ‘Kiwicat’, a novel plant-derived lure designed to attract invasive cats. The project combines skills in chemical analysis of natural products, formulation, animal behavioural science and field ecology and offers a unique opportunity to contribute to research with direct conservation outcomes.

Project Background. Feral cats are among the most significant threats to Australia’s native wildlife, and effective control methods are critical for the conservation of vulnerable species. Olfactory lures derived from specific plants have been shown to attract and stimulate strong behavioural responses in cats, presenting a promising approach for landscape-scale pest management.
In collaboration with New Zealand and Australian research partners, Murdoch University is developing and validating a lure derived from the silvervine, or orange kiwi plant (Actinidia polygama). Preliminary studies have demonstrated successful cat interactions with the lure material in both pen trials and pilot field studies.  We now seek to formulate and validate this lure in a deployable device known as the EzyLure®.
The EzyLure® is an automated “set-and-forget” device that dispenses volatile lure formulations over extended periods. This project will seek to validate liquid versions of the lures in the northern jarrah forests of WA, investigating performance and chemical stability of formulations to optimise this approach.

Candidate Requirements:

• An Honours or Masters degree (or equivalent) in Chemistry or other related discipline
• Interest in interdisciplinary research linking chemistry and biology
• Strong laboratory skills and scientific communication abilities
• Experience in analytical chemistry, organic chemistry, or natural-products chemistry

Desirable skills:

• Chromatography and mass spectrometry
• Structural elucidation of organic compounds
• Formulation chemistry
• Ecology, botany, animal behaviour, or conservation science

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Further information, contact Todd Gillam, Trish Fleming or Melissa Thomas.

Industry Partners: Bioscience Institute (New Zealand), the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions (DBCA), Critter Solutions Ltd (New Zealand) and Alcoa Australia.

Can we return fauna to revegetation sites with the addition of refuges?

Coarse woody debris (CWD) is a critical functional and structural component of forest and woodland ecosystems, providing habitat for many species. Loss of CWD in these landscapes can lead to a decline in species diversity and abundance, therefore is an important consideration in forest and woodland restoration. Parts of Chingarrup Sanctuary in southwest Western Australia were revegetated 20 years ago. About 5 years after planting, piles of large mallee roots were added to the landscape as potential fauna habitat and seed accumulation sites. This project will investigate small vertebrate activity around ~50 of these coarse woody debris piles to determine their value for return of fauna to revegetated landscapes. You will use cameras to identify fauna species present and compare their activity with landscape features.
The project suits a mid-year start (July). Further information, contact Trish Fleming or Tenaya Duncan.

Windfarms and wildlife: what data do we need?

Wind energy is a significant component of Australia’s commitment to renewable energy. While this transition is vital to reduce the cumulative impacts of infrastructure and climate change on ecosystems, there remain significant knowledge gaps around the likely impacts of this transition to green energy on Australian wildlife. Assessment of potential impacts on birds and bats due to wind turbine collision is undertaken as part of the assessment of the Matter of National Environmental Significance (MNES) under Commonwealth legislation (EPBC Act) and the different states legislations (EP Act for WA etc) during their environmental impact assessment (EIA) for proposed wind farms. Such data can be validated against post-construction mortality monitoring at operating wind farms. The proposed PhD projects aim to address some of the knowledge gaps around these processes.  

• Can wind turbine impacts be detected using landscape-level bioacoustic monitoring methods? Audio recording analysis has huge potential for understanding biodiversity across large landscapes. Using a before-after control-impact experimental design, this project will examine the use of passive acoustic recording to assess the changes in biodiversity associated with construction of wind turbines.
• What’s the best way to detect and assess potential impacts on bats? Acoustic recording is an important method used for the detection and understanding of bat activity.  However, previous data has shown that pre-construction assessments of bat species presence and activity are not correlated with collision impacts post-construction revealed through mortalities. This suggests that our methods of auditory assessment have limitations that are not being addressed adequately through EIA assessments. This project will examine detectability of different bat species using various survey methods, to inform collision risk modelling.
• Does increasing light infrastructure impact ecosystem function? In birds, artificial light at night (ALAN) has been linked to activity changes such as delayed sleep onset, increased nocturnal awakenings, vigilance, and night vocalisation with direct fitness costs.  Light, as an attractant, also has the potential to impact food webs, luring both prey and predator species to newly lit locations. This project will use a range of methods to address the before and after impacts of ALAN on wildlife at landscape scales to inform adaptive management practices.

These PhD projects are open to domestic students interested in wildlife and conservation sciences. Applicants must be full time and meet the admission requirements of the required HDR degree to be eligible (first or upper second-class Honours degree, Masters degree by research, or equivalent). Please contact us early to discuss your application Trish Fleming

Snap-Cat! monitoring feral cats around quokka habitat

Feral cats can be difficult to monitor and control due to neophobia and trap avoidance behaviour, resulting in low detection rates and variable success of control measures. We will test a novel, long-life (up to 1 year) lure system to increase camera trap success and reduce neophobic behaviour of cats. Using this lure, we will develop a monitoring system to record feral cat activity, comparing between three camera types and identifying individual cats from distinctive markings. Please contact Trish Fleming, Melissa Thomas.

Long-life lures for pest detection and monitoring

Lures are used to attract animals for surveillance or monitoring purposes. Historically, these lures are food-based and short-lived (2 weeks). Developments in remote communications now means that traps are becoming more autonomous and can be left out for longer periods of time with little to no maintenance required. One of the current shortfalls relating to these autonomous traps is the continuous need to replace the trap lure. Such a lure would significantly decrease operational costs associated with refreshing lures and increase the effectiveness of the control/monitoring operations by ensuring that the lures are always optimally attractive to target animals. This project will trial New Zealand-developed long-life block lures to assess the effectiveness and longevity of the lures in attracting invasive rodents in Australia.  Further information, contact Melissa Thomas.

Do livestock guardian dogs pose a risk for wildlife? 

Livestock guardian animals are increasingly important for the protection of livestock against predators. In Australian rangelands, Maremma sheepdogs guard sheep against predation by dingoes, therefore playing an important role in ensuring the livelihoods of livestock producers, reducing the need for lethal dingo control to protect livestock. However Maremmas could also pose a threat to wildlife in their own right.  While the sheepdogs are regularly fed, they could also predate on wildlife, as has been demonstrated in South Africa (Drouilly et al 2020; Smith et al. 2020). This study will investigate the diet of free-ranging Maremmas on pastoral properties in the Southern Rangelands of Western Australia. The project will involve both field work for collection of samples, and laboratory analyses of diet.
Further information, contact Trish Fleming.

Evolutionary Anatomy and Behaviour in Black Cockatoos

Three species of Black cockatoos are found in South West Western Australia. The endangered Carnaby’s cockatoo and Baudin’s cockatoo, and the vulnerable forest red-tailed black cockatoo. The three species overlap in their geographic ranges to some extent, and utilise parts of the Perth metropolitan area at various times of the year for both foraging and roosting. The selection of food items and biomechanics of feeding are known (to some extent) to be different between species, and various other differences between species behaviour has been noted. However, detailed comparative anatomy is lacking. This project will undertake a detailed study of the link between form and function in this iconic group of birds, using detailed dissection, modern geometric morphometric methods and behavioural analysis.
Further information, contact Natalie Warburton.