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Wildlife Conservation
We share our
country
with a wonderful array of other species.Let's hope we continue to enjoy
this diversity well into the future.
Many
species are far less common
than they once were, and some are declining alarmingly. Conservation
groups throughout Australia are attempting to tackle
some
of
the many issues
Conservation problems
facing Australian wildlife include:
- habitat
loss - causing loss of species unable
to live in any other kind of habitat (the single
biggest threat to
wildlife both locally and globally)
- habitat
fragmentation - a fair bit of habitat remaining, but fragmented, making
it difficult for animals to move
from one patch to another,
and
creating
edge problems (e.g. some forest edges are occupied by
aggressive species such as noisy miners, making it difficult for some
of the true forest species)
- habitat
alteration - loss of understorey shrubs, logs, food plants, old trees
with
hollows etc.
- feral
animals - competitors, predators and - in the case of the cane toad -
poisoners
- barriers
to movement - see 'Animals
Have
to
Move' on the Scenic Rim Wildlife pages
- hunting
(not as great a problem here as in some countries, but there is some
illegal hunting and also a black market trade) - see articles
on wildlife
trade, shooting
in
national
parks
- roadkill -
not a global threat to most species, but could cause local
extinction in some regions, and is a constant welfare problem
- disruptive
human activities - for instance unsustainable tourism and recreational
activities,
as well as industrial practices in important areas of habitat,
including anything noisy near nesting, feeding or resting sites. See Wildlife Tourism Australia
and our ecotourism and tourism and conservation pages
for some discussions on responsible wildlife tourism
- climate
change - e.g. for a world view
see the WWF climate change site
or this Australian
government site, and warnings on
effects on Australian wildlife by CANA's. Also daily monitoring by
CSIRO
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brush-tailed
rock-wallaby (vulnerable, used to be common and far more widespread,
now confined to rocky uplands due to habitat clearing and introduced
predators)
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Local
conservation
groups
(Scenic Rim):
Elsewhere
in
Queensland:
Elsewhere
in
Australia:
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Climate Change
Some
notes
on
climate change
A
new site by CSIRO let's us see the daily monitoring of
greenhouse gases
This
was
my
concluding remark in a presentation by Ronda Green at the Green Travel, Climate
Change and Ecotourism in 2008, and following are references she
used in preparing the talk:
"When
we
were
children, we thought the North Pole would always be covered in ice and
the world would always have wild polar bears. It is uncomfortable to
realize this is not necessarily so. It is frightening to think of the
other, very great changes that may be happening within our lifetimes.
But that is what we must do – think about them, and the many
complexities involved, if we are to find any solutions within the very
little time we have available."
References I found
useful in researching for
this presentation:
- Beaumont, L.J., I.A.W. McAllan, and I. Hughes. 2006.
A
matter of
timing: changes in the first date of arrival and last date of departure
of Australian migratory birds. Global Change Biology 12: 1339-135
- Burton, C. T. and Weather, W. W.2003. Energetics and
thermoregulation of the Gouldian Finch (Erythrura gouldiae). Emu 103(1) 1 -
10
- Green K. and Pickering C. M. (2002) A scenario for
mammal
and
bird diversity in the Australian Snowy Mountains in relation to climate
change. pp241-249 in: C. Koerner and E.M. Spehn (eds) Mountain
Biodiversity: a Global Assessment. Parthenon Publishing, London
- Green, R.J. 1993 Avian seed dispersal in and near
subtropical
rainforests. Wildlife Research 20: 535-557
- Hoegh-Guldberg, O. 1999. Climate change, coral
bleaching
and the
future of the world's coral reefs. Marine and Freshwater Research 50:
839 – 86
- Hoegh-Guldberg, O. 2005. Low coral cover in a
high-CO2
world.
Journal of Geophysical Research, Volume 110
- Hughes L (2000) Biological consequences of global
warming:
is the
signal already apparent? Trends in Ecology and Evolution, 15, 56–61
- Sands, D. 2008. Conserving the Richmond Birdwing
Butterfly
over
two decades: Where to next? Ecological Management & Restoration 9:
4 – 16
- Welbergen, J. A., Klose, S. M., Markus, N. and Eby,
P.
2007.
Climate change and the effects of temperature extremes on Australian
flying-foxes. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Series
B:10.1098/rspb.2007.1385
- Williams S. E. , Bolitho E. E., and Fox S. 2003.
Climate
change
in Australian tropical rainforests: an impending environmental
catastrophe. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Series
B-Biological Sciences 270 (1527): 1887-1892
- WWF Threatened species network. Australian threatened
species:
green turtle Chelonia mydas.www.wwf.org.au/ts
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Wildlife Preservation Society of Queensland:
main branch
From the website of
the Wildlife Preservation
Society of Queensland:
"The
Wildlife
Preservation Society of Queensland is the oldest, largest
and most respected wildlife-focused conservation group in Queensland.
We’ve been
part
of all the major conservation issues in Queensland for
almost 50 years"
The
Society was
created as a community-based, non-profit organisation,
founded in 1962 by well-known Australian poet Judith Wright, publisher
Brian Clouston, zoologist David Fleay and
artist/author Kathleen MacArthur.
Their news page keeps us up-to-date with much of what is happening to wildlife in Queensland and
beyond
Wildlife Preservation Society of Queensland: Scenic Rim group
 The Scenic
Rim group of WPSQ is so far
an informal group, planning to become a fully-fledged branch some time
in 2010, covering the species-rich region of Southeast Queensland
starting from abut 50km south of Brisbane, from (and including)
Lamington National Park and Tamborine Mountain in the east to the Main
Range in the west, its southern boundary running along the
Queensland/NSW border.
A Wildlife Expo is to be held on Sunday 18th July, in Beaudesert,
southeast Queensland, in conjunction with the Logan
and Albert Conservation Association
There are further links to other conservation associations from the Scenic
Rim group of WPSQ website
Also visit the Scenic
Rim Wildlife's Facebook page
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