Arthur Rylah Institute for Environmental Research

Dingoes (Canis familiaris) are an iconic Australian species and the top land predator. Much interest exists in their radiation process and evolutionary history in Australia. Recent research indicated that two evolutionarily independent units exist and that detected effective population size changes are due to the active control of this species. However, these conclusions have been critiqued because they were not explicitly tested or because the model assumptions may not be met in dingoes. We set out to statistically test these hypotheses by comparing alternative migration models and carrying out demographic analyses. We conclude that there is strong statistical support for the existence of the two evolutionary units. However, the analysis carried out to estimate the time of the effective population size changes does not have the required power to conclusively demonstrate whether the current management is having an impact on dingo populations. Future studies and different approaches will be needed to test this hypothesis.

Recent catastrophic climate events in Australia that have impacted millions of animals across a range of landscapes have initiated a need for planned and coordinated rescue responses. The platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus) is one of Australia’s most iconic and biologically significant species. At a workshop held at Healesville Sanctuary, Victoria, Australia in 2023, species experts discussed the greatest threats, scenarios where intervention may be required and the types of intervention options that may be suitable for platypuses. We consider drought to be the most concerning event for the species, along with the impact of cumulative events on their habitat over time. Here, we discuss how intervention criteria should consider the degree of habitat impact, the recovery time frame, the genetic importance and local extinction risk of a population, risks to animal welfare, and the capacity requirements and feasibility of resourcing any action. Suitable interventions are weighed against potential risks and include the rescue and rehabilitation of displaced individuals, in situ habitat support, and translocation to either temporary ex situ care or inter or intra catchment. Further research is required to address how the platypus responds during and after different climate events, to different interventions and to determine which populations are most at risk. The outcomes discussed here and the framework provided should aid in management response decision making after natural disasters that may impact platypus populations.

Culture, as the filter through which people view the world and a key determinant of human behaviour, is central to the practice of natural resource management and conservation. Conservation is intended to moderate the impacts of human cultural modification of the environment, exists as an endeavour because it is culturally valued, and acts largely through policies to encourage or discourage targeted human behaviours. However, culture is not static; as organisms and ecologies evolve, so too does culture exist as a dynamic, interconnected, coevolving element of the social-ecological systems in which management action is situated and implemented. Cultural evolution (CE) offers a valuable theoretical contribution to the scientific understanding of culture, cultural diversity and culture change and has the potential to be harnessed in the applied research and practice of conservation social science. We illustrate the essential principles necessary to grow an applied science of CE for natural resource management and conservation, and identify opportunities for CE to provide valuable information for science-based decision making and help conservation institutions and organizations adapt to the ongoing challenges posed by culture change. This transdisciplinary integration can contribute to improved outcomes across conservation objectives and build more resilient, sustainable social-ecological systems. This article is part of the theme issue 'Transforming cultural evolution research and its application to global futures'.

Whether animals are self-aware has important implications for our approaches to both animal cognition and animal welfare. A landmark moment in animal cognition research was when great apes passed the mark-test and demonstrated mirror self-recognition (MSR). Animals that pass the mark-test are capable of visually self-recognising and considered to be self-aware. Other taxa, including a fish, the cleaner wrasse (cleaner fish: Labroides dimidiatus) have also now passed the mark-test, forcing a rethink of the mental and neurological requirements for MSR. Previous research has largely focused on which species can pass the mark-test, rather than the processes underlying MSR. Here, we marked mirror-naïve cleaner fish with an ecologically relevant mark resembling an ectoparasite and then undertook detailed behavioural observations after exposure to a mirror. We found that cleaner fish achieve MSR rapidly, implying self-awareness prior to mirror exposure. By observing the exact timing of MSR in individuals, we could also report previously undocumented differences in pre- and post-MSR behaviours, including post-MSR exploratory behaviour of the mirror’s reflective properties. We find remarkable parallels between the processing of MSR in humans and cleaner fish, suggesting that some aspects of self-awareness are conserved across animal taxa.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1038/s41598-025-25837-0.

Serrated tussock (Nassella trichotoma) is an invasive weed species in Australia, impacting both agricultural production and native biodiversity. Rapidly evolving advancements in remote sensing and spatial analytics have expanded tools available to land managers for weed detection and monitoring. This paper explores the extent to which plant phenology can be used to improve the classification of serrated tussock cover from satellite multi-spectral imagery. Using a random forests approach and multi-seasonal Sentinel-2 imagery, serrated tussock cover was classified with an overall accuracy of 64.2%, and cover class F1-scores ranging between 0.49 and 0.74. Results showed that using imagery from all four seasons (autumn, winter, spring and summer) improved the overall classification accuracy by 7.0-11.3 percentage points when compared to analyses that considered imagery only from a single season. This study demonstrates the usefulness of factoring plant phenology into these types of approaches.

Abstract Artificial light at night poses a global threat to biodiversity and is increasing at a rate greater than any other pollutant. We conducted a field experiment to investigate the effects of short‐term nighttime illumination on nocturnal flying insects and insectivorous bats in previously unlit remnant bushland. We compared these organisms' responses to three types of light‐emitting diode (LED) lights, each with a unique spectral composition (cool white [CW], λP 457 nm; filtered white [FW], λP 586 nm; and amber [A], λP 601 nm), as well as a control (C) group without illumination. Our findings revealed that both CW and FW LEDs significantly increased the total activity of flying insects, particularly the orders Diptera, Coleoptera, and Hymenoptera. By contrast, total bat activity was independent of light treatment, but there was a marginally non‐significant effect on bats presumed to be light sensitive. Amber lights appear to mitigate the disruptive effects of light on at least one light sensitive bat species. Intriguingly, despite a positive association in one bat species with insect abundance, there was no corresponding increase in feeding activity around illuminated sites in this or any other species. These observations suggest that bats may not solely exploit the attraction of insects to LED lights as a feeding resource and that those species that persist in these environments are perhaps more light tolerant than light exploitive. Overall, our study highlights potentially complex responses of Australian insectivorous bats and flying insects to short‐term LED lighting and contributes further insights into the ecological consequences of nighttime lighting.

Context Obligate-seeding woody plants with long reproductive maturity periods and no soil seed banks are threatened with decline as climate change drives more frequent and severe fires, such as the extensive 2019–2020 wildfires in south-eastern Australia. Aims This study aimed to investigate the effects of fire intervals and severity on the persistence of one such species, Banksia cunninghamii (Hairpin Banksia), in temperate forests. Methods We measured post-fire seedling recruitment of B. cunninghamii at 25 sites in Victoria, burned at various severities in the 2019–2020 wildfires and with differing prior fire intervals. A Bayesian framework was used to model the relationship between seedling numbers, fire severity and fire interval. A spatial analysis compared a species distribution model for B. cunninghamii with fire severity and fire intervals. Key results There was a low chance of B. cunninghamii recruitment (<25%) at sites that either had burned eucalypt canopies or a preceding fire interval of less than 12 years. Sixty-seven percent of its distribution in the south-east of the state of Victoria was mapped as burned at high severity (burned eucalypt canopies) between 1998 and 2020, or burned at shorter than 12 year intervals between 1960 and 2020, although some B. cunninghamii populations will have persisted due to the patchiness of past burns. Conclusions Banksia cunninghamii is vulnerable to local extinctions in the wildfire-affected areas if fires occur again before plants reach maturity, or if high fire severity destroys seeds. Implications More frequent and severe wildfires mean that burn planning needs to consider the reproductive cycles of serotinous obligate-seeding plants.

Abstract The threatened South‐eastern Long‐eared Bat (Nyctophilus corbeni, EPBC Act 1999 Vulnerable) is an insectivorous microbat that is dependent on tree hollows for roosting. Although it is sparsely distributed throughout the Murray‐Darling Basin, its contemporary Victorian distribution was believed to be limited to a small population in semi‐arid mallee habitats in the state's North‐West. That was until a lactating female was captured in the floodplain forest in Gunbower National Park, along the Murray River in north‐central Victoria, in late 2021. In light of this new record, in an ecological setting not typically occupied by the species, we sought to (a) confirm the presence of an established population of N. corbeni at Gunbower; and (b) if present, characterize the day roosts being used. Over eight nights (73 trapnights), we captured 172 microbats, including five N. corbeni. Traps set with acoustic lures (the Autobat MK2, or a generic bat chirper) appeared to capture more bats per trapnight than those set without lures. Four individual N. corbeni were successfully radiotracked to their roosts, which were a mix of small‐diameter (19.5–36 cm DBH), typically multi‐stemmed, live, dying and dead Black Box (Eucalyptus largiflorens) and Grey Box (Eucalyptus microcarpa) trees. While day roosts do not appear to be limiting for this species in this location, further research is needed to understand what trees are being used as maternity roosts (which may be more specialized), how far up‐ and down‐stream along the Murray River this new population extends, and whether it is geographically and/or genetically connected to populations in the Victorian mallee or in New South Wales.

As one of the world’s most regulated river basins, the semi-arid Murray–Darling Basin (MDB) in south-eastern Australia is considered at high ecological risk, with substantial declines in native fish populations already identified and climate change threats looming. This places great importance on the collection and use of data to document population trends over large spatial extents, inform management decisions, and provide baselines from which change can be measured. We used two medium-term data sets (10 MDB basin-wide fish surveys from 2004–2022) covering the 23 catchments and 68 sub-catchments of the MDB to investigate trends in the distribution of common riverine species at the entire basin scale. Fifteen native species were analysed for changes in their contemporary range, and whilst short-term changes were identified, all species showed no significant continuous trend over the study period. We further analysed the native species extent relative to their historic records, with bony herring and golden perch occurring in 78% and 68% of their historic river kilometres, respectively, whereas southern pygmy perch, northern river blackfish, silver perch, mountain galaxias, and freshwater catfish were all estimated to occur in less than 10% of their historic extent. Six established non-native species were also analysed and were very consistent in extent over the years, suggesting that they are near the available limits of expansion of their invasion. We provide effect sizes for the spatial extent index which can be used as baselines for future studies, especially those aiming to monitor changes in the spatial extent and population status of native species, or changes in the spatial extent of new or existing non-native species.