What did your neighbourhood look like 10, 50, or 100 years ago? If you live on the edge of an expanding city or town, like many people do, it’s likely that there was a lot more natural forest, grassland, scrub and bush around then than there is today. What happened to the residents who were therethen? Can you restore your local area or back yard? Here are some tips.
Posts under ‘Human Impacts’
Are societies still dependent on the stability and resilience of nature?
People often say we have evolved beyond nature but it is our very progress and growth which has bound us closer to its fate.
Richmond Birdwing butterfly: knowledge of ecology aides recovery
The Richmond Birdwing butterfly (Ornithoptera richmondia) is one of Australia’s biggest and most spectacular butterflies. Just 100 years ago, these butterflies were abundant throughout greater Brisbane. Today they are gone. Not entirely extinct, but no longer in Brisbane. The reason is more than just building a city. It’s a story of habitat loss, isolation and invasive species.
We can give them the chance to return and we’ll explain how here.
Turtles! You are what your mum eats! POP’s passed from mother to egg to turtle
We all know marine turtles lay eggs and don’t provide any parental care for their turtle hatchlings. The mothers do leave some food for the hatchlings though, as yolk in the eggs. But how healthy is this yolk?
Mammals suckle their young and when they do, they can pass environmental pollutants from their bodies to their offspring’s. But are toxins that maternal turtles accumulate when feeding, passed on to their turtle hatchlings within the eggs? And if so, does it affect the turtle hatchlings’ chances of survival?
Meat ants, cat food and Bufo marinus: slowing down the cane toad!
When animals invade new places they either sink, swim, or just get along. Unfortunately, when an invader does well in its new land, it can have devastating consequences for the native animals and plants. Suddenly there is a new competitor or predator in the midst and the natives don’t have the skills, spines or teeth to compete or defend themselves. Evolution works over many generations and there’s rarely time to adapt. But people can help.
Understanding how animals interact may help us tip the ‘balance’ in favour of native Australian animals. Here’s one example from the ongoing battle against the invasive cane toad (Bufo marinus – a native of South America). Can meat ants and cat food slow them down?
Ecological islands on land: a first for New Zealand?
This article describes Maungatautari, a volcano that’s become a native animal refuge in a sea of dairy pasture. New Zealanders have been first at many things. They may also be the first to create ‘islands on land’. That is, ‘ecological islands’ on land, anyway.
Nest boxes make new homes for sugar gliders
Australia is well known for it’s marsupials and many of them live in the trees. It can get windy, wet and cold living in a tree so a little hollow inside a tree makes a perfect den. Over 300 species of Australian vertebrates use tree hollows as a home for shelter, sleeping, nesting, and escaping predators! But where can they live in a new forest with few old trees?
Why frogs love puddles! The ephemeral breeders.
The summer afternoon storms of subtropical Queensland are an awe inspiring sight and sound of nature. If you’re lucky enough to have some trees and ponds around your house, the wet balmy night will be filled with the crawk – crawk – crawk of male Green Tree Frogs (Litoria caerulea) seducing prospective partners. But not all frogs are so lucky!
New Zealand’s rarest parakeet settles into its ecological island
Ecological islands can help bring species back from the brink of extinction. New Zealand’s Department of Conservation created pest free island refuges for some of New Zealand’s most endangered fauna, including Malherbe’s parakeet (Cyanoramphus malherbi) read on to find out how its going.
Small forage fish: food for fish, pets or people?
A significant quantity of all fish caught are used for ‘non-human-food’ purposes. What are these ‘non-human-food’ purposes?
Fish are used for two main purposes that do not relate to human food.
