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A true bird's eye view

A true bird's eye view

Aerial imagery of a Crested Tern colony at Ashmore Reef

Track changes

Interannual variation of Brown Booby foraging in the Browse Basin

Cutting edge technology

Cutting edge technology

Experimenting with low-impact aerial monitoring techniques

How clean are our oceans?

Assessing trawl samples for micro-plastic

Polly want a tracker?

The influences of tracking harnesses on behaviour

Fly fishing, Frigatebird style!

A Greater Frigatebird fitted with a GPS logger

One, two, three...

Documenting population change in seabirds

Marine vertebrates
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Marine vertebrates

Overcoming threats in an increasingly challenging marine environment

Threatening processes
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Threatening processes

Information about our work on threatened species will be available soon.

Avian pathogens
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Avian pathogens

Flyway networks: connecting pathogens to new hosts in far away lands

Using drones for seal monitoring returns better results and is less invasive!

A recent collaboration between the Research Ecology lab (School of Biological Sciences, Monash University) and Phillip Island Nature Parks has shown that using drones to monitor Australian fur seals returns more precise counts than traditional methods.

Researchers from Monash University and Phillip Island Nature Parks flew a drone over two of the world’s largest Australian fur seal colonies as part of the routine, five-year census. “Traditionally, this census requires an on-ground presence. For the 2018 census, we were able to have an on-ground presence, and simultaneously test the efficacy of drone technology to achieve the same outcome.” said lead author, and past honours student, Karina Sorrell.

After the census was completed, images taken from the drone were stitched together in a mosaic, and citizen scientists were asked to count the number of seals seen in each image. “Counts derived from these images provided more precise estimates of pup numbers than either traditional on-ground counts, and more invasive mark-recapture estimates” commented lab head, Dr. Rohan Clarke.

Not only do drones contribute to more robust monitoring programs, the same tools reduce disturbance because researchers don’t have to physically enter the colony” said Dr Rebecca McIntosh of Phillip Island Nature Parks. “Furthermore, the availability of a permanent archive of aerial images also provides important opportunities for engagement with citizen scientists though the Phillip Island Nature Parks portal SealSpotter”.

Australian fur seals are a top order predator and as such, they are important species in the ecosystem. As one of the only marine predators to breed on land, they are sentinels for large scale shifts. The findings of this study help to improve population monitoring for conservation purposes. 

 

For the full report, see: https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ecs2.2812

Photo by Karina Sorrell - @VSnaturephotography on Instagram

 

 

Available honours project!

An honours projects in avian conservation biology commencing in January 2020

 
Thermal scanning as a tool to monitor for the Endangered Plains-wanderer. Status: Open.
This project aims to develop and test survey methods for Plains-wanderers (and other endothermic vertebrates) in the grasslands of north-central Victoria. Specifically the intent is to compare the results of traditional spotlight surveys with novel methods employing vehicle mounted thermal scanners. 
 
We are looking for a student who is passionate about conservation management. Ideally they will have some experience with spotlighting. The project requires repeat field trips of 5 days/4 nights to north central Victoria over a 2 to 3 month period. Fieldwork is mostly conducted at night and can extend into the early hours of the morning. A drivers licence is a requirement for this project. 
 
The project will be supervised by Rohan Clarke rohan.clarke@monash.edu and involve collaborations with a number of partner organisations. 
 
 
 
 

NEWS

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RECENT PUBLICATIONS

  1. Baker, D.J., Garnett, S.T., O’Connor, J., Ehmke, G., Clarke, R.H., Woinarski, J.C.Z. & McGeoch, M.A. (2019) Conserving the abundance of nonthreatened species. Conservation Biology 33, 319-328

  2. Baker, D.J., Clarke, R.H. & McGeoch. M.A. (2019) The power to detect regional declines in common bird populations using continental monitoring data. Ecological Applications doi:10.1002/eap.1918

  3. Sorrell, K.J. Clarke, R.H., Holmberg, R. and McIntosh, R.R. Remotely piloted aircraft improve precision of capture-mark-resight population estimates. Ecosphere (accepted 5 June 2019)

Overview of recent publications

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