Feral cats double the size of domestic tabbies. Cane toads with longer legs. And dingoes with flexible joints. ‘Selection pressure’ is at work on introduced animals.
Biological control strategies curb pests using other species that attack the invader. A biologist explains why it can take more than a decade to develop an effective biological control program.
There are exciting synergies between western science and indigenous knowledge. Surprisingly, the success of our Australian predator conservation research was due entirely to its multicultural nature.
New genetic knowledge about cane toads could give us the knowledge we need to throw some more roadblocks in front of this persistent invader as it marches across Australia.
New cane toad traps that carefully imitate mating males successfully target breeding females. Males, meanwhile, will turn up for anything that sounds remotely like a toad.
In a global first, hundreds of solar-powered microphones will be placed across Australia, listening out for invasive species, rare animals and the effects of climate change.
It sounds weird, but releasing small cane toads ahead of the main invasion front can help predators learn to avoid the biggest, most toxic ones. Here’s exactly how it works.
University of Sydney conservation scientist Rick Shine has won a top science honour, for work that uses evolutionary theory to try and keep cane toads from killing Australia’s native wildlife.
Cane toads, introduced in 1935 to control cane beetles, have now spread across a huge swathe of Australia, from the Kimberley in northern Western Australia to northern New South Wales. They’re still spreading…
Australia’s “ferals” — invasive alien plants, pests and diseases — are the largest bioeconomic threats to Australian agriculture. They also harm our natural ecosystems and biodiversity. Some, such as mosquitoes…
When cane toads were released in Australia in 1935, they were the latest innovation in pest control, backed by a level of consensus support that a scientist could only dream of. So what went wrong? Research…
Matthew Flinders Professor of Global Ecology and Models Theme Leader for the ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage, Flinders University