The Ecological Society of Australia is pleased to announce that a project quantifying anti-predator responses in critically endangered woylies has won the 2023 Ecological Impact Award. The project is a collaboration between the University of Western Australia, the University of Melbourne and the Western Australian Department of Biodiversity, Conservation, and Attractions.

The woylie is a small, critically endangered macropod once found across much of Australia’s southern and semi-arid zones. Introduced predators such as cats and foxes have driven the woylie close to extinction in these regions. 

Survival of the species is now supported by containment within havens, areas from which predators are excluded. Indeed, there are now more than 100 island and fenced havens across Australia that provide viable habitats for close to 200 populations of threatened mammals.

However, new evidence suggests that in the absence of predators, havened populations are rapidly losing the ability to detect and respond appropriately to predators. The loss of these critical traits could jeopardise conservation efforts if havened populations are unsuited for re-introduction into areas where predators persist.

A novel collaborative project aims to quantify the extent and distribution of anti-predator response losses in woylies.

“We have developed a suite of assays which can be used to compare levels of anti-predator responses present in related populations that occur inside and outside of predator-free havens,” said project lead Natasha Harrison, a PhD candidate with the University of Western Australia.

“With this comparison we can begin to investigate the potential drivers of the loss of responses, such as time since havening, resource competition, and population density – factors that can potentially be manipulated by conservation managers to preserve anti-predator traits in newly havened populations.”

“We also intend to conduct an experimental release of both havened and non-havened woylies to vacant bush containing low densities of introduced predators. This will allow us to compare the survival of havened and non-havened woylies when exposed to introduced predators, and to monitor their behaviour to investigate the development of anti-predator responses over time.”

The project hopes that an improved understanding of how quickly anti-predator behaviours may be lost and gained, and at what predator densities havened populations can persist, will benefit strategic conservation planning across Australia’s vast network of havens.

“The outcomes can provide evidence upon which to develop accurate and effective conservation management strategies, ultimately ensuring the benefit of havens, working toward the persistence of havened populations outside the fence and restoring populations to full functionality,” said Natasha. 

“The Ecological Impact Award will greatly benefit our project by providing a platform from which to share our findings with the scientific community. Our work can have important implications for the conservation management of Australian mammals and we are looking forward to discussing this at ESA 2023 in Darwin later this year.”

Join Natasha and Peter Lacey (Fauna Conservation Officer with the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation, and Attractions, Wheatbelt Region) as they present a plenary on their work at this years ESA conference – ESA 2023. 

Highly Commended was awarded to native bee scientist and ecological consultant Dr Kit Prendergast and Alex Divine of the City of Bayswater for their project ‘Protecting native bees in the burbs in the City of Bayswater’s remnant bushland’.

Congratulations to you all!

Photo credit – Aidan Holmes