"They Know Not What They Do" — on William Rodier and his Mission to Exterminate Rabbits and other Vertebrate Pests

2002 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 431 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. C. Noble ◽  
G. H. Pfitzner

William Rodier (1859–1936) became well known throughout much of southeastern Australia during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, mainly through the vigour with which he expressed his contentious views on how best to control certain vertebrate pests. Much of his 'plan', particularly in regard to rabbits, was based on his experience as a pastoralist in western New South Wales. In this article, we examine what is known about Rodier's family background, his occupations, preoccupations, and particularly, the effectiveness of his endeavours to convince a largely sceptical public as to the wisdom and practicality of his method for vertebrate pest control. Some of the circulars and flyers printed by Rodier are also reproduced for illustrative purposes. These were designed to demonstrate the effectiveness of the Rodier Method, especially for controlling the rabbit, perceived by him to be the most serious threat then facing landholders in Australia. Rodier's activities are appraised in light of the relationship then existing between community-based science and more orthodox, academically-based science in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Finally, this relationship is further explored in an historical context by examining the importance attached to local, informal knowledge in contemporary ecological research where landholder collaboration is now often regarded as an integral component.


2017 ◽  
Vol 25 (5) ◽  
pp. 456-459
Author(s):  
Kevin Rourke ◽  
Coralie J Wilson

Objectives: To determine if adolescents perceive community-based exercise as beneficial to their well-being and in what ways. Methods: A New South Wales Police Citizens Youth Club ran a four-week fitness course. The classes involved: 1) sports including basketball and soccer, 2) non-contact boxing drills, and 3) games, both team games such as dodgeball and non-team games such as line tag. Parental consent to offer a survey at the completion of the course was requested during registration. The survey was the Warwick Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale; it was minimally modified to measure perceived benefit to mental well-being instead of actual benefit. Results: Thirty-one high school adolescents, ages 13–18, completed the survey. As a group, participants reported that they believed their well-being had improved after the course. The mean score for each survey item showed an improvement in every area of mental well-being for this sample of adolescents. Thirty-two per cent of adolescents reported having less energy. Survey scores indicated a statistically significant improvement in perceived well-being ( p<0.0001). Conclusions: The results of this study suggest that four weeks of community-based exercise improves perceived mental well-being in adolescent participants.



1998 ◽  
Vol 38 (6) ◽  
pp. 567 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. C. Anderson ◽  
R. D. B. Lefroy ◽  
G. J. Blair

Summary. A glasshouse experiment was conducted to study the correlation between various soil sulfur (S) extractants and pasture response to applied S grown under controlled environmental conditions (glasshouse) as influenced by variations in levels of extractable S. Intact paired soil cores were collected at 2-month intervals from an S x P factorial experiment at 4 field sites on the Northern Tablelands of New South Wales on 11 occasions. Soil samples were collected from each core and the cores placed in the glasshouse. Sulfur was applied to one core of each pair and basal nutrients applied to all cores which were then oversown with white clover (Trifolium repens L. cv. Haifa). The extractable S in the soil was analysed using the following techniques: 0.1 mol Ca(H2PO4)2/L (MCPt); 0.1 mol Ca(H2PO4)2/L, treated with activated charcoal (MCPi); water (H2O); 0.25 mol KCl/L, heated at 40°C for 3 h (KCl-40); 0.25 mol KCl/L, heated at 100°C for 4 h (KCl-100); 0.5 mol NaHCO3/L (NaHCO3); and an acid digestion of the soil (total). Dry matter yield and S content of the pasture shoots were measured for each 2-month growth period. The relationship between the various soil S extraction techniques and the response of pasture to applied S varied over time and was influenced by the level of inorganic S present in the soil and the amount of organic S extracted. When the level of MCPi-extractable S ranged between 2 and 22 µg S/g soil due to the application of fertiliser (summer 1987–88 and autumn 1988), or after a period of high mineralisation rates (spring 1988), the MCPi, MCPt, H2O and KCl-40 techniques had the highest correlation with the increase in S content of the pasture when S was applied. The higher correlation for the MCPt, H2O and KCl-40 techniques than the MCPi technique indicates that plants obtained some S from the organic S pool. In contrast, when the levels of MCPi-extractable S ranged between 2 and 10 µg S/g soil and the rate of mineralisation increased in response to an increase in soil temperature (June 1988 and June 1989) or moisture (September 1989) upon transfer of samples from the field to the glasshouse, the MCPt, H2O and KCl-40 techniques underestimated the available S pool and had lower r2 values than either the KCl-100 or NaHCO3 techniques.



2020 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 161-180
Author(s):  
Nataša Vampelj Suhadolnik

Abstract This article addresses the practices of collecting Chinese objects that were brought to the territory of present-day Slovenia by sailors, missionaries, travellers, and others who travelled to China in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. At the time, this territory was a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire; we will, therefore, begin with the brief historical context of the Empire and its contact with China, followed by a discussion on the nature of collecting Chinese objects in Slovenian territories at that time. We will further examine the status of the individuals who travelled to China and the nature and extent of the objects they brought back. The article will also highlight the specific position of the Slovenian territory within the history of Euro-Asian cultural connections, and address the relevant issues—locally and globally—of the relationship between the centres and peripheries with regard to collecting practices.





Zootaxa ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 5024 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-63
Author(s):  
JORGE RODRÍGUEZ ◽  
PAT A. HUTCHINGS ◽  
JANE E. WILLIAMSON

Flatworms of the Order Polycladida are a group of free-living invertebrates found in a diversity of marine habitats, with over 800 species described worldwide. Marine flatworms are a conspicuous component of Australia’s marine fauna yet have received little attention. Less than 30 scientific articles have been published on Australian marine flatworms since 1855, of which only nine include species from southeastern Australia. Here, the biodiversity and distribution of species belonging to the Order Polycladida inhabiting intertidal rocky beaches in southeastern Australian waters were identified and analysed. Sampling was conducted at low tide along the coasts of New South Wales and Victoria. Collected samples were serially sectioned for comparative anatomical studies, and tissue was removed from each individual for molecular sequencing and analyses. Both nuclear and mitochondrial DNA sequences were obtained and used as an additional source of evidence for the description of new species as well as providing further insight into the phylogenetic relationships between them. A total of 20 species, six of which are new (e.g., Eulatocestus australis sp. nov.), and a new genus (Parabolia gen. nov.) have been described, as well as two new records for Australia (e.g., Stylochoplana clara Kato, 1937) have been identified increasing our knowledge of this important component of the Australian marine biota.  



2017 ◽  
Vol 86 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-95 ◽  
Author(s):  
Isabel T. Hyman ◽  
Irantzu de la Iglesia Lamborena ◽  
Frank Köhler

The south-eastern Australian helicarionid clade currently comprises six genera of snails and semislugs united by genital characters, including an epiphallic flagellum that produces a spiraling, spinose spermatophore, the absence of an epiphallic caecum, and the presence of at most a very short vagina. We comprehensively revise the taxonomy of this group based on comparative analyses of key morphological features and mitochondrial markers COI and 16S, revise the placement of several species described recently on the basis of shell morphology alone, and describe new taxa. The snail genus Brevisentis is monophyletic as currently understood, but includes an additional undescribed species from Wollemi National Park, New South Wales. Mysticarion is shown to contain four arboreal semislugs with wide, disjunct ranges, including one new species (Mysticarion obscurior sp. nov.). We synonymise Fastosarion staffordorum with Mysticarion hyalinus. The semislug Desidarion is synonymised with Parmavitrina, and we describe two new species of this genus, P. flavocarinata sp. nov. and P. maculosa sp. nov. The semi-arboreal semislug Cucullarion is herein included in the south-eastern Australian helicarionid clade based on morphological and genetic evidence, despite its more northerly distribution. Two small semislugs so far placed in Peloparion do not group together and a new genus, Ubiquitarion gen. nov., is described for Peloparion iridis. All of these genera, together with the semislug Helicarion (not included here), form a monophyletic radiation endemic to southeastern Australia.



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