1080 aerial baiting for the control of wild dogs and its impact on spotted-tailed quoll (Dasyurus maculatus) populations in eastern Australia

2007 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 48 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. Körtner

To further investigate the non-target impact of baiting using sodium monofluoroacetate (compound 1080) to control wild dogs, a population of radio-collared spotted-tailed quolls was subject to an experimental aerial baiting exercise. The trial was conducted at a site on the New England Tablelands, New South Wales, without a recent history of that practice. Sixteen quolls were trapped and radio-collared before baiting. Fresh meat baits were delivered from a helicopter at a rate of 10–40 baits km–1. In addition to 1080 (4.2 mg), each bait contained the bait marker rhodamine B (50 mg), which becomes incorporated into growing hair if an animal survives bait consumption. Two quoll mortalities were recorded following aerial baiting. Both quolls died 3–5 weeks after baiting when baits, on average, retained little 1080. None of the carcasses contained traces of 1080, but the test result is less reliable for the quoll that was found 19 days after its death although tissue was well preserved because of the cool weather. Nevertheless, given that this animal died 34 days after bait delivery, it appears likely that none of the radio-collared quolls succumbed to baiting. In contrast, vibrissae samples collected from 19 quolls captured after the baiting showed that 68% had eaten baits and survived. Furthermore, multiple bait takes were common, with up to six baits consumed by one female. The results demonstrate that most, if not all, quolls survived the baiting trial, including those that consumed dog baits. Hence bait consumption figures per se are not indicative of mortality rates attributable to poisoning.


Soil Research ◽  
2001 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
pp. 7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robyn D. Gatehouse ◽  
I. S. Williams ◽  
B. J. Pillans

The U-Pb ages of fine-grained zircon separated from 2 dust-dominated soils in the eastern highlands of south-eastern Australia and measured by ion microprobe (SHRIMP) revealed a characteristic age ‘fingerprint’ from which the source of the dust has been determined and by which it will be possible to assess the contribution of dust to other soil profiles. The 2 soils are dominated by zircon 400–600 and 1000–1200 Ma old, derived from Palaeozoic granites and sediments of the Lachlan Fold Belt, but also contain significant components 100–300 Ma old, characteristic of igneous rocks in the New England Fold Belt in northern New South Wales and Queensland. This pattern closely matches that of sediments of the Murray-Darling Basin, especially the Mallee dunefield, suggesting that weathering of rocks in the eastern highlands has contributed large quantities of sediment to the arid and semi-arid inland basins via internally draining rivers of the present and past Murray–Darling River systems, where it has formed a major source of dust subsequently blown eastwards and deposited in the highland soils of eastern Australia.



Minerals ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 28 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frederick Sutherland ◽  
Khin Zaw ◽  
Sebastien Meffre ◽  
Jay Thompson ◽  
Karsten Goemann ◽  
...  

Ruby in diverse geological settings leaves petrogenetic clues, in its zoning, inclusions, trace elements and oxygen isotope values. Rock-hosted and isolated crystals are compared from Myanmar, SE Asia, and New South Wales, East Australia. Myanmar ruby typifies metasomatized and metamorphic settings, while East Australian ruby xenocrysts are derived from basalts that tapped underlying fold belts. The respective suites include homogeneous ruby; bi-colored inner (violet blue) and outer (red) zoned ruby; ruby-sapphirine-spinel composites; pink to red grains and multi-zoned crystals of red-pink-white-violet (core to rim). Ruby ages were determined by using U-Pb isotopes in titanite inclusions (Thurein Taung; 32.4 Ma) and zircon inclusions (Mong Hsu; 23.9 Ma) and basalt dating in NSW, >60–40 Ma. Trace element oxide plots suggest marble sources for Thurein Taung and Mong Hsu ruby and ultramafic-mafic sources for Mong Hsu (dark cores). NSW rubies suggest metasomatic (Barrington Tops), ultramafic to mafic (Macquarie River) and metasomatic-magmatic (New England) sources. A previous study showed that Cr/Ga vs. Fe/(V + Ti) plots separate Mong Hsu ruby from other ruby fields, but did not test Mogok ruby. Thurein Taung ruby, tested here, plotted separately to Mong Hsu ruby. A Fe-Ga/Mg diagram splits ruby suites into various fields (Ga/Mg < 3), except for magmatic input into rare Mogok and Australian ruby (Ga/Mg > 6). The diverse results emphasize ruby’s potential for geographic typing.



1966 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 185 ◽  
Author(s):  
JD Dunsmore

(1) Trichostrongylus retortaeformis (Zeder, 1800) in wild rabbits in Australia has been studied by more or less regular sampling of rabbit populations in four climatically different areas of eastern Australia. (2) In a semi-arid locality in north-western New South Wales, T. retortaeformis is rarely found; in a subtropical area of south-central Queensland it was found only in small numbers and many rabbits were apparently free of infection. In an area of the Riverina district of New South Wales most rabbits were infected but parasite numbers were rarely high. The highest levels of infection were recorded at a site in a subalpine area of New South Wales. (3) It was possible to build up a detailed picture of the dynamics of T. retortaeformis in rabbits throughout their lives at Snowy Plains, the subalpine site, in which breeding of rabbits is limited to a relatively few months each year. During their first 6-8 months of life (prior to their first breeding season) male and female rabbits carry moderate numbers of T. retortaeformis with the males carrying somewhat more parasites than the females. During the breeding season T. retortaeformis numbers in female rabbits increase very markedly (about tenfold) while numbers in male rabbits are decreasing to a low level (their lowest during the year). Following breeding, worm numbers in female rabbits drop quite rapidly while those in males increase to a similarly moderate level. Apparently a similar cycle of events occurs during each 12 months of a rabbit's life. (4) At Urana, in the Riverina plain region the cycle of events described above for Snowy Plains could not be seen, although T. retortaeformis was found in moderate numbers. This may have been due to infrequent sampling, lack of a defined rabbit breeding season, or some other factor.



1970 ◽  
Vol 35 ◽  
pp. 229-235 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. A. Binns ◽  
I. McBryde

Petrological and chemical analyses of stone, bronze and iron implements are playing an increasingly important role in the study of prehistoric economies. Their contributions, long familiar to students of European prehistory, were recently discussed in a paper which also reviewed the evidence from Polynesia, Melanesia and Australia (Clark, 1965). Apart from some studies limited to stone artefacts from individual archaeological sites, these techniques have not previously been applied to material from Australian prehistory (Gutsche in McBryde, 1966; Branagan and Megaw, 1969). In this brief communication we present some of the results of a petrological analysis of ground-edge artefacts from north-eastern New South Wales.The widespread dispersal of stone for axe-making based on organized exploitation of definite quarry sites is well documented in the historical and anthropological literature for eastern Australia at the time of European settlement. Unfortunately few of these historical records are sufficiently detailed, so even for the recent past as well as for prehistory, techniques of petrological analysis may make vital contributions to our knowledge both of quarry sites in eastern Australia and of the distribution of their products. Our preliminary discussion here is based on an investigation of some 200 axes mainly taken from the archaeological collections in the History Department of the University of New England and various local museum and private collections, but also including axes from northern New South Wales in the Australian collections of the British Museum, the Cambridge University Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, and the Anthropological Museum of Aberdeen University.



2016 ◽  
Vol 67 (10) ◽  
pp. 1546 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cassandra L. Rigby ◽  
Ross K. Daley ◽  
Colin A. Simpfendorfer

Deep-water sharks have low biological productivity and are vulnerable to exploitation with species-specific regional life history required to enable effective management. The present study describes the life history of two squalids collected from Australia: (1) the piked spurdog (Squalus megalops) from the tropical Great Barrier Reef; and (2) the Philippine spurdog (S. montalbani) from New South Wales. Maximum observed ages for males and females were 18 and 25 years for S. megalops and 28 and 27 years for S. montalbani. Multiple growth models were all well supported and indicated very slow growth rates for both species. The tropical S. megalops population was smaller and older at maturity than previously reported temperate populations. Males were mature at 352-mm stretched total length (LST) and 12.6 years, whereas females were mature at 422mm LST and 19.1 years. Squalus montalbani males were mature at 700mm LST and 21.8 years, whereas females were mature at 800mm LST and 26 years. Fecundity was lower for S. megalops than S. montalbani with two to three compared with nine to 16 embryos. Both species have a conservative life history, although in the event of overfishing the longer-lived, later-maturing and deeper-dwelling S. montalbani is likely to take longer to recover than S. megalops.



2000 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 245
Author(s):  
J. M. Hart ◽  
M. J. Henwood

Xanthosia pilosa Rudge is a common shrub found ineastern Australia. The species complex displays a wide range of variation inleaf and inflorescence morphology which has resulted in the application ofnumerous species names and its informal division into numerous variants in New South Wales. As part of a revision of the genus, the history of the speciescomplex is reviewed and the morphology of the numerous variants, examined bothin the field and herbarium, is discussed.Xanthosia pilosa sens. lat. is here divided into fourspecies: two new species (X. scopulicola J.M.Hart & Henwood and X. stellataJ.M.Hart & Henwood) are described and illustrated, a substitute name(X. ternifolia J.M.Hart & Henwood) is providedfor the illegitimate X. tasmanica Gand., andX. pilosa s.s., which remains a polymorphic species inwhich further segregation of variants is not recommended. A key toXanthosia species in eastern Australia is provided.



2009 ◽  
Vol 57 (5) ◽  
pp. 317 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. J. Colgan ◽  
D. O'Meally ◽  
R. A. Sadlier

Phylogeographic studies of eastern Australia have generally supported earlier biogeographical studies based on taxon distributions by concurring in the placement of significant intraspecific boundaries. Such studies may potentially clarify biogeographic boundaries that are presently unclear, such as the poorly defined southern edges of the McPherson Macleay Overlap. Here we investigate reptile phylogeography in the northern tablelands of New South Wales to study the south-western boundaries of the Overlap as these are especially uncertain. Cytochrome b sequences from Ctenotus robustus, C. taeniolatus and Oedura lesueurii, three lizard species widespread across the New England Tablelands, were analysed by examining single-strand conformational polymorphism and DNA sequencing. In both O. lesueurii and C. taeniolatus most deeper nodes within species define geographically localised clades. This was not the case for C. robustus. Boundaries between sister-group clades were discovered in multiple locations in the region – between Glen Innes and Armidale, between Armidale and Tamworth and to the south of the Liverpool Plains. The boundaries in C. taeniolatus and O. lesueurii were probably formed in at least two different periods. The phylogeographic patterns may be partly explained by glacially induced aridity cycles in the early Pleistocene or before.



1971 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 287 ◽  
Author(s):  
E Stodart

Fourteen samples of about 50 rabbits each were shot at 8-weekly intervals on the south coast of New South Wales near Moruya during the years 1966-68. Seven species of Eimeria (E. stiedae, E, media, E. perforans, E. irresidua, E. magna, E. piriformis, and E. exigua) were recorded in the faeces. The oocyst counts of each species had a highly significant negative regression with dried eye lens weight, which is used to indicate the age of the rabbit. When oocyst count was adjusted for lens weightthe seasonal variation showed a winter peakin 1967, but none in 1968, possibly because of the drought that occurred in the area in that year. In multiple regression analyses relating oocyst count to various other variates, eye lens weight (age), kidney fat index, and liver weight were significant variables. Rainfall and sex of host each increased the significance of the multiple regression in one species.



1989 ◽  
Vol 40 (5) ◽  
pp. 1075 ◽  
Author(s):  
JP Langlands ◽  
GE Donald ◽  
JE Bowles ◽  
AJ Smith

Approximately 700 yearling (Experiment 1) or unweaned (Experiment 2) cattle grazed commercial farms on the New England Tablelands of New South Wales, and were supplemented or not supplemented with selenium (Se). Whole blood and plasma Se concentrations, and liveweight gains were measured over periods of 3-7 months. In a third experiment, 96 castrated male weaned calves on a farm with a long history of unthriftiness were allocated to four groups, and were supplemented with either Se or copper in a factorial design.In Experiments 1 and 2, mean whole blood and plasma Se concentrations of unsupplemented animals on individual farms ranged from 0.004 to 0.139, and from 0.002 to 0.058 8g Se/ml respectively, but growth rates of only two of the twenty herds responded significantly to Se supplementation, and both showed diarrhoea and ill thrift at the start of the experiment. The herd in Experiment 3 also showed ill thrift, and growth rate responded to supplementation with Se, but copper depressed growth. Se concentrations in blood and plasma were generally poor indicators of responsiveness. Possible reasons are suggested.



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