Feeding Ecology of the Barn Owl, Tyto Alba, in Arid Southern Australia.

1979 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 191 ◽  
Author(s):  
SR Morton ◽  
AA Martin
Keyword(s):  
Feeding Ecology ◽  
New South ◽  
New South Wales ◽  
South Australia ◽  
Barn Owl ◽  
Tyto Alba ◽  
South Wales ◽  
Barn Owls ◽  
The Mean ◽  
Study Sites

In arid parts of Australia the barn owl appears to feed largely on rodents which form irruptions or plagues, i.e. undergo marked changes in abundance. Barn owls became common at the height of an irruption of house mice, Mus musculus, in western New South Wales, but were comparatively scarce after the mice decreased in numbers. There was some evidence that the owls' diet, determined by analysis of pellets, was more varied immediately after the numbers of mice decreased, but its major part still consisted of M. musculus. The mean number of prey units represented in each pellet rose during the irruption and then declined to the original level. At a variety of sites in arid New South Wales and South Australia, barn owls' diet consisted almost entirely of small mammals. The most common prey species were rodents that fluctuate widely in abundance, and the mean amount of prey per pellet differed greatly among the study sites. The feeding ecology of barn owls in arid Australian environments is essentially similar to that described for more mesic habitats; hence, a greatly increased variation in the abundance of mammalian prey has not led to an increase in breadth of food niche.

Pedigree Dorset Horn sheep in Australia. 1. Breed expansion and other vital statistics

1978 ◽  
Vol 18 (91) ◽  
pp. 165 ◽  
Author(s):  
NM Fogarty
Keyword(s):  
New South ◽  
New South Wales ◽  
South Australia ◽  
Vital Statistics ◽  
Rapid Expansion ◽  
Western Region ◽  
Flock Size ◽  
South Wales ◽  
The Mean

The Dorset Horn in Australia is maintained almost exclusively for producing rams for crossbreeding in the prime lamb industry. Flock Book records have been used to assess the expansion and other statistics of the breed. Dorset Horn sheep were first imported in 1895 with the first flock registered in 1920. The number of pedigree flocks increased to 1298 in 1958 and total ewes to 11 3,762 in 1968. Flocks declined to 61 4 and ewes to 60,801 in 1973, during which there was a rapid expansion in Poll Dorset flocks and ewes. Early expansion of the Dorset Horn occurred in South Australia and Victoria but over 85 per cent of flocks and ewes were located in New South Wales and Victoria in 1973. In 1973,40 per cent of flocks contained less than 51 ewes with only 2.8 per cent having more than 400 ewes. The mean age of studs in 1973 was 15.3 years, with 22 per cent established for 0 to 5 years, compared with 7.1 years and 62 per cent respectively in 1958. Stud dispersals have increased dramatically in recent years to 19.7 per cent of extant studs in 1973. Examination of flocks present in 1969 but dispersed prior to 1974, showed the proportion of dispersed flocks decreased with increasing flock size and increasing stud age, up to 40 years. Migration of sires between all regions was low, but of the migrant sires, South Australia supplied 76 per cent in 1954 and the central western region of New South Wales 57 per cent in 1974. Approximately half of the rams sampled had sires bred in the same stud.

In A Fix: Fixed-Term Parliaments in the Australian States

2013 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 265-298
Author(s):  
Peter Congdon
Keyword(s):  
Western Australia ◽  
Prime Minister ◽  
New South ◽  
New South Wales ◽  
South Australia ◽  
Constitutional Amendments ◽  
South Wales

Constitutional systems of Westminster heritage are increasingly moving towards fixed-term parliaments to, amongst other things, prevent the Premier or Prime Minister opportunistically calling a ‘snap election’. Amongst the Australian states, qualified fixed-term parliaments currently exist in New South Wales, South Australia and Victoria. Queensland, Tasmania and Western Australia have also deliberated over whether to establish similar fixed-term parliaments. However, manner and form provisions in those states' constitutions entrench the Parliament's duration, Governor's Office and dissolution power. In Western Australia and Queensland, unlike Tasmania, such provisions are doubly entrenched. This article considers whether these entrenching provisions present legal obstacles to constitutional amendments establishing fixed-term parliaments in those two states. This involves examining whether laws fixing parliamentary terms fall within section 6 of the Australia Acts 1986 (Cth) & (UK). The article concludes by examining recent amendments to the Electoral Act 1907 (WA) designed to enable fixed election dates in Western Australia without requiring a successful referendum.

The Relation Between the Food of the Australian Barracouta, Thyrsites atun (Euphrasen), and Recent Fluctuations in the Fisheries

1957 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 29 ◽  
Author(s):  
M Blackburn
Keyword(s):  
Population Distribution ◽  
New South ◽  
New South Wales ◽  
South Australia ◽  
Downward Trend ◽  
Small Fish ◽  
Fish Diet ◽  
Upward Trend ◽  
Independent Evidence ◽  
South Wales

The diet of surface-swimming Australian barracouta was studied from over 10,000 stomachs. The principal prey organisms in Bass Strait are the euphausiid Nyctiphanes australis Sars, the anchovy Engraulis australis (White), and young barracouta, in that order; and in eastern Tasmania Nyctiphanes, Engraulis, and the sprat Clupea bassensis McCulloch, in that order. The pilchard Sardinops neopilchardus (Steindachner) is not an important item of the diet in these regions although it is so in New South Wales, South Australia, and Western Australia. The jack mackerel Trachurus declivis Jenyns is a significant item in eastern Tasmania and New South Wales but not in Bass Strait. These and other features of the fish diet of the barracouta reflect actual availability of the various small fish species in the waters. Barracouta eat Nyctiphanes by herding them into dense masses (or finding them already concentrated) and swallowing them. The movements of the anchovy make it unavailable to Bass Strait and eastern Tasmanian barracouta for much of the summer and autumn period, when the barracouta are thus dependent upon Nyctiphanes for the bulk of their food. A close positive relationship between the availability of barracouta and Nyctiphanes might therefore be expected at those seasons. There is evidence of such a relationship between mean availability (catch per boat-month) of barracouta and mean percentage of barracouta stomachs containing Nyctiphanes, at those seasons, from year to year. For southern Victorian coastal waters both show a downward trend from 1948-49 to 1950-51 and then an upward trend to 1953-54; for eastern Tasmania both show a downward trend (for autumn only) from 1949-50 through 1952-53. The records of catch per boat-month furnish independent evidence that the main variations in this index were effects of availability (population distribution or behaviour) rather than abundance (population size), at least for southern Victoria. It is therefore considered that when scarcity of barracouta occurs in summer and autumn in the coastal fishing areas it may be due to scarcity of Nyctiphanes, forcing the fish to go offshore for this food which is known to be available there. This would take the fish out of range of the fishermen.

Dacus tryoni. [Distribution map].

1960 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keyword(s):  
Geographical Distribution ◽  
New South ◽  
New South Wales ◽  
South Australia ◽  
Fruit Fly ◽  
Distribution Map ◽  
Bactrocera Tryoni ◽  
South Wales ◽  
New Distribution

Abstract A new distribution map is provided for Dacus tryoni[Bactrocera tryoni] (Frogg.) (Dipt., Trypetidae) (Queensland Fruit-fly) Hosts: Many deciduous and subtropical fruits. Information is given on the geographical distribution in AUSTRALIA, New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Victoria.

Podospora excentrica. [Descriptions of Fungi and Bacteria].

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. W. Minter
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
South America ◽  
Atlantic Ocean ◽  
Geographical Distribution ◽  
Western Australia ◽  
New South ◽  
Conservation Status ◽  
New South Wales ◽  
South Australia ◽  
South Wales

Abstract A description is provided for Podospora excentrica. Some information on its associated organisms and substrata, dispersal and transmission, habitats and conservation status is given, along with details of its geographical distribution (South America (Venezuela), Atlantic Ocean (Portugal (Madeira)), Australasia (Australia (New South Wales, South Australia, Victoria, Western Australia)), New Zealand, Europe (Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, UK)).

John Davies Thomas: Chloroformist in London and pioneer South Australian doctor

2021 ◽  
pp. 0310057X2110315
Author(s):  
Rajesh P Haridas
Keyword(s):  
Medical Journal ◽  
North America ◽  
New South ◽  
New South Wales ◽  
Medical Officer ◽  
South Australia ◽  
Adelaide Hospital ◽  
Medical Society ◽  
College Hospital ◽  
South Wales

John Davies Thomas (1844–1893) described a two-ounce drop-bottle for chloroform in 1872 while he was a resident medical officer at University College Hospital, London. After working as a ship’s surgeon, he settled in Australia. In May 1875, Thomas presented a paper on the mortality from ether and chloroform at a meeting of the Medical Society of Victoria in Melbourne, Victoria. Surveys conducted in Europe and North America had established that the mortality from chloroform was eight to ten times higher than that from ether. At that time, chloroform was the most widely administered anaesthetic in Australia. Thomas’ paper was published in The Australian Medical Journal and reprinted by the Medical Society of Victoria for distribution to hospitals in the Colony of Victoria. Later that year, Thomas moved to Adelaide, South Australia, where he may have been influential at the Adelaide Hospital in ensuring that ether was administered more often than chloroform. It does not appear that Thomas’ papers on anaesthesia had a significant effect on the conduct of anaesthesia in Victoria or New South Wales.

The breeding behaviour of the endangered regent honeyeater, Xanthomyza phrygia, near Armidale, New South Wales

1998 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 153 ◽  
Author(s):  
Damon L. Oliver
Keyword(s):  
New South ◽  
New South Wales ◽  
Population Level ◽  
Similar Rate ◽  
Nest Construction ◽  
Aggressive Interactions ◽  
Breeding Behaviour ◽  
South Wales ◽  
The Mean ◽  
Breeding Seasons

The regent honeyea ter, Xanthomyza phrygia, is an endangered woodland bird whose range and population size have decreased in the last thirty years. Suggested reasons for this decline include abnormal breeding behaviour, poor reproductive output, and excessive inter- and intra-specific aggression. This study investigated the breeding behaviour and aggressive interactions of regent honeyeaters during the nest construction, incubation, nestling, and fledgling stages in two consecutive breeding seasons in the Bundarra–Barraba region near Armidale, New South Wales. The female was entirely responsible for nest construction and incubation, which is typical of many honeyeaters. Both parents fed the nestlings, and at a similar rate, although only the female brooded chicks on the nest. Both parents fed the fledglings. The mean frequency at which nestlings (23 times per hour) and fledglings (29 times per hour) were fed is the highest published rate of any non-cooperative honeyeater. Breeding males were involved in significantly more aggressive interactions with conspecifics and other nectarivores than were females, although the overall percentage of day-time spent in aggression for both sexes was low (2.5%). It appears that abnormal breeding behaviour, poor reproductive effort, or excessive aggression are not experienced by this species in northern New South Wales, and that other factors are likely to be responsible for its current low population level.

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