Dr Rochelle Steven

Acoustic monitoring is a common survey method for echolocating bats. However, differences in equipment, methods of field deployment, and variability in bat calls complicate acoustic analysis. The Australasian Bat Society (ABS), the peak body for bat conservation in the region, published reporting standards (hereafter ‘standards’) as a guide towards consistent and transparent methods in acoustic bat surveys. Here we review how the current standards are integrated into Australian bat acoustic research. Our analysis showed that only 8 of the 107 studies reviewed adhered fully to the standards. While 89% of studies included citation to reference libraries, and 79% of studies described call characteristics of similar species, only 17% of studies adhered to guidelines requiring the inclusion of time versus frequency spectrographs for species identification. Furthermore, only 19% reported on survey effort as a function of detector hours. This review underscores the need for easily accessible and updated standards as well as the sharing of bat call reference libraries to improve the accuracy and comparability of bat acoustic surveys in Australia. Enhancing consistency and transparency in bat acoustic reporting will facilitate more robust studies and enhance the effectiveness of conservation efforts.

Inadequacies in public protected area networks dictates that private land will play an important role in the conservation of biodiversity in the coming decades. Household gardens are a key example of private lands that can serve as refuges for biodiversity, with birds as a popular flagship for garden biodiversity. Discussion has focused heavily on the species of plant a resident might select to attract birds to their garden. In this paper, we describe additional and important factors that should form part of this broader conversation on gardens for birds and biodiversity, with a specific aim of drawing attention to species that are at risk of localised extinctions in modern urban landscapes – urban adaptors. We present our commentary in two themes: (a) mitigating threats to birds in the urban environment and (b) enhancing the habitat value of the urban environment for a broader range of bird species. We provide a synthesis of the research of recent years that has explored the urban environment and its ability to support birds, but importantly, we extend on this by bringing together topics that have been somewhat lacking in the discussion to date. In a new approach to this conversation, this paper brings together key topics that can no longer be considered in isolation if we are to make significant conservation gains in the environments were most Australians now reside.

In recent years, birdwatching has become one of the fastest-growing forms of nature-based tourism and is often referred to as avitourism. Birdwatching has a relatively long history, but many research questions and avenues of inquiry remain unexamined. We quantitatively reviewed the literature on birdwatching using VOSviewer version 1.6.16 and the Bibliometrix package for R to assess the growth of the field over time. The results show that a total of 1371 publications have been published on the topic between 1878 and 2022. The annual growth in the number of publications was 2.59% and publications written through international collaboration constituted 20.02% of the total research output. Researchers and commentators in the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada were the largest contributors. Our results showed that birdwatching, birding, and citizen science are the motor themes, which means they significantly contribute to the development of the field. Moreover, ecosystem services, cultural ecosystem services, and recreation are emerging themes that require further development. Future studies are expected to focus on fostering avitourism in developing nations through training and collaboration between local and international NGOs. Improvement of local livelihoods and grass-roots organization should be the focus of future efforts given the potential of avitourism as a source of income and incentive for wildlife conservation action.

Background

Mammals, globally, are facing population declines. Protecting and breeding threatened populations inside predator-free havens and translocating them back to the wild is commonly viewed as a solution. These approaches can expose predator-naïve animals to predators they have never encountered and as a result, many conservation projects have failed due to the predation of individuals that lacked appropriate anti-predator responses. Hence, robust ways to measure anti-predator responses are urgently needed to help identify naïve populations at risk, to select appropriate animals for translocation, and to monitor managed populations for changes in anti-predator traits. Here, we undertake a systematic review that collates existing behavioural assays of anti-predator responses and identifies assay types and predator cues that provoke the greatest behavioural responses.

Methods

We retrieved articles from academic bibliographic databases and grey literature sources (such as government and conservation management reports), using a Boolean search string. Each article was screened against eligibility criteria determined using the PICO (Population–Intervention–Comparator–Outcome) framework. Using data extracted from each article, we mapped all known behavioural assays for quantifying anti-predator responses in mammals and examined the context in which each assay has been implemented (e.g., species tested, predator cue characteristics). Finally, with mixed effects modelling, we determined which of these assays and predator cue types elicit the greatest behavioural responses based on standardised difference in response between treatment and control groups.

Review findings

We reviewed 5168 articles, 211 of which were eligible, constituting 1016 studies on 126 mammal species, a quarter of which are threatened by invasive species. We identified six major types of behavioural assays: behavioural focals, capture probability, feeding station, flight initiation distance, giving-up density, and stimulus presentations. Across studies, there were five primary behaviours measured: activity, escape, exploration, foraging, and vigilance. These behaviours yielded similar effect sizes across studies. With regard to study design, however, studies that used natural olfactory cues tended to report larger effect sizes than those that used artificial cues. Effect sizes were larger in studies that analysed sexes individually, rather than combining males and females. Studies that used ‘blank’ control treatments (the absence of a stimulus) rather than a treatment with a control stimulus had higher effect sizes. Although many studies involved repeat measures of known individuals, only 15.4% of these used their data to calculate measures of individual repeatability.

Conclusions

Our review highlights important aspects of experimental design and reporting that should be considered. Where possible, studies of anti-predator behaviour should use appropriate control treatments, analyse males and females separately, and choose organic predator cues. Studies should also look to report the individual repeatability of behavioural traits, and to correctly identify measures of uncertainty (error bars). The review highlights robust methodology, reveals promising techniques on which to focus future assay development, and collates relevant information for conservation managers.

Citizen-science projects focused on ecology and conservation have been growing in popularity in recent years, offering many opportunities for researchers and volunteers alike. Two principal approaches to citizen-science projects in ecology can be characterized as the data-first approach and the question-first approach. Here, we highlight the value of question-first citizen-science projects for providing insights into the ecology and management of urban wildlife, using case studies on (1) beneficial insects (pollinators, predators and parasitoids) and (2) possums and gliders in Australian cities and towns. The question-first approach has many benefits, offering a platform to engage volunteers with the scientific process and the broader context of an ecological or conservation problem, while also connecting them with their local environment. Identifying the questions to be addressed in a citizen-science project ahead of data collection allows for co-design and stronger collaboration with volunteers, community groups, local experts, and landscape managers. Question-first citizen science can also provide valuable ecological data that extend substantially beyond presence-only records, including presence-absence data collected via timed surveys and information on animal behavior and interspecific interactions. However, establishing and maintaining question-first citizen-science projects can be challenging, requiring the building and maintenance of many relationships and a multidisciplinary approach that goes well beyond the usual activities of an academic researcher. Well-designed, question-first citizen science has the capacity to achieve both scientific rigor and meaningful engagement with volunteer participants.

The terrestrial, freshwater and marine realms all provide essential ecosystem services in urban environments. However, the services provided by each realm are often considered independently, which ignores the synergies between them and risks underestimating the benefits derived collectively. Greater research collaboration across these realms, and an integrated approach to management decisions can help to support urban developments and restoration projects in maintaining or enhancing ecosystem services. The aim of this paper is to highlight the synergies and trade-offs among ecosystem services provided by each realm and to offer suggestions on how to improve current practice. We use case studies to illustrate the flow of services across realms. In our call to better integrate research and management across realms, we present a framework that provides a 6-step process for conducting collaborative research and management with an Australian perspective. Our framework considers unifying language, sharing, and understanding of desired outcomes, conducting cost-benefit analyses to minimise trade-offs, using multiple modes of communication for stakeholders, and applying research outcomes to inform regulation. It can be applied to improve collaboration among researchers, managers and planners from all realms, leading to strategic allocation of resources, increased protection of urban natural resources and improved environmental regulation with broad public support.

Background
Mammals, globally, are facing population declines. Strategies increasingly employed to recover threatened mammal populations include protecting populations inside predator-free havens, and translocating animals from one site to another, or from a captive breeding program. These approaches can expose predator-naïve animals to predators they have never encountered and as a result, many conservation projects have failed due to the predation of individuals that lacked appropriate anti-predator responses. Hence robust ways to measure anti-predator responses are urgently needed to help identify naïve populations at risk, to select appropriate animals for translocation, and to monitor managed populations for trait change. Here, we outline a protocol for a systematic review that collates existing behavioural assays developed for the purpose of quantifying anti-predator responses, and identifies assay types and predator cues that provoke the greatest behavioural responses.

Methods
We will retrieve articles from academic bibliographic databases and grey literature sources (such as government and conservation management reports), using a Boolean search string. Each article will be screened for the satisfaction of eligibility criteria determined using the PICO (Population—Intervention—Comparator—Outcome) framework, to yield the final article pool. Using metadata extracted from each article, we will map all known behavioural assays for quantifying anti-predator responses in mammals and will then examine the context in which each assay has been implemented (e.g. species tested, predator cue characteristics). Finally, with mixed effects modelling, we will determine which of these assays and predator cue types elicit the greatest behavioural responses (standardised difference in response between treatment and control groups). The final review will highlight the most robust methodology, will reveal promising techniques on which to focus future assay development, and will collate relevant information for conservation managers.

Urban landscapes present substantial opportunities for biodiversity conservation with residential gardens offering some of the greatest potential conservation gains given that they represent a significant proportion of the total greenspace in urbanised landscapes. However, knowledge of wildlife ecology within gardens remains scarce, likely due to the difficulties associated with field ecologists accessing privately owned areas. Citizen-sourced data presents an alternative approach to typical field-based investigations and could be used to develop an extensive understanding of biodiversity within privately owned green spaces, providing concerns of data unreliability could be overcome. Here we i) examine the potential for urban householders to identify a threatened nocturnal mammal, in the presence of a similar non-threatened species, ii) examine which attributes can predict the level of accuracy in householders’ species identifications and iii) investigate how their self-reported level of certainty affects identification reliability. We found up to 80% agreement between householders and experienced ecologists when we assessed presence and absence of nocturnal mammals on urban properties. The amount of time a householder had lived at their residence was a significant predictor of accuracy for mammal species identification, suggesting that familiarity with a site enhances the accuracy of citizen science data. Those people with a high level of certainty in their ability to correctly identify nocturnal mammals were no more likely to show higher species identification accuracy than those with low certainty. In urban areas, where ecological surveys for nocturnal taxa are especially challenging, our results inspire optimism that householders can add to the body of knowledge about biodiversity persisting in these landscapes, especially on properties where they have resided for at least one year.

Monitoring threatened species is vital for effective conservation, and citizen science can fill information gaps where professionally derived monitoring data are unavailable or guide where further survey efforts may be warranted. Yet the geographic and taxonomic coverage of citizen science projects is poorly understood. Using a snapshot in time approach, we reviewed citizen science monitoring and survey projects in Australia in 2017 and identified 133 projects contributing to threatened species monitoring or conservation action in both terrestrial and marine environments. Most projects (61%) are relevant for 10 or fewer threatened species. Relevant citizen science projects tend to be concentrated along the more densely populated eastern and south-western coasts, while relatively few projects occur in northern regions of Australia. Our findings show a high convergence between citizen science project densities and threatened species richness in many terrestrial areas, although they also highlight areas with potential to expand citizen science, and indicate areas where professional monitoring is unlikely to be augmented by citizen science.

Monitoring migratory species can be extremely challenging. For example, millions of migratory shorebirds migrate from breeding grounds in northern China, Mongolia and Russia to East Asia and Australasia each year, traversing more than 20 countries while on migration. Studies within individual nations have identified rapid declines in many species, yet progress toward a fully unified scheme for continuous tracking of population change at the scale of the entire East Asian-Australasian Flyway has been slow. To reflect on lessons learned and consider how further progress might be made, we review some of the factors that have limited the full emergence of shorebird monitoring in the East Asian-Australasian Flyway, including fragmentation among multiple databases, low data readiness, inadequate metadata and gaps in survey coverage. We conclude that while technical solutions for many of these issues do exist, the biggest challenge is to navigate the significant organisational, socio-cultural and resourcing contexts of those people doing the monitoring. Technical solutions alone will not create a cohesive network of people whose local efforts are pooled to create robust flyway-scale monitoring.