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Leadbeater's possum is a critically endangered possum largely restricted to small pockets of alpine ash, mountain ash, and snow gum forests in the Central Highlands of Victoria, Australia, north-east of Melbourne. It is primitive, relict, and non-gliding, and, as the only species in the petaurid genus Gymnobelideus, represents an ancestral form. Formerly, Leadbeater's possums were moderately common within the very small areas they inhabited; their requirement for year-round food supplies and tree-holes to take refuge in during the day restricts them to mixed-age wet sclerophyll forest with a dense mid-story of Acacia. The species was named in 1867 after John Leadbeater, the then taxidermist at the Museum Victoria. They also go by the common name of fairy possum. On 2 March 1971, the State of Victoria made the Leadbeater's possum its faunal emblem.
The glossy black cockatoo, is the smallest member of the subfamily Calyptorhynchinae found in eastern Australia. Adult glossy black cockatoos may reach 50 cm (19.5 in) in length. They are sexually dimorphic. Males are blackish brown, except for their prominent sub-terminal red tail bands; the females are dark brownish with idiosyncratic yellow marking around the neck and prominent sub-terminal tail band of red with black bars. Three subspecies have been recognised, although this has been recently challenged, with a detailed morphological analysis by Saunders and Pickup 2023 finding there is cline in body dimensions over the latitudinal range of the species, with the birds from the north of the range smaller than the birds in the south. Saunders and Pickup argued that with no differentiation in bill morphology, little difference in genetic makeup, no differences in plumage pattern or colour, and no differences in diet, there is no justification in subdividing the species.
Dominic Louis Serventy was an Australian ornithologist. He was president of the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union (RAOU) 1947–1949. He assisted with the initial organisation of the British Museum's series of Harold Hall Australian ornithological collecting expeditions during the 1960s, also participating in the third (1965) expedition.
Michael Brooker is an Australian ornithologist based in Western Australia following retirement from a career with the CSIRO's Division of Wildlife Research. There he worked on wedge-tailed eagles, fauna surveys, the environmental impact of wildfire and the conservation value of remnant patches of native vegetation. Since then he has collaborated with his wife Lesley Brooker in studies on cuckoo evolution, population ecology of fairy-wrens and spatial dynamics of birds in fragmented landscapes. In 2004 he was awarded, jointly with his wife Lesley, the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union's D.L. Serventy Medal which recognizes excellence in published work on birds in the Australasian region.
Ian Cecil Robert Rowley was an Australian ornithologist of Scottish origin. He was born in Edinburgh and educated at Wellington College and Cambridge University. Following service in the Royal Navy during the Second World War, he moved to Australia in 1949 and graduated in agricultural science from the University of Melbourne under the Commonwealth Reconstruction Training Scheme.
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The smoky mouse is a species of rodent in the family Muridae native to southeastern Australia. It was first described in 1934 and its species name is Latin for "smoky". As its name suggests, it is a grey-furred mouse, darker grey above and paler smoky grey below. Mice from the Grampians are larger and a darker more slate-grey above. It has a black eye-ring and dark grey muzzle. The feet are light pink, and the ears a grey-pink. The tail is longer than the mouse's body, and is pink with a brownish stripe along the top. Mice from east of Melbourne average around 35 grams and have 107 mm long bodies with 116 mm long tails, while those from the Grampians are around 65 grams and have 122 mm long bodies with 132 mm long tails.
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The Australian Wildlife Conservancy (AWC) is an independent Australian nonprofit organisation, working to conserve threatened wildlife and ecosystems in Australia. AWC is the largest private owner and manager of land for conservation in Australia, currently managing 31 sanctuaries and partnership sites for wildlife conservation that cover over 6.5 million hectares of land across Australia. It partners with governmental agencies, Indigenous groups, and private landholders to manage landscapes for effective conservation. Most funding comes from private support in the form of tax-deductible donations from the public, as well as some government grants for particular purposes, such as from the Australian government's National Reserve System Program.
Established in 1965, the Yellingbo Nature Conservation Reserve is located 45 km east of Melbourne in the Upper Yarra Valley, near the towns of Yellingbo, Launching Place, Yarra Junction, Hoddles Creek, Cockatoo, Emerald, Monbulk and Seville. Yellingbo Nature Conservation Reserve is a narrow riparian reserve with stream-frontage land along the Woori Yallock, Shepherd, Cockatoo, Macclesfield and Sheep Station Creeks.
BirdLife Australia is a not-for-profit organisation advocating for native birds and the conservation of their habitats across Australia.
Distinguished Professor David Lindenmayer,, is an Australian scientist and academic. His research focuses on the adoption of nature conservation practices in agricultural production areas, developing ways to improve integration of native forest harvesting and biodiversity conservation, new approaches to enhance biodiversity conservation in plantations, and improved fire management practices in Australia. He specialises in large-scale, long-term research monitoring programs in south-eastern Australia, primarily in forests, reserves, national parks, plantations, and on farm land.
References
- ↑ https://birdlife.org.au/documents/AWR-serventy-medallists-1991-2020.pdf D.L. Serventy Medal: Citation | retrieved: 23 September 2020
- ↑ "Australian Commonwealth, Department of Agriculture Water and Environment, Wildlife and threatened species bushfire recovery Expert Panel". Archived from the original on 7 September 2020.
- ↑ Woinarski, John; Burbridge, Andrew; Harrison, Peter (June 2014). The Action Plan for Australian Mammals 2012 (PDF). CSIRO. ISBN 9780643108745.
- ↑ Purtill, James (20 February 2019). "An Australian rodent has become the first climate change mammal extinction". Triple J Hack. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 21 February 2019.
- ↑ "Australian Commonwealth, Department of Agriculture Water and Environment, Wildlife and threatened species bushfire recovery Expert Panel". Archived from the original on 7 September 2020.
- ↑ "Friends of Leadbeater's Possum Inc v VicForests (No 4) [2020] FCA 704". Federal Court of Australia. 27 May 2020. Retrieved 27 May 2020.
