Southwest WA is a global biodiversity hotspot, with high levels of plant and animal endemism that face significant threats in the form of habitat clearing, introduced pathogens and predators, and substantial urban development. This part of the globe is also showing the most rapid changes in climate, with significantly hotter and drier conditions being experienced over the last decade.
These threats to biodiversity are happening on our ‘front doorstep’ and WA researchers therefore need to be leading the way in understanding the long term implications of these threatening processes.
Our research focuses on translational biology working across urban, mining, agricultural and natural landscapes. We pursue the application of research, where improving our understanding has conservation or welfare implications. We investigate how animals respond to human presence, but also how they can contribute to our quality of life.
Collaborators
Trish Fleming – wildlife conservation | stray and feral cat biology | disturbance ecology | urban ecology | invasive species | predator ecology | wind energy. E: t.fleming@murdoch.edu.au
Natalie Warburton – comparative anatomy | functional morphology | evolution of vertebrates. E: n.warburton@murdoch.edu.au
Nicholas Wu – Ecological Physiology | Conservation Physiology | Thermal Biology | Macroecology | Herpetology | Zoology | Meta-analysis | Bats E: Nicholas.Wu@murdoch.edu.au
Linda Neaves – Conservation and biodiversity | Genomics. E: Linda.Neaves@murdoch.edu.au
Melissa Thomas – biosecurity science | invasive species ecology E: Melissa.Thomas@murdoch.edu.au
Halina Kobryn – landscape spatial analysis | Geographic Information Systems (GIS) | Global Positioning Systems (GPS) | remote sensing. E: h.kobryn@murdoch.edu.au
Shannon Dundas – wildlife ecology | introduced predators | disturbance ecology | feral cat management. E: s.dundas@murdoch.edu.au
Jill Shephard – movement ecology | species spatial distributions. E: j.shephard@murdoch.edu.au website
Tenaya Duncan – predator ecology | scavenging ecology | artificial refuge | wind energy. E: Tenaya.Duncan@murdoch.edu.au
Peter Adams (DPIRD) is an applied ecologist who has been investigating feral and invasive species control. E: p.adams@murdoch.edu.au
Tracey Kreplins (DPIRD) – wildlife ecology | dingoes | animal behaviour | wild canids. E: t.kreplins@murdoch.edu.au
Stuart Dawson (DBCA Western Shield) – ecology | invasive species management
Heather Crawford – wildlife biology | animal ethics
Current PhD Students
Jasmine Kasper Predators in the Roost: Assessing the impacts of feral cats on ghost bats in Western Australia.
Janam Jai Sehgal From bait encounter to uptake: Behavioural, morphological and population responses of feral cats and red foxes to 1080 baiting.
John Wei Keeping Baits Effective; Optimising baiting for invasive predator control.
Chloe Miller Impact of Eradicat® baiting on predators and their prey.
Emily Boyd Dingoes on Country: First Nations knowledge and perspectives, public attitudes, and the acceptability of dingo management in Australia.
Saurav Lamichhane Wind turbine impacts on Australian bustards: ecological and conservation perspectives
Lilijana Nicholls Molecular methods for screening biodiversity at waterpoints.
Noor ul-Ain Ecomorphology and extinction risk in Australian native rodents.
Natalie Grassi Faunal assemblages and ecology at conservation connectivity areas.
Faith Chen Comparing feral cat monitoring methodologies using camera traps and genetic sampling from scats.
Leticia Povh Quokka (Setonix brachyurus) populations in the northern jarrah forest – Effective management of a threatened species in the presence of prescribed burning.
John-Michael Stuart ‘Predation of marine turtle nests and hatchlings by the red fox (Vulpes vulpes); understanding predator dynamics at marine turtle rookeries along the Pilbara Coast of Western Australia’ Murdoch University.
Current Honours students
Kailee Savoia Diet and prey selectivity of feral cats at Yampi Sound Training Area, Kimberley
Tamara Wilkes-Jones What environmental factors are correlated with where a numbat forages?
Recent completions
PHD
Tenaya Duncan Home Sweet Home? Artificial refuges for small vertebrate species to reduce feral cat predation risk in modified landscapes.
Tom Mansfield Cascading impacts of the plant pathogen Phytophthora cinnamomi to mycophagous quenda (Isoodon fusciventer) and native fungi.
Moses Omogbeme Wild dog management and trophic interactions in landscape-scale cell fencing.
Natasha Tay When marsupials can’t run – hindlimb morphology and escape behaviour in critical weight range species.
Janine Kuehs Navigating the urban matrix: activity patterns, home range dynamics, and habitat preferences of the Western Australian quenda (Isoodon fusciventer).
Simon Cherriman ‘Population status and movement ecology of the Wedge-tailed Eagle in Western Australia’ Murdoch University.
Janine Kuehs Navigating the urban matrix: activity patterns, home range dynamics, and habitat preferences of the Western Australian quenda (Isoodon fusciventer).
Heather Crawford Improving nine lives: trialling and assessing management strategies for stray cats (Felis catus) in Australia
Meg Martin Adaptations to digging in marsupials
Amanda Kristancic Do Australian strains of Toxoplasma gondii affect the behaviour of hosts?
Pedro Martinez Perez Health and disease status of the quokka
James Macgregor Development of a framework for the assessment of the health of wild platypus populations
Taya Clarke Qualitative Behavioural Assessment in pigs
Ashleigh Wolfe Reptiles and urbanisation
Stuart Dawson Critical habitat and foraging range of bilbies
Masters
Kelly Sheldrick Building support for ‘non-charismatic’ species conservation through citizen science: bats and bioacoustics.
Angus Dempster Can fire fighting water points be used to monitor feral pig presence?
Chloe Walters The use of road underpasses by feral cats (Felis catus) and native wildlife.
Emily Boyd Behavioural responses of dingoes (Canis familiaris) to camera traps in Western Australia.
Joel Wilson Habitat characteristics influencing corridor use by native and invasive mammal species in the Dryandra Woodland National Park.
Cecelia Crowe Does predation risk to critical weight range mammals increase in Phytophthora cinnamomi-infested areas?
Elena Kuzovnikova Developing best practice for wind turbine anti-collision methods under Australian conditions.
Natalie Grassi Diet of the red fox – is there diet differentiation for pups?
Rio Akbar Investigation of parts-based deep learning pipelines for identifying individual feral cats in camera trap imagery.
Faith Chen Does predator presence influence behaviour of bilbies?
Sarah Barber Morphology of cat mandibles
Andrew Morton ‘Movement patterns of feral pigs in the Kimberley, and quantifying the impact in sensitive habitats’
Kaela Hall Caught red-handed – mitigating fox predation in free range pigs
Ed Swinhoe Foxes in urban areas
Leticia Povh Habitat selection by translocated brush wallabies
Honours
Mikayla Fisher All the better to eat you with my dear: development of jaw muscles in Western Australian urban and rural foxes (Vulpes vulpes)
Sonia T Can the flight dynamics of the Carnaby’s cockatoo be predicted from its morphology?
Michelle Barleyman Identification of species of frogs within the genus Heleioporus.
Melissa Taylor Size relationship of the tympanic bullae and pinnae in bandicoots and bilbies (Marsupialia: Peramelemorphia)
Matthew Johnson Comparing survey methods for kangaroo populations
Monique Smith Does inoculating seedlings with mycorrhizal fungi increase their growth rate
Ross Mckellar Livestock Guardian Dogs and pastured chicken farming
Ben Russell Methods for monitoring macropods and wild dogs
Tenaya Duncan Does linear clearing and associated increased mobility alter dingo diet?
Tali Moyle ‘Movements of boodies in the rangelands’
Julia White Dietary and spatial overlap between black-flanked rock-wallabies, western grey kangaroos, euros, and tammar wallabies in Paruna Sanctuary’.
Matthew Patterson Skull morphology of dugites.
Kimberley Page ‘Do bolder woylies get fatter? Individual differences in behaviour post-translocation’
Sharon Roddick ‘Livestock guardian dog protection of free-range poultry from the invasive predator, the red fox’
Sean Smithies ‘Cryptic concealment of Darling range endemic under varying forest conditions’
Joanne King ‘Predation of marine turtle nests’.
Nicki Miglori ‘Sexual selection on macropod bones’
Ash Chauvin ‘Diet of rock wallabies’.
Kiarrah Smith ‘Ecology of the ash grey mouse’.
Meg Martin ‘Sexual selection in kangaroos – muscles or sperm?’.
Sinead Allsop ‘Decreasing bait uptake by non-target species’.
Lara Osborne ‘The role of digging mammals in ecosystem health’.
Adele Thomaz ‘Do parasites affect post-translocation survival of chuditch?’.
westernWEB was formed in 2014 as collaboration between wildlife researchers at Western Australian (WA) Universities and community partners.
westernWEB 