Case studies

At least 17 invasive insect species that cause significant environmental harm are already established in Australia (Invasive Species Council & Monash University 2020) (Table 4). Other non-native insect species are established, but their environmental impacts are mostly not studied. By far the most dominant group of insects that have negative impacts on the environment globally are the ants, bees and wasps (order Hymenoptera), which are social or colony-forming insects and therefore capable of forming very high densities where they occur. They also account for all but one of the non-native insect species in Australia for which there is evidence of environmental harm. These species often aggressively displace native species.

Australia is currently spending more than $60 million each year on eradication programs for 5 ant species – seeking national eradication of red imported fire ants (Solenopsis invicta), electric ants (Wasmannia auropunctata) and browsing ants (Lepisiota frauenfeldi), and partial eradication of yellow crazy ants (Anoplolepis gracilipes) in the wet tropics and Argentine ants (Linepithema humile) on Norfolk Island – because of their potential for devastating harm to native animals and impacts on people.

Dr Rachel Paltridge, Kiwirrkurra Indigenous Protected Area Coordinator, Desert Support Services

Tjalapa (also known as tjakura, warrarna, mulymidji, great desert skink or Liopholis kintorei) is a large, orange, communally living skink that occurs in the western deserts. It is classified as Vulnerable due to a decline in range over the past 50 years. The species is of enormous cultural significance, with its own Tjukurrpa (dreaming) songs, sites and stories. It is remembered as a favoured source of meat that would be ‘scaled like a fish’, was efficient to harvest from the communal burrows, was soft for children to chew and like a ‘stick of butter’ with good fat reserves (Kiwirrkurra, Ngururrpa and Martu Traditional Owners).

Key threats to tjalapa are cat predation and inappropriate fire regimes. When burrow systems are burned the lizards become highly vulnerable to predation when they emerge to defecate in their communal latrine and forage for food, and burnt burrows generally become inactive in the year after a fire. Strategic burning to maintain spinifex cover over burrows and cat control (particularly if a fire does occur) are therefore the most important management activities to protect tjalapa.

In 2016, only 12 widely separated locations where tjalapa occurred were known, with 90% of these on Indigenous-owned or Indigenous-managed land. Four new populations have been detected in the past few years, significantly expanding both the known range and the number of individual colonies. The new colonies were found largely as a result of Indigenous rangers learning from other rangers about how to find their burrows, as well as the cultural and conservation significance of tjalapa, at a series of ranger networking events organised by the Indigenous Desert Alliance.

On the Kiwirrkurra Indigenous Protected Area, tjalapa populations are monitored as an indicator of the health of Country, and to assess the effectiveness of traditional fire management and cat control practices. Using traditional tracking techniques, the rangers removed more than 200 feral cats from a 30 kilometre (km) radius around Kiwirrkurra between 2014 and 2020. Hundreds of small fires are lit every year to regenerate food plants and prevent big wildfires, with most fires less than 5 hectares in size.

Each year at the end of summer, the Kiwirrkurra rangers survey 3 transects, each 1 km × 300 m, to map active tjalapa burrows and assess the proportion that have any signs of disturbance from fire, predators or hunters. They also use motion-detector cameras to monitor predator visitation to tjalapa burrows in the spring. In 2021, the rangers mapped 78 burrows across 3 sites, 71 of which were active. The numbers have been gradually increasing over the 5 years of monitoring.

Kiwirrkurra school students help the rangers with their monitoring, and are familiar with tjalapa’s tracks, scats and burrows; where to find it; its threats; and Tjukurrpa stories.

Malcolm Lindsay (Environs Kimberley), Rachel Paltridge (Kiwirrkurra – Desert Support Services) and Angie Reid (Ngururrpa – Desert Support Services).

After the night parrot’s rediscovery in Queensland in 2013, a lot of effort was devoted across Australia to find more populations. Development by scientific experts Nick Leseberg, Steve Murphy and Nigel Jackett of techniques to record and analyse recorded bird calls provided the technology that could be combined with Indigenous knowledge of habitats, food and water resources to conduct targeted surveys for this extremely cryptic species.

The third night parrot population in Australia was discovered by the Paruku Rangers in 2017 in the Great Sandy Desert, with support from Environs Kimberley and WWF Australia. The Paruku Rangers had long conversations with their Tjurabalan community about whether to release the news, with fears of being swamped by birders or wildlife traffickers, but eventually decided to make the information public to celebrate their work, keeping the location vague. This fantastic news encouraged other desert ranger groups to search for their own night parrot populations by talking to their old people, learning from others about what to look for and conducting surveys on their Country.

In the Kimberley, to make sure any research activities were Indigenous-led, desert ranger groups formed the Kimberley Night Parrot Working Group, coordinated by Environs Kimberley with support from the Kimberley Land Council, WWF Australia, and the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions. This group successfully met to learn from the Paruku Rangers and scientists, share knowledge and equipment, plan surveys and make sure proper Indigenous engagement was occurring; and organised a night parrot workshop hosted by Paruku Rangers and attended by 6 ranger groups. The Indigenous Desert Alliance became the main forum and host for increasing Indigenous-led night parrot activity across all of desert and rangeland Australia. This culminated in the large Species of the Desert Festival, also hosted by the Paruku Rangers (supported by Rangelands NRM through funding from the Australian Government’s National Landcare Program), where a real buzz and excitement was created for rangers to talk to their communities and start looking for their own ‘fat budgie’.

Since 2017, 12 Ranger groups from Western Australia, South Australia and the Northern Territory have completed standardised night parrot surveys, with 4 confirming night parrot populations on their Country (Paruku/Ngurra Kayanta, Ngururrpa, Kanyirninpa Jukurrpa and Birriliburu). Since late 2020, in partnership with Rangelands NRM’s Night Parrot project (funded through the National Landcare Program’s Regional Land Partnerships), new and existing ranger-led night parrot surveys have been supported across the southern Kimberley and western deserts; 2 hubs have been created, led by Desert Support Services (southern deserts hub) and Environs Kimberley (northern desert hub). As a result of these new resources, the Ngururrpa Rangers have recently confirmed multiple populations across their Indigenous Protected Area, making the area covering Ngururrpa, Paruku and Ngurra Kayanta Country a critically important region for the species. These results demonstrate the significant conservation gains and effort that can occur if Traditional Owner rangers are treated as experts and lead efforts, their cultural knowledge is prioritised alongside scientific knowledge, and they are given important forums to learn and be inspired from other rangers and scientists.

We believe that this model of Indigenous-led threatened species management, supported by working groups or alliances, is a new way of working that needs investing in because it not only produces major conservation benefits for minimal cost, but empowers and gives rightful respect to Indigenous land management and stewardship of Country, traditional knowledge and culture.

The Warru Project is a longstanding collaboration between the Martu rangers of Kanyirninpa Jukurrpa (KJ) and the Western Australian Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions (DBCA).

KJ is a Martu organisation that operates a suite of environmental, cultural and social programs in Martu communities and across the Martu Native Title Determination and Karlamilyi National Park, collectively known as Martu Country. Established in 2009, the ranger program employs more than 350 Martu and has built strong partnerships with the DBCA, and neighbouring Indigenous ranger groups and supporting NGOs, such as the 10 Deserts Project and the Indigenous Desert Alliance.

Warru (black-flanked rock-wallaby – Petrogale lateralis) were common across the arid zone until pressure from feral predators and changed fire regimes reduced their range to isolated refuges in rocky ranges. Several populations occur on Martu Country, and for more than 10 years Martu rangers have been managing them with support from DBCA.

The project is guided and supported by Martu Elders, ensuring it meets the priorities of Traditional Owners. Warru is a significant species to Martu, and the gorges and waterholes that sustain warru are often places of deep cultural significance. Management activities, such as prescribed burning, are implemented to protect both cultural significance sites and warru. ‘The future generations should be working to look after Country, burning the right way, looking after rock-wallabies and waterholes,’ said Muuki Taylor OAM, KJ’s Senior Cultural Advisor. The guidance of desert-born Martu Elders has proven crucial to finding warru, with their knowledge of suitable habitat and historical populations allowing Martu rangers to confirm the presence of the species at several locations on Martu Country.

DBCA provides scientific support and specialist skills to complement the rangers’ local knowledge. In 2014, a population of warru was translocated from Kaalpi / Calvert Range to Pinpi / Durba Hills to insure against local extinction. DBCA scientists oversaw the capture, transport and release of 26 animals, which quickly established a breeding population at the new site. Since then, the population has been monitored, with Martu rangers trapping animals to obtain genetic samples. In addition, predator baiting has been conducted annually and predators monitored to assess the impact of baiting.

Mitigating the impact of wildfires is also critical to managing warru. Rangers regularly undertake prescribed burning in the winter months, establishing firebreaks along the base of the ranges and conducting landscape-scale aerial burning further afield. The rangers aim to reduce fuel loads and increase pyro-diversity, mirroring a traditional Martu-driven fire regime. A preliminary evaluation of fire management around warru habitat indicates that management has reduced the extent of fires generally, as well as limiting the number of hot, summer wildfires.

Monitoring and active management of warru has seen the populations on Martu Country not only survive but expand. By using Martu rangers’ knowledge of Country and the DBCA’s scientific expertise, the Warru Project is ensuring the future of the species on Martu Country.

Advances in the application of genetic and molecular tools and associated bioinformatic analyses has contributed to major advances in our knowledge of Australia biodiversity since the 2016 state of the environment report. Metabarcoding and next generation sequencing approaches are revolutionising our understanding of species, their distributions, ecology and their capacity to adapt to a changing environment (Dormontt et al. 2018).

Approaches such as genome skimming are facilitating the rapid, reliable and repeatable identification of plant species in the Pilbara (Nevill et al. 2020), while another approach – genotyping by sequencing – has resolved the species identification and evolutionary pattern in the taxonomically challenging Triodia basedowii complex and the description of 8 new species, some of which are of conservation concern (Anderson et al. 2017).

The use of eDNA to detect cryptic species such as the blind cave eel (Ophisternon candidum) (White et al. 2020) or to quantify the presence of a threatened highly mobile species across a landscape (Gouldian finch – Erythrura gouldiae) (Day et al. 2019) or seascape (largetooth sawfish – Pristis pristis) (Simpfendorfer et al. 2016) has provided important new insights.

Similarly, investigation into the diet of the Vulnerable ghost bat (Macroderma gigas) in the Pilbara through DNA metabarcoding analysis of faecal pellets identified 14 new prey items not previously reported in the diet as determined from the analysis of dried food remains (Claramunt et al. 2019). Such new insight will provide managers with information to ensure the continued persistence of the ghost bat. It may also allow us to see how any declines relate to dietary shifts (e.g. changes in diet that may result from incursions of invasive species, such as buffel grass or cane toads).

Rapidly increasing computing power and the ability to gather and store large quantities of data are leading to promising new tools and approaches for understanding and conserving biodiversity. Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies offer the potential to address complex problems several ways (Nishant et al. 2020). First, AI permits the automation of repetitive and time-consuming tasks, allowing humans to focus on higher-value work. Second, AI reveals insights that are otherwise trapped in massive amounts of unstructured data that once required human analysis, such as data generated by videos or photos. Third, AI can integrate thousands of computers and other resources to solve complex problems.

The application of AI for better natural resource management has been identified as an emerging potential specialisation for Australia (Hajkowicz et al. 2019). AI can provide enhanced systems for monitoring the condition of biodiversity and ecological assets. AI can also drive robotic systems for predicting, detecting and physically managing threats such as invasive plants and animals.

AI is being used in combination with Indigenous knowledge in Kakadu National Park to monitor invasion of para grass, which displaces habitat for magpie geese. A drone is flown over the landscape by an Indigenous ranger and data from the drone are downloaded, stored in a file and used to construct models that interpret the data, taking account of Indigenous knowledge of the environment and its different seasons. In this context, AI is removing the need for people to physically collect and then review thousands of hours of video to count animals and identify para grass (Cranney 2019).

In other applications, hundreds of sensor cameras are being deployed to monitor species in areas impacted by bushfires, and AI technology is being used to automatically identify species (WWF-Australia 2020). AI-powered platforms are also increasingly being used in citizen science applications and for biodiversity education resources. For example, Critterpedia is an AI-powered app to identify spider and snake species using photos (Figure 59) (Critterpedia 2021).

Figure 59 Critterpedia photos

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Figure 59 Critterpedia photos

Source: Donnellan (2020)