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RZS NSW Events


RZS NSW hosts various events during the year.

Annual Scientific Forum

Join us and other zoologists to hear about and discuss various views on a current and relevant topic. The annual scientific forum is a great opportunity to network and catch up.


Wildlife at the Watering Hole

Join us monthly at the Rose of Australia to have an informal discussion on a topic that is bound to get you hooked.


Zoology Career Expo

Do you want a career in Zoology? Come and hear first hand what some of your options are. 


Upcoming events

    • 17 February 2025
    • 6:00 PM - 7:30 PM
    • Rose of Australia Hotel, 1 Swanston St, Erskineville, NSW, 2043.
    Register


    Can you hear me now? The animal world in a noisy Anthropocene

    Dr Ben Walker

    Our world is getting noisier, and it’s getting harder for animals to hear one another over humans. Come along to hear me talk about the changes our animals may be facing, and how current research may help us find where animals are, what they’re saying, and what that might mean in the Anthropocene.

    About Ben:

    https://benjjwalker.github.io/portfolio/

    I am an evolutionary ecologist with an interest in broadscale macroevolutionary and macroecological approaches, statistical modelling, and applied outcomes of ecological and environmental management. I have worked on diverse systems across vertebrates, from whales to frogs (and all the felids, canids, bats, and birds in between). I completed my PhD at UNSW on the evolution of extreme acoustic traits – animal source levels and sound propagation.

    • 30 August 2025
    • 8:30 AM - 4:30 PM
    • Australian Museum

    Monotremes, as the only living non-therian mammals, are an ancient group that has existed in Australia, New Guinea, South America and Antarctica since at least the Cretaceous. Although represented by very few species today, they were far more diverse in Australia when dinosaurs ruled the roost, but soon became less diverse and more specialised in the shadow of the expanding marsupial and placental mammal dynasties throughout the Cenozoic. Despite this long-term decline, they continued to thrive in Australia and New Guinea after the geographic isolation of the Australian continent but subsequently went extinct in Antarctica and South America. Why they survived in Australia and New Guinea but not South America remains a mystery.

    Today, the aquatic platypus and terrestrial short-beaked echidna are the only monotremes left in Australia, with three additional long-beaked echidna species found only in New Guinea. All these enigmatic egg-laying mammals are highly specialised invertebrate eaters, each with its own highly specialised morphology suited to specific diets and lifestyles. Although an important part of Australia’s globally unique wildlife and the focus of considerable ongoing conservation efforts, much is still unknown about monotreme evolution, taxonomy, morphology, behaviour and ecology.

    This Forum will significantly expand current understanding about monotremes with new research presented about the living species as well as the fossil record of South America, Australia and New Guinea. This should provide, among other things, important insights into the best ways to develop conservation strategies to ensure these fascinating but too often threatened mammals survive into the future.

    If you are interested in presenting a paper or poster at this Forum and/or contributing a manuscript for potential publication, please contact Dr Pat Hutchings (pat.hutchings@australian.museum).

    Registration

    Registration will open soon.

    Forum Flyer

    RZS NSW 2025 Forum Flyer (24 January 2025).


The Royal Zoological Society of NSW aims to promote and advance the science of zoology and protect, preserve and conserve the indigenous animals of Australasia and their associated habitats

Australian Business Number (ABN) : 31 000 007 518

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