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• Wildlife at the Watering Hole - August - Dr Patt Finnerty

  • When
    19 August 2024
  •  
    6:00 PM - 7:30 PM
  • Location
    Rose of Australia Hotel, 1 Swanston St, Erskineville, NSW, 2043.

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  Herbivore induced headaches - could the smell of avoided plants be a much-needed antidote?

  Dr Patt Finnerty

  Globally, mammalian herbivore browsing can have costly consequences, destroying plants of ecological and economical value. Current solutions to problematic herbivory traditionally use lethal control efforts or fencing. These approaches can be costly and increasingly limited by practicalities, concerns over animal welfare, and non-target ecological effects. Alternative management solutions are needed. We have only recently uncovered the importance of plant odour being key in mammalian herbivores deciding where to go, and what to eat. With this understanding, we developed a new approach to define and artificially replicate the informative odour emitted by plants undesirable to herbivores. Focusing on swamp wallabies in Australia, and African Elephants in Southern Africa, we showed that artificial odours, or ‘virtual’ neighbours mimicking avoided plant smell can successfully be deployed to nudge problematic animals (whether macropods, or megaherbivores) away from plants we are trying to protect.
  

  About Patt:

  

  I am a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Sydney. I recently completed my PhD in ecology and conservation. My research focused on integrating principles of animal behaviour and sensory ecology to develop alterative wildlife management solutions. Specifically, my fieldwork was split across two continents. exploring ways to mitigate browsing damages caused by swamp wallabies in national parks here in Sydney, and African elephants in Southern Africa. However, I am now investigating something completely different, and am part of a team developing an urban rewilding programme for native species re-introduction in Sydney.

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• RZS NSW Forum 2024. Wildlife and the Climate Emergency: Past, Present and Prospects

  • When
    07 September 2024
  •  
    8:30 AM - 5:00 PM
  • Location
    Australian Museum, 1 William Street, Sydney, 2000

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  Climate change continues to affect ecosystems and humanity more broadly, yet we are still trying to understand how wildlife are responding. The 2024 Royal Zoological Society of NSW scientific forum will bring together speakers from diverse fields to focus on:
  

  (1) what we can learn from the past, in terms of wildlife responses to shifting climates through Earth’s history,

  (2) wildlife responses to the industrial-era warming of our oceans and continents, and

  (3) the prospects for wildlife in the future, including how they might be affected by climate mitigation and adaptation strategies.

  As the world continues to grapple with extreme climatic conditions because of escalating global temperatures, our wildlife are forced to respond. Such responses may be a deciding factor in predicting species’ susceptibility to this threat to biodiversity. We must therefore learn how species are surviving climate-related responses including exceptional heat waves, warming oceans, extreme weather, megafires, floods and even zoonotic disease and invasive species spread. But we must also consider how wildlife might benefit from habitat manipulation or technological approaches being used, or considered, to reduce our climate footprint. The escalating problem of climate change requires diverse voices and novel ideas, and this forum will provide ample opportunity for discussion and debate about how we can best address the uncharted territory that life on planet Earth is now experiencing.

  Download the forum flyer

  Download the (draft) forum program

  (Draft program as at 21 June 2024)

  Registration

  Registration is now open with early bird rates until 14 August 2024.

  RZS NSW Member rates are available. If you are not a member, you can join online today and get access to the member registration rates.

  	Early Bird to 14 August	From 15 August
  RZS NSW Member	$80	$110
  Non Member	$185	$220
  RZS NSW Student Member	$20	$40

  
  

  
  

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