Monash University Biological Society 2011
Newsletter 5.0
Contents:
1.
Cactus Injecting 27th - 29th June.
2.
Mornington Peninsula National Park Camp
3.
Environmental Mix Night Recap
4.
Hoodies: Stylish and Snuggly
5.
Volunteering: Marine Life Conservation Placement Mauritius
6.
Volunteering: Assistance with monitors honour project in WA
7. Volunteering: Field assistant needed for a behavioural ecology and demography
project on Galápagos sea lions in Santa Cruz.
8.
Volunteering: Squid project
9.
Flyaway- Help Save Habitat for Migratory Birds
10.
Volunteering: Volunteers required for a behavioural response study on
Humpback Whales
1.
Cactus Injecting Camp 27th - 29th
We're having another Cactus Injecting Camp in the holidays from Monday 27th to Wednesday 29th
of June. Rest assured in this weather we will be staying indoors with accommodation kindly provided
by our hosts. If you'd like to join in the effort on removing an invasive weed species or just simply
want to stab some cacti, give us a shout at enquiries@biologicalsociety.com.au. The accommodation
and food is free, just provide yourselves.
2. Mornington Peninsula National Park Camp 19th – 22 July (final week of mid year
break)
Yup that’s right; the Monash Biological Society has organized a trip to the Mornington Peninsula
National Park! Accommodation (which is free!) will be in the Greens Bush section of the national
park, which is home to the largest population of kangaroos on the peninsula. We will be staying in a
volunteer lodge, with a cozy open fireplace – no camping in the middle of winter for us! Activities
will include helping park rangers with woody weed sweeps; a koala survey at the Coolart Wetlands;
and possibly work in the native nursery. There will also be plenty of free time for bushwalks in the
amazing and diverse national park.
The accommodation will be free, petrol will be subsidized by us for those carpooling and the only
other expense will be pitching in for food.
So go on to our website to sign up (limited places available so be quick!!)
www.biologicalsociety.com.au/events. For more information contact
vice.president@biologicalsociety.com.au
3.
Environmental Industry Mixer Night 2011, Tuesday 10th May Recap
The night was a great success and we would like to thank all those who attended and helped make it
so. We're already looking forward to next year's night, and in order to make it even better we'd love
to hear any opinions or suggestions you have. This is a night designed to help and inform you about
your job options so send us an email to education.officer@biologicalsociety.com.au if you have any
ideas or criticisms of the night.
4.
Hoodies!!
Well the hoodies have proven so popular; we've completely run out and have had to order more in.
They're due to arrive in time for next semester so be prepared to grab them quick, these fashionable
yet totally snuggable hoodies will go fast.
5.
Volunteering: Marine Life Conservation Placement Mauritius
If you're interested in travelling in a beautiful holiday destination and doing some conservation work
at the same time, the Uni Break program run by Antipodeans could be exactly what you're looking
for.
Students can travel Mauritius and work as volunteers on two different marine life conservation
projects for a total of 4 weeks (longer if desired). While in Mauritius, students have the opportunity
to gain valuable insight and experience working on Dolphin and Whale Monitoring or Green Turtle
and Reef Conservation projects. The Dolphin and Whale monitoring project allows students to be
involved in research, data collection and information sessions aiming to increase environmental
awareness in the community. While working on the Green Turtle project, students track and monitor
turtles in order to collect and analyse data on turtles' ecology and behaviour. Students also
participate in scuba diving and snorkelling allowing them to assess damage to Mauritian reefs and
identify any possible environmental threats.
Applying for a place in the program is easy; simply fill in the Online Application Form at this link
http://www.antipodeans.com.au/Programs/Unibreak/How-To-Apply/UniBreak-Online-App.htm
Antipodeans will then review your application and be in contact with you shortly afterwards. If
accepted, you will then need to return your booking form and deposit in order to secure your place
on the UniBreak program. For more information, contact georgia@antipodeans.com.au.
6.
Volunteering: Assistance with monitors honour project in WA
We've recently received an email from an honours student with another wonderful volunteering
opportunity for keen students. Read the email below to learn more:
Hi,
I’m doing my honours at Monash this year and am half-way through my field work but really need
some volunteers to help. My field work is along the Ord River in Kununurra W.A, where it is sunny
and warm every day, so if you want to escape Melbourne’s cold winter, come up and give some
much needed help.
Volunteers will help set up cameras at nests of the Crimson Finch to catch predation events in the
act as well as monitor nests and help run some cool experiments in the field. Check out the photos
we’ve already got so far! (Note: couldn't put them in an email sorry guys!- Bio. Soc. Editor)
Accommodation is FREE and I am staying right along the River.
If anyone is interested in coming up in June, it would be a great help as I currently have no
volunteers then and really need some help.
If you’re interested send me an email at rlsoa1@student.monash.edu.
Cheers,
Bek Soanes.
7. Volunteering: Field assistant needed for a behavioural ecology and demography
project on Galápagos sea lions in Santa Cruz.
We've got another volunteering opportunity for our members, this time all the way over in Santa
Cruz. Kristine Meise has sent us an email explaining all the details of the project and requirements
of volunteers, details below:
We are currently looking for a highly motivated field assistant to
participate in our international field project on behavioural ecology
and demography of Galápagos sea lions (Zalophus wollebaeki). Since
2003, we are investigating a population of sea lions on a little islet
(Caamaño), determining female and male reproductive success, pup
growth, social structure and demography in a study population of about
1000 animals. The project is run by Kristine Meise, Paolo Piedrahita
and Prof. Fritz Trillmich (University of Bielefeld, Germany).
The field site is situated on a small (500m diameter), uninhabited
islet off Santa Cruz. To investigate growth, reproductive success and
social structure we run a regular recapture and resighting program.
The field assistant will participate in all aspects of this program.
Field work will be demanding. Participants have to live in tents the
entire field season and share in all camp duties (cooking, cleaning,
daily data entry, etc.). No sanitary facilities are available and we
provide sweet water only for drinking and cooking. All gear needs to
be transported to the islet via a difficult landing and camp
conditions are primitive, including mostly tinned food. Due to the
long stay in this rough situation volunteers need to be physically
capable. Preferences will be given to candidates with prior field work
experience, especially those who have worked with pinnipeds before.
Field assistants are expected to stay for the entire field season (~
end of August until the middle of December). We cover travel and
living expenses.
The language at the camp will be English and Spanish.
If you are interested, please send an application in English
(including a letter of motivation, two references and your curriculum
vitae) until June, 15th 2011 to the following address:
kristine.meise@uni-bielefeld.de
Kristine Meise
Galápagos Sea Lion Project
University of Bielefeld
Department of Behavioural Biology
8.
Volunteering: Southern Dumpling Squid
For those who'd prefer a volunteering experience a bit closer to home, we've got a great one for
you:
I am a Masters student at Melbourne Uni and my project involves
looking at the mating behaviour of the Southern dumpling squid. These
squid are so cute but quite demanding. So I am looking for volunteers
interested in helping with the husbandry. What this involves is
collecting shrimp, feeding the squid and checking the squid. I have
about 60 squid housed at the Victorian Marine Science Consortium in
Queenscliff.
I would really need you to commit to 1 day per week for at least four
weeks. They get fed 3 times a week, so you would need to be available
Monday, Wednesday or Friday. It usually takes about half a day.
Let me know if you are interested.
My email is a.franklin@student.unimelb.edu.au
9.
Flyaway- Help Save Habitat for Migratory Birds
One of our members has emailed us about an issue recently covered in one of their lectures, loss of
habitat in South-East Asian countries for migratory shorebirds.
While Australia is working to conserve habitat for these birds here, there needs to be a culminate
effort to maintain appropriate habitat at both ends of their migration and at stopover points. The
problem is that significant amounts of this stopover habitat (which are usually mudflats), is being
damaged or reclaimed in these South-East Asian countries, making it effectively useless for the birds.
It becomes a sort of bottleneck, where regardless of what we do with shorebird habitat here in
Australia, the birds will always be limited by how much habitat is available in these stopover
countries, because they can't complete their migrations without them.
Australia has treaties with a number of these countries (Japan, China, Korea), which are meant to
protect and maintain sustainable populations of these birds, but in reality not much is being done
about it. Basically, the minister needs to get in the ear of these countries about fulfilling the treaties,
and writing letters to the minister is an important way of getting some action.
If you want to get involved, this link http://www.awsg.org.au/pdfs/minutes-to-midnight.pdf outlines
the major issues about the Flyway, and shows the appropriate ministers and ambassadors to write
to. Individual letters are much more effective than template/mass-produced letters so please take
the time to write one and help bring attention to this important issue.
10. Volunteers required for a behavioural response study on Humpback Whales
Here's a great opportunity for an enthusiastic aspiring zoologist to get out there and experience a
real research study. The University of Queensland wants volunteers for a seven week behavioural
response study on humpback whales from 7/9 to the 30/10. More information on the project and its
requirements below:
The Cetacean Ecology and Acoustics Lab at the University of Queensland
is seeking applications from volunteers for a seven week behavioural
response study (BRS) on humpback whales from September 7 to October 30
this year. The study will examine how humpback whale behaviour is
affected by noise from seismic air guns. It is the second in a series
of studies, known as the Behavioural Responses of Australian Humpback
whales to Seismic Surveys (BRAHSS) project, that will examine this
issue over four years in collaboration with the University of Sydney,
Curtin University, and the Australian Marine Mammal Centre.
The 2011 study will be conducted at Peregian Beach on the Sunshine
Coast, just north of Brisbane, and follows several successful studies
of humpback whale vocalisations and behaviour at the same site during
the Humpback whale Acoustic Research Collaboration (HARC) as well as a
very successful first year of BRAHSS in 2010 (www.uq.edu.au/whale;
www.sydney.edu.au/usims/brahss).
Volunteers are required mainly to conduct land-based observations of
the whales as they pass our study site. Approximately 3,000 whales
should migrate southwards within 10km of Peregian Beach during the
field period making the site ideal for land-based tracking and
observations of behaviour. We will also have a fixed hydrophone array
moored offshore allowing us to record ambient noise and whale
vocalisations and acoustically track singing whales in real time as
well a second array of acoustic recorders deployed in the area for
propagation modelling and recording the airgun signals. Some whales
will be tagged with Dtags or satellite tags. Although volunteers will
be used to help out on the boats, opportunities for volunteers to
participate in boat work are limited and most time will be spent doing
land-based observations. Volunteers will also have opportunities to
participate in the acoustic recording and tracking of whales.
Individual volunteers will spend approximately five hours daily (in
two shifts) counting and observing passing whales from the land.
Volunteers will get at least one day off per week, usually during bad
weather. Due to the complex nature of the study, volunteers will
receive detailed training at the beginning of the project and
therefore successful applicants must be available for the entire
duration of the project.
Volunteers must be sociable as they will be expected to work and live
as part of teams with shared cooking and cleaning duties. We expect
that there will be up to 60 people (researchers, staff and volunteers)
at the site. Volunteers must organise and pay for their own transport
to the study site (close to Brisbane international airport) but food
and accommodation are provided once there. As meals are communal,
fussy eaters are discouraged from applying! (vegetarians are fine).
This project will suit people with a background in science (including
recent graduates and graduate students as well as higher level
undergraduate students) keen to gain experience in cetacean survey
techniques, acoustics and behavioural response studies. Applicants
should also be highly motivated and able to concentrate for several
hours at a time. Those with previous survey experience of marine
mammals or other taxa will be preferred.
Applicants should reply with an email to Michael Noad
(mnoad@uq.edu.au), Rebecca Dunlop (r.dunlop@uq.edu.au) and Elise
Godwin (e.godwin@uq.edu.au) outlining why they would be suitable for
this survey, why they would like to participate, an outline of
previous relevant experience, and any other relevant details. The
email should include an attached CV and the names and contact details
of two professional referees. The closing date for applications is 31
May and successful applicants will be notified during June. A second
call for volunteers will be placed on Marmam in early May.