Daniel Lunney

Chris R. Dickman

A Symposium on the Dingo

Pat Hutchings

Dieter Hochuli

On 3 November 2007, the Royal Zoological Society of NSW held its annual forum, with the topic being The natural history of Sydney. It has remained as the title of this book. The program contained the following introduction as the theme of the forum and it has remained as the theme for this book: “Sydney has a unique natural history, providing a home for iconic animals and plants while remaining a global city. It captured the imagination of prominent naturalists and inspired visits and collecting trips to the infant colony of New South Wales in the late 1790s and early to late 1800s. From these collections flowed great descriptive works detailing the new and unusual animals and plants of the antipodes. Gould, Owen, Huxley, Peron, Banks and many others recounted new and evocative flora and fauna. Many collecting trips for the great museums and institutions in Europe began in Sydney. Sydney still continues to engage naturalists and those grappling with the current drama of climate change and conservation. The Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales, founded in Sydney in 1879, is a product of the grand 19th century tradition of natural history, with a particular emphasis on animal life. Sydney is also home to some of Australia’s oldest and finest institutions, such as the Australian Museum, the University of Sydney and the Royal Botanic Gardens. Throughout Sydney, there are places where the natural habitat has not been supplanted by urban growth, and the interest in Sydney’s endemic flora and fauna remains strong. This forum draws on a magnificent interdisciplinary vision while continuing to employ all the modern tools in the investigation and communication of Sydney’s natural history. It reflects a resurgence in local history and pursues the natural history of our harbour-side city in a modern framework.” The day of the forum was a captivating display of the diversity of the fauna of Sydney, both native and introduced, and its varied habitats, and of the diverse ways of appreciating natural history, including the history of natural history. Also on display was the depth of scholarship lying behind each of the presentations. The subject clearly has a profound hold on many professional biologists, historians and those keen to conserve their local area, but if the day is any guide, there are vastly more people living in or visiting Sydney who have more than a passing interest in this topic. The subject matter ranged from the history of institutions engaged in natural history, through animal groups as diverse as reptiles and cicadas, to ideas on how to see Sydney as a natural setting. Other papers dealt with the use by Aboriginal peopleof the native biota in terms of fishing and being displayed in rock paintings, before the arrival of the colonists. There is little doubt that this theme could run to 10 volumes, not just this one, but the diversity of ideas, skills and organisms displayed in this one book will serve as a guide to what lies beyond these pages. A considerable effort was made by each author to present their material as both interesting and accurate. The material is built on lifetimes of sustained effort to study, record and communicate findings and ideas. It is also built on the lifetime work of our predecessors, who laboured to find and record the natural history of Sydney. We are indebted to their efforts. This book records not only the outcome of a successful day of presentations, but more importantly the lifelong scholarship of those authors in each of the specialist fields. Not only have the authors been absorbed by documenting the biodiversity, they have included studies, or intelligent speculation, on the factors which have impacted on this diversity since Cook sailed along the NSW coast in 1770. The Macquarie Dictionary, e.g. the revised third edition, defines ‘natural history’ as ‘the science or study dealing with all objects in nature’, and ‘the aggregate of knowledge connected with such knowledge’. This makes natural history of wide interest to the entire community of Sydney, both residents and visitors. However, we have specialised to the extent that we have focused principally on fauna, the RZS being a zoological society. Nevertheless, plant communities are recognised as part and parcel of the natural history of Sydney, as is a sense of the geography of the city, with its magnificent harbour, sandstone backdrop and spectacular national parks surrounding the city. Also of great importance is how others in the past have seen the natural history of what is now called Sydney. All these ideas are captured in this book. One of the strengths of being a naturalist, i.e. ‘one who is versed in or devoted to natural history, especially a zoologist or botanist’ (Macquarie Dictionary), is the opportunity to look across the individual disciplines, be it a specialist in birds, mammals or polychaetes, a taxonomist, or an ecologist or writer. Their advantage is the ability to see the richness of a place such as Sydney. Consequently, most botanists and zoologists have one or two highly specialised skills, but a keen interest in the broader picture and can thus appreciate the importance of, for example, cave art or fish diversity in the harbour, and recognise that the vertebrate fauna of Sydney has changed over the 222 years since European settlement, and no doubt the invertebrate fauna has changed although it is less easily assessed. Our aim in this book is to draw attention to the natural history of Sydney for scholars, as well as those who have the task of looking after a particular area, such as within a local government area, or a particular taxon, such as reptiles or fish, and those who have the opportunity to conserve areas, taxa or institutions through their employment or legislative responsibilities. It is also for teachers and lecturers, colleagues in other cities and towns in Australia, and those with a keen interest in managing our urban wildlife, our cultural heritage or promoting the profound value of our natural heritage within a city landscape. It also displays the importance of museum and herbarium collections in documenting the changes since 1770.

The Natural History of Sydney

When that outspoken, provocative science communicator Paul Willis, then of ABC TV’s Catalyst, raised the option of the topic of wildlife and climate change for the 2010 RZS forum, fellow councillors of the Royal Zoological Society of NSW hesitated. As scientists, we knew that, for this subject, long-term studies were essential, although finding support for such studies is difficult, and setting up experiments in the field brought new challenges in design. It was apparent that climate change would exacerbate existing threats, such as the impacts of land clearing, pollution, drought, altered fire regimes and over-exploitation, as well as the issues of threatened species management and invasive species. It would make some locations less habitable for native fauna and flora but more habitable for invasive species, and land clearing and fragmentation would hinder adaptation by species to a changed climate. The challenge to manage this subject in a one-day forum was daunting, but we were concerned that zoological aspects of climate change were being overshadowed by the politics of the matter, such as who pays for the mitigation of the causes of climate change. The need to develop adaptation strategies for our wildlife is pressing, but it will take time to design, test and implement them for the predicted harsher world in which wildlife survival chances will have been further diminished. However, the RZS took on the idea, and the day attracted a wide range of views and studies. We are better for the leap, and more importantly, so is the Australian fauna. aul Willis, with characteristic boldness, added the subtitle of ‘towards robust conservation strategies for Australian fauna’. It was clearly no use just standing there wringing one’s hands and wondering what to do about wildlife and climate change, or hoping someone else would do something. The real need is to identify the target - robust conservation strategies - and work towards it, and to encourage others to think positively about their work and the direction it might be going. Being zoologists, we narrowed the broad theme of climate change to wildlife. Wildlife under some definitions, such as the New South Wales National Parks and Wildlife Act 1974, includes plants, and although they are included in this forum, we kept our focus on animals. We could have used the term biodiversity, knowing it is usually recognised as encompassing genetic diversity, species diversity and ecosystem diversity. However, the term does not have the immediacy to it that the word ‘wildlife’ conjures up. The word ‘wildlife’ continues to resonate publicly with a great number of people, and it carries with it a sense of responsibility, from backyards in cities to the remote corners of nature reserves. We are happy as scientists to use the words interchangeably, but as zoologists, we know that animals appeal to many of our senses because of their appearance and because they capture the imagination. Biodiversity is more conceptual, and that’s fine for constructing policies, management programs and for bracketing the variety of life on Earth into one word. While we also used the word ‘fauna’, ‘wildlife’ was chosen in the opening words because the phrase ‘wildlife and climate change’ has that special resonance. However, we did use fauna in the second part of the title because it captures a sense of the animals at a location, that location here being Australia. When we wrote the flyer for the forum, which was held on Saturday, 23 October 2010 at the ANZ Conservation Lecture Theatre at Taronga Zoo, Mosman, we added a lead paragraph to give a sense of the intent of the day. A lightly-edited version of that paragraph is as follows: As awareness of climate change issues increases across society, questions arise about the possible effects on fauna, and what may need to be done to help conserve ecosystems and their wildlife populations. The key element of this forum – its focus on Australian fauna – provides an opportunity for researchers to exchange ideas and findings on the likely impacts of climate change on the particular animals and environments they study. Many future impacts are expected to be negative for fauna, including shrinking geographic ranges, increasing fragmentation of distributions, altered competitive regimes with invasive species, and increased extinction rates. Further, these impacts will be imposed on species and systems already stressed by human disturbance. The forum will discuss the potential of the Australian terrestrial fauna to adapt “under its own steam”, and the way in which management policy and practice must also adapt in a warming world. Climate change will have many different types of ecological impacts, affecting the abundance and distribution of animals and plants, interactions between species, how threats affect species, and the functioning of ecosystems. Importantly, different species will respond in different ways. The aim of the forum is to discuss the research findings and consider options for the adaptation of our fauna to a changed climate. This forum looks at both ecosystems and species, and from quite different perspectives. Climate change compounds the existing suite of threats that have already drastically changed the distribution and numbers of Australian animal populations, and strategies to assist the Australian fauna adapt to climate change will need to bear these existing threats in mind if they are to be robust. Paul Adam captures this point succinctly in his view that climate change is not a valid excuse for failing to address other threats. The plenary sessions were interposed during the day to raise questions, to put forward new ideas and consider new lines of research and policy development. The plenary sessions, which were recorded professionally by Spark and Cannon, are published here along with the papers presented, both those spoken as well as those presented as posters. We are indeed grateful to Daniel Keogh, a Catalyst colleague of Paul Willis, for so ably managing the plenary sessions so that everyone in the theatre had a chance of contributing. The forum prompted two extra papers to be written, one by Gary Luck and the other by Harry Recher. As editors, we have drawn the threads together in a final paper to give some more background to the climate change debate from a zoological perspective. We are indebted to all the authors who persisted in carefully turning their presentations into written works, and responding to the referees’ comments. We also appreciate Matt England writing the Foreword so that we can see the climatological context in which zoologists work as we face a harsher world. We are also indebted to all the referees, and each paper was independently reviewed by more than one referee. Also, each paper was edited by us for consistency of style for this publication. As editors, we have enjoyed the process, valued the outcomes, and we look forward to a stronger accent in the future on our national effort to conserve our wildlife in the face of a changing climate.

Towards robust conservation strategies for Australian fauna

Wildlife and Climate Change

Bradley Law

Peggy Eby

Lindy Lumsden

This book, the Biology and Conservation of Australasian Bats, follows from the successful 3-day forum of the same name held in April 2007 at the Australian Museum. The forum was organised jointly by the Royal Zoological Society of NSW and the Australasian Bat Society.

Daniel Lunney

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