We explored whether data mining of social media via image recognition and/or natural language processing could improve on the surveillance provided by citizens for the detection of invasive alien species. We found that for most alien vertebrate groups, the existing voluntary reporting mechanism appears to be already reasonably effective. We argue that mining citizens social media data for evidence of invasive alien species needs to demonstrate not only that it will be an improvement on the business as usual case, but also that gains achieved cannot be achieved by alternative approaches. Photograph by Peter Caley.

Understanding how feral pigs utilise their environments is an important aspect of both exotic disease modelling and pest management programs. This study aimed to investigate the influence of various ecological factors on range size and test selection of habitat. We found that range size was significantly influenced by sex, site and body mass and that feral pigs demonstrated a preference for habitat between 20% and 40% canopy cover. These findings could generate efficiencies in pest management and refinement in feral pig distribution modelling. Photograph by Nicky Webb.

Net-gunning from a helicopter is a common method of capture for many ungulates; however, impacts of this method on survival and movement patterns have not been assessed for nilgai antelope. This study estimated survival following capture by using data from three projects and compared movement patterns 1 month before capture with those 1 month after capture for a subset of collared nilgai. We recommend capturing nilgai with this method and make recommendations on censoring post-capture movement data according to the type of analysis. Photograph by Kathryn M. Sliwa.

The bourgeoning carbon economy is creating novel ways to incentivise conservation management activities that have the co-benefits of reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and social inequality. We investigated the monetary value of carbon credits that landowners could generate by reducing ecologically destructive feral populations of the Asian water buffalo (Bubalus bubalis) in northern Australia. We demonstrate that the management of feral ruminants could be incentivised by the generation of carbon credits, with the potential to simultaneously avoid GHG emissions, generate income for landowners and offer significant ecological benefits. Photograph by Jaime Heiniger.

As visitation to parks and protected areas increases, the risk of negative interactions between humans and wildlife grows. In this study, we use 2 years of survey and interview data to examine human–mountain goat interactions and current mitigation and management strategies in a British Columbian Provincial Park, Canada. This study adds to existing data relating to mitigating human–wildlife interactions and informs management decisions aimed at addressing potential and existing problems associated with these interactions. Photograph by Claudie Pageau.

Small mammals can be implicated in human–wildlife conflict and tick-borne diseases. We determined the relative activity and movement of small mammals at the urban fringe to inform management. Using camera trapping and Rhodamine B baiting, we showed that human commensal black rats were the most widespread and active small mammals in yards, but showed limited movement between yards and bushland, and a preference for bushland at low densities. This suggests that they may not be heavily dependent on anthropogenic resources. Photograph by Casey Taylor.

Home range studies have the potential to provide valuable information about faunal habitat use. Previous research has shown that koalas prefer taller individual trees at the plot scale, so we investigated whether this preference extends across areas of higher forest canopy within home ranges. We approached this task by comparing resource availability within core and non-core home range components, and found that core home ranges have a significantly higher proportion of the highest canopy class than non-core areas. Canopy height classes can be displayed on a map to provide useful information to aid habitat management. Photograph by Rafael Ben-Ari.

Population surveys are commonly used to provide population estimates and are particularly important for monitoring changes in population abundance for small or endangered populations. This study explored the potential for among-individual differences in behaviour to influence the reliability of population sampling during a short capture–mark–recapture survey of the endangered mountain pygmy-possum. We demonstrated how differences in risk-taking behaviour between population cohorts may lead to differences in the probability of recapture, driving a sampling bias during surveys. Photograph by Kyla Johnstone.