Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) is lost rapidly on a global scale. We investigated the Koiari Indigenous People’s TEK of the Vanate (Paradisaea raggiana), which is the national bird of Papua New Guinea (PNG), along the Kokoda Track in PNG. High linguistic variation in bird names was found with Koiari Indigenous People needing to conserve this bird.

The Pilbara region of Western Australia has a diverse array of wetlands. Wetlands and rivers in the region were surveyed for vascular and non-vascular aquatic plants. The region has a rich aquatic flora particularly for charophytes. Floristic composition was strongly related to wetland type and water permanence with permanent sites showing higher richness. Wetland plant communities are a significant element of the region’s biodiversity and need careful management in the context of extensive mining and pastoral land uses.

Environmental DNA (eDNA) is an emerging tool for detecting species. Here, we trialled eDNA metabarcoding to detect the Critically Endangered and little-known Arnhem rock skink (Bellatorias obiri), but were unsuccessful. Whilst eDNA metabarcoding is an emerging and powerful tool in ecology and conservation, our pilot study highlights that challenges remain in its application to for detecting rare or cryptic terrestrial reptiles.

The red fox (Vulpes vulpes) is one of the most adaptive invasive carnivorous mammals that consumes a wide variety of taxa, yet there are surprisingly few reports of red foxes hunting fish. We report an attempted predation event by an introduced red fox on a neonate green sawfish (Pristis zijsron) within a remote desert river estuarine system of Western Australia, the first known attempt by this mesocarnivore on an elasmobranch.

Plastic debris in the ocean adversely impacts human societies as well as many species and habitats, with an estimated value of USD500–2500 billion in lost ecosystem services per year. Current clean-ups often focus on volume of pollution removed, without considering the big differences in specific benefits linked to different possible sites of action. Our novel framework calculates different metrics for ‘turning off the tap’ at different river mouths by following trajectories of drifting debris through the ocean currents.

Systemic failures to survey for mature-forest dependent species in the State forests of New South Wales, Australia has irreversible consequences for biodiversity and places forest communities at risk.

The fauna in wetlands of Two Peoples Bay Nature Reserve, especially the aquatic invertebrates, have conservation value equivalent to the better-known terrestrial fauna of the Reserve. Microinvertebrate diversity and endemism are high and further studies have shown this to be typical of many crustacean groups in Western Australia. Rotifers and cladocerans are especially rich in the Reserve’s lakes.

This article belongs to the collection: The Natural History of Two Peoples Bay Nature Reserve, Western Australia.

Melanesia, centred on New Guinea, has the world’s most diverse but poorly known insular frog biota. Here, we examine how effectively a recent influx of records into iNaturalist, a citizen science platform, can address gaps in our knowledge of the distribution, diversity, and conservation status of this rich biota.