In Australia, over 200 years of lethal control has done little to resolve the conflict between dingoes (Canis dingo) and livestock producers. We argue that where lethal control has failed, producers can benefit from non-lethal approaches to protect their stock that take advantage of our ever-growing knowledge of dingo biology, ecology and behaviour.

Animal welfare concerns have led to weather-based restrictions on trapping in hot weather, which may be overly conservative and unnecessarily bias or limit faunal surveys or monitoring. We experimentally measured thermal conditions in a variety of traps during hot weather at two sites in arid Australia to assess vulnerability to heat stress. Our findings show that surface traps, even in the shade, may often become lethally hot but that shaded pitfall traps, set 60 cm into the ground, can effectively buffer very hot weather. Pitfall traps can thus be safely used through the summer when many reptiles are most active.

Tasmanian devils are severely threatened in the wild by devil facial tumour disease, which has devastated wild populations. We analysed field-survey data from the only known disease-free population and found a surprising decline in female breeding rates over time. The results highlight the importance of monitoring apparently ‘safe’ populations of threatened species, to detect other threatening processes.

The blue sheep is an important prey for the snow leopard, but little advances have been made in developing a reliable method for its population estimation. Our study established seasonal baseline estimates of blue sheep abundance and density using a refined survey method. This method can be adopted as a standard technique for estimating blue sheep populations in the Himalayas.

Estimates of the variation in the abundance wild populations are key to understand basic aspects of wildlife ecology and the effects of human activities. We modeled the spatial structure of the lesser rhea in Península Valdés, Patagonia, and identified the main variables involved. While greener vegetation was associated with a higher number of birds, human presence had a strong negative effect. Spatial modeling techniques are crucial to identify and target conservation actions across socio-ecological landscapes.

Kentish plover clutch protection programs are run to minimize predation and exposure to human impacts. Here we analyse the advantages and threats of protection measures. We found that exclosures greatly increase hatching success, but are also related to an increasing harassment of incubating adults. This study suggests that the protection measures should be tested and adapted to each particular area.

We add new component of ecosystems for to use as indicator, the Argentine tarantula Grammostola vachoni. We performed a characterisation of the microhabitat of G. vachoni at sites with different disturbance regimes for analysed the potential use of this species as a bioindicator of mountain grassland health. We found significant differences in the number of individuals and the percentage of occupation between sites. We propose for the first time a Theraphosidae species as bioindicator for health of a natural grassland.

Gap-based silviculture is a small-scale management strategy that yields noticeable variation in canopy structure and microclimate conditions within forests. We used movement and body temperature data to evaluate how Eastern Box Turtles, a temperature sensitive reptile, respond to thermal variability generated by gap-based silviculture. We found that turtle body temperatures closely aligned with forest gaps during some parts of the day and year; thus, gap-based silviculture may provide thermoregulatory opportunities for some reptile species.

An unsuccessful rat eradication attempt on Wake Atoll was partially attributed to failure to treat a marshy intertidal zone. We developed and tested a bait application strategy to safely treat tidally inundated habitats on Wake and other islands. These methods minimise contamination of the marine environment while improving the odds of success for future rodent eradication and island restoration campaigns.

We evaluated temporal shifts in prey frequency in cat and dingo diets in northern Australia over a ~30-year period spanning a severe decline in the small- and medium-sized mammal fauna. Prey composition in dingo and cat diets changed significantly, with substantial decreases in the frequency of small-sized mammals but persistence of medium-sized mammalian prey. Predation by multiple species, in concert with other disturbance processes in the region, may play an important role in the decline of some species and limit their recovery.