NSWTR 2024 HR - Flipbook - Page 44
YEAR 7-8 SECTION
ZOOS, GARDENS AND PARKS
Another way society is preserving species diversity is
through zoos and marine and national parks. These
settings educate the public about speci昀椀c animals’
conservation status, provide research and aid species
conservation through breeding programs. For example,
Taronga Zoo works with research institutes, government
and universities on everything from creating bilby
breeding sanctuaries to counter local extinction due
to introduced predators, to developing scent-based
management tools for dingoes and wild dogs, to manage
their movements with the aim of protecting livestock.
Similarly, botanic gardens and arboretums are e昀昀ective
at conserving di昀昀erent species of plants. The world’s
botanic gardens hold at least 30% of all known plant
species, and protect 41% of those classed as threatened.
Locally, scienti昀椀c researchers at the Royal Botanic Gardens
Victoria are working on the propagation of endangered
native orchids, while the Botanic Gardens of South
Australia are collaborating with the South Australian Seed
Conservation Centre to have at least 90% of their state’s
threatened plant species in a seed bank by 2025. The
global seed bank holds over 1 million crop samples!
THE ARTHUR RYLAH INSTITUTE IN VICTORIA HAS USED WHITEFLASH CAMERAS TO DETECT THREATENED SPECIES SUCH AS
LEADBEATER’S POSSUM AND LONG-FOOTED POTOROOS.
ARTHUR RYLAH INSTITUTE FOR ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH
SAY CHEESE!
Technology can directly assist endangered species, too.
Camera trapping is used to keep track of long-tailed
dunnart populations sharing the same location as a feral
fox, and acoustic monitoring gathers data on breeding by
platypuses – a species that’s preyed upon by foxes, cats
and dogs.
Drones are used to identify, count and measure
endangered native animals like scalloped hammerheads
and western quolls, and AI has even located and
identi昀椀ed koalas by analysing infrared images drones
have captured.
Smart phones can help as well. Through citizen
science apps, everyone can collect data for scienti昀椀c
researchers, who then gain insights into animal and plant
populations. FrogID is an initiative of the Australian
Museum Research Institute. Over 1 Million frogs and
220 species have been recorded in Australia since it was
launched in 2017.
“We aimed to gather the data that we need to help
make more informed conservation decisions on behalf
of Australia’s frogs and the environment in general,
and we’ve done that,” explains Dr Jodi Rowley, the
lead scientist of FrogID. “But the job doesn’t end now,
we need a long-term dataset so that we can better
understand the impact of a changing environment.
Alongside creating a long-term data set and gathering
frog records from across the country, we’re hoping to
incorporate machine learning/arti昀椀cial intelligence into
the project.”
SPECIES SURVIVAL – MORE THAN JUST SUSTAINABILITY
DRONES USE ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE TO
SCOUR FORESTS FOR KOALAS.
NSW WILDLIFE DRONE HUB/NSW DEPARTMENT OF PLANNING AND ENVIRONMENT
DR JODI ROWLEY,
CONSERVATION
BIOLOGIST AND LEAD
SCIENTIST OF FROGID.
AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM/JAMES ALCOCK
READ MORE
FROGID (AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM)
TRACKING FERAL ANIMALS WITH SENSOR
TECHNOLOGY (CSIRO)
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