ANSC2005

AUSTRALIAS BIODIVERSITY IN A
CHANGING ENVIRONMENT






























WEEK 1: Lecture 1- Vertebrate Diversity and Evolution
What is an animal?
- Multicellular, heterotrophic eukaryotes with tissues that develop from embryonic layers
- Main characteristics
o Nutritional mode
o Cell structure and specialisation
o Reproduction and development

What is a Vertebrate
- Animals that belong to the phylum chordata and have
a vertebral column and specialised sensory organs
- Highly wide spread group (geographically)
- Different morphologies- 57000 species (mammals,
chrondrichthyes- sharks, frogs, birds etc.)
- Diverse in size and length
- New species are being discovered every day
- Live in extreme habitats- extreme heat, cold, altitude
and depth etc.
- Different feeding habits- aboreal (in trees), aerial (in
the air), fossorial (underground), aquatic (sea-marine,
rivers and streams- lotic, lakes-lacustrine), amphibious
(water and land, air and water)

Phylum Chordata
- Embryonic stages of all chordates
1. A dorsal hollow nerve cord (which develops into the brain)
2. A notochord- a flexible, longitudinal rod located between the digestive tract and the nerve
cord
3. Pharyngeal slits- gill structures in the pharynx, the region of the digestive tube just behind the
mouth- fill develop into the respiratory system
4. A post-anal tail- a tail to the rear of the anus

Classification of Vertebrates
- Every organism has a unique binomial name (Genus species)
- Provides a classification system with internationally recognisable names
- Helps to explain evolutionary relationships
- E.g.: Humans
o Kingdom: Animalia- organisms able to move on their own
o Phylum: Chordata- animals with a backbone
o Class: Mammalia- Chordates with fur, hair and mild glands
o Order: Primates- Mammals with collar bones and grasping fingers
o Family: Hominids- Primates with relatively flat faces and 3D vision
o Genus: Homo- Hominids with upright posture and large brains
o Species: Homo sapiens- members of the genus Homo with
a high forehead and skin skull bones
- A taxons evolutionary history is its phylogeny and it can be
represented in a branching diagram called a phylogenetic tree















Not all chordates are vertebrates


























Natural history and evolution of
Vertebrates (DO NOT LEARN THIS)
- Continental drift (movement
of the tectonic plates) is
critical to the understanding
of the evolution of
vertebrates












Cambrian period:
- 6 major land masses including Gondwana
- High Sea levels and hot dry weather
- Terrestrial flora with green algae












Palaeozoic Era:
 - Continents form Pangea (40% of earths surface)
- Oscillated seas levels and a variety of climates across Pangea
- Forests of gymnosperms








Carboniferous Period:
- Continents beginning to drift together
- Cooler and more moisture, major glaciations
- Communities of vascular plants and invertebrates (exoskeleton
present)

Cenozoic Era:
- Position of the continents similar to modern era
 - Current ocean circulation
- Expanding vegetation led to diversification of vertebrates



Faunal Migration routes and barriers in the Cenozoic Era (he said this was important and then spent like 0.5 of a second on it)













Overview of Vertebrate Diversity (START
ABSORBING AGAIN)

There are two major groups of vertebrates distinguished

on the basis of an innovation in embryonic development
- 3 membranes formed by tissues that come
from the embryo itself
o Chorion: exchange gases between the
embryo and the air (with the allantois)
o Allantois: disposal of metabolic wastes
o Amnion: protects the embryo in a
fluid-filled cavity that cushions against
mechanical shock stops the embryo
from drying up






The division between non-amnioties and amniotes corresponds roughly
to aquatic and terrestrial vertebrates, although a few fish and
amphibians lay non-amniotic eggs in a nest on land.

Obstacles from water to land (learn these three
well)








Most Primitive vertebrates
- Hagfish- no skeleton or notochord
- Lampreys- early version of a vertebral column
Main characteristics of Vertebrates
- Cartilaginous and bony fish
o Powerful jaws (sharks and fish)
o Bony skeleton reinforced by calcium and a
flexible cartilaginous skeleton
o Lateral line
o Swim bladder
- Amphibians
o Tetrapods
o Deposit eggs in the water
o Aquatic larvae
o Moist skin
- Reptiles
o Ectotherms (absorbs heat from the surroundings)
o Waterproof skin covered in scales
o Breath air through the lungs
o Amniotic eggs
- Birds
o Endotherms (uses its own metabolism to maintain
body heat)
o Light skeleton with honeycombed bones (for
flying)
o Airfoil shaped wings
o Gizzard grinds food internally- no need for teeth
o Feathers made of keratin providing insulin without
weight to enable flight
- Mammals
o Most embryos develop in utero
o Hair and subcutaneous fat (help to retain heat
o Mammary glands (produce milk rich in
macronutrients and vitamins)
o Differentiation of teeth (for efficient eating)

Airfoil shaped wing



Lecture 2- Vertebrate Relationships and Basic Structure

Phylogeny of the animal
kingdom:
- Animals are
categorised according
to general features of
morphology and
development
- 1st branch
distinguishes sponges
from all other animals
based on structural
complexity
o Sponges are
multicellular,
but lack true
tissues (e.g.:
nervous
tissue) that
more
complex
organisms
have have specialised cells that can transport nutrients, reproduce but no tissue
Tissue a group of specialised cells with a similar origin and a similar specific function
o The first branch point of the phylogenetic tree is animals with true tissue vs. animals with no true
tissue (Porifera)
- 2nd Branch- major evolutionary split based on body symmetry (radial vs. bilateral symmetry)
o Animals with radial symmetry can be cut in half any way to give two symmetrical halves
o Bilateral symmetry giver more complexity, with only 1 cut giving two symmetrical halves
An animal like this has a left/ right, dorsal/ventral and anterior (head)/ posterior (tail) sides
The head leads to cephalisation (development of nervous tissue)
- 2nd Branch- related to
embryogenic layers
o There are 3
layers of
embryonic
tissues;
endoderm,
ectoderm and mesoderm
o This division relates to diploblastic vs
triploblastic
Diploblastic- animals with
two germ layers
Triploblastic- animals with 3
germ-layers- may have a
body cavity present
- Note: Radially symmetrical animals are
diploblastic and bilaterally symmetrical
animals are triploblastic his explaination
wasnt like this but literally everything I
found on the internet contradicted him so
- 3rd branch- triploblastic animals can have a
body cavity or no body cavity (acelomates)
- 4th branch- animals with a body cavity are
either pseudocoelomates (a body cavity
which has developed from the blastocoel
rather than the mesoderm) or coelomate (organisms with a true body cavity derived from the mesoderm)
 - 5th Branch- coelomates are either protostome or deuterostome
o Protostome (mollusc and annelid):
Cleavage: spiral and determinant- planes of cell division are diagonal to the vertical axis of
the embryo and the developmental fate of the cell is set
Coelom formation: a solid mass of mesoderm, which splits to form the coelom (the principal
body cavity in most animals, located between the intestinal canal and the body wall)
Fate of the blastopore: mouth develops from the blastopore
o Deuterostome (chordates and echinoderms):
Cleavage: radial and in determinant- cleavage planes are parallel or perpendicular to the
vertical axis of the embryo and all cells retain the ability to develop into a complete embryo
Coelom formation: archenteron folds forms the coelom
Fate of the blastopore: anus develops from the blastopore

















This
diagram
was not
included
but I found
it was a bit
clearer to
understand
the stages
































Evolution of the Cranium
- The first vertebrates were filter feeders which then underwent a series of modifications to reach modern
jaws




















- Benefits-
ability to each a wider range of food types, also allows for much
greater obtainment of oxygen from opening and closing mouth,
new feeding behaviours

Muscles and fins
- The complexity of the muscle has changed from V shaped to
many folds
o W shape of the lamprey gives more movement and
contraction- important for feeding strategies
- Fins
o Help to give a wider range of movement, especially
rotation
- The two together assist in controlling movement in a 3D
environment with different feeding strategies















Circulatory System
- Roles
o Transportation
Respiratory: transport of O2 to cells for
aerobic respiration and CO2 to the
lungs or gills for elimination
Nutritive: transports absorbed
products of digestion to cells
Excretory: metabolic wastes and
excessive water are filtered
and excreted
o Regulation of a constant body
temperature using counter
current exchange
o Protection- white blood cells
providing immunity against disease
- The heart is the pump of the system with
fluid (blood) circulating through blood
vessels (a network of tubes)
- Blood vessels
o Arteries (thick and muscular) carry
blood away from the heart and veins
(thin and with valves) return it and
capillaries connect the two
- Blood
o 55% plasma, 45% other cellular
elements (RBC, WBC and platelets)
o Plasma is 90% water
- Circulatory system
o In fish
Single circuit
The heart is a tube with two chambers (an atrium and a ventricle)
The evolution of gills resulted in a low systemic circulation
As there is only 1 circuit, the oxygen in the blood will be depleted
and so the more distal organs and tissue will not receive as much
the proximal ones resulting in a reduced metabolic capacity
There is mixing of deoxygenated and oxygenated blood
o Amphibian
Double circuit
Heart has 3 chambers (2 atria and a ventricle)
The evolution of lungs resulted in pulmocutaneous and systemic
circuit
 There is mixing of deoxygenated and oxygenated blood in the
ventricle
o Reptiles
Double circuit
Pulmonary and systemic circulation
The heart is a tube with 3 chambers, 2
atria and a ventricle that allows blood
mixing (but there is a partial septum to
minimise this)
Two arteries that lead to the systemic
circuits
Crocodiles, birds and mammals have 4
chambers
Some reptiles can breathe through the
skin
o Mammals
4 chambers; 2 atria and 2 ventricles
Double circuit
No mixing of blood- very efficient
Essential for gas transport, movement and endothermy
- Gas exchange, respiration and
breathing
o Gas exchange: the delivery of
O2 and the removal of CO2
o Respiration: the metabolic
process that occurs in the
mitochondria and produces
ATP

o Breathing is the ventilation

process to supple the exchange surface (lungs) with O2 and allow for
exhalation of CO2
- Oxygen transport
o Oxygen is not very soluble in water (or blood)- need another method to transport
o This is overcome by oxygen binding to respiratory pigments (haemoglobin with iron as the binding
element)




























Birds have internal air sacs to enable flight. Amphibians can breath through their skin but also through lungs.

The Nervous System:
- Cephalisation
o The development of a brain associated with bilateral symmetry leading to cephalisation
o The central nervous system integrates all the information and control the organism
o Neurons are the basic units of the nervous system
- Neurons
o Electrically excitable cells that process and transmit information through different signals (chemical
and electrical)
o The ability of neurons to open and close ion gates allows them to send electrical signals along
dendrites and axons




Central nervous system (CNS)
- Consists of a brain and spinal cord
- Functions
o Receives sensory signals and
establish responses
o Stores memory
o Carries out thought
- The brain
o Located on the head and is
the centre of the nervous
system
The forebrain
receives and
integrates sensory
information form
nose, eyes and ears
Midbrain coordinates reflex responses to sight
and sound
Hindbrain reflexes control blood circulation,
respiration and help to coordinate sensory
input
The brain interprets sensory signals and
determines the appropriate movements
(behaviour)- this is critical to the survival of the
animal
- The spinal cord is a cluster of nerve fibres, of similar
thickness to a human thumb, and is protected by the
vertebral column it link the brain with the rest of the
body

Peripheral Nervous System (PNS)
- Nerves, neurons and sensory organs outside the CNS
- Cranial nerves originate in the brain and connect through
sensory neurons to the head and upper body (eyes and
nose)
- Spinal nerves originate in the spinal cord and connect to
the rest of the body through sensory and motor
neurons
- Functions
o Transmits information form sensory
structures to the CNS
o Stimulates effector structures and responses
- Neurons
o Specialised
Motor neurons: transmit
information to effector (muscle) and
endocrine cells to respond to a
stimulus
Sensory neurons: transmit
information from sensory structures
that detect internal and external
conditions
Interneurons: analyse and interpret
sensory information that would enable a response
Somatic/ Autonomic/ Sympathetic/ Parasympathetic NS
- Somatic
o Motor neurons control voluntary
movements by activating skeletal muscles
- Autonomic
o Motor neurons control involuntary
responses involving organs, glands and
smooth muscles
- Sympathetic
o Fight or flight
o Constriction of blood vessels
o Increase heart and breathing rates
o Inhibits digestion
- Parasympathetic
o Rest and relaxation
o Dilates blood vessels
o Reduce heart and breathing rates
o Stimulates digestion

Diversity of sensory experiences
- Receptors are the peripheral end of the sensory neurons
and are used by animals to obtain information about the
environment
- There are different types of receptors depending on the
specific type of stimulus they can detect
o Electromagnetic receptors
Specialised for magnetic fields
E.g.: sharks and rays have
electromagnetic receptors called
ampullae of Lorenzini which allow for
detection of electrical fields generated
by muscular activity of their prey
E.g.: bees, sharks and some birds can
navigate due to the magnetic fields of
the earth
o Visible light
Light enters through the cornea and
pupil
Focused by the lens and strikes the
retina and its stimulating receptors
The fovea is the point of highest visual
acuity (best vision)
o Chemoreceptors
Detect ions and molecules and senses
(smell and tastes)
Smell and taste create the sensation of
flavour
o Mechanoreceptors
Able to detect changes in pressure,
position or acceleration
A variety of receptors with different
functions (touch, hearing and
equilibrium)
E.g.: ears gather sound waves from the environment allowing for hearing though vibrations of small
bones
E.g.: skin allows for perception of pressure and related sensations including temperature and pain
o Thermoreceptors
Can detect changes in temperature
 E.g.: Pit viper snakes
posses a pair of heat-
detecting pit organs
with the unique
ability to sense
infrared radiation

WEEK 2: Lecture 3 The Diversity of Fishes
The Big Picture Importance:
Fish were the first vertebrates
Still the largest vertebrate class
They are the vertebrate group from which all other vertebrates evolved

Lecture Overview:
Fish biology = Ichthyology
Fish are incredibly diverse grouping
They are half of all living vertebrates
o The most diverse and successful vertebrate
groups
o ~27 977 living species of fishes within 515
families and 62 orders
o 60% of fishes are marine
o Greatest diversity is found in the tropics
Positioning of pectoral fins and dorsal fins vary
o Images to the right represent steps in the
evolutionary process
Learning Outcomes:
LO1: Describe the function and evolution of jaws
LO2: Discuss the challenge of living in water
LO3: Describe and distinguish between classes Chondrichthyes and
Osteichthyes, noting the main traits of each group

Introduction I:
Fish = school of fish, all of the same
species
Fishes = school of fish containing
different species
Living fish species found today
(Gnathostomes) include:
o Chondrichthyes
o Osteichthyes (ray-finned
fishes)
o Osteichthyes (Coelacanth)











Same image as above except turned on
its side
Key elements have been circled in blue =
focus of this lecture


Main focus of this lecture: Development
of the jaw and the efficiency of the gills.
Also going to talk about the
Ostracoderms, placoderms and the
species we have today (refer to last
image on previous page)

Introduction II:
Fish is defined as an aquatic
vertebrate with gills and limbs
in the shape of fins
o Exceptions to what the
definition of a fish is
exist they give us
clues to the intense
selection pressure that
has led to adaptations/evolutionary steps
Bony fish (>26,000) are the most diverse species of fish rest; other extant species include:
o 108 jawless fishes:
70 Hagfish: only vertebrate with a skull and no vertebral column
38 Lampreys: cartilaginous structures above the notochord
o 970 cartilaginous sharks:
403 sharks: skeleton made of cartilage and connective tissue
534 skates: dorso-ventrally flattened fish
33 chimaeras: upper jaw fused to the skull and have operculum

Characteristics of Fishes:

Jawless (Ostracoderms) vs. Jawed
(Placoderms) Early Vertebrates:
Ostracoderms:
o Armored jawless fishes
very heavy with big plates
on them
o Extinct species that
existed during the
Palaeozoic Era - ~490-440
mya to ~360 mya
o Had a powerful tail
however were not
precise swimmers as they
lacked paired fins they
could swim straight
without much turning or
stopping
o Narrow mouths most were filter feeders: they open their mouth and whatever enters will then be filtered for
what can be eaten and what is undesired
Jaws next fundamental evolutionary step that occurred 410 mya
o Jaws evolved from the anterior gill arches within the gill slits of ancient, jawless fish moving with different
pharyngeal muscles that eventually came to form the jaws
o In this process: different skeletal, cranial bones were formed but the gill arches themselves went from being
vertical to a very crescent shape
o In the image below: brown-orange colour = what formed the jaw


































 Two things are happening (two
evolutionary steps) at about the
same time:
Developing jaws
and gills are
changing a little bit
of shape
Getting paired fins





Evolution of Jaws:
These are Placoderms: Had
jaws and paired fins
Believed that their jaws and
paired fins came from
getting O2 from the water
more efficiently (better
pumping of water) while
being better swimmers

which meant faster swimming and being able to change

direction could eat more nutritional feed not just plankton
Jaws appeared from the modification of the first
cartilaginous gill arch this aided in gill support and
ventilation
Selection favoured:
o Enlargement of gill arches
o Development of muscles
o Gill arches could move
This created massive diversification of gnathostomes
O2 from the water is transported into the body when the fish opens their mouth and
then closes the mouth creating a negative pressure allowing water to be squeezed
across the gills buccal cavity fills with water and the
Waste is also excreted through the gills
Image above to the right: A = ostracoderm, C = Placoderm


Process:


Open and close mouth - water squeezes across the gills
This allows eciency in respiranon - It is highly likely that the key driver
for this was the selecnon of jaws




Teeth then developed from modied scales on the skin that line the
mouth - giving them the ability to grasp and hold their prey





Powerfulpharyngeal muscles could suck in prey - this allows the
movement of the food fromt the buccal cavity into the stomach






Circled = Gnathostomes




















Challenges of Living in Water:
Density of water is 775x greater than the density of air
o Fish do not need strong weight bearing skeletons as gravity does not bother them much
Fish ventilate 10-30 x more water to get the same amount of O2 that a terrestrial animal would get from air
o Water contains only 3% as much O2 than air
o Respiration has a higher demand for energy
o Ventilation frequency is related to O2 conc.
o Fish must be very efficient at O2 extraction
Water is removed from the gills (high surface area organs) and O2 enters the gills
o Here ammonia is removed via diffusion
o CO2 leaves the gills also, as well as hydrogen ions
Water is also 18 x more viscous than air
Aquatic animals have to be streamlined in order to locomote and move around
o Relative to those that live in air
Air flows easily so tidal ventilation is possible however in water this is very difficult
Pressure effects are another challenge of living in water:
o Water is much denser and pressure increases with increased
depth
How these challenges have been overcome is talked about below

Swim Bladder and Buoyancy:
Gas-filled structures (swim bladder) evolved as buoyancy aids, this allowed
fish to sit in the water column without sinking meaning they no longer
needed to continuously be swimming in order to breathe
o Also allowed them the ability to turn on their axis with their paired
fins allowing them to be agile
o Also referred to as air or gas bladder
o Sharks however are examples of fish that do not have a swim
bladder and so they need to continuously be swimming all the
time
Maintain neutral buoyancy
Swim bladder started off as a little balloon in the fish
Most teleost (bony fish belong to this group) have a swim bladder for
buoyancy
o They have fine colour over their buoyancy
 Swim bladder may also be involved in:
o Sound and pressure reception
o Respiratory function (in some highly evolved species) can put extra O2 in their swim bladder and use it
accordingly
Bottom-dwellers may have reduced or absent bladders this is mainly in fish that do not swim in the upper 200m, they
remain below 200m into the ocean tend not to have a swim bladder while those that swim in the upper 200m do tend
to have one
Physostomes: Have a connection with the gut or oesophagus, they are more primitive and need oral intake of air
o More primitive
o When baby fish are ready to come feed up to the surface, they take a breath and take a breath = fill swim
bladder, without this they cannot have enough air or nutrition in their body to get back to the top so they stay
at the bottom and die, e.g. rainbow trout and Atlantic Salmon
Physoclists: Have do not have a connection with the gut and instead they release gas from arterial blood that passes by
a gas gland
o Can take O2 and CO2 from blood and regulate the swim bladder this way
o E.g. Barramundi


















Gills:
Extremely delicate and efficient
Have a massive surface area
Are exposed to the environment (water), sit behind the fishs
head
Most fish have:
o Most fish have 4 gill arches on each side of the head
(each arch has 2 layers of lamellae primary and
secondary)
o Operculum cavity
o Depend on pumping water across the gills
o Thin and few layers before the blood is reached







Image of the gills shows an infection as there is mucous on the gills = white
area that is thick as the mucous keeps being produced parasitic infection

Gills should be bright red with clear mucous (not white), they should give
the gills a shinny appearance




Electron microscope image to the right
shows the primary lamellae and
secondary lamellae (gas exchange
occurs here, as well as ammonia
secretion) of the gills water moves
through the gills and as this occurs the
O2 is sucked out of the water



Water moves through the lamellae as
it goes through O2 is sucked out of the
water

Secondary Lamellae = where gas
exchange occurs they are semi-lunar
folds that increase the surface area







Three functions of Gills:
1. Gas exchange: the gill is a system for bringing the blood haemoglobin into close contact with the water O2 is
absorbed and CO2 released
2. Osmoregulation: exchange of ions, particularly Na+ and Cl- occurs
Atlantic Salmon are examples of fish that live in salt water and then transition to fresh water they live in
fresh water up upon the age of around 1 in which they are then ready to transition into marine environment
Transition involves physiological processes being completely reversed in a short amount of time e.g. salt
needs to be pumped out as they transition to marine water as they now have too much salt in their body
3. Waste excretion: ammonia is a highly water soluble gas its movement occurs via diffusion (from high to low
concentration and does not cost any energy)

Acquiring Oxygen from Water:
Complete mesh network of gill filaments as everything is interwoven between one another no spaces that water
cannot touch the gill
Water goes in the opposite direction to blood (counter current flow)
Blood goes to the end of the gill filament across secondary lamellae becomes oxygenated heads back up
towards the head distributed to the rest of the body

Diagram to the right shows counter current

flow:
Dotted areas show the counter current exchange



Ventilation:
Mouth opens operculum closes (as a result closes the gills) buccal cavity fills with water mouth closes
pressure is created and water is squirted over the gills
Deformities seen in baby fish = skeletal deformities, for e.g. operculum not being long enough and so it does not close
the gills properly = basically having an animal with bad asthma as they cannot properly perform the 3 main functions
that gills are responsible for and therefore cannot develop properly


Ram Ventilation:
Another type of ventilation
Keep mouth open while
swimming forward water
goes in and goes over gill slits
energy for ventilation
comes from the swimming
muscles = efficient
Only found in fast swimming
fishes
o High speeds
o Predatory pelagic
fishes
o Often combined with
negative buoyancy
Lack of a
swimming
bladder, always
swimming for
respiration and
buoyancy
o Tunas, bluefish, jacks, billfishes and most sharks
Some fishes can use both types of ventilation
o Nurse sharks, whitetip reef sharks

Class Chondrichthyes:
Two subclasses:
o Elasmobrachnii
Shark and rays
Cartilaginous skeleton
Ram ventilation
o Holocephali
Chimeras
Also known as ratfishes or rabbitfishes
Little is known about their biology







Diversity of Sharks (Elasmobranchs):
diagram:

Characteristics of Elasmobranchs:
Most sharks have a
streamlined body
o Swift swimmers
 o Generally large (>1m long)
Predatory carnivores (eat high protein food)
Short digestive tract with a spiral valve key feature
Possess acute senses
Must swim or else they sink (negative buoyancy)
Another key feature: Distinctive rostrum overhangs the mouth and have a prominent liver
Lack a swim bladder
o Oil-filled liver that reduces density so they are not as heavy as they could be but does not reduce it enough to
prevent sinking this compensates a bit for lack of swim bladder

Placoid scales: small tooth like structures that give skin a tough
abrasive feel
Necropsy image to the right the liver is very pronounced
Shark eggs are fertilised internally but the embryos can develop in
different ways:
o Oviparous: eggs hatch outside the mothers body
o Ovovivparous: embryo develops within the uterus and is
nourished by the egg yolk
o Viviparous: embryo develops within the uterus and is
nourished through a yolk sac placenta from the mothers
blood
nd
2 Image on the right male shark on the left hand side (has claspers
to help insert sperm into the female), female shark on the right hand Catfish
side

Osteichthyes:
Known as the bony fish
o Quite diverse typical pet fish and farm fish come from this group
All have a bony endoskeleton fish have hollow bones
Two classes:
o Actinoptyerygil: ray-finned fishes (largest group with 27,000 species)
o Sarcopterygil: lobe-finned fishes
Characteristics:
o Haemopoietic (blood cell making tissue) in their kidneys, liver and
spleen these cells are usually scattered throughout the body because their bones are hollow
o Evolved from fresh water
o Skeleton made of bone
o Paired and median fins supported by dermal rays
o Respiration mainly by gills
o Gills covered by operculum
o Commonly have a swim bladder
o Complex nervous, circulatory and excretory systems
o Highly mobile fins that are supported by rays
o Tend to have very thin scales
o Lateral line system
 Series of canals down the side of the fish and around the head believed to be a sensory organ but
the processes involved in it are still not known 100% to this day

External features:
Not a real fish this just shows the
characteristics of all fishes

Internal features:
Image below is the basic anatomy of an
salmonid fish
o Primitive fish
Pyloric caeca: equivalent of a gizzard to be
able to deal with low quality food being an
herbivore
Fish have 2 kidneys
o Anterior kidney = Head kidney =
Haemopoietic features
o Posterior kidney = filters blood and
has a kidney feature role

























96% of all living fishes come from Teleostei:





Lecture 4 Australian Amphibians:
Adaptations to The Environment
Amphibians:
Amphibians are difficult group
to define
Can think of them as:
o Tetrapod vertebrates
(pair of front limbs
and pair of hind limbs)
o Have a non-scaly
glandular skin
o Unshelled eggs
 o Life cycle that involves 3 sequential phases (see below)

The Three Phases:
Egg Egg hatches into a larvae (colloquially known as tadpoles) Changes into an adult adults breed and
produce more eggs
o Transition from one phase to the next = metamorphosis
These are the 3 components to consider when talking about their adaptations to the environment
Out of the 3 stages: The egg and larvae stages are the most susceptible to predation as they are least likely to escape
from potential predators
o They are also the two phases completely reliant on water (in some shape and form) to survive

Main topic of these 3 lectures: The ways in which various groups of amphibians have escaped the constraints of being tied to
the requirement of water during these stages (eggs and larvae stage) before this, we must consider the diversity of
amphibians.

Diversity of amphibians:
Frogs have a greater diversity than mammals and are an important concept of the Australian Fauna
Modern amphibians represent a simple lineage = Lissamphibia
Lissamphibia diverged around later carboniferous and early Permian (~300mya) into 3 sub-groups (orders) (smallest to
largest):
o Apoda (translates to without limbs)/Gymnophiona
o Urodela/Caudata
o Anura

Apoda/Gymnophonia:
One example that have lost their limbs
Colloquially known as caecilians
Not found in Australia
o Found in tropics of the world America, Africa and into South East Asia etc.
205 species worldwide

Urodela/Caudata:
These are the salamanders and newts
Native to Northern hemisphere
Not native species within Australia
Adults live on land while larvae stage they live in water
Two species of Salamanders are can be bought/found in Aus:
o Axolotl, also known as Mexican walking fish
Available in pet trade
Undergo a process called neoteny, where they stay as larvae (fully aquatic
phase) however develops anatomical characteristics that an adult has and
can do adult things such as breed
What controls the change from adult stage to larval stage? The thyroid
gland and secretion of thyroxine stimulates the change of larvae to adult,
in these species that become refractory
to the thyroxine as they get older and
then cannot transform
o Smooth newt
Newly discovered a couple of years ago
feral population
Turned up in several sites in Melbourne
illegally imported
Anura:
Found in Aus
These are the frogs and toads
By far the largest order of Lissamphibians
o 205 species of Sicilians, 701 species of
Salamanders and Newts and 6623
species in frogs and toad species world wide that is spread over 56 different families (families = subunit below
the order)
o 6 of these families are found in Australia

Different families of Anura (least to most diverse):
1. Bufonidae:
True toads e.g. cane toads (reclassified and now known as Rhinella marina, but were formally Bufo marinus)
Were first introduced into North Queensland in June 1935 in an attempt to get rid of pests (beetle larvae) in sugar cane
plantations however these pests live underground and so these toads were not effective in getting rid of these pests as
they do not dig
Toxic very little fauna is resistant to their toxins
Very few natural predators of them in Aus
Eat everything & outbreed everything they are spreading rapidly across tropical Aus
o Some have travelled to Sydney They die out in winter but survive in Summer
o Have reached Port Macquarie as a regular population
Originally came from Hawaii (introduced in 1932)
o Before Hawaii they came from Puerto Rico (1920) and before that they were introduced into Barbados in 1832
from their original population in South America
Constantly spreading
o Example of a biological control gone wrong!















2. Ranidae:
Wood frogs
Particularly large in the Northern hemisphere
o This is the family of frogs that French eat frog legs
In Aus we have one species (Papurana daemeli)
o Recently came from New Guinea
o Present in Cape York Peninsula in Queensland and far North
East corner of Arnhem Land




3. Microhylidae
Group of quite small species that have colonised Aus from
New Guinea ancestors but are much more diverse
We have 23 species in Aus in 2 genera
North Queensland and far North-Eastern corner of Arnhem
land




4. Pelodryadidae:
These are the Australian tree frogs
Diverse group
o As their name suggests they like to live in trees
and many are arboreal
o Some live on the ground
o Some are burrowers
87 species in Australia
o Constant discoveries of new species
 Genus Litoria (most of our Aus tree frogs belong to this group) will be split up about 10 ways there will not longer be
one genus of the tree frog group
Characteristics:
o Many of the tree frogs are green and arboreal
o Burrowers have small digital pads while climbers have enlarged finger and toe pads














5. Myobatrachidae and 6. Limnodynastidae:
These are ground frogs
Used to be one group (Leptodactylidae) became Myobatrachidae split into two groups/families: Myobatrachidae
(~80 species in 13 genera) and Limnodynastidae (~51 species in 9 genera)
o Totalling to 242 species in Australia in 2016
o 159 species of marsupials in Aus + 64 native rodents + 2 monotremes = 225 ground-dwelling native Aus
mammals = less than the total no. of brown frogs in Aus

Appearance and differentiation:

Frogs are difficult to study taxonomically by their external appearance
Soft-bodied and have no scales and do not preserve particularly well they are constantly changing
o Shrive up in alcohol, measurements become distort in preservative and their colours fade and features that
were not present in the animal appear while those that are disappear
Generally, Tree frogs (Pelodryadidae frogs) have some kind of finger and toe discs
o Even if they have lost this/do not have this characteristic they still retain internally, the cartilage between the
last two bones in the fingers and toes that are present in those species that have the finger and toe discs
Intercalary cartilage is not present
in the two families of ground frogs
(myobatrachidae and
limnodynastidae)

Taxonomy and discoveries:
Not many things to go off based
on looking at preserved frogs (as
mentioned earlier they do not
preserve well) this is how
 taxonomy was based prior to the 1950s
In the 1950s it was recognised that frogs call and that these calls were used by males to attract females
o Different species of frogs have subtly different calls and the females can detect this and in most cases go to
the correct species of frog to breed with
Pre-mating isolating mechanisms were also recognised = join males and females within species to minimise cross
matings between species
o Before mating takes place the males and females pair up due to recognition of male frogs
o Taxonomists now had to go out and record calls of frogs instead of working with preserved specimens
Genetic post-mating isolating mechanisms were also recognised: eggs could only be fertilised by a male frog of the
same species
o If a male from another species tries to fertilise the eggs, as they are genetically incompatible the tadpoles
would either not develop in the eggs or would develop abnormally This is how in-vitro crosses, experimental
hybridisation was also recognised in the 1950s
o Over several decades discovers were also made that even the most similar looking Aus frogs were incapable of
inter-breed
Additional techniques came into play in 1970s:
o Karyology studies were undertaken Study of chromosomes showed some species in the genera
Neobatrachus (burrowing ground frogs) are tetraploid (4 chromosomes in each cell) rather than being diploid
and appeared almost the exact same
o Believed they arose from a hybridisation event
In 1980s immunological techniques including immunoelectrophoresis used to study the immunological divergence
between different frog groups
o Studies involved injecting frog blood serum into rabbits to immunise rabbit against the frog serum serum
extracted from rabbits tested other frog serums to see how vigorously the rabbit anti-serum reacted
against different frog species the more distant they more the less recognition the rabbit serum had on the
frog serum = less reaction
o As a result, this lead to new classifications of frogs as discrete genera of frogs were found to be composed of
things not closely related to each other = lots of convergent evolution
In recent decades:
o Enzyme electrophoresis to look at liver proteins and enzymes
o DNA and RNA sequencing from more precise genetic sequencing = enormous diversity of frogs that was not
realised was there most recent description of Australian frog species was last month (July) split Aus water-
holding frog into 2 species: Western and Eastern Aus species and despite looking the same are genetically
completely different and could not interbreed.
Impacts on conservation and species management:
As a result of splitting up species due to new studies groups
are split up into smaller groups with narrower ranges
Still to this day there are new species of frogs being discovered
that look completely different, example: Sunset frog
o Rare species from Walpole in WA, has a total
distribution world wide of 3.6 sq km
o Discovered in 1997
o Many species like this one have very restricted
distributions and many can be found on mountain
tops in Australia
Different mountain top = different species of frog
These mountain tops can be thought of as high
altitude islands floating in a sea of warm climate
These species that are restricted to mountain
tops are very limited and unable to adapt to climate
change so as temps increase they have to move higher
up in altitude to maintain their required climate run
out of mountain tops susceptible to extinction
Frog anatomy:
Basic
o Front and hind limbs
o Short vertebral column (8 vertebrae)
o No tail
o Large head
o 4 fingers, 5 toes
o All very similar structurally and this similarity extends
through their reproductive organs
 Females:
o Pair of large ovaries = large saccular
organs with a hollow centre in them full
of lymph with vast no. of follicles
protruding from the service and are
associated with fat bodies
o As the ovaries produce eggs, the fat
bodies are inversely related to the
ovaries
Fat bodies are large when in the
non-breeding cycle
Shrink when breeding, as the fat
gets resorbed and utilised for the
production of eggs
o Eggs are released from the surface of
the ovaries and are collected by the
convoluted collecting duct (can store
vast number of eggs) and released into
the cloaca
Males:
o Pair of testes with fat bodies also have
an inverse relationship in order to
produce sperm, the fat bodies are
resorbed and used as an energy source
and thus decrease in size
o Sperm from testes is secreted into the kidneys, run through the kidneys and into mesonephric (wolffian) duct
and then into the cloaca (common terminal chamber of reproductive, urinary and digestive systems)
o No set of external genitalia important point: frogs have external fertilisation

Reproduction:
How do males mate with females if they do not have external genitalia?
o Female frog lays eggs male sprays sperm over the eggs for fertilisation
This is why there is no shell on the egg otherwise sperm would not enter
Amphibian eggs are surrounded by jelly, and as a result, their eggs are very susceptible to dehydration so
it is dependent upon where the female lays the egg
Mating:
The way in which the male frog grips the female frog = via Amplexus
Male frog is always on top grips female either in front of the front legs (axillary) or in front of the hind legs (inguinal
amplexus) male frog hangs on while the female frog releases her eggs male ejaculates over eggs
nd
Some species, such as the quacking frog show polyandry = group amplexus (2 image below)
o If the female does not want all the attention she body slams the males

st
Males hang on by their nuptial pads (1 image below):
o Rough structures on the sides of their first finger they can grab onto the female without slipping off
o It is necessary for them to hang out as females are generally larger than males
 nd
o Extreme example of sexual size dimorphism (2 image below) = Platymantis boulengeri (Ranidae) from New
Britain


















Laying of eggs:
Frog eggs are susceptible to dehydration as they need to be laid in
water (aquatic environments)
Some eggs are physically attached/stuck together to items in the body
of water they lay
o Stuck to plants
o Smaller egg masses = individual eggs stuck to submerged
stems and rocks at the bottom of bottom of streams
o In some species the jelly capsule forms ribbon (cane toads
characteristically have this)
o These are fine as they will not dry out

In some species the eggs are floating on the surface

Some species produce foam nests in which the eggs are laid
o Float out on top of the water so they are not
eaten by fish
o Foam nests are made as the male as he beats up
the water with his hind legs during amplexus + secretions from the
skin = produce nests that can last up to a few days (enough time
for the eggs to hatch)
o Sometimes foam nests are build on the edge of
ponds and as eggs hatch the larvae slide into water (semi-
nd
terrestrial) (2 image below)
















Sometimes lay near the water = terrestrial
o Once tadpoles hatch, they need to be able to
get into the water and so hopefully after some
st
rain they are washed into the water (1 image = Geocrinia leai Myobatrachidae)
nd
o In other species e.g. barred river frog (2 image) , the female sprays them into the
air and they get stuck up on rocks hatch drop into the water










Terrestrial burrows lay their eggs in burrows and then wait for rain
to wash them out and into the ponds
o E.g. Western Toadlet (Pseudophyrne occidentalis) Myobatrachidae



Direct development:
Some species are capable of escaping the larval stage completely
Tadpoles still develop in the eggs grow into metamorpho froglets (tiny frogs that
hatch out from the eggs)
o In the image limb buds can be seen developing within a Cophixalus hosmeri
Microhylidae egg
Microhylidae frogs characteristically show direct development female lays the eggs on
land in moist areas under leaves and rain-forest floors males tend the eggs fight away
potential predators and their skins secretions produce compounds that prevent fungal and
bacterial growth on the eggs during development
o Some species have gotten away from the idea that they need to lay eggs in water by essentially have eggs by
having water inside the egg
o Species that show male care + terrestrial egg-
laying + direct development, as the males look
after the eggs can get away with many fewer eggs
and do not have to worry about predators eating
the eggs so they tend to have small groups and
yolk mass is large as developing larvae rely on the
yolk mass as they cannot feed as they are still
inside the eggs

Examples of other species where males tend the eggs:
Hip pocket frog Myobatrachidae:
 o Small species of frog from the Northern NSW rainforests
o Terrestrially laying species (moist)
o Female lays eggs and male fertilises them and guards the eggs
o Once they hatch they swim to the side of the males flanks and live in pockets on the side of the males body
develop in these pockets until metamorphosis metamorphic frogs come out so essentially the male
carries a swimming pool on each side of him
Northern Gastric Brooding frog:
o 2 species existed both extinct, the most recently extinct species was last seen in 1986
o Males show parental care they swallow the eggs once they are fertilised
o Prostaglandins secreted from the eggs stop the males stomach from producing gastric acid stomach acts as
an inert sac that the tadpoles develop in metamorphosis frogs are regurgitated by the male

Tadpoles:
Live in different environments different types of water
Some develop in fast flowing streams = lotic species tend
to have well developed mouth parts to suck onto rocks to
avoid being washed away
Some are laid in permanent water bodies such as lakes etc. =
lentic species
o Swim around the bottom
o Some divide their environment in the ponds into
different regions such as school of school swimming
in open water, some hang around the reeds, others
stay at the bottom
Some will lay their eggs only in temporary bodies that will dry
up in time while others only lay in permeant bodies
Some breed in different times of the seasons while some
breed pretty much all year around


Frogs in arid environments:
Frogs have also been thought as animals that are tied to water however frog species have spread over entire areas of
Australia, even in desserts they are found everywhere
How they survive in desserts? Some dessert dwelling frogs have
eggs that are direct developing and some have tadpoles and eggs
developed to ephemeral water in the rare occasions that is
rains everything happens at once eggs are laid develop
rapidly before water evaporates
Desert dwelling adult frogs survive by hiding in cracks of tree
trunks e.g. dessert tree frogs, and these dessert dwelling frogs
also do particularly well in man-made environments (toilets and
sinks)
Some have developed a burrowing ability e.g. turtle frog and wide-
mouthed frog (tree frog that has gone down) e.g. genus neobatrachus
and genus notaden
o Wide-mouthed Frog is an e.g. of a tree frog that has gone
underground and lost digital pads
 Burrowing occurs by development of metatarsal tubercles on the hind feet and use these to dig with when
underground they go into estivation (prolonged dormancy) before body processes shut down they rapidly shed their
outer layers of skin forming a dry cacoon around the frog = restrict water loss in the burrow here they go into
suspended animation (state of being full of life)
o For mammals to go under suspended animation they would lose a lot of muscle tone, so it is unknown how
frogs can survive so long underground like this (on-going study)
o Frogs become reanimated when there is enough
rain that enters the burrow and softens the layers of
the skin (cocoon) burrow up to the surface eat
and breed return back to burrow







WEEK 3 ANSC2005 NOTES
LECTURE 1 AND 2:
REPTILES
Lecture 1
- The term reptile is a historically used term that has no reality in evolution
- A reptile is any amniote vertebrate (ie vertebrate in which the embryo
develops inside an amniotic sac), that is not a bird or mammal
- Three lines of reptile lineages:
1. Crocodilia (crocodilians)
2. Chelonia/Testudinata (turtles and tortoises)
3. Lepidosauria (lizards, snakes, and tuataras)

CROCODILIA
- We are not focusing on Crocodilia in these lectures
- There are two species of Australian crocodiles: saltwater (Crocodylus pororus) and the freshwater (Crocodylus
johnstoni)
- Total 23 species worldwide
- Both Aussie species belong to the family Crocodylidae (one of three families)

CHELONIA
Diversity of Australian turtles:
- 12 families of turtles world-wide, we have 4 in Australia
- Aussie families are:
GROUP FAMILY NOTES
Cryptodires Dermatocheyidae - Leather back sea turtle
- Head withdrawn under shell in a vertical- Chelonidae - Sea turtles
oriented S bend, so that the neck is not visible Carettochelyidae - Pitted shell turtle
- Head is still facing directly forwards and neck - Only one species
disappears from view - Found in rivers and estuaries of NT
and southern PNG
Pleurodires Chelidae - Fresh water turtles
- Head and neck withdrawn in horizontal S bend - Largest family
- When head drawn under shell, it is pointed - Examples include the long neck
towards the side and can still see a significant turtle, short neck turtle
part of the neck alongside that - Found in rivers/lakes around
Australia

 LEPIDOSAURIA
TWO MAJOR LINEAGES:
- Rhynchocephalia
o Only represented by two species
of Tuarata of New Zealand
(despite their lizard-like
appearance, the tuataras are not
lizards)
- Squamata
o Lizards and snakes
o Relationships not particularly
well known between these two
o Snake families are within a
broader group which consists of
lizards
o Not two separate groups
snakes are one highly specialised
part of lizards
o Think of snakes as highly
modified/specialised lizards
o In evolutionary terms they are
not separate groups




Families of snakes and lizards:
LIZARDS:
5 or 6 different families in Australia, depending how finely you split one of the families (differing opinions):
FAMILY DISTRIBUTION NOTES IMAGE
Agamidae 86 different - Dragon lizards
(Dragon dragon species - Most distantly related to the other lizards in most
Lizards) in Australia out analyses
of the 300 - Well-developed limbs, small scales (granular or
worldwide. spinose), always an obvious external ear opening,
moveable eye lids, broad fleshy tongue, toes
always have claws
- Many are brightly coloured (especially males)
sexual dimorphism
- EXAMPLE: Thorny Devil Thorny Devil
- Desert species, live a low energy lifestyle. Dont
move much (and when they do, its very slow).
Move toward a line of ants, sit for 8 hours at a
time, lapping up ants along the trail. They have
virtually no predators. When it rains, dont even
move head to lap water they put foot in puddle
of water, have small creases in skin that suck up
water which pools in corners of the mouth.
- Other examples: bearded dragon, military dragon
Gekkonidae 165 species of - Debate on whether this family should be split into
(Geckos) geckos in Gekkonidae and Diplodactylidae
Australia out of - All Aussie families are nocturnal
1500 - Well-developed limbs
worldwide. - Tips of digits are clawed, but in many cases they
end in dilated finger and toe pads allowing for
climbing on smooth vertical surfaces and for Knob tailed gecko
them to hang upside down
- Small scales, usually granular, sometimes with a
few spines
- Broad, flat, fleshy tongue geckos like to lick
the sides of their face when stressed
- Eye covered by a large, clear scale a spectacle
(dont have moveable eyelids).
- EXAMPLE: Knob tailed gecko
- Tail is rather short and broad, terminating in a
small, rounded tip. We dont yet know what this
tip is used for although we know it is highly
sensory.
- Other example: northern leaf tailed gecko (just
has claws, rainforest dweller).

Pygopodida 44 species in - Closely related to gecko, despite very different

e (Pygopod Australia out of appearance (look very similar to snakes).
lizards or 45 worldwide. - Flap footed lizards
flap-footed - Completely non venomous
lizards) - Preferred dietary items are the trap door and
funnel web spiders
- Use elongated body to go down burrows and eat
the spiders Burtons legless lizard
- Can easily differentiate them from snakes in a
number of ways:
- They have a broad, flat, fleshy tongue (same use
as geckos), an ear opening, eyes covered by
spectacles, 2 rows of scales along their belly
(snakes have 1 midline row), can drop their tails,
and have external limbs (no front limbs, but well
developed hind flaps which sit on either side of
the tail).
- Can use these flaps as an indication of where
body ends and tail begins (short body, long tail)
- Snakes on the other hand have a very long body
and relatively short tail behind.
- EXAMPLE: Burtons legless lizard which feeds
only on small skinks
Scincidae 433 species in - Largest family of lizards (in Aus, and worldwide)
(Skinks) Australia out of - Range in size
1500 - Have large overlapping body scales which each
worldwide. have a bony core (osteoderm).These make them
quite rigid their skin is not soft.
- Lots of variation in ear openings, moveable

eyelids, well-developed limbs
- EXAMPLE: Shingleback Blue tongued lizard
- Slow moving, big thick overlapping scales, feed
primarily on plants. We often see them hit by cars
because they are so slow (particularly in breeding
season September).
- EXAMPLE: Cunninghams skink
- Scales modified into large spines, particularly on
tail. They live in rock crevices and use spines to
 wedge themselves in to escape predation.
- EXAMPLE: Lerista baynesi
- Has lost/reduced limbs front limbs very small
stump, hind limb slightly larger stump with only 1
or 2 digits on it.
- EXAMPLE: Blue tongued lizard largest skinks in
the world
Varanidae 30 species of - Goannas/monitor lizards
(Goannas or goannas in - Largest goanna is in Indonesia Komoto dragon
Monitor Australia of 78 - Head and necks are extremely elongate, slender
Lizards) Varanidae and pointed head, moveable eyelids, small
species granular scales over body
worldwide. - When they open mouths their tongue protrudes
snake like tongue (forked).

- Up until recently, it was thought they were all
Sand goanna
non-venomous. Recent studies have found they
have precursors to venom toxins ones that later
become modified in snakes. They use these to
raise the blood pressure, and stop clotting in
those they bite (bleed a lot if bitten).
- EXAMPLES: sand goanna and the ridge tailed
monitor

SNAKES:
7 or 8 families of Australian snakes
FAMILY DISTRIBUTION NOTES IMAGE
Typhlopidae 45 species in - Most primitive
(blind/worm Australia out of - Blind snakes/worm snakes
snakes) 220 worldwide. - Subterranean burrowers that feed primarily
on bull ants
- Eyes largely lost, spend most of their life
underground reduced to dark spots at
front of head
- Pinkish or greyish in colour Rotund blind snake
- No trace of external limbs
- Ventral scales on body no larger than
adjacent scales even scales on whole body
- Tail is short and blunt does terminate in a
small, thorn like scale use this to push
into ground to move themselves forward
- They smell as they secrete digested ants
theyve fed on
Pythonidae 13 species in - Pythons
Australia out of - Large snakes, eyes are obvious, scales on
31 worldwide. head are small granular (in some species
they are large shield-like scales), scales on
underside are moderately large in a single
row, most have pits along upper and lower
labial scales sensory organs, detect
infrared radiation (to detect warm blooded Inland carpet python
prey in dark).
- All are non-venomous
- Have vestigial hind limbs small
projections on either side of base of tail,
spurs representing hind limbs, supported
internally by remnants of pelvis and femur,
larger in males than females, used for
stimulating females prior to mating.
- EXAMPLES: diamond python, carpet python,
childrens python, woma, green tree python
Acrochordidae 2 species in - File snakes
Australia out of - Aquatic species, permanently tied to water
3 worldwide. - Non venomous, use constriction to catch
and kill food (like pythons)
- Have granular small scales, rough skin so
they can grip onto slippery fish (prey)
- Restricted in Australia to tropical rivers e.g.
far north QLD Arafura file snake
Colubridae 12 species in - Elsewhere in world, these are largest family
Australia out of of snakes
900 worldwide. - Relatively recent to arrive in Australia in
evolutionary terms
- Restricted to the East Coast and tropical
parts of Australia
- 2 groups: Tree snakes (green tree snake,
brown tree snake), and mangrove snakes
(found in estuaries and rivers in tropical Aus) Resetars mangrove snake
- Most are non-venomous (found in WA)
- How do we distinguish colubrids from
venomous snakes in Australia?
- Most useful feature = presence/absence of
loreal scale (small square like scale on side
of snout between eyes and nose nasal
scale, loreal scale, pre ocular scale).
- In venomous snakes, the loreal scale is
always absent they also have fangs
- For those few colubrids that are venomus,
they dont have front fangs so they need to
bite you and chew e.g. brown tree snake
(mildly venomous)
Elapidae 101 species in - Represented by cobras, coral snakes etc.
Australia out of - Constitute majority of Australian snake
264 worldwide. fauna
- Most of them have very mild venom only
causing swelling and pain just useful for
killing very small prey
- Only about 12 that are dangerously
venomous
- How do we tell them apart?
- Venomous have fangs at the front of the Common Death Adder
mouth, they are hollow teeth for delivery of
venom, lack the loreal scale
- EXAMPLES OF DANGEROUSLY VENOMOUS
SNAKES: death adder, pygmy copperhead,
bardick, taipan, black headed snake,
western brown snake, eastern brown snake,
mulga snake, black tiger snake, collets
snake, red bellied black snake, small eyed
snake, and the yellow bellied sea snake.
Hydrophiinae 33 species in - True sea snakes
Australia out of - Structurally fairly similar to elapids
157 worldwide. - Lack loreal scale
- Tail is flattened from side to side used for
assistance in swimming
- All live bearing
- Come up to surface to breathe like marine
mammals

Acalyptophis peronii
Laticaudidae 2 species - Sea kraits
recorded having - Egg layers on land, but are marine snakes
washed up in - Dont occur very frequently in Australia
Australia, out of just get washed up sometimes
4 worldwide. - Mainly inhabit Indonesia and south pacific
waters.

Laticauda colubrina

Summary
Main species in Australia
- Lizards
o Skins
o Geckos
- Snakes
o Elapids Loreal scale absent

Lecture 2
Biodiversity and adaptations of lizards and snakes:
- Species density maps overlaid species distributions
- We find that Australia has a high density of species
- Why do we have such a high diversity of Australian reptiles? And why are there so many more reptiles than mammals?
o 250 species of mammals compared to over 1000 species of reptiles
o Key to understanding is to recognise that reptiles are predominantly ectotherms
o They rely on the environmental sources to absorb heat, to maintain their body temperature
o Mammals and birds on the other hand are endotherms
o At first thought, production of own sources of body heat is thought to be an evolutionary advantage.
o But downside to that is, in fluctuating or extreme environments, endothermy is at a disadvantage means you
are wasting a large amount of food intake just to maintain body temperature
o If food is infrequently available, then youre going to starve very rapidly
o Ectotherms are adapted to climates / conditions where we have extremes e.g. long periods of drought, of low
temps, of low food availability
o At low temps, reptiles cannot obtain body heat from external environment so they just become inactive, their
metabolic rate drops and they wait for the sun to return
Hide from mammals and birds
o Reptiles dont really have a lot of competition
o They can outcompete mammals and birds to survive
o However, because of low numbers of mammalian predators, reptiles have taken over that niche of large
predators goannas and pythons in particular are major terrestrial native predators in Aussie fauna
o Reptiles prefer to maintain body core temperature within a relatively narrow range
o Some species of lizards and snakes which live in environments where they dont get to see a lot of sun
E.g. small lizards living in dense forests in NSW
Some of these species are thermos conformers
Body temperature reflects their environment
E.g. Maccoys skink
Lives in dark forest floors
Thermos conformers adapted to low body temperatures
They overheat quite rapidly if you pick them up, and die
o Most other reptiles are not thermos conformers they prefer to maintain temperature significantly above that
of air and ground temperature. How do they do this?
In some cases, the aniamsl seek out warm substrates
Those which have been eaten by the sun e.g. nocturnal reptiles
Physically seek out warm areas and sit there
This situation is known as thigmothermy
Many nocturnal species are thigmotherms
E.g. ghost sandswimmer
Burrows in sand during the day
Sit there in day, and at night they either stay with only head poking up waiting for prey
Sometimes they forage around the surface
Rely on warm sand during the night
o Other species are heliotherms
Rely on sun for radiant energy to warm themselves
 Heliothermy is different in reptiles depending on size due to thermal conservatism of rates of
heating/cooling
Large animal more time to warm up, lose body heat at fairly low rate when entering a colder
climate
Posturing heliotherms come out and bask in the sun
Wait for body temp to raise to a level wherein they can become active, go find food
Small animals heat and cool rapidly
Shuttling heliotherm
Moving back and forwards between hot and cold environments
Many small skinks that are day active are shuttling heliotherms
- Follows from this that the thermal environment reptiles living in is critical to their survival/functioning
- What sort of body temperatures do most reptiles prefer?
o Many desert dwelling species (esp. day active) prefer temps that is around 34-38 degrees C
o Similar to that of mammals
o Many skinks and smaller snakes prefer a little lower temperature but still around 30 degree mark
- Reliance on external heat sources has one major downside its very easy to overheat
- Reptiles do not have skin glands, they cannot sweat
- If a reptile overheats its often difficult to reduce body temperature
- How do they?
o Behavioural means
Seek shade or shelter
Change colours if theyre out in sun become palid/pale in hot environment
Geckos by day are often very pale
Changes in posture raise themselves off ground, rather than having body pressed to ground
absorbing heat
Many lizards and snakes change position relative to suns rays
Line up in parallel to lose heat
Line up at right angle to gain heat
Changing activity patterns some change seasonally, in the middle of summer some skinks and
snakes become nocturnal
Panting evaporative water loss to cool animal down, especially in lizards
- Water conservation mammals excrete nitrogenous waste products as urea
- Urea is water soluble
- Only a limited capacity to concentrate urine its not possible to produce urine which is hyperosmotic
- One of the issues in arid adaptive mammals, they are losing water in their urine all the time
- Squamates excrete nitrogenous waste products as uric acid like birds
- This is largely insoluble in water
- Another area of water loss is from the skin
- Mammals have sweat glands, reptiles do not
- Major water loss through eyes
- How do reptiles avoid this?
o Some species have small eyes
o Dragon lizards sit with eyes half closed
o Other groups have eyelids converted into that clear spectacle permanently seals the eye
Seals eye in bubble of tears
Looking through lens, cornea, then the clear scale
o Small skinks lower eyelid has developed a clear window
- Some dehydration does occur
- Many lizards/snakes are able to normally dehydrate to significant degrees more than mammals
- Up to 40% of body mass can be lost through dehydration in some species, who can still survive

Avoiding predation
- Ability of many lizards to voluntarily drop their tail
- This process = caudal autotomy
- Exposure of muscle tissue in environment, itll start to thrash which will hopefully distract while lizard makes escape
- Not all species, present in geckos, skinks, pygopod lizards
- After, we want a tail to grow back
- New tail as it grows is generally not quite as perfect as the original tail colour pigmentation and scalation is often
different, often slightly shorter than original tail
- How does this process take place?
o There are pre-existing fracture planes within vertebrae of tail
o Tail breaks through middle of one of the vertebrae
 o Muscles joining one vertebrae to next are segmented, and tear apart
o Blood vessels within tail smooth muscle around contracts, to stop blood loss
o Similar weaknesses in skin, which tears, so the whole thing just breaks away
st
o Newly regenerative tail does not have a core of vertebrae, there is a stump of 1 half of vertebrae left behind
o Instead of bone, a cartilage rod grows from that flexible
o Sometimes, weird things happen forked tail!!
- Some species have very long tails
- If you drop entire tail youve suddenly lost 80% of length of the animal
- Another modification occurs in some gecko species
o Glands within tail covered by skin
o Skin has zones of weakness forming bands across tail
o When theyre threatened they contract muscles, skin tears apart, sticky secretion from glands is sprayed
out by high pressure
o Can spray up to 1m from them

Adoption of subterranean lifestyle
- Need to elongate body and get rid of limbs
- We have a large number of independent evolutions of a burrowing underground lifestyle in loose soil or sand
- Particularly common amongst skinks
- Snakes also burrow
- Its thought that the original ancestor of snakes involved a burrowing stage some dispute here
- Not all elongate reptiles are burrowers
o Pygopod lizards didnt develop this because theyre burrowers, they have elongate body form to squirm
though a latticework of vegetation
o Many of these species live in dense vegetation

Reproduction
- Squamate reptiles are fairly simple
- Female
o Pair of ovaries
o Release multiple oocytes
o Released by oviducts transport eggs to external environment via cloaca
- Males
o Testicles located in the body cavity, internally
- How do we get sperm onto eggs?
o Hemipenis
o Not similar to a penis at all
o They are independent, left and right copulatory organs that function separately to each other
o How do hemipeens function?
Each one is stored inside out in the base of the tail when not in use
When erection needs to happen muscles contract, whole thing turns outside in and it is excruded
from the cloaca
Walls become rigid filled up with lymphatic fluid
Becomes a finger like projection coming out the cloaca
Seminal groove along length to transport sperm no urethra
- Having got sperm within female reproductive system
- Most squamates are egg layers
- However, there is variation in structure of egg shell
- Some geckos lay hard shelled eggs like birds
- These are resistant to desiccation
- Other lay eggs which have a parchment shelled egg softer, can lose/absorb water rapidly
Viviparity
- Some are live bearers
- Placentation specialised just like in mammals
- Mammals evolved this once
- Reptiles evolved placentation and viviparity numerous times
- Amongst Australian lizards, we have skinks where almost a dozen times, independently, viviparity and placentation has
evolved
- Death adders are an example of live bearers
- There is variation in the mode of reproduction, but also variation in the number of offspring
- Pink tongued skink can give birth up to 60 live beared offspring
- Geckos tend to have a fixed number of 2 eggs at a time
o One for each ovary, one for each oviduct
 - Consequences on survival of species if there is such a high mortality rate (e.g. due to predation), how do species who
have a fixed small clutch size survive?
- Many species with fixed small clutch sizes (e.g. geckos) can overcome this constraint by laying multiple clutches within
one breeding season
- Total no of eggs produced during a year can be relatively high, even though only 2 at a time
- Why has viviparity evolved?
o Tends to evolve in cold climates
o Laying eggs in soil if cold, eggs wont develop
o Cant move eggs around, not producing body heat of own so eggs going to die
o So in areas with variable weather, cold weather it is better if you can carrying developing embryos in body
and move from warm spot to warm spot
o Majority of skinks who are viviparous live in cold climates Snowy Mountains, Tasmania etc.
- As well as viviparity evolving in cold, we also have potential for reproductive cycles to vary in cold climates
- Think of mammals Sperm production is going to occur same time as egg production copulation can occur and
thats the end of that for the season
- However, in many cold climate reptiles situation whereby males produce sperm in Autumn, and females produce
eggs in Spring
- How does this work? There are two options:
o Males mate with females in Autumn, females store sperm inactive until Spring when they release oocytes
o Males having produced sperm, can wait until Spring to copulate with females and fertilise eggs then
- Either situation requires sperm to be very long lived
- Coventrys Skink and Entrecasteauxs Skink hibernate in same logs together
- But, Coventrys skink shows male sperm storage over Winter wait for females to come out of hibernation
- Entrecasteauxs skink shows the females mating with males before hibernation, and fertilise once they come out of
hibernation
- Some of the Australian dragon species are annuals

*The recording stops here, because he went over time!!!!!!! Why Glen, why?!?!
















LECTURE 3: CANE TOADS
INVASIVE CANE TOADS IN AUSTRALIA
IUCN Threats to Biodiversity
- Climate change
- Habitat loss
- Over-exploitation
- Pollution
- Invasive species

BIOLOGY
- Native to Central and South America
- BIG anurans
- Bi-phasic life history
o Very distinctly life history staged
o Tied to water to reproduce
o Lay eggs in ponds/still water
o Eggs take 2 days to hatch into tadpoles
o Last for about 30 days before they metamorphose into toads
o 10mm long and weigh less than 1gram at the beginning of their life stage as a toad
 - Extremely fecund
o Lay up to 30 000 eggs at a time!
- Highly toxic at ALL life history stages
o Particularly toxic to Australian animals because they have no co-evolved with them (no shared history)

HISTORY
- Introduced to Australia in 1935
- Advocated as biological control of sugar cane pests
o This was a global problem
o Hawaii imported the toads from South America
o This pest (a beetle) spends majority of its life underground
o There is a very little window where it is on the ground
o So toads dont have much of a chance at finding and killing these beetles
o 101 toads put in a box and travelled to North QLD introduced to a few places up and down the coast
o By the 1980s they were still pretty much restricted to QLD

INVASION
- The Gordonvale gazebo and beyond
- Increased rate of invasion across northern Australia over time
- Distribution map shown on the right
o Up until about last year there was a small population
in Sydney, which we have since gotten rid of
o There is still the potential for them to further
biodiversity in species they havent come across
before
- For all invasive species, there are 3 phases:
o Introduction
To be translocated
o Establishment
Conditions have to be suitable
o Spread
- There is a great impetus to spread for toads
o Impetus = motivation, stimulus, incentive etc.
o Why? Limited resources
o This has led to selection towards traits that allow toads to move further away from their brothers/sisters
- Increased fecundity leads to increased density leads to increased competition
- Toads are evolving!
o Different anatomical features between toads in different places
- The Olympic Village Effect
- Evolution driven primarily by space, rather than time
o Toads who are migrating end up in areas with very similar toads
E.g. those who are very fast/endurance runners can make it to further ponds, and will reside there
with other marathon runners
- The Southern front
o Northern NSW
o More changes between habitat types
o More disturbance in terms of human impact
o Toads are meeting a lot more challenges in this part of Australia
- Toads are tropical
- East coast far more heterogeneous environment
- How do toads cope?
o Essentially we want to know how toads will cope with cooler areas, to see if there is a possibility that they will
move further south

STUDIES DONE
- Radio tracking toads in high vs low elevation sites in northern NSW
o Looked at how far they were moving on daily basis
- Thermal acclimation experiments
o Acclimated them to either a warmer or cooler temperature
o To see which was performing better
- WHAT THEY FOUND:
- Toads are only seasonally active in cooler, high elevation areas
o Travelling up mountain ranges in Summer, and back down in Winter/or dying
 - Movement patterns similar (between high and low elevations), but are frequently in more open shelter sites)
o Behavior a bit different
o High elevation sites toads seeking warmer refuge sites in night were out in the open
o Adapting behaviourally to those conditions
o Consequences that would have on fauna
- Toads are capable of extremely rapid acclimation to cool temperatures
- In lab trials:
o No difference found between toads in how they performed at either temperature when they were acclimated
o Another trial: only let the toads acclimate for ~12 hours and it was found that those toads performed just as
well at cold temperatures as those who were acclimated for quite a longer time
o This shows that they are highly adaptable creatures
- Variability in waterbody characteristics
o Temperature
o pH
o Salinity
- Wet out collected toads, bred them in captivity, then put eggs in different conditions
- Measured hatching success, tadpole growth, developmental rate, survival, performance
- Experimental assays showed toads were tolerant to a wide range of environmental conditions
o They have a high adaptability a really robust animal

IMPACTS
- When predator meets potential prey, there are several outcomes
- Not all predators are affected as toads, or die as a consequence
1. Ignore toad as potential prey
- Bandy-bandys only eat blind snakes
- Water pythons only really eat mammals
2. They can eat toads
- Australias biodiversity is unfamiliar with the cane toads toxin because they havent co evolved
- Invertebrates in the aquatic stage are capable of consuming the eggs or tadpoles without any ill effects
- Potentially as a consequence of the way that toad toxin works how its active
- Invertebrates may just not be susceptible to the active compounds in the toxins
- Cane toad toxin is not just 1, it is a suite of 40+ different compounds that have different mechanisms of impact and
activation
- Its also highly stable if you kill a cane toad, it doesnt automatically make it non-toxic
- Birds and rodents are other examples of animals who can withstand the toxins, and actually consume the toads
- A lot of species of birds also occur in Asia where there are toads so their evolutionary history is not as different and
have had previous exposure
- Same goes for rodents the native rodents have only been here a short while in evolutionary terms there has
probably been some translocation of genes between Asian rodents and our rodents
- Birds, crows and raptors in particular, are savvy with toads will scavenge road kill, flip it over, eat tongue, rip jaw
down, and eat out the internal organs
- The toxins of toads are concentrated largely in skin, also the ovaries

3. Try to eat the toad, and die
- Two species in particular
o Flood plain death adder
o Northern quoll
- These are listed as endangered specifically because of cane toad impacts
- Death adders treat different frogs differently
- Fresh water crocodiles (salt water crocs are more resistant)
- Also to do with relative size dont get a cane toad big enough to give a salt water crocodile a big enough dose of
toxins
4. Try to eat the toad, realize its not good/dangerous, and learn not to eat it again
- Planigale small marsupials
- Recognize quite quickly not to eat toads again
- When toads metamorphose they are only 1cm long = perfect size prey for native toads
- This is a behavioral change that allows Australian biodiversity to adapt to invasive species
- Other interesting case they can adapt morphologically
- The size of the toad/relative size of toad is very important in determining the outcomes of these interactions
- Red bellied black snake if they encounter a really large toad, because they dont mechanically break down their prey,
they dont try to eat it because they know its too hard (or spit it out if they have already started)
- If they encounter a small toad, that is big enough to kill them theyll be able to throw that down more quickly and it
will kill them before theyre able to learn
 - In terms of handling, what is the key part of the snake that is going to facilitate how quickly it gets a toad down?
o The size of the head!
o So there has been selection on morphology of predators to make them less
likely of killing themselves with toads
o The snakes with smaller heads survive and pass on this trait

IMPACTS (continued)
- Varies in space, and over time (e.g. frogs)
- Three species of frogs stood out in particular in learning not to eat cane toads
o Cyclorana australis
o Litoria dahlia
o Limnodynastes convexiusculus
- Impact that toads had on these predators changed over time
- In terms of behavior, every year for 3-4 years, he collected frogs from areas where
toads were invading, faced these frogs with toads, and observed the outcome
- A lot of these frogs were inclined to attack the toads
- For some reason, that didnt change over time
- Instance of mortality went down over time
- They werent recognizing toads as potential prey
- Behavioural change came from interacting with the toads
- Did this in two different areas
o Results were different by location, but he has no explanation for this
- Another consideration is life history stage of the frog when theyre interacting with the toads
- Terrestrial life stages small proportion of species impacted by toads (likely to be impacted and die)
- With tadpoles, majority were impacted and killed
- So the impact varies depending on timing of the encounter
- The impacts that cane toads have can be subtle e.g. convex life-history
- Theyre affecting different trophic levels at the same time
- Things happening at the same time:
o Some species of native frogs being severely impacted by toads
o At the same time, toads also impacting the frogs predators
- So hard to accurately describe overall impacts
- Subtly marbled frog, experiments were run on heritability of some of these behaviours/impacts etc.
o 20 different clutches
o No heritability in any of it
o One thing found was that SIZE IS IMPORTANT
o When little frogs metamorphose the bigger you are, the better off you are (outcompete brothers and sisters,
be the champion woohoo)
o This is not the case when you introduce cane toads into the system
o Same thing goes for these as with black snakes
o Smaller frogs would still try to eat the toads, but struggle, and spit them out
o The larger frogs would succeed and then die
o So invasive species is changing the direction of selection on a life-history aspect
CONTROL
- History
o Bashing
The nicest way
o Fences
Study done a couple of years ago in desert where dams were fenced off prevented toads from
hydrating and so died around the edges
This can be used to stop their spread west, but doesnt work along the east coast
o Daughterless genes
CSIRO spent 10million on a few years ago
Tried to find a gene to ensure that all offspring were males
Problem: distribution of cane toads is already huge, and so this trait would be selected against heavily
in the wild
- Know your enemy and know yourself and you can fight a hundred battles without disaster Sun Tzu (The Art of War)
- Using toads own biology against them
- Pheromones tadpoles exude
o Attraction
When you are a clutch of 30 000 tadpoles in a pond, you have enough competition s it is
Another female toad comes along and lays her eggs in there way too much competition
It is in the toads interest to stop this happening
 Toads are very good at picking up pheromonal cues that eggs give off when they are about to hatch
So the toads who would be competing with these, swarm the eggs and cannibalize them
Pheromones released are very similar to the toxin in the skin
Looking at baiting traps for tadpoles with the toxin effective at attracting toad tadpoles
They think eggs are about to hatch, and get caught up in the traps
o Alarm
Simulates what happens when a tadpole is being attacked by a predator
Common in a lot of amphibians they release a pheromone that notifies tadpoles in immediate area
that there is a predator, so tadpoles try to leave
What they will do apart from physically moving they will speed up the rate of development
Cutting down time to become a metamorphic toad, so less time to eat and grow theyre coming out
a lot smaller
The smaller you are, the less fit you are
A lot more susceptible to dehydration and predation
o Suppression
On top of the tadpoles that are already occurring in a pond being able to cue in on pheromones
released when eggs about to hatch, they are also consistently exuding a pheromone that will suppress
the growth and development of any eggs/hatchlings that are in the pond at that time
Still dont know the mechanism of selective pressure on this
Minimizes their fitness by minimizing how big they grow
Found to be so effective in some cases that they wont even metamorphose

CANE TOADS IMPACT MIGRATION
- Cane toads are probably in Australia to stay
- However, we can probably remove them from specific areas where they pose a particular threat to some of our native
species (really critical areas)
- On a landscape scale, Australia is a huge country, toads are very fecund were a long way off eradicating them entirely
- So what can we do to minimize their effects?
- In Kakadu training quolls to not eat toads
- UTS Melbourne investigating whether there is maternal transmission of this behavior to avoid toads
- Kimberly work on flood plain goannas (another species that is impacted heavily by toads)
o Training goannas to avoid toads
o Importance of relative size at tmie of interaction
o At the invasion front, you have big toads coming trhough
o Goannas meet big toads and they die
o However, over time, the size of toads seems to get smaller would be preferable for goannas
o Scientist has been using teacher toads smaller toads, and training the goannas with these
o Relies on ability of goannas to learn
o So when the goanna comes across a large toad, because of their experience attempting to eat the small toad
and getting sick, they will not try to eat it and they will survive!



1. Aversion to small toads 2. Post-invasion survival















WEEK 4: Lecture 9 Avian Specialisations 1
Learning Outcomes:
LO1: Know what advantages flight provides
LO2: Know what anatomical features allow birds to fly
LO3: Know what physiological adaptations did the bird have to develop to fly?
LO4: Know the cost of flight why do some birds not fly?
LO5: How does this makes Australian birds vulnerable

What advantages does flight provide?
Takes a 2D world (catching prey on the ground/climbing up and down trees and makes it 3D
Provides access to virtually all environments around the world
o E.g. plants that normally would be inaccessible if flight was not possible
o E.g. go to the arctic to breed and feed (out of the water also) birds are the only animals that can use islands
that are uninhabitable during certain times of the year and then come back when it is habitable again
Gives protection from prey
Gives ability to become a predator (can attack from the air)
o Some can dive in water land mammals do not have access to this
Ability to forage over large distances
o E.g. California Condor
Take thermals and get lift, and have capacity to fly 100s of kms within a day as they seek food
Ability to move where the food is nomadic species
o E.g. Budgerigar
Variable climate in Aus so it is important for them to move to different areas as they need to have
increased quality of food and rain
Need other budgerigars around them to breed they move in large numbers and breed very similar
to fish in schools
The birds take lessons from animals around them and as they fly in a flock they fly synchronised
major advantage to avoid predators
Turns out budgies exist in the wild too, mind blown!
Major long distance migrations: regional
o
Major long distance migrations: global
o Different times of the year = different seasons
Some environments are inhospitable at one part of the year, but perfect for breeding and raising of
young at other times of year
E.g. the Tundra In the arctic circle, parts of Europe, Asia
Many species of bird feed there in the summer and then migrate south in the Northern
hemispheres winter
Survive the winter and then return back at the end of the season
o Regionally
Long and short distance migrations
Some migrate from Tasmania into central Aus in the winter (e.g. Golden Whistler see flocks
of hundreds arrive), its warmer here, and the food that is normally available in Tas is no
longer there
Many birds that live in Aus generally will migrate up to New Guinea to exploit insect prey not
available here in the winter
E.g. Pied Imperial Pidgeon
o Spend the winter in New Guinea they are fruit eating birds so there is abundant
food available in Aus in summer when they breed, but not in the winter
Provides opportunic breeding
o In Australia some summers have flooding rain, whereas some are completely dry! Water birds are able to
sense when the desert floods and they will up leave coastal areas and move inland -> breed inmass at those
locations and then wait again (not set period of time), and when there is another opportunity they will breed
again
Possible reason is SMELL when water is added to mud along the ocean the bacteria are activated
and produce odours (coastal odours) the same thing may be happening in the desert
E.g. white pelicans
Ability to escape predators
o Ability to dive down into brush, or fly up into a tree to escape
o Willie Wagtail if on the ground can climb up and escape predators on the group, opposite for air

What is the major cost of flight? ENERGY
Hummingbirds
o They travel about 2400km during migration their average weight is 8-10g
o Main limiting factor of a hummingbird relative to flight: ENERGY
 They flap their wings super fast and use huge amounts of energy, and so need to be able to store fat
during migration and conserve energy overnight (they go into state of torpor reduces energy
consumption)
Need to eat multiple times in the hour to survive
Migration routes
Krebs cycle and energy metabolism

What defines a bird in flight?
Anatomical features:
Anatomical features:
o Feathers
Make it possible for birds to fly
o Respiratory features
o Major muscoskeletal modifications
o Also physiological and behavioural adaptations

Feather anatomy:

Bird almost completely covered in feathers

Colourful
o Identify each other, and use for display and impressing the female
o Healthier the bird = more colourful the bird = more the chance it can woo the female
Insulation against heat and cold
Contour feathers on the body
o Streamline the bird, ensure minimum friction as the air passes over
Tail has multiple purposes can adjust where the birds are going when flying
Mainly provide lift when taking off
Allow birds to slow down control when landing
o Primary feathers on the outer part of the wing provide lift (see longest feathers at the edge)
o Secondary feathers important in landing (used to cup the air and slow down when landing)

Feathers and the shape of the wing allows flight
o Air comes up and over the wing (called a
foil) decreases pressure on dorsal side of
the wing, increases pressure on ventral
side of the wing results in lift
Feather anatomy
- Shaft Hollow once mature, lightweight
- Barbs Come off the shaft
o Then barbules come off the barb and
form little hooklets
o Provides a very flexible structure
allowing the feathers to move in
 forceful winds without causing damage to the wing
o Provides a light surface for the bird to get a lot of lift without using much energy
Other feathers
- Eyelash feathers
- Down feathers (underneath) critical for body temp maintenance
- Powder down feathers grow continuously and important for feather quality
(seen in cockatiels)
- Thermoregulation and waterproofing
o Most water birds have water proofing
o One group doesnt have waterproofing Darter they stand up and
dry off when they come out of the water need to be dried off before
going back into the water
Other main functions of feathers
- Camouflage (e.g. Lorikeets of bright colours camoflauge in tree, Bittern in the
reeds), predator avoidance, flight and thermoregulation
- Mate selection (sexual dimorphism) mating displays
- Adult and immature plumage

Feather colour
- Combination of structure and pigments that give feathers colour
- Pigments
o Melanin (black) present in almost all birds
o Carotenoids (Yellow) present in almost all birds
o Turacin (copper based) only in species of African birds
- Structural colour
o Structural blue (shape of the feather and ability of air cells to reflect light that causes it to look blue), this
combined this with a pigment such a yellow to get a green feather
- Display
o E.g. Birds of paradise in PNG (elaborate display of feathers and colours to attract the females)

Feathers wear out (Moult)
- Wear and tear
o Made of keratin and are very fragile
o UV light, soling, external parasites
o Old dead feathers fall out
o Very orderly pattern of losing feathers
o New living feathers grow and then lose their blood supply, becoming inert
- Patterns of moult
o Vast majority of birds moult once a year (some moult twice)
o Most birds lose a few feathers a time (still enables flight)
o Ducks and geese lose the ability to fly for about a month because they lose all their flight feathers at once
confined to the water and ground during this period
o Birds that migrate long distances will moult twice per
year
- Protecting feathers in birds of prey
o Critical in wildlife rehabilitation
o Vital that they arent damaged when in rehabilitation or
recovery
- Uropygial gland important for maintaining feather health
o Only apocrine gland that birds have (sweat glands)
o At the base of the tail dorsal aspect
o Results in secretions that are then spread all over the
bird
Maintains healthy bacterial growth
Assists in waterproofing
Has affects that minimise parasites

SKELETAL SYSTEM
- In general a very light skeletal structure (apart from chickens)
o Pneumatised bones - bones filled with air
Inc skull, vertebral column, bones closest to the body,
pelvis and sternum (often)
 Approx 2/3 filled with air instead of bone/fat
- Enables flight

Pneumatized bones
- These are bones that are air filled
o Skull, spinal cord, proximal bones in axial skeleton, pelvis, sternum
o Two thirds of the bony mass is filled with air
o All these bones are connected to the respiratory system
o All other bones contain marrow
- X-ray
o Bones with black spaces filled with air
o White spaces marrow
o Air sacs in flying species replace fat and soft tissue in species that cant fly

*NB. Large predator species have eyes that are facing forwards and notably large eye sockets to locate prey (as in X-ray). Owl in
example

MUSCLES
- Diff muscle types for different types of flight
- Types of flight
o Bursts
Sprinter Fast twitch muscles, build up lactic acid quickly and recover quickly
Wild turkey off the ground fast! Burst and glide
Quail in Australia
o Acceleration and then continuous flight
o Gliding flight

Propatagium
- Membranous structure that assists in gliding/flight

Fibre types
- Fast glycolytic fibres
o Fatigue easily, only use glucose sugar for power and go to anaerobic
o Generate more power
o E.g. Wild Turkey, Jungle Fowl and Quail need muscular body types with fast twitch fibres for escape from
predators (burst flight cant fly for long distance)
- Slow oxidative muscle fibres
o Slow but powerful, oxidative and slow to fatigue
o Found in the pectoral muscles of gliding flight birds
o E.g. Pelicans or birds that fly long distances with continuous muscle contractions
- Fast oxidative glycolytic fibres (mixed fibre)
o Can switch to anaerobic metabolism and use fat
o Aerobic but also anaerobic glucose very efficient
o E.g. Ducks can flap for hours and dont get a lactic acid build up like other species

RESPIRATORY AND CARDIOVASCULAR
- Fuel
o For short bursts of flight
o For long duration flight
- Oxygen
o They have to get more oxygen from the environment because the oxygen concentrations in air of higher
altitudes are greatly diminished
o During flapping flight oxygen consumption is increased 10-17x
o Requires rapid delivery
o Elevation makes it difficult as oxygen concentrations in the air are diminished

Lecture 10: Avian Specialisations 2
Anatomy
- Upper respiratory
o Nares
Nasal passages
Operculum
 o Air is deferred off to the sides via an operculum that prevents it going straight
in
o Important for fast flying air is not always going directly into the nose all the
time (difficult to tolerate)
o Humidifies (warms) airs before inhaling (cooler air at higher altitudes
especially important))
o Exposes air to mucosal membranes that help for particles to settle before going
into the lungs
Infra-orbital sinuses and cervicocephalic air sacs (go down the back of the neck and
arent involved in oxygen exchange)
o Make the bird lighter
o Choana
As air is inhaled it goes into the choana; a V shaped groove of the mouth. Then into the glottis
Birds can open mouth breathe increases the amount of air they can take in
o Glottis
Is at the base of the tongue
- Other important adaptations
o Ridge over their eye That keeps the air going over their eye so they dont constantly lose moisture form
their eye
o Paragon Falcon (one of the fastest birds)
Hunt pigeons several thousand kms below, drops rapidly, constantly blinks to keep the eye moist
but cant hunt ones with white spots because they reflect UV light

- Upper respiratory tract
o External nares on the beak
o Syrinx roof of mouth, goes into glottis
- Lower respiratory tract
o Trachea (complete tracheal rings)
Vocal organ
o Bronchi
o Air sacs
Transparent, like plastic wrap
Paired cervicocephalic (subcutaneous)
Paired intra coelomic
Interclaviclar, cranial thoracic, caudal
thoracic,
abdominal
o Lungs
On inhalation the air goes
into the caudal air sacs
NOT LUNGS because the
lungs collapse, but on
exhalation the air moves
from air sacs into lungs

Air movement through the respiratory system
- Two cycle system
o First inhalation passes through
the lungs
This is due to the caudal
facing opening to the
trachea
It enters the caudal
thoracic and abdominal air
sacs
o First exhalation enters the lungs through the caudal facing openings in the trachea
Moves through lungs
Air capillaries allow for continuous movement of air across lungs the air never dead ends in
the alveolus
o Second inhalation air moves into cranial thoracic and inter clavicular air sac
o Second exhalation air moves from these air sacs into the trachea
 - No diaphragm they have articulated (joint) ribs that allows them to move the sternum up and down + strong
muscles that attach onto processes that come off the ribs = act like bellows to move air in and out of the lungs
(dont move air just by breathing in and out)
o Important to understand when restraining a bird need to allow sternum to move up and down
- Canada Geese in Migration
o Migrate thousands of kms per day and never get tired

Respiratory Physiologic
- Thin air capillary walls (very narrow lining of
vessels and air capilalries)
o Allow for very efficient exchange of O2
and CO2
- Counter-current exchange system
o Oxygenated air moving in one direction
and the un-oxygenated blood moving
the other
o So there is always a concentration diff
btw the blood and the air (always a
conc gradient)
o Even when air is o2 depleted in oxygen
the blood can still absorb o2
o Allows maximum ability to extract o2
from the air
- Example of this efficiency
o Canary in the mine shaft
o Canaries remove methane/other inhaled toxins quicker than the miners will if the bird drops off the
branch it tells them they need to get out
o Take birds out with them give o2 and they recover quickly to be reused

CARDIOVASCULAR SYSTEM
Heart
- 4 chambers
- Almost axial position
- Inverted electrical axis
- Relatively large heart
o Increased SV
- Have separated right and left sides blood pumped out into lung and through body then back in the left side

Oxygen delivery during flight
- Get 10-17x increase in O2 consumption
- CO increase 7.4x
- Main way of increasing CO is to increase HR
o E.g. Flying pigeons can increase from 110 600 in escape situations
- Increase density of capillaries in muscles
o When o2 gets out it can easily diffuse out in the muscles
- Scientists think there is increased tissue perfusion not measured yet

Oxygen extraction in tissues
- Haemoglobin affinity for O2 decreases with a decrease in pH
o Important b/c this lower affinity means that the haemoglobin will more readily release the O2 to muscles
in times of great demand
o The more lactic acid lower pH greater release of O2 into tissue
- Birds myoglobin (O2 receiving protein) has a very high affinity for O2
- Case study: Bar-headed geese
o Migrate over the Himalayan Mountains at very high altitudes
Main method of survival is largely by increasing CO and HR and contractility pump more blood
out
Lungs cant extract more oxygen but the heart can pump faster!!
Mitochondria are closer to the capillary walls so the oxygen doesnt have to go far to get where
it is needed!

ENERGY METABOLISM
- Many birds have capacity to switch from carb to fat metabolism and back


Carbohydrate metabolism
- Mammals
o Depend heavily on carbohydrate metabolism
o Do not increase the amounts of fatty acids in the blood during exercise, as fatty acids can be toxic too
many would damage internal organs (birds can utilise them more efficiently)
- Birds
o Shorts bursts of flight glycogen
o Sustained flight utilize fat
o Utilise the FA much more efficiently
o During sustained flight they can switch from glucose metabolism to FA metabolism
They can do this by attaching the toxic FA to proteins that enable quicker transportation
Fat metabolism
- FFAs
o Major source of energy from fat
o Problems insoluble and toxic
- FA transportation
o Attached to albumen (binding protein)
o VLDL may also play an important role
o Birds may also facilitate movement into cells
Active transport across cell membranes and to the mitochondria
Increased concentrations of FFA binding proteins

Protein metabolism
- Can also be a source of energy
- During migration there can be a significant loss of muscle mass
o Site specific so not from the pectoral muscles needed for flying, mostly from their legs
o This energy is converted to sugar for immediate use
- Other elements of energy metabolism that permit flight
o High densities of mitochondria in muscle
o Very high concentrations catabolic enzymes in muscle, needed to generate energy

Reducing the cost of flight!
- Behavioural methods to reduce energy costs of flight
o Gliding flight (take advantage of the air curves to give them lift dont need to flap as much)
They can go for many days without eating because they save so much energy through gliding
 o E.g. albatross use the wind and the waves to save energy during flight only energy cost is to maintain
the wingspan
- V shaped formations in the air
o The lead bird powers through, so that the birds following have less air resistant
o They take turns in the front

How do birds fly long distances and survive???
- Energetics of pre-migratory birds
o Increase their body weight by 40%
o Increase pectoral muscle mass
o Increase enzymes that allow them to rapidly metabolize food for energy
o Cardiac hypertrophy allows the force of the heart to increase (can pump more heart through the
circulatory system)
- Energetics of migration
o Single flights
o Stop overs (for feeding)
- Use of climatic conditions to facilitate migration
o Birds can take advantage of certain seasonal winds that will take them to warmer climates (eg. From
America to the Caribbean)
o Can also take advantage of thermals (upwards currents of warm air)

And finally HOW do they know WHERE TO GO??
- Instinct
- Compasses
o Birds have learned to read the magnetic fields that surround the earth
o Its unknown how they detect these fields
o Some birds use the sun and moon as celestial cues
- Sight and smell
o Recognise the smells of unfamiliar places
- Learned behaviour
o Bigger birds migrate in flocks and younger birds follow parents
o Often use geographical clues e.g. river valleys
Typically a combination of instinct and learned behaviour



Lecture 11: Avian Specialisations 3
Threatening Processes
- Susceptible to habitat alteration at winter and summering grounds
- For stop over species also impacted by habitat changes of feeding grounds

Short-tailed Shearwaters
- Extensively breed on islands off the coast of Australia
- Winter in the Bering Sea btw Russia and Alaska where they feed up and get fat before making the journey back
to Australia
- Problem is that when you depend on two ecosystems they both have to be healthy and functional
- Huge numbers were found dead on beaches suggesting that the birds arent coping with climatic changes such
as El Nino

Pelagic Species
- Long line fishing, rubbish, invasive species and disease have been major contributing factors to the death of the
albatross
o They can get hooked by the long lines this impact is predicted to contribute to several species of
albatross going extinct
o Invasive species introduced onto islands
o Diseases previously only seen in poultry has arisen in Albatross
This is most likely through the chumming of water with chicken mince on Pelagic trips to view the
albatross

Island endemic species are susceptible to extinction
- E.g. New Zealand Moa
o Eaten to extinction by Maori no restricted selection and as population got bigger more protein was
required
- Dodo
- Hawaiian Forrest birds

Why are island species so susceptible to extinction?
- Have not co-evolved with mammalian predators
- Live in habitats that readily altered by humans and introduced species
- Highly susceptible to introduced diseases

Ground Nesting Birds
- Another group of birds that are highly impacted by human activity
- They are easy targets for predators such as cats and foxes
- Their habitat area is also impacted by human usage

Pelicans and ducks
- Water birds are diminishing
- This is due to agriculture
o Water is suctioned from rivers for usage, this takes away water from wetland communities. Fewer
wetlands = fewer breeding birds

Case study: Impact of Agriculture on the Gouldian Finch
Introduction
- Currently fewer than 3000 in the wild
- Historically they were one of the most common finches
- Range
o Used to be across Northern Australia (Broome to Cairns)
o They are now sparsely populated across that region
- Biology
o Are more selective about food sources (compared to other finches)
Feed on grass spear heads
Then on burnt patched when the seeds have fallen
o Breeding life less than 3 years

Key threatening processes:
- Fire
o Massive fires in northern Australia completely clear out areas
 o Dependence on specific seed types
o Fires means they have no where to hide they basically starve to death because the combination of
plants available to them changes
- Grazing
o Cattle and other animals graze on the grass meaning that the grasses dont seed finches lack in food
o Contributing to their reduction and causing a decrease in seed prodn
o Feral pigs also have an impact on their habitat

Gouldian Finch Management
- Fire
o Back to fire stick methods to create a mosaic of burnt areas
o Good response from cattle landholders
B/c massive fires have also created major challenges for their cattle
- Cattle numbers have been reduced or restricted

Gouldian Finch Impact of Management
- Numbers have stabilised but not increased
- Continued ongoing studies into fire strategies and cattle management are needed

Australian Parrots
- Australia had and still has a diverse array of ecosystem and a huge diversity of parrots
- Parrots are specialists and highly sensitive to environmental disturbances
- Other generalists such as the Sulphur Crested Cockatoo (aka. Sam) can cope/benefit to human changes in the
environment

Case study: Ground Parrots
- Endangered species found in coastal heaths
- Nocturnal
- Their habitat is fire dependent. They live in sheaths that have been burnt and regrown
- The frequency of these fires is the main issue ideally the habitat should be burnt down every 7-20years
o A study found that peak utilization of habitat varies btw sites, but is general 10-25 years after the fire
- Current fire regimes are not optimal and need to be adapted

Case study: Golden-Shouldered Parrot
- Approx. 2000 animals
- Specialists because they nest in magnetic termite mounds
- They live in an extreme habitat
o Very dry winter
o Summer floods
- They only feed on certain types of feeds and grasses
- They need open forests to support the growth of these grasses b/c this will maintain
the understory

Key threatening processes
- Limited habitat that is declining
- Grazing decreases food supply and alters habitat
- Altered fire regimes makes food more difficult to find and allows for the invasion other plants species e.g. Ti tree
(which in turn has allowed for predator invasion)
- Decline in Wood Swallow populations an issue b/c they usually nest near the GS parrots and wld work together
to call out for predators

Recovery efforts
- Land holders are managing the birds
o Appropriate fire regimes
o Altering cattle grazing shown to be effective in stopping the invasion of the Ti-tree

Case study: The Swift Parrot
- Been in decline for a long time only recently a study discovered why
- Sugar Gliders they eat swift parrots
o They kill the hen on the nest, feed on her body for a few days and then eat the eggs
- The nest cavities are then abandon swallows then come and recolonize it the gliders will then eat them
- This is due to the sugar gliders being introduced to TAS for a breeding program
- Efforts to try to control the gliders in certain regions to see if it improves the Swifts numbers

Case study: Migratory Australian species - Orange-bellied Parrot (OBP)
- These are one of three migratory species in Australia
- Breed in SW coastal TAS (summer) and in winter they fly to the mainland (1000km of coastline from SA to NSW)
- They are cavity nesters (tree hollows)
o Issue because these trees arent native species there are no regulations preventing them being cut
down

History and possible causes of decline
- Loss and degradation of wintering habitat
- Invasive plants and animals
- Competition with native species
- Exposure to toxins in seeds from invasive weeds
- Disease
- Wind turbines
- Fishing boats (light disorientate them during their night migration)

Causes of decline
st
- 1 year mortality
st
o Survival rates for the 1 year are 40-60%,
o Much higher in adult birds
- Outbreak of Psittacine beak and Feather disease virus
o Outbreak in breeding facility and then in the wild
o High mortalities in nestlings

Recovery efforts
- In situ
o Protection of key habitats used for migration
o Manipulation of environment to provide a wintering habitat (wintering survival may be key to pop growth)
o Maintain breeding habit with the use of fire
- On the breeding ground
o Nesting boxes (which also permit the study of breeding)
o Allows disease monitoring and possibility for treatment
o Supplemental feeding and monitoring station
o Collect chicks for captive breeding
- Ex situ
o Establish a captive breeding population to maintain species in the face of extinction
- Release efforts
o 20 released each year

Future of the Orange-Bellied Parrot
- Extinction in the wild soon
- Unlikely captive populations will be sustained

Case study: Carnabys Black Cockatoo
- Reside in coastal regions of WA during the winter and move inland during the
summer to sparse eucalypt forest
- South Western AUs (aka grain belt) initially thought to be pests for eating
grain, but a recent study found that they cause minimal damage ($7 loss p/yr)
- They are cavity nesters hollows can take up to 150 years to develop
o Competition with other birds for those trees
- Feed in heath lands

Population declines
- Current pop ~10,000
- Breeding range and overall range constriction 30%
- Estimated to be a min decline of 50% in the past 50years

Key threatening Processes
- Inland habitat converted to farm land
- Use coastal habitat for feeding and roosting, this is being urbanized
- Particularly
o Loss of inland hollows
 o Competition for hollows invasive birds and bees take over nest cavities
o Removal of pine plantations where they have developed specific roosting patterns
o Poaching for aviculture
o Hit by cars due to their slow take off

Organized Recovery Efforts
- Birds Australia (WA)
o Recovery program
- Federal Govt
- WWF AUS
- Universities (Murdoch)
o Determining age structure through examining proteins in their DNA
o Genetic profiles and identification of smuggled birds
- Local landholders
- Community volunteers (education and re-vegetation projects)
o Engage the public
- Perth Zoo
o Medical care and rehabilitation (avg. 500 birds per yr)

Key threatening processes identified
- Habitat loss, alteration, improper management
o Specialist specie most vulnerable
o Global issue
- Vertebrate pests
- Infectious diseases (esp. Introduced disease)
- Long line fishing
- Climate change and disruption of ocean ecosystems
- Pollution birds can die from exposure to certain chemicals

WEEK 5: Lecture 12: Mammalian diversity and classification:
Marsupial diversity:
Learning outcomes:
1. Understand (and be able to explain) what makes mammals unique from other vertebrates, as well as the distinguishing
characteristics of the three extant mammal lineages: monotreme, marsupial and eutherian mammals
2. Understand the origins of Australian mammals
3. Have an appreciation for the range of diversity and world-wide distribution of marsupials
4. Explain the key
distinguishing features
of the four
Australasian marsupial
orders:
Dasyuromorphia,
Peramelimorphia,
Diprotodontia,
Notoryctemorphia
(especially with
respect to dentition
and distal limb
structure)

In a broad evolutionary
context: Where do mammals
fit?
Mammals = Monotremes,
marsupials and placentals.

The theory is that monotremes,
marsupials and placentals had a
common ancestor, and they
diverged in different ways.
Placentals and marsupials are
more closely related than
monotremes.


This is another way of showing the diversity of vertebrate life is looked at, divided into the different groups. This diagram
doesnt tell us about the relationship between the different groups, its mainly just dividing things up (some of the numbers
differs between different textbooks, so dont get too caught up in the specific numbers of species. The number of species is
constantly changing).

Mammals represent approx. 9% of extant vertebrates on the planet.

Extant = still in existence; surviving.

Fish make up the largest portion of vertebrate life.

What is a mammal?
Characteristics:
- Body is covered in hair, related to thermoregulation
- Most mammals give live birth (except from monotremes which are egg layers)
- Mammary glands
- Mammals are the only vertebrates that suckle their young
- Endotherms

There are a number of different ways to define mammals:
Phylogenetic classification:
- Sarcoterygii; Tetrapoda; Amniota; Syanpsida

Tetrapod = a four-footed animal

Synapids = mammals and mammal-like reptiles (these reptiles are now extinct) with modifications to skull and skeleton
indicative of increase in metabolic rate (things like greater areas of attachment on the jaw for muscles of mastication indicates
they ingested more than they needed to consume more energy. Other modifications include the respiratory system, which
suggest increased rate of respiration)

Amniote = an animal that develops embryonic membranes

All mammals are amniotes, but not all amniotes are mammals!
 The embryo itself develops 3 embryonic membranes (so its not the mother that develop these membranes)
The amnion is one of those three membranes

Key features:
Endothermic (capable of generating heat independent of the environment) birds are also endotherms so this is not
an exclusive feature of mammals
Respiration with a muscular diaphragm (presence of diaphragm dividing the thoracic and abdominal cavities is unique
to mammals. We do not know how the diaphragm evolved, but if we look at skeleton of a reptile we can see they have
ribs all the way down to the lumbar region, whereas mammals dont; ribs ends where the diaphragm starts)
Hair that provides insulation
Mammary glands + ability to suckle (because of the arrangement of the ear ways and the oral cavity in a young
mammal, they can simultaneously suckle and breath because they can isolate the two systems unique mammalian
feature)
Differentiation of teeth (instead of having lots of teeth with the same morphology, they have division into incisors,
molars and canines with different functions relates to higher metabolic rate and the need to bring in lots of food
effectively)
Refinement of ear bones (in middle ear)


(Dont have to memorise this, this is just to
highlight some of the key points above)
In the jaw: areas of muscle attachment
have much more space and regions
where the bones attach to muscles for
mastication
Reptiles dont have ear bones part of
the middle ear, whereas in mammals
have a chain of three bones

Mammals have incisors which are the ones highlighted in red (species
variation). Not all mammals have all of these teeth, but the fact that there
are different teeth in different regions of the jaw is unique for mammals.

The way in which the jaw and the teeth are arranged to form a junction is
important in breaking up and chewing food mammalian feature, dont
see this in other vertebrate groups. The arrangement of the teeth and jaw
allows efficient ingestion and mastication.

Mammalian evolution:
- Most of the early mammalian groups are now extinct (they were related to the mammal-like reptiles that are now
extinct)
- Three groups remain today:
o Monotremes (Prototheria): Egg-laying mammals
o Marsupials (Metatheria): Give birth to small, embryonic young. Have short gestation but long period of
lactation
o Placentals (Eutheria): Give birth to larger young. Provide a long period of parental care but not as long
compared to the marsupials
- The three groups of extant mammals are more easily distinguished by their mode of reproduction
 - Note that marsupials have a placenta (which is basically the development of the embryonic membranes causing the
development of the embryo in the uterus we will learn about this later in anatomy)

Note:
Theria = Beasts
Prototheria = First beast
Metatheria = Other beasts
Eutheria = True beasts

This relates to the fact that as scientist would discuss the differences between the different groups of mammals, monotremes
were seen as being quite primitive because they lay eggs, which almost makes them closer to reptiles in some aspects of their
physiology. Eutherians were seen as the most advanced of the mammals. There is still debate about what the phylogenetic
relationships are.

All living mammals are distinguishable from reptiles by:
- Homeothermy (warm-blooded; a trait shared with birds)
- Suckling of young
- Body hair
- Presence of a muscular diaphragm
- Other skeletal modifications

Australian mammals origins:
Native Australian mammals are derived from at least two sources:
- The oldest are descendants of the marsupials and monotremes that were on the continent when it broke free of
Antarctica (35-40 mya)
- The eutherian mammals (rodent groups) came by island hopping beginning about 5-6 mya
o Rodents presumably drifted between islands on floating vegetation in the south pacific
o Once humans were present in Australia, boat traffic between Indonesia and Northern Australia facilitated
human movement of animals in the last 40-50k years


Marsupial diversity and classification: with special reference to anatomical features
Appreciate that there is a huge diversity
within the marsupial fauna!

Marsupial diversity:
Two distantly related marsupial cohorts
recognised:
- Australidelphia: Found in Australia
and PNG (has the greatest diversity of
marsupials, but are thought to have
originated from south America)
- Ameridelphia: Found in the Americas

Theories regarding marsupial radiation are
constantly evolving and being revised!




The earlier supercontinents have dramatically
influence the fauna and flora we see today


Most fundamental, easily recognisable differences between
Australidelphia and Ameridelphia:
- Structure of the tarsal (ankle) bones
- Also: blood proteins, DNA and sperm morphology
So basically, there are both morphological and genetic
differences between the two groups

American marsupials (cohort Ameridelphia):
- Approximately 25% of marsupial species
 - Arboreal omnivores
- Havent adapted to the environment in America as well as the Australian marsupials (can be because eutherians didnt
arrive in Australia until later, which means the marsupials had more time to adapt and fill ecological niches)
- Possibly ancestral to Australian/New Guinean marsupials (cohort Australidelphia)

Didelphis virginiana only marsupial north of Mexico (not closely
related to Australian possums)
- Approx. same size as a cat
- Successful opportunist (which is why its been able to
invade North America)


An evolutionary link?
- Dromiciops australis (Monito del monte = little mountain
monkey)
- Found in Chile
- Relationships with Australidelphia and Amerideliphia disputed
o Previously thought to be most
closely related to Australidelphia

Cohort Australidelphia (Australia and PNG):
4 orders:
- Dasyuromorphia (mostly carnivores and insectivores)
- Peramelemorphia
- Diprotodontia (kangaroos, possums, koalas, wombats)
- Notoryctemorphia (marsupial mole)

Marsupial morphology
- Diverse group
o E.g. size; 4g-85kg, range of ecological niches
- Like other animals, morphology reflects function
o E.g. diet, locomotion
o GIT has a different morphology in carnivores vs herbivores
- General mammalian features with modifications to reflect the above


Some definitions:

Polyprotodont = multiple pairs of lower incisors
Diprotodont = one pair of incisors in the lower jaw

Di-prot-o-dont = two front teeth

These definitions refers to the morphology/structure of
hind feet:

-dactyl = a suffix that indicates fingers or toes of a
particular type or number
- Syndactyly = The normal occurrence of having
two or more fused digits in a mammal species
 In many marsupials species syndactyly is common between digits 2 and 3 in the hindfoot


Skeletal structure of a kangaroo hind-foot:
2 and 3 digits are fused syndactyly
Hint: These definitions and characteristics are really important in defining the 4 Australian marsupial
orders

Lecture 13: Mammalian specialisations: marsupials

Order: Dasyuromorphia
- Carnivorous or insectivorous marsupials
- Polyprotodont dentition (recall from last lecture they have multiple pairs of lower incisors in their lower jaw)
o Three pairs of approx. equal-sized lower incisors
o Numerous, sharp teeth
Exception: Numbat teeth reduced in size and fewer incisors
- Hindfoot has 5 separate toes (+/- digit 1): i.e. NO syndactyly
- Most of these animals walk on 4 legs
- Forelimb length = hindlimb length (so not like kangaroos which have big hindlegs and small forelimbs)
- Non-prehensile tail (so cant grasp onto e.g. parts of trees with their tails)
- Often inhabit arid areas of Australia (but also coastal areas)
- Crest-tailed mulgara inhabits arid zones

 nd
- Tiger quoll is the 2 largest carnivorous marsupial
- Reasonably common in Tasmania
- Different from the eastern quoll which is smaller and doesnt have spots
on the tail
- Quolls have big variation in coat colour (from black coat with white spots
to red-ish colour)
- Eastern quoll is extinct from the mainland
- Largest marsupial carnivore



Polyprotodont teeth (Tasmanian devil):
- Multiple pairs of lower incisors
- Large canines
- Sharp molars related to a carnivorous diet





Order: Peramelemorphia
(Bandicots and bilbies)
- Omnivorous marsupials
- Long, pointed heads and compact bodies
- Bandicots can be found around urban areas, often mistaken for rats as the
young ones are quite small, but have much shorter tail than rats
- Polyprotodont dentition
o Three pairs of approx. equal-sized lower incisors (not as pointed as
dasyuroids)
o Incisors not as pointy as the carnivorous marsupials as they are
omnivores
- Hindlimb large with 4 toes:
o Syndactyly digit 2 and 3, digit 1 absent/reduced (different from
dasyuromorphia)
- Forelimb shorter ( bounding gait) with well-developed claws (for digging)
- A lot of their time is spent digging in the ground for insects and fungi etc.
- Non-prehensile tail
- Short ears and elongated snout
- Short tail (characteristic of all bandicoots)
- Sharp teeth
- Big, rabbit-like ears, silky fur, tail is black and/or white
- Inhabits desert regions
- Dig burrows
- Threatened to be extinct
- Susceptible to predation by introduced species like foxes

- Long-nosed bandicoot is the most common bandicoot around
Sydney suburbs
- Can see from the diagram how long the snout is

Order: Notoryctemorphia (marsupial mole):

- Ancient lineage with just two species
- Northern and southern marsupial mole
- Subterranean habit (occurring under the earths surface)
o Usually low metabolic rate and highly variable body temp
adaptation for a burrowing lifestyle
- Blind (eyes = non-functional buds beneath the skin)
- Absence of external ears, heavily keratinised skin on nose (works
almost like a shield when burrowing)
 - Tubular body form, with rear-ward opening pouch (females)
- Forelimb short and powerful, digits 3 and 4 have developed into large, spade-like claws (for digging)
- Tail = shortened and very strong
- Insectivorous/carnivorous = Polyprotodont dentition
- Marsupial moles are very difficult to find in the environment, so not much
research on them


Order: Diprotodontia (koalas, wombats, possums, marcopods)

- Macropods = kangaroos, wallabies etc
- Herbivorous or omnivorous
- Most diverse order of the 4 orders!
- Diprotodont dentition
o One pair of lower incisors, with NO lower canine teeth
o Some species have upper canine teeth
- Hindlimb:
o Syndactyly digit 2 and 3 (which are fused together,
except at the tip)
- Forelimb:
o Ability to oppose first two digits in most species (not
in wombats, kangaroos and wallabies). Adaptation to
tree-climbing.
- Non-prehensile tail
- Most specialised and recently evolved order (approx. 120
species)
- As the name suggests: all diprotodonts
nd
- 2 trait in Diprotodontia = syndactyly
- Very successful group with 2 subgroups:
o Vombatiformes (koalas and wombats)
o Phalangerida (possums, rat-kangaroos and kangaroos)
- Inhabits all sorts of different habitats in Australia
- Range of different diets
- Single pair of lower incisors
- Diagram to the left showing big, long roots which keep growing throughout life
- Multiple pairs of upper incisors

Sub-order: Vombatiformes
- No tail
- Adaptations for climbing (koala) or burrowing (wombats)
- Koalas and burrows are closely related! Quote lecturer: Koalas are basically tree-climbing
wombats
- Rear-ward opening pouch (due to burrowing)

Suborder: Phalangerida
- Morphologically very diverse
- 4 principle lineages that can be viewed as superfamilies:
o Phalangeroidea (cuscuses, brushtial possums, scaly-tailed possums)
o Burramyoidae (pygmy possums)
o Petauridea (ringtail possums, gliders, Honey possum, Leadbeaters possum)
So the first 3 superfamilies are possums and gliders
o Macropodoidea (kangaroos, wallabies and rat-kangaroos)
- Possums & gliders: arboreal, well-developed claws, equal-length limbs, prehensile tails

Superfamily: Phalangeroidae
- Brushtail possums, cuscuses and scaly-tailed possum
- Noticeably short face, eyes directly forward
- Long, prehensile tail which are used when climbing
- Arboreal excellent climbers
- Brushtail possums are folivorous (opportunists can eat other things as well)
- Folivorous = herbivore that specialise eating leaves
- Others variable herbivores

Superfamily: Burramyoidae
- Pygmy possums and mountain pygmy possums
- Smallest of the possums (10-15g)
- Long, slender, prehensile tail
- Arboreal
- Insectivorous

Superfamily: Petauridae
- Possum-like marsupials from four families
o E.g. ringtail possums and gliders
- Extreme morphological and ecological diversity (got everything some small gliding possums to ringtail possums)
- Arboreal (so live in trees)
- All are dietary specialists:
o Folivores
o Sap-eaters
o Omnivorous (e.g. striped possum wood-boring insects)
o Nectivorous
- Variations in teeth and digestive tract anatomy

Greater glider:
- Not closely related to other Petauridae gliders
nd
- 2 largest glider
- Gliding membrane between elbow and ankle more controlled glides
(most other gliders got a membrane from the wrist to the ankle)
- Skeletal structure is similar to other possums but the skin membrane links between the forelimb
and hindlimbs to facilitate gliding
- Herbivorous and solitary

Feathertail glider:

- Smallest gliding possum

- Worlds smallest gliding mammal
- Tail looks like feather
- Gliding membrane between elbow and knee
- Nectivorous and communal (build nests. There will be tens of nests within a small region (like a
tree hollow))

Sugar glider:
- Small, omnivorous, gliding possum
- Gliding membrane between wrist and ankle (termed wrist-winged
glider, a trait common to 6 gliding species)
- Common as pets in north America
- Omnivorous:
o In summer = insectivorous
o In winter = exudativorous




Superfamily: Macropodoidea
- Kangaroos, wallabies and rat-kangaroos
- Macropods: strong, powerful hindlimbs and long hindfeet
- 3 families:
o Macropodidae: kangaroos and wallabies (<25kg)
o Potoroidae: potoroos and bettongs (rat kangaroos)
o Hypsiprymnodontidae: Musky Rat-kangaroo (found in the tropical parts of QLD)
- Adaptions to a hopping lifestyle (except Musky rat-kangaroo)
- Syndactyly, with no opposable first digit (except Musky rat-kangaroo)
- Terrestrial (except tree-kangaroo)
- Essentially herbivorous

Morphological specialisations: what makes marsupials unique

- Reproductive traits: (discussed later) key characteristic
- Skeletal modifications
- Slightly lower body temperature and metabolic rate (expend less energy than eutherian mammals of comparable size
and activity)
- Brain (incl. cerebral hemispheres) usually smaller
st
- Most have an opposable 1 digit on hind feet (hallux)

Muscoloskeletal structure compared with eutherians:
- Hard palate fenestrated
- Epipubic bones present
o Articulate with pubis and extend cranially
o Associated with pouch
- Lack fully developed patella (except bandicoots and Notoryctes)
- Have clavicles (except bandicoots)
- Skull:
o Large facial area to small cranial cavity
o Mandibular symphysis may not be fused
(many diprotodonts)
o Often have narrow oral gape
o Mandible: internal angular process (so called
marsupial shelf, angular shelf in the lower
jaw)

Metabolism:
- Resting body temp 2-3 degrees lower than eutherians
- Basal metabolic rate lower but:
o Nutritional requirements lower for maintenance
o Can increase greatly in response to cold (10-11 x), and peak metabolism of some marsupials may be higher
than some eutherians

Neurological system:
Brain:
- Small
- Large olfactory bulbs
- Basic sulci
- Lacks corpus callosum (but fibres pass between hemispheres at other sites)

Hopping (saltation):
- Hopping can be a limiting way of locomotion (especially at low speeds)
- Kangaroos cannot move backwards!

- Energetic movement for animals >5 kg at > 10 km/h (wallabies) or 15 km/h (kangaroos)
- Energy stored in elastic structures e.g. tendons
- Most economical kangaroo speed = 20-25 km/h


- At speeds < approx. 10 km/h:
o Kangaroos alternately support
weight on forelimbs + tail and
hindlimbs
o Small spp. Can saltate
- Top kangaroo speed = 70 km/h
o Speed increases by increasing
the stride length up to 40
km/h
o Speed further increases by
increasing the hopping rate
for >40 km/h


Lecture 14: Marsupial reproduction with an emphasis on
macropodids (kangaroos and wallabies)
Historical observations of what Europeans would have seen
when they first came across to Australia

Note written by one of the captains of one of the first ships
when they first saw kangaroos/wallabies

The three sub-classes of living mammals are distinguished
most clearly by their modes of reproduction!!

What is a marsupial?
- Marsupial implies a pouch (marsupium = pouch) BUT:
o Males do not have pouches
o Females of some species have poorly developed/no pouch
o Echidnas (monotremes) develop a pouch when suckling their offspring
- Other reproductive trait most clearly define marsupials
o Skeletal traits also useful (e.g. presence of an epipubic bone)
From Wiki: Epipubic bones = pair of bones projecting forward from the pelvic bones of marsupials

Reproductive anatomy

Eutherian:

In most eutherian species the uterus is initially
paired with a Y-shaped structure to the ovaries
and a single body of the uterus (but there are
species differences)


Marsupial:
(Sorry about the poor quality, this wasnt on the lecture
slide, just on the recording i.e. the quality is shit)

- One of the key features of the female marsupial is
that the path that the ureters which take urine
from the kidneys to the bladder in the embryonic
development is such that the vagina cant fuse to
form a single channel. So, instead if having a single
vagina (like the eutherians), marsupials got
basically three vaginas 2 lateral vaginas and a
median vagina. (She kept referring to the vaginas
as plural vaginae).
- Also, marsupials have 2 separate uteri and 2 uteri horns (but one uterus). Each uteri has its own cervix.
- So path of ureters from kidneys to bladder varies between marsupials and eutherians
- In marsupials, the path of ureters prevents fusion of vagina into a single structure:
o Two lateral + one median vaginae
o Two uteri
o Two cervices
o Also, just one external orifice for reproduction and excretion (this is often incorrectly referred to as a cloaca)
Cloacas have fusion between the rectum and the urogenital sinus.
- Monotremes have cloaca because they have a combined genital sinus and rectum

Monotremes:

- Platypuses only have 1 functioning ovary





Common reproductive features:
Marsupials:
- Most polyoestrous (multiple cycles in breeding season)
- Most ovulate spontaneously (will ovulate whether mating takes place or not)
- Pregnancy < or = oestrous cycle length key feature of marsupials
o In comparison, humans have a oestrous cycle of approx. 28 days, whereas the gestation period is 9 months
- Ovarian activity suppressed by lactation
- Under-developed offspring at birth
- Long lactation and short gestation
- Embryonic diapause in Macropodidae

Eutherian mammals: a note
Why use the term eutherian rather than placental mammal?
- Because marsupials produced such tiny young after a very short gestation, it was initially assumed that they did not
have the opportunity (and/or need) to nourish their young by a placenta
o Hence the term placental mammal was deemed appropriate for those species with a longer gestation period
in which the formation of a placenta had been observed
- However, we now know that marsupials have a placenta
o Most cases more primitive yolk sac placenta
o Chorioallantoic placenta (c.f. true placental mammals) occurs in bandicoots, koalas and wombats

The pouch: An important marsupial adaption
- Provides high humidity and stable temperature for the underdeveloped offspring
o Very important adaptation because the underdeveloped young is not able to regulate its own temperature
o If the young gets ejected from the pouch it is unable to regulate its own temperature and will die
- Formed by invagination of skin of ventral abdomen through a gap in the cutaneous muscles
- Interior skin relatively hairless, and produces a brown secretion that coats the pouch wall
o Periodically cleaned by the female
o Newly born offspring have a compromised immune system. Pouch has
antimicrobial peptides to protect the young from pathogens further
protected by antibodies in the colostrum
- Mammary glands in pouch with long nipples (if previously suckled)
o Young initially permanently attaches to one teat, and only that associated
mammary gland will develop
o As the young develops, the teat grow in length
- The pouch is full of bacteria

Development of the young:
- Small (10-850 mg) and immature at birth
 o Well developed olfaction, forelimbs
- Continues development attached to teat
- Neonate has circular mouth
o Teat expands inside mouth
o Can breath and swallow concurrently
o Prominent cutaneous may have a role in respiration
- Remain dependent on mother for some time after leaving pouch/teat
o On back, at foot, in nest
o Duration of pouch-life varies between species











Examples of different pouches in different species

- Because some marsupials got prolonged period

of care outside the pouch, abandoned or orphaned young can be taken care of by artificial pouches

Lactation:

- Suckling initiates lactation in suckled mammary gland
- Nerve fibres associated with the teat send messages to the CNS which keeps the production of milk going within the
mammary gland
- Milk composition changes during lactation
 o Protein, lipid and carbohydrate concentrations and constituents changes as the young develops
o Different glands can concurrently produce different milks to sustain young at different stages of development
o Antibodies are
transferred across the gut
wall for relatively long
periods of time
o Main CHO =
oligosaccharides of
galactose
High lactose diet
can cause
diarrhoea,
possibly
cataracts
So cannot feed
young
marsupials dairy
milk

Phases of lactation is all about the
constituents of the milk

For most species:
- Total solids increase over lactation
- Lipids increase over lactation
- Carbohydrates are high in mid
lactation, then decrease late
related to the young start eating
grass
- Protein increases throughout
lactation but decreases late
related to the young start eating
grass


Embryonic diapause:
Refers to the phenomenon where a female will mate while she has a young in the pouch. The resulting conceptus is held in the
uterus in suspended animation until the first young has finished suckling.

- Embryonic diapause is common in kangaroos and wallabies (with the exception of the western grey kangaroo)
- Also occurs in some small possums, but
physiological control of diapause is
uncertain in these species
- Length of oestrous cycle and the gestation
is about the same
o So when one young is born, the
female has a large follicle that is
ready to ovulate
- Wallabies and kangaroos will sit down on
their butt with their legs forward and the
tail in between when giving birth
- Lick a trail from the urogenital opening to
the pouch to make it easier for the young
to get into the pouch accompanied by
pheromones
- Because females come into oestrous so fast
after giving birth the male hang around to
mate immediately after birth (this is just
blowing my mind!! The male roos dont fuck around do they)
- Females usually stay in labour position 15-30 min when giving birth faster than many other mammals
- Blastocyst in utero develops for about 6 days, and then the stimulus of the newborn suckling in the pouch sends signals
to the brain to stop any further development of the blastocyst in utero.
 - Blastocyst then reactivate such that after a period of gestation birth will occur at the time the first young leaves the
pouch

WEEK 6 ANSC2005 Lecture 14 Marine Mammals 1
Outline
- Anatomical, physiological and behavioural adaptations
- Taxonomy
- Conservation and management issues:
o Australian sea lions (IUCN Red List, 2008)
o Anthropogenic impacts: toxicants

Anatomical adaptations to aquatic life
- Stream-lined body, smooth-surfaced (cetaceans), reduction in protrusions e.g. reproductive organs (abdominal or
inguinal), mammary glands (have slits where they are kept), ears are reduced or absent (reduces drag in water)
o Reduces energy expenditure
o Inguinal: of the groin
- Have a reduced surface area to volume ratio which reduces impact of heat loss in water (versus air)
- Vibrissae: tactile receptors, prey detection?
o Very thick, like whiskers
o Detects vibrations in the ocean
- Cetaceans (purely aquatic)
o Reduced forelimb size, loss of hindlimbs results in limbs useful for steering and manoeuvring in water whilst
decreasing surface area
o Fluke (tail): provides propulsive force
o Paddle-like forelimbs or flippers provide for balancing and steering
o External nares migrated posteriorly to be located dorsally (blow hole)
o Dorsal fin: balance, manoeuvrability, thermoregulation (reducing and enhancing heat loss as needed), +/-
individual or con-specific recognition
- Pinnipeds
o Aquatic and terrestrial so restriction on degree of aquatic specialisation
o Reduction in limbs but used for both aquatic and terrestrial propulsion
o Phocids use hindlimbs for aquatic propulsion and caterpillar like movements on land
Do not have external pinnae (just have a hole for acoustic purposes)
o Otariids use forelimbs for aquatic propulsion; quadrupedal terrestrial locomotion
Fur seals and sea lions
Have external pinnae (small)

Physiological adaptations
- Including those for diving (specialisations to allow them to dive deeply)
o Different diving capacities depending on species and what kind of feeders they are
o Can go up to 2km under water so need to have good adaptations to allow this
- Osmoregulation:
o Fluids hypoosmotic compared to aquatic environment
o Large kidneys that are reniculate (except sinerians which have elongate kidneys); each reniculi has a cortex,
medulla and calyx
Reniculate: multi-lobed kidney found in marine and aquatic mammals
o Have increased capacioty to excrete concentrated urine (water conservation)
In aquatic environment, only have access to salt water, they dont drink on land so they need to be
able to concentrate their urine and conserve their water
- Long digestive tract: increased metabolic demands of large body size? Efficient handling of water and for absorption?
- Brown fat in newborns for non-shivering thermogenesis
o Enables them to survive for longer when they are first born, especially in polar environments
o Pinnipeds: maternal investment of seals in the northern hemisphere (Harbor seals) lactation period is only 48
hours and then they are on their own

Diving adaptations
- Increased blood volume with enlarged venous sinuses
- Retia mirabilia: tissue masses with extensive contorted spirals of blood vessels in thoracic cavity, extremities, periphery
blood reservoirs to increase diving capacity
o The more blood you have, the greater ability to carry haemoglobin there is which carries oxygen which enables
these periods of submersion to occur
- When seals dive they experience apnoea (temporary cessation of breathing), they reduce or completely cease
respiration which allows them to dive for longer periods of time
 o Problem with apnoea is when seals are anaesthetised, they can often go into apnoea which is dangerous when
you are pharmacologically modifying these animals
- Increased Haematocrit (PCV): increased haemoglobin
o Increases oxygen carrying capacity
- Increased Myoglobin (skeletal muscle)
o Skeletal muscle is very dark, provides for oxygen storage
- Collapsible trachea and lungs, absence of paranasal sinuses (this can be a problem with decompression)
- Ablation of middle ear activity

Dive response
- Bradycardia
o Reduction in heart rate: in you reduce heart rate, you reduce metabolic demand
- Peripheral vasoconstriction preferential circulation to vital organs
o Blood is diverted to the brain, kidneys, lung, heart etc. to ensure those organs have adequate blood supply
during the dive
- Apnoea: complicates monitoring anaesthesia!
- Reduced metabolic rate
- Diving ability is intimately correlated with physiological adaptations

Thermoregulation
- Phocids blubber
- Otariids insulating fur (dense under fur, allows to trap air and stop heat loss)
o Also have blubber good way to assess its body condition (by blubber thickness)
o Main source for thermoregulation however is their insulating fur
- Cetaceans
o Blubber: higher lipid content = higher thermoregulatory value
- All
o Peripheral vasculature (AV anastomoses, countercurrent heat exchange, superficial veins in dorsal fin and
flukes)
Vasodilation or vasoconstriction
o Behaviour
Raising fore-flippers which is a way of losing heat
o Low surface area/volume
Restriction of heat loss in the waters







Taxonomy















Species identification
- Challenging but based on:
o Length: straight-line distance from tip of snout to tail flukes (one of the main ways of identification)
o Colour patter, scars, individual markings
o Presence/absence of dorsal fin
Size, shape and position
 o Cranial morphology
o Shape and height of the blow (expiration can vary between species)
o Observed behaviour (frequency of surfacing, how much of the back is seen on surfacing, slapping, breaching,
etc.)
o Number and composition of school/pod

Morphological measurements, photo ID, DNA, surrounding information
- These are the measurements that would be take of an
animal if it came in for a necropsy
- Photo ID: very commonly used
- DNA samples from biopsies can be used to identify an
animal usually to understand familial associations
between groups of animals

Mammary slits
- Cetaceans only have inguinal mammary glands (not
abdominal)
- In females the teats are located internally and are
withdrawn into the mammary slits which lie lateral to the genital slit
o Internal to reduce friction in the water
- Testes are abdominal

Population studies in coastal cetaceans
- Many coastal populations are fragmented
o Difficult to get a good sample size and understanding of where they are
- Encroachment on habitat by humans
o Oyster leases etc.
o Boating
o Fishing
o Pollution?
- Mostly genetic and behavioural studies
o Some are identifying new species

Acoustic studies
- Noise is increasing in the oceans due to increased use i.e. shipping, seismic exploration, oil exploration
- No-one knows exactly how cetaceans hear; hence impact of anthropogenic noise is unknown
- Noise has been implicated in mass strandings but contentious due to:
o Limited baseline data on stranding associated pathology
o Limited understanding of what whales hear


Melon
- The melon is a specific anatomical modification in cetaceans
- The melon and mandibular lipids are involved in sound production and reception (echolocation)
o Is big bit of fat cranially
o Within their mandible they have long bits of acoustic fats/lipids
- Only in odontocetes (vestigial in baleen whales)
- These acoustic fats are often what they will look at when seeing if there is an impact from anthropogenic noise
o Has been said that haemorrhaging in these acoustic fats could be a factor not proven

Cetacean strandings
- Is quite hard to access stranded animals
- Toxicology
o Blubber and tissues from stranded cetaceans
o Skeletal muscle, kidney and liver are really important in terms of trace elements
o Blubber particularly for persistent organic pollutants
- Effects of fishing (resource competition and bycatch)
o Fisheries patrol
- Effects of underwater noise
o Behavioural studies: changes in animal movements associated with sonar and other exercises
o Ear pathology: to see if there is an impact in terms of anthropogenic noise, looking at impact on echolocation
o Stranding pathology
- Fundamental biology of cetaceans a lot that is unknown



Limitations
- Doing research on cetaceans there are limitations
- Under jurisdiction of state wildlife authorities
o No cohesive Federal approach in Australia to managing particularly coastal populations
- Whales strand unpredictably, in remote places very hard to access
- Whale dissection is unpleasant, time consuming and technically difficult
- Sample collection opportunistic but no long-term dedication of resources for storage and analysis
- Trained personnel rarely on site
- Emotive situation with mass strandings
- Somewhere between passive and active approaches in terms of euthanasia of animals stranded or saving them

Order: carnivore, suborder pinnipedian
- Three families
o Otariidae (fur seals and sea lions; eared seals)
o Phocidae (phocids or true seals)
o Odobenidae (walrus Northern hemisphere)

Phocidae (true seals)
- More solitary, mate in water, birth on ice (except for southern elephant seals)
- Less sexually dimorphic compared to the Otariids, or females larger
o In Australian sea lions the males are larger
- No external pinnae
- Testes inguinal
- Very short lactation period, concentrated milk (high fat)
o To enable that short transfer of maternal investment
- Uncommon on Australian coast unless vagrant/debilitated immature animals

Anaesthetics
- Anaesthetic complications:
o Proximity to water
o Apnoea: stop breathing
o Hyperthermia
o Tracheal collapse weight, lack of support
Particularly in leopard seals, they have a very dorso-ventrally
flattened trachea
If you get flattening of one part of the trachea, the whole thing
collapses respiratory failure heart failure

Otariidae (sealions and fur seals)
- Less highly adapted to diving compared to the phocids
- Common on southern Australian coast
- Visible ear pinnae
- Breed on land sexually dimorphic
- Testes scrotal
- Most breed annually (exception Australian sea lions have 18 month breeding cycle)
- Long maternal investment: Australian sea lion 18 months

Threats
- Anthropogenic impacts
o Entanglement in netting
o Pollution: swallowing plastic bags, etc.

Order: sirenia (dugongs and manatees)
- Dugong dugon
o Graze in coastal sea grasses, Northern half of Australia and throughout South East Asia
Anthropogenic threats will be of a great impact on these species as they are coastal
o Hindgut digestion colon up to 25m long, small caecum
o Grinding teeth which migrate rostrally
o Males have two tusks
o Dense boned, generally slow but capable of speed
 - Threats
o Vulnerable to silting (from industry, run-off, agriculture), motor vessels (propellers), fishnets
o Bio-accumulation of dioxins (persistent organic pollutants) and heavy metals significance unknown
o Very slow to breed (maximum population growth under ideal conditions is about 5%)


ANSC2005 Lecture 15 Marine Mammals 2
Hookworm disease: disease investigations

- Hookworm disease is an endemic disease in many
species of Otariids
- Causes different levels of morbidity in different species
- Project commenced 2006
- Sampling at two Australian sea lion colonies
o Seal Bay (Kangaroo Island, SA)
o Dangerous Reef (in SA)
- In sea lions, hookworm disease causes up to about 40%
of mortality in pups
o Population is declining about 1.1% per season Haemorrhage
- Haemorrhages in image are sites where a hookworm has attached
- Hookworms are gastrointestinal nematodes, they have a buccal cavity that is quite sharp they attach to the tunica
mucosa of the small intestine, inject proteolytic enzymes and anticoagulants and cause necrosis of the tissue as they
burrow through
o Can go through the tunica muscularis to the tunic serosa and into the peritoneal cavity

Alternating pup mortality

- Australia sea lions are listed as endangered: only around 12 000 left and have high pup mortality (ranging from 9-45%
per season)
- Because of this only have a small number of pups that can be recruited in the reproductive cohort of the future
- Very different mortalities at the two different sites
- Seal bay:
o Summer: high infection intensity and high pup mortality
o Winter: low infection intensity and low pup mortality
- Dangerous reef:
o Winter: high infection intensity and high pup mortality
o Summer: low infection intensity and low pup mortality
- Think these results are due to the different substrates present at each site and the conditions for the free living stages
of the larvae and eggs to survive over different seasons



























- They
are gastrointestinal nematodes, very common cause of disease in humans (particularly in developing countries) and in
animals (dogs, cats, seals, sea lions)
- The reason this parasite is so successful is the mothers transfer the infected larvae in
the milk so every pup ingests larvae and is usually in the first 48 hours (colostrum
where the immunoglobulins are being transferred)
- These larvae develop into adult hookworms in the gastrointestinal tract (in the
Australian sea lion this takes about 11-13 days)
- Eggs are then shed in the faeces
- The eggs develop in the substrate (e.g. sand, soil) to free living larvae
- These larvae will then invade cutaneously (through the skin) and then they become
dormant sitting in the subcutaneous fat
- In adult females there is a physiological trigger just prior to parturition where these
larvae become reactivated and migrate to the mammary glands and then pass through
the milk
- Australian sea lions have high female natal site fidelity a mother will give birth to a
pup to same place it was born
- A male or non-reproductive female are all dead end hosts is a male has larvae in the
subcutaneous fat it doesnt matter, nothing will happen, will never be reactivated for
them to become infective
- In dogs, cats and humans infection can occur through faecal-oral transmission
o Through the larvae and eggs in faeces (not known to be the case in sea lions)

Hookworm in N. cinerea (Australian sea lion)
- Uncinaria sp.
o One of the main families of hookworms
- 100% prevalence
- High infection intensity (mean > 3000 worms in pups in poor body condition)
o Image is only from one pup
o A lot of blood loss associated with this infection as each worm is attaching to a
site in the tunica mucosa and causing haemorrhage
- Contributes to up to 40% of pup mortality
- Image of the intestines: each of the red spots is a hookworm feeding site

Hookworm
- Significant clinical disease
 o Enteritis: inflammation of the small intestine
o Hemorhagic diarrhoea: losing blood
o Anaemia; hypoproteinaemia
o Lethargy; weight loss
Very vulnerable to trauma from other animals
- Histological section:
o Can see the buccal capsule of a hookworm showing it engulfing a bit of the tunica mucosa

Uncinaria sanguinis sp. N. (Nematoda: Ancylostomatidae)
- Found a new species of hookworm
- Similar to that in Australian and New Zealand sea lions but has several mutations different and also different
morphological features
- Appears this species is unique to the Australian sea lion








- Collected worms from
the two locations (Seal Bay and
Dangerous Reef) and sequenced
the DNA
- High hookworm
diversity between and within
colonies (n = 56 worms; n = 45
haplotypes) and within individual
hosts
o 45 different haplotypes = 45 genetically different worms
o Lots of diversity
- No clear distribution/delineation of haplotypes according to geographical location

Possible routes of transmission between colonies

- How are we getting this diversity of
haplotypes between sites that are 200
kilometres apart which exceeds the
distance these animals move
- Maybe males arent dead end hosts
(move a lot further than adult females)
o Pretty sure that male are
indeed dead end hosts
- Maybe there is a paratenic host
something like a fish species or some
other prey item that could harbour the
larvae and then when they are eaten,
could be the source of infection
o Has not been proven or
disproven
- Sympatric species:
o NZ (long nosed) fur seals:
located very closely in colonies
(some less than 20km apart so can see mixing of animals)
o In the long nosed fur seals found that there is a very low prevalence on infection, only around 7% of dead pups
and only about 4% of live pups actually are hookworm positive very low intensity of infection
o Found one pup with one worm and three pups each with two worms compared to Australia sea lion pups
which had up to 8000 worms
o Low mortality, don't think there is diseases associated with hookworm in long nosed fur seals
o Think substrate might have really important role to play here are found on rocks, right near the ocean so lots
of spray, regular wash off by the tide and so if there are free living eggs and larvae present on the rocks, they
are very likely to be washed away quite regularly
 o Australia sea lion pups are situated on sand, shells and in areas where there is not much wash off highly
likely this is a better environment for the survival of these free living stages of hookworm

Possible route of transmission between colonies

- Become juveniles when the next pups

are born which is around 18 months
- From about 18 months of age to about 5
years of age (when females become
reproductively active)
- Until this point, the juveniles are out at
sea foraging and come onto land to rest
maybe juvenile female seals range a
lot further than adult female seals
because they dont have a dependent
pup
- So maybe the juveniles are moving
larvae around
- But, looking at tracking data from
juvenile, they dont actually go very far
therefore, juveniles are probably not the
reason why there is this great diversity
between the colonies either

- Maybe the reason for this diversity is
historical
- These worms would have coevolved
in these populations
- Prior to sealing (in late 1800s and
early 1900s), many seals in SA waters
were caught for their pelts,
decimated their Australian fur seal
populations and long nosed fur seal
populations
- Perhaps related to historical
distribution

Dispersal by other pinnipeds?

- In terms of the differences in terms
of dispersal, looking at the species of
the worms
- Trying to do genetic analysis to
determine if the worms are the same
across the species
- Know the Australian sea lion has only
one species and know it is different to
the Australian fur seal hookworm
- Think that long nosed fur seals can
harbour two different species
- Know that the prevalence and
mortality is very different across these
species which is probably related to
the host species (Australian sea lion)
and the hookworm species
- See very high disease in Australian sea
lions and virtually no diseases in long
nosed fur seals or Australian fur seals

Pinnipeds as sentinel species
- Long-lived, big-bodied, upper trophic species (in terms of bioaccumulation, are at the top of the food chain), because of
their longevity and large size, have potential to accumulate elements in their tissues via biomagnification
- Sentinel species for trace element bioaccumulation and heavy metal contamination
 - Hg, Pb, As, Se and Cd concentrations have been reported for pinniped neonates in hair and liver (but not for N. cinerea)

Pup hair as an indirect measure of maternal element concentrations
- Collect hair from the pups
- Know that parturition/lactation are considered to be excretory routes for trace elements and heavy metals in the
mothers
- Maternal transfer in utero to pup and also through milk, transfer heavy metals and persistent organic pollutants and
other trace elements
- Know that the lanugo (first hair coat) grows in utero, represents a record of gestational exposure of that pup to heavy
metals and other toxicants
- The hair collected, represents maternal concentrations

Mercury concentrations in Australia sea lion pups

- Hepatic Hg concentrations were higher than previously reported in neonatal Baikai seals (Phoca sibirica)
- Hg can cause neurotoxicity and gastrointestinal disease
- Immunotoxicity (is an immunosuppressant)
o Inhibition of T and B cell production
o Apoptosis in lymphocytes and neutrophils
o Decreased immunoglobulin levels and release from plasma cells
o These factors all dampen down the immune response
- Therefore, elevated Hg concentrations can result in increased susceptibility to infectious pathogens
o Bad situation for a population that is already declining and has high pup mortality
o Can increase morbidity and
mortality in this population
- Left graph: on the y axis have the total
white blood cell count and on the x
axis have standard length
o Australian sea lion, because
they breed across a really
extended period of time, all
the pups sampled were of
different ages when they
were sampled
o So standard length is used as
a proxy for age
o Found that as you increased
the Hg concentration, you
shifted the white blood cell
count down causing
dampening down of the
immune response
- Right graph: eosinophils are a kind of white blood cell that are really important in allergic responses and in prolonged
parasitic contact
o If there is a prolonged parasitic disease or allergies, then the eosinophil count will be elevated
o Found that as Hg concentration increased, the eosinophil count increased
o Know that eosinophil count is not affected by Hg
o Have a proxy for the severity of hookworm disease by the presence of these cells
- Graph on right:
o Also found the probability of hookworm
infection in pups
o The age at which pups were infected blew
out as you modelled Hg concentrations
vs. standard length
o Shows that all pups are 100% infected
o As pups age, they start to shed infection
not sure exactly why
o Find that with low Hg concentrations,
pups will shed the infections a lot earlier
than if they have high Hg concentrations
o Hookworm causes reduced growth rates
in pups
 o If an animal is affected during the neonatal period, dampening down the immune response and affecting
growth rate can effect reproductive success, foraging success, diving success in the future

Disease investigations in Australian pinnipeds: alopecia in Australian fur seals

- Important for seals to have a nice coat of fur for thermoregulation most importantly, need this to be able to stay in the
water for long enough to forage effectively
- Have alopecia affecting anywhere from 10-50% of the body
- Mainly juvenile females affected by alopecia, a very small
number of adult females were affected, and only one or two
males affected
- What do we think of if mainly one sex if affected?
o Maybe endocrine system, reproductive impact
- Images: impacts of toxicants in the marine ecosystem on the
health of Australian fur seals
- Increasing severity of alopecia from left to right
- Thermal imaging: the temperature of the alopecia areas was
much lower much more heat lost from the body in these
areas
- Hypothesis: causality due to anthropogenically-derived endocrine disruptive
chemical (toxicants and persistent organic pollutants e.g. dioxins, PCBs all
byproducts of industry etc.)
o Study aims:
Establish if alopecia syndrome is due to exposure to
endocrine disruptive chemicals, including Persistent
Organic Pollutants (POPs) and heavy metals
Determine spatial variability of POPs and heavy metals at
colonies with differing alopecia prevalence
Determine alopecia prevalence/distribution across the
species range/differing contaminant exposure
o Did sample collections on juvenile animals
Every animal tagged for this experiment starved to death and could not survive with this condition
highly likely that alopecia contributed to mortality
o Found that Hg in the Australia sea lion pups was significantly higher than all other cohorts that were sampled
o Found relatively similar lead concentrations at some levels, lead is essential but at other stages it is a toxic
element
o Arsenic was high at Seal bay
o Cadmium: also a heavy metal, was very high at Tenth Island
Found in the liver of squid
This is probably dietary related
Shows that those at Tenth Island forage different to others























ANSC2005 Lecture 16 Monotreme Mammals
Learning outcomes
- Outline the unique anatomical and physiological features of monotremes compared with other extant mammal
lineages
- Understand the functional significance of different anatomical features specific to each of the platypus and echidna
- Have an appreciation of the diversity of extant monotreme species

Monotremes
- Defining characteristics
o Oviparous: lay eggs when the young hatch from those eggs they are still underdeveloped
o Bony bill or beak (no teeth in adults) have an elongation of the bones within the rostrum
o Ancient shoulder girdle the scapula and where it attaches to the forelimb
o Detect prey using electromagnetic sensors in bill/beak unique among the mammals, can pick up electrical
signals from prey as they are moving around in the environment
o No teats associated with mammary glands instead of teat, they get milk patches on their ventral surface to
feed their young
o Low body temperatures (31-33C) lower metabolic rate
- Extant monotremes:
o Present in Australia, New Guinea and offshore islands
o Monotreme: mono = one, tremo = hole (relates to the presence of a cloaca in these species one
opening for excretion and reproduction)

Monotreme diversity
- Two extant monotreme families:
o Ornithorhynchidae (platypus)
Only one surviving member unique to Australia
o Tachyglossidae (echidnas)
Two surviving genuses (four species)

Platypus
- Ornithorhynchus anatinus also referred to as the duck-billed platypus
- Considered more primitive than echidnas
o Longer fossil record
o More ancestral characters in terms of their anatomical structures (characters that might
have been found in earlier evolved mammalian species)
- Still widespread
o IUCN Least Concern
o Occurs down the east coast of Australia, into VIC
o Also in TAS and other islands off the coast of Australia


Platypus: anatomical characteristics
- That bill
o Flat, tapered, leathery bill
o Underlying structure = bones of snout and extensive cartilage
sheet
o Covered by soft, sensitive skin
o Primary sense organ thousands of tiny specialised pores within
the soft tissue of the skin that are either electroreceptors or
touch (mechano-) receptors
Can detect small, electrical stimuli given off by active
prey (moving around within the water)
Eat macroinvertebrates within the water
o Other senses often shut down:
Eyes and ears housed together in horizontal groove that can be tightly shut
Flaps of skin can seal dorsally located nostrils
- Tail is quite flat and tapered acts more like a rudder
- Webbed feet for propulsion through the water hind feet are thought to be less important for propulsion but perhaps
act more like a rudder
o Fan-shaped webbing on manus
- Short, powerful limbs
- Have quite short, dense, thick, waterproof fur thermoregulation purposes
 - Body shape: quite stream-lined (torpedo-shaped)

Platypus: life history
- Semi aquatic can traverse the terrestrial landscape
- Diet: aquatic invertebrates (sifted from bottom sediments)
- Locomotion: forelimbs alternate for propulsion, tail and hindlimbs used as a rudder
o Forelimbs are really well developed (both for propulsion and digging burrows)
- Activity: crepuscular
o Most active at dawn and dusk
- Shelter and rear young in burrows (dug into river banks)
o No pouch
- Males have a venom spur on hind-leg
o Unique amongst mammals
o Associated with a venom gland
o Exclusive to males
o For defence purposes against predation and male
to male combat over females (sexually dimorphic
trait)

Echidnas
- A bit more diversity
- Tachyglossus: means fast tongue indicates feeding
strategy
o Consists of short-beaked echidnas which are found in Australia
- Zaglossus
o Three different species
o Found in Papua New Guinea (PNG)
















Short-beaked echidna
- Widespread in Australia
o Thought to be native mammal with the broadest distribution in Australia
o Have been very successful at exploiting a huge range of environments
o Have local adaptations:
In cold environments, they will undergo a form of hibernation in
burrows
In more desert environments, they may change their activity
patterns to avoid the heat during the day
- Also occurs in south east PNG (IUCN Least Concern)
- Adaptions to environment:
o Spines: are quite sharp at the end form of protection from predation as they are not the fastest moving
animals
Covered in keratinous spines as well as fur
o Tubular, slender, bony beak
 Have receptors to pick up electrical signals from prey
o Long thin tongue with sticky saliva
easy to trap insects
o Long claws on hind feed
o Wide, spade-like claws on forelimb
important for burrowing

Short-beaked echidna: life history
- Terrestrial
- Diet: ants and termites
o Electro- and touch receptors in skin
of their beak
o Show classic adaptations to this
diet (elongated rostrum forming toothless beak; extensible tongue; large front claws)
- Activity: crepuscular
o More active at dawn and dusk (varies with the environment they are inhabiting true for arid environments,
however, in colder areas, they will be more active during the middle of the day)
- Solitary, except during breeding season
o The echidna train
o Many males are attracted to the females
o They are promiscuous as they want to increase their chances of passing on their genes
- Burrow
- Image: of the ventral surface of lactating female
o Develop a pouch with tufts of hair on
either side where the mammary
glands are found
o Glands just open directly onto the skin
instead of teats

Long-beaked echidnas

- Distribution within various areas of PNG
- Vary in the number of digits on their forelimbs
and also differences in size, colouration etc.
- All critically endangered (IUCN)
o Not a lot of data available
o Thought that human hunting is a
reason for the decline in numbers of this species
- More variable in size than short-beaked echidna
o Both within and between species
- Beak: longer, with marked downward curvature
- Smaller, less numerous spines
o Often isolated to particular regions of
the body
- Feeds on worms and insect larvae distal tongue
has spines in a deep groove for snaring worms
o Will feed on ants and termites but tend
to focus on worms and insect larvae

Other monotreme characteristics
- Neither the adult echidna or platypus have teeth
- Echidna has dental pads tough keratinised pads with
grooves for munching termites
- Large foramina: for the trigeminal nerve




Other monotreme characteristics

- Echidna skull

 o Mouth opening: small, opens ventrally, upper and lower jaw joined by ligaments that form a tunnel which
the tongue can flick out from
o Smaller, but more numerous foramina (holes) in skull for nerves to pass to
beak
Platypus has fewer large nerves going to its bill
Echidna still has quite a lot of sensory capacity spread amongst many
smaller nerves
- Skeletal structures
o Well-developed forelimbs
o Primitive shoulder girdle:
A series of extra bones, but a well-developed scapula
Expansion of the scapula in therians is thought to be related to
keeping the shoulder stable when running
o Presence of epipubic bones
- Reproductive anatomy:
o Males: internal testes and unique penis structure
Penis sits within a fibrous sheath in the cloaca
Have a bifid penis: the left side being much more
developed also has papillae that stick out of the penis
when erect and shoots the semen out
This left bifurcation parallels the fact that only
the ovary is functional in the female
Male echidna penis has four heads
o Females:
Platypus: only the left ovary is functional
Vestigial ovary and uterus on the right
side not functional
Both ovaries are functional in the
echidna
















































Week 7 Australias Biodiversity in a Changing Environment
Lecture 1: Eutherian Mammals- Native Bats (and Rats but she didnt get to this)

LEARNING OUTCOMES



Geographic Distribution of Megachiroptera- more
restricted to tropical zones in the world

NATIVE BATS

Order: Chiroptera (Bats)
- Chiro-= hand, -ptera= wing
- Mammals that can sustain flight- can flap
and the membrane in their wings allows
them to stay airborne
- 25% of all known mammals are bats (2nd
largest mammalian order, after rodents)
- Megachiroptera
o Mega bats
o Includes fruit bats/flying foxes, blossom bats and tube-nosed bats
o 12spp. In Australia
o Tend to be more restricted to
tropical zones as they eat fruits and
blossoms that are inly present in
these areas
o Tend to be larger than
microchiroptera
- Microchiroptera
o Microbats
o Occur throughout most of the world
o Majority of bat species in Australia
(~65spp.)
Geographic Distribution of Microchiroptera- are
o Not well known
present right throughout the world



Order: Chiroptera (Bats)
- Only mammal capable of flight
o Keeled sternum- for muscle attachment across the pectoral region that allow for flapping of
the wings
o Wings are thin, two layered membranes from the Like most
shoulder to the digits (except the first digit) of birds and
forelimb and distal hindlimb pterosaurs,
Also a membrane from hindlimb to tail region bats have a
(in microchiroptera) keel on the
o Anatomical Adaptations for the wings sternum, or
Forelimb breastbone,
Short humerus to which the
Long radius and ulna
Very long digits- first digit is
clawed (and also the 2nd in fruit
bats) for grooming and climbing
Hindlimb
5 clawed toes
Cannot bring directly under body-
due to pelvic adaptations and so
are more limited to the aboreal
spaces
Most hang by 1 or 2 hind limbs
when roosting
The underlying skeletal
structure is different to birds
Birds wings are mostly
supported by the 2nd
digit
Bats wings are supported
by digits 2-5
The wing is basically a two layered membrane with supporting vessels etc. in
between
Bones are light and slender

Note the membrane between hind limbs and tail
Evolutionary Advantages
 - The ability to fly long distances and nocturnal activates means
o Bats can forage widely and rapidly and can escape terrestrial predators- not as much of a
threatening process for bats as it is for other mammals
E.g.: the grey-headed flying fox can fly over 50km in one night
o Can access food with less competition- important for fruit bats as their food sources are not
available everywhere
o Conserve water and energy by being active in the cooler part of the day













Megachiroptera:
- Family Pteropdoidae
o Incl. fruit bats/ flying foxes, blossom bats, tube-nosed bats
- Larger bats- 15 grams-1 kilogram
- Good eyesight and sense of smell- do not
use echolocation for feeding
o Large forward facing eyes, good
night vision
- Eat pollen and nectar mainly but also
fruit and flowers (juice and seeds)
o Short simple GIT
o Gut passage time is 20 minutes
very quick
o Simple dentition
- Morphology
o Fox or dog-like head with simple
ears and large, forward facing
eyes, well-developed snout
o Tail is short or absent
o Reduced teeth number
Small incisors
Large canines- break fruit
Molars, hard palate and tongue will crush food
Blossom feeders have an elongated tongue
o Anatomically simple GIT
- Behaviour
o Roost in large colonies (camps)
o Movement and establishment of camps is strongly
influenced by blossom- can move around if necessary
E.g.: grey-headed flying fox
Large camps over summer, mate from
March-April
 Adults disperse in winter and juvenile remain in camps
Aggregate in spring again when the young is born
Microchiroptera:
- Microbats
- Majority of Australian bat spp.
o E.g.: ghost bat, sheath-tails, leaf-nosed, horse-shoe, free-
tail, bent-wing, long-eared, pipistrelles, forest bats etc.
o Name often refers to the morphological features such as
nose, ear or wing shape
- 4-170g
- Mostly insectivorous- few teeth, simple GIT (but more advanced
when compared to Megachiroptera)
o Ghost bats also hunt small vertebrates
o Some also are blossom feeders etc.
- General Behaviour
o Roost in sheltered areas- caves, tree hollows etc.
Variable sized colonies or individuals
o Large surface area/kg- allows them to lose a lot of heat
Conserve energy by aggregation, torpor (mini
hibernation- lower body temp by 10C for short
periods of time to conserve energy), hibernation
- Feeding
o Poor eyesight- use ultrasound echolocation
Up to 200 pulses/ second emitted from the larynx
through mouth or nostrils- why they have ornate
ornamental noses as it influences how the pulses are
emitted
Species with higher echolocation frequency can
detect smaller prey- lots of variation in the frequencies produced
Reflections collected by large pinnae (ears)
Tragus (a small cartilaginous flag in front of the external ear opening)
increases directional sensitivity- finer resolution on the source direction
Projections on nose can direct
emitted ultrasounds
Catch insects in mouths or with
wings or tail membrane
Some also glean/ hunt
terrestrially
Some have simple faces and
some have ornate noses and/ or

complex ears- relates to

echolocation for foraging










VIDEO
- The water bat- roosts in old stone bridges
o 110 decibel chirps that cannot be heard by people or insects
o sounds speed up as the bat gets closer to its prey allowing for precise targeting
o some moths have ears tunes to bat frequency and can dodge attacks- such as power diving
into water (which doesnt work because the water bat is able to catch its prey with its hind
limbs in the water as well)
- Brown long-eared bats- whisper
o Need large ears to compensate for the lower frequency of sound produced
o Very sensitive ears that can pick up wing vibrations from a moth on a
leaf

Reproduction
- Bats differ to other small mammals in that they
o Relatively long-lived
o Slow to reach sexual maturity
o Long gestation (50-240 days)
o Small litter size
o Approx. 1-year inter-birth interval- comparable to something the size of a kangaroo for
example
- Usually seasonal breeders- bats enter hibernation in winter so reproduction
bust cease
- Most have a single, large young
o Newborns haired in Megachiroptera, poorly haired in microchiroptera
- 1 nipple in each axilla
- Initially carried by the mother then left in nurseries when mother is foraging
until they are capable of independent flight
- Males and females are easy to distinguish (obvious penis)
- Testes may by intra-abdominal or externally housed in scrotum
o Flying foxes: testes descend into scrotum or regress into abdomen
with changes in temperature

THERE WAS A SECTION ON RATS AFTER THIS BUT SHE DIDNT GET TO IT AND ITS NOT ASSESSABLE (I
CHECKED)

Lecture 2: Convergent Evolution of Mammalian Ecomorphological Types

LEARNING OUTCOMES







AUSTRALIAS UNIQUE MAMMAL FAUNA

What forces have contributed to the distinctiveness of
Australias mammal fauna?
- All other continents have interchanges terrestrial
mammal communities at times of low sea levels
shared suite of fauna at various times
- Australia is the only permanently habitable continent
that has been significantly distant from the rest of the
world independent laboratory where evolutionary
forces have operated to produce a different suite of
mammals
- So, Australia has a terrestrial mammalian fauna that is
different, yet similar in many respects
- Once the marsupials arrived here, they evolved in
relative isolation, evolving to fill a variety of niches
- They exhibit a broad range of diets, locomotory styles
and anatomical adaptions to the environment


Definitions
Ecomorphology: the way in which an animals form (morphology) is related to its activities within its
environment (its ecology)

Convergent Evolution: the process whereby organisms not closely
related (not monophyletic- dont have a common ancestor),
independently evolve similar traits as a result of having to adapt to
similar environments or ecological niches even though they are
separated in geographical space or in time
- Unrelated animals have found similar ways of adapting to a
certain environment or in response to different environmental
pressures

EXAMPLES
Australian striped possum (more commonly found in
New Guinea) and Madagascan Aye-aye
- Both pry wood-boring insects from under bark
with an elongated finger
- Specialised diet- wood bearing insects and
termites
- Two animals in different locations that have adapted in similar
ways to exploit a similar resource in their environment
- Other continents have equivalent mammals but have been replaced with woodpeckers (due to out
competition)







Gliders
- Sugar glider- with membrane from wrist to ankle
- North American- flying squirrel
- Similar features and body size

Anteaters
- Specialised ant-feeding= myrmecophagy
- Ants and termites live in eastern nests
o Tough mounds they live in
- Common adaptations are long tongue, long snout, small and narrow oral gape (mouth)
- E.G.: Giant ant-eater (South America) vs. Numbat (Australian Marsupial vs. Echidnas (Australia
monotreme) echidnas have claws for the
ant mounds




blep











Carnivores (dog like)
- Similar body shape, dentition, large oral gape,
similar GIT








Running herbiovres (medium-large)
- Horse, antelope etc.
- Australian e.g.: Kangaroo- Similar dentition and GIT to horses and other running
herbivores









CONVERGENT EVOLUTION

Divided the world into groups
dependant on different species-
usually have atlease 1 type of each
animal.
Most major landmasses at one
time had a comparable array of
ectomorphs occupying particular
body size and dietary niches (some
of which are now extinct)
- Carnivore (dog-like form)
- Herbivore (large
- Herbivore (medium)
- Herbivore (small)
- Ant-eater
Diagram: mammals grouped with
landmasses on which they likely
originated




Lecture 3- Mammal body size, ecology and sociality
LEARNING OUTCOMES







Social Behaviour
- Sociality: state of living in structured groups- usually more well developed in mammals than in
other taxonomic groups
- Social behaviours and interactions play an important role in mammal biology (more so than in other
taxa)
- Behaviours modified by the environment and often related to relationships between
o Resource distribution
o Energy requirements
- Sociality is influenced by a number of mammalian characteristics
o Relatively large brain- cognitive and learning ability
o Prolonged association between parent(s) and young- social relationship from birth
o Endothermy- maintenance of body temperature for sociality

But, not all mammals are social
- There are many solitary mammal species (probably more
than social species)
- So what factors influence the extent of sociality?
o Energy requirements if influenced by body size-
larger needs more energy
 o Resource availability- low resources means an animal will need more space and so will tend
to be less social

Distribution of resources
- Different environments have different bioavailability, distribution of resources, land mass, etc.
- Resource distribution is a major factor determining social structure
o If resources are scant, there is little chance of a species developing social groupings
- Home range: the area in which an animal spends most of their time to find the food, shelter and
mates they need
o Home ranges are not defended (territories area), but their value lies in familiarity of
resources
o Can overlap with other species or individuals
o Governed by the energy requirements and the availability of resources

Resource Requirements
- Governed by
o Body size- an increase in energy required with an increase in body weight
(a log relationship)
o Depends on what you eat- herbivores need less space than an equivalent
space omnivore that needs less space to an equivalent spaced carnivore
Due to availability- grass is not patchily distributed whereas
berries, fruits are more scattered and prey are very scattered and
need a much larger home range

Availability of Resources:
- Governed by
o What they eat
o Whether their food is evenly dispersed or concentrated I patches
o How they collect their food









How they collect food
- Is there an advantage to cooperatively feeding?
o This relates to the animals ability to exploit resources that are not available to a solitary
animal
o Carnivore?- potentially exploit resources that wouldnt be available to you individually
Group hunters can hunt larger prey
E.g.: a solitary hyena can hunt Thompsons gazelle (20kg), but a pack can hunt
wildebeests (200kg)
More successful when in a group
There are more mouths to feed- so might not get as much
The advantages depend on the availability in the environment
o Herbivore?
Reduced predation- less time worrying about whats going on
Can scatter when a predator attacks to confuse predators
 o Will always relate back to the availability of resources in the environment

Herbivore Examples
- African ungulates are a frequently used example
- A few key principles developed in relation to body size and extent of sociality
- Body size and digestion efficiency
o Larger ruminants are more efficient at processing plant materials than smaller ruminants
Therefore, larger ruminants are less selective in their use of resources
Rely on quantity eating rather than quality- because they are more efficient this will
be ok and meet their demands
These animals have more availability and so usually competition isnt an issue
Smaller ruminants must eat quality food- fruit, flowers etc. but these are less
available
o Being less selective means that large ungulates can feed on ubiquitous food and individual
competition is less of an issue
- Body size and predation risks
o Predators usually reed on prey of the same or smaller size
o Smaller prey species have many predators
But, smaller herbivores tend to live in small groups in more forested areas (greater
resource quality)- less conspicuous to predators
Less likely to be able to outrun
o Large groups are more conspicuous t predators but have many more eyes to watch for
predators and for defence
- Smaller animals tend to have more solitary behaviour due to predation risk, body size, and
digestion efficiency
- Group size, resource distribution and mating system
o Mating system of ungulates related to group size and resource distribution
Monogamy (1 male,1 female long term pair bonds), polyandry- 1 female and
multiple males, polygyny- 1 male, multiple females, promiscuity (everyone doing
everything and everyone)
Small ruminants, with specific dietary needs and a small group size tend to form pair
bonds (impossible for a male to defend a large territory with multiple females)
Large ruminants congregate in large groups (potential for dominant males to
monopolise mating opportunities- actively competing with specialised structures)
LECTURE RECORDING CUT OUT HERE

Marsupial Examples
- These relationships have been established with meta-analyses
- Macropodidae Social Structure
o Kangaroos and wallabies
o Herbivorous marsupials- range from grass feeders to fruits and flowers etc.
o Australia and New Guinea
o Occupy a range of habitats- very common in Australia

Key Principles
- From the ungulate example
o Body size influences digestive efficiency in herbivores (foregut fermenters)
Large body size= quantity over quality
Small body size= quality over quantity
o Digestive efficiency influences resource exploitation
Large herbivores can eat higher quantities of relatively abundant (yet perhaps poor
quality) foods
 Small herbivores are reliant on better quality foods that are patchily distributed
o Resource distribution influences group size
Abundant food supply allows for formation of larger groups
Patchy food supply limits the capacity for large group formation- more solitary due
to competition
o Predation threat can be addressed by
Large group formation (many eyes, dilution of risk, confusing the predator)
Solitariness and cryptic behaviour- less visibility, more hiding places
o Links back to diet and digestive efficiency
o Group size and resource distribution influences mating system
Large groups- a few males can monopolise access to many females
Skew in breeding- leads to sexual dimorphism
Solitary males cannot monopolise access to more than 1-2 females- due to a broad
distribution and leads to less sexual dimorphism

Social Organisation
- Croft (1989) classified three different types of macropod social organisation, based on
o Group size
o Group structure
o Individual home range overlap

Type 1- Solitary
- Solitary, except for reproductive associations (or sometimes males cohabiting together)
- Characteristics
o Small- medium sized
o Homomorphic (or mildly heteromorphic)- no sexual dimorphism (in terms of body size,
colouration etc.)
o Diet- items that are discreet, limited and require longer handling times
o Used closed shelter sites
o Nocturnal
o Forage in or close to cover
o Monogamy is very rare in macropods

Type 2- Less solitary
- Often solitary during inactivity, but aggregate on favourable resource patches in mixed sex groups-
depends on resource availability
- Characteristics
o Small- medium sized
o Homomorphic (or mildly heteromorphic)
o Diet- items that are discreet, limited and require longer handling times
o Male home range is larger than females
o Use closed shelter sites
o Nocturnal
o Forage in or close to cover
o Have some sexual size dimorphism

Type 3- Gregarious
- Gregarious, during rest or activity
- Characteristics
o Large sized
o Strongly heteromorphic- males larger than females, and distinctive mate attributes
o Diet- predominantly grass
 o Occupy open shelter and foraging sites- predator defence is living in large groups
o Partially diurnal (active during the day)

Macropodidae Social Structure

E.g.: Eastern Grey Kangaroo
- Grazer (grass diet)
- Congregate in a groups
- Larger-size macropod (males 2x the size of females)
- Male and female home ranges overlap (males home range is larger)
- Structured groups- related females with unrelated males

E.g.: Swamp Wallaby
- Browser
- Mid-sized macropod
o Males= 17kg
o Females=13kg
- Male swamp wallabies have a larger home range than females
- Specialised dentition- different premolars
- Specialled diet
- Not social- type 1 to type 2 species


Week 8 Biodiversity
L21: Invasive vertebrates
nd
First lecture of this week on fish was cancelled and the lecture recordings for the 2 lecture didnt work. 0/7 vetlets attended
so the notes on L21 are a combination of lecture slides with some additional information from the World Wide Web and
notes from good students who attended the lecture.

Outline:
1. What is an invasive species?
2. Stages of invasion
3. What are the main impacts
4. Overview of invasive vertebrate

What is an invasive species?
- Introduced: non-native species
that are transported
deliberately or accidentally
from somewhere else
- Alien species: are non-native or
intentionally or accidentally
introduced species that occurs
outside its natural range
- Invasive species: is an organism
that is non-native or introduced
to an environment that has
successfully established and
spread. They are likely to
negatively cause ecological
and/or economic impacts
and/or affect human and
animal health




What makes a good invader?

- In vertebrates there is evidence that species differ in their invasion potential
- An unresolved question is whether species are born as good invaders (pre-adaptions) or evolve to be good invaders
(evolutionary responses)
- Invaders are often confronted to sudden environmental changes to which they are unlikely to be fully adapted
- Niche breadth: Generalist species should be better invaders than specialists, as the former are more likely to find
resources that sustain life in a new environment
- Behavioural flexibility: animals that have cognitive ability allowing them to perform different tasks to better adapt in
new environments
- Social behaviour: social animals should be better invaders than solitary ones as it increases probability of detecting a
predators, locating food and learning about food sources
- Human commensalism: beneficial to co-exist with humans, and animals can disperse via human transport
- Other influential factors: migratory behaviour, sexual selection, trophic level, nesting site


Stages of invasion:
- Wallace (1869) observed six biodiversity realms different from each other. Realized the influence of geological history
on animal and plant dispersal
- Geographic barriers = oceans, mountains, deserts and large lakes that prevent species from dispersing globally

Species dispersal:
- Two ways of dispersal of species:
o Natural
o Anthropogenic

FROM WIKI: Anthropogenic = (chiefly of environmental pollution and pollutants) originating in human activity ("anthropogenic
emissions of sulphur dioxide")

- Natural hardly crosses biogeographic borders and is mostly unidirectional
- Anthropogenic is enabled or facilitated directly by human activities (e.g. domestication, game species and escapes from
captivity)

Unintentional introductions:
1) Tramps in vehicles and planes provide fast transportation for many species that would not be able to survive large trips
over long distances
Nocturnal brown snake has been transported in military vehicles to Guam (near Philippines) and other Pacific
islands
Is on the list of one of the worst 100 invasive species
2) Waterways and shipping (humans have connected river systems to cut land bridges to enable shipping routines
This provided animals (e.g. brown rat and house mouse) with the unique opportunities to cross biogeographical
borders (river, sea, ocean)
3) Escapes (animals from fur farms, pet farms, farm animals)
South American Nutria is one of the world worst invaders
Strong burrowing activity that damage river banks and irrigation facilities
Feeding activity has a destructive effect on the vegetation (e.g. in marshland, swamps, wetlands)

Intentional introductions:
1) Human nutrition
Global distribution of domesticated animals (e.g. horses, cattle, sheep, goats, pigs, rabbits, dogs and cats)
Release of mammals and birds for hunting (e.g. deers) and fish (e.g. rainbow trout, carp, perch, crayfish) for fishing
practices
2) Beneficial or biological control agents
The release of vertebrates as control agents is associated with pre-scientific period of experimental testing
Stoats (Mustela erminea) were introduced in New Zealand to control rabbits
It has become a predator that specialises in small mammals and birds (including kiwi chicks)
Now ranked within the 100 worst invasive species
 3) Ornamental animals and pets (traded as companion animals, occasionally released and may build up a wild population)
Ruddy duck (Oxyura jamaicensis) escaped in England fro wildfowl facilities, invaded Europe and produce fertile
hybrids with the white-headed duck
Goldfish regularly escaped or are released. High reproduction rate causes biodiversity reduction


Stages of invasion:

What are the main impacts of invasive species?

 1) Ecological concerns affect ecosystem structure and function, leading to loss of biodiversity and unique habitats
Example of habitat loss in Australia:


Invasive species preying upon
native species (e.g. stoat killing kiwi chick, fox killing
little blue penguin)

2) Social impacts focus predominantly on
human, plant and animal health
Invasive species human disease
transmission (e.g. avian malaria, West Nile virus,
toxoplasmosis, botulism etc)

3) Economical concerns have a direct
consequence to humans leading to monetary losses
Damage on crop systems is
established to be around AUD $1.27 billion/year
Pasture land damages around AUD $494 million/year
Forestry losses are around AUD $200 million/year
Horticultural losses are around AUD $123 million/year


Overview of invasive vertebrates in
Australia:
Occurrence of the most significant
species of Australia
All areas of Australia have at least
one invasive vertebrate species
The greatest diversity of invasive
vertebrate species occurs in the
eastern and south-eastern Australia

Cane toad (Rhinella marina/Bufo marinus):

- Introduced to Australia in 1935 to control destructive beetles in QLD sugarcane crops
- Adult cane produce toxin from glands on the shoulder
- Capable of poisoning nave predators that eats them
- Can be accidentally transported to new locations (e.g. on pot plants, timber etc)
- For more exciting information about the cane toad, see the cane toad lecture

Dromedary camel (Camelus dromedarious):
- Introduced from India to Australia in 1840 to assist in the exploration of inland Australia
- Large herbivores that consume shrubs and trees rather than grasses
- Have the physiological ability to avoid drinking water for long periods of time
- Main impacts:
o Grazing pressure
o Potential carrier of exotic diseases that may threat livestock
o Damage fences and cultural sites
European Red Fox (Vulpes vulpes):

- Introduced from Europe to Australia in 1850
- Their rapid spread was linked to the spread of the European rabbit and also assisted by human introductions
- Predominantly carnivores; but can also be scavengers and consume carrion and rubbish
- Main impacts:
o Threat to livestock, prey upon poultry and lambs
o Potential carrier of exotic diseases (distemper, parvo virus and mange) to humans and pets
o Considered a threat to 14 species of birds, 48 mammals, 12 reptiles and 2 amphibians
o Live in urban areas to prey upon pets

European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus):

- Domesticated rabbits were introduced from Europe to Australia in 1788
- Wild rabbits were spread throughout Australia by humans for meat and hunting
- Herbivores that eat a wide range of plants, including crops, roots, pastures, trees and vines
- Main impacts:
o Grazing pressure that prevent seedlings from regeneration and reduce crop yields, increasing competition with
livestock
o Compete with native wildlife for food and shelter
o Agents of land degeneration and soil erosion that threat at least 150 species of plants


Carp (Cyprinus carpio):

- Introduced to Australia in late 1850s, to provide both food and recreation for colonial residents
- Is one of the most widespread fish species in the world
- FROM NSW DPI:
o Carps are considered a significant pest in Australia
o Can live in a great variety of habitats, including highly degraded areas
o Spread across most south-eastern Australia

Common myna (Sturnus tristis):

- Introduced from India in 1862, as a predator to control the abundance of grasshoppers
- Now considered among the 100 worst invaders that lives on all continents except South America and Antarctica
- High ability to adapt to a wide range of rural and urban areas
- Generalist omnivores, feeds on a wide range of foods including invertebrates, plants, fruits, human discards and insects
(insects being their preferred dietary choice)
- Main impacts:
o On fruit and vegetable crops
o Compete with native species over cavity-nesting sites
o Suspected of spreading disease to humans and native wildlife

Learning priorities from this lecture:
1. Define invasive species
2. Describe the main characteristics that makes a successful invader
3. Describe the main impacts that invasive species have on the environment
4. Provide examples of invasive vertebrates in Australia

L22: Nutritional ecology an integrated framework
Outline:
1. Why is nutrition important?
2. What is nutritional ecology?
3. Lab studies vs. field studies
4. Applied nutrition examples

Why is nutrition important?
Refreshing concepts:

- Nutrition is fundamental to almost all aspects of an animals existence, including:
o Growth
o Reproduction
o Immune responses
o Migration
o Hibernation

And is thus a central aspect of adaption to the animals habitat

- Animals obtain a range of nutrients from the food they eat

Nutrients are either:
1) Non-essential can be synthetised by the animal, so not needed in the diet
2) Essential cannot be synthetised by the animal and so must be obtained in the diet

Main groups of nutrients:
- Water (most important)
- Carbohydrates
- Lipids
- Proteins
- Vitamins
- Minerals


What is nutritional ecology?
Factors influencing nutrition:

- An older animal is likely to have developed a foraging pattern and hence will have a different foraging pattern
compared to younger animals
- Birds are 40-80% more likely to die after they leave the nest as they havent developed a feeding strategy yet, and are
nave to what feed they can obtain in order to maintain normal health and function
- Nutritional state varies; if the animal is hungry, it will eat more (big shock)
- Foraging patterns for some animals may change according to weather conditions and climate conditions

Habitats and foragers: For some animals the challenges of feeding appear relatively straightforward and for others is extremely
complex
Terrestrial foragers:

Aquatic foragers:

Amphibious foragers: can forage in two different habitats

Foods and foragers:
An important aspect of foraging concerns the categories of foods that animals eats why animals have been classified into
their foraging modes according to their diet of choice

Cannibals Eat members of their own species (some insects, fish, lizards)

Herbivores: eat plant-produced foods (kangaroo, koalas, cows)
Carnivores: eat animal produced foods (lions, sharks, eagles)
Omnivores: eat a combination of plant- and animal derived foods (gorillas, chickens, humans)

What is nutritional ecology?
- Food are complex mixtures of multiple components, each of which has its own functional implications for the animals
- Questions to be addressed:
o Which nutrients and other food components are important to an animal in a given situation?
E.g. if an animal is migrating, it might have different nutritional needs than if its stationed in one place
o What are the ecological consequences for the animal in response to that food?
E.g. obesity in animals on a high-lipid diet
o Is there any evidence of nutrient selection and regulation in these animals?

Motivation for foraging animals:
- Maximise energy gain
- Maximise nitrogen gain
- Optimise nutrient balance

A geographical approach/method called geometric framework was created to model the key relationship among relevant
variables in nutritional ecology:
- The nutrient space = a simple geometric device for modelling nutritional balance

Amounts-based model: model the relationship among these factors

Lab studies vs. field studies
Laboratory studies:
1) Invertebrates (locusts, cockroaches, drosophila, spiders and others)
2) Vertebrates (rats, minks, chickens)
3) Humans

Strong evidence for nutrient selection and regulation. Often easier to obtain accurate measurements in lab versus field as the
lab has a controlled environment.

Lab studies: reasons why it is easier to work in a lab versus field
- Study design: controlled variables
- Quantify the number of animals involved
- Characterise the type of animals involved (e.g. age, sex etc)
- Accurate estimation of food intake vs. available and its proximate composition
- Experimental food manipulation
- Long-term vs. short term studies

Field studies: some examples
- Mountain gorillas
- Peruvian monkeys
- Baboons
- Pandas
- Ecology provides variation
o Few studies, mainly focus on primates (as they are similar to humans and they are easy to follow and monitor
in the wild compared to many other animals)

Strong evidence for nutrient selection and regulation in the wild

There is no evidence on the nutritional foraging priorities of wild carnivores, especially top predators!

What are the main field-based challenges?

1. Observe and collect data from a wild animal foraging
On the field, our encounter with these species may represent only a snapshot of their lives
Full day observations with long periods of habituation (several months)
The animal of interest may be dangerous to approach and might want to eat you if you come too close (would be
unfortunate but hey you win some you loose some)

2. Determine prey capture success and foraging effort



3. Establish macronutrient composition of foods in real time: undigested prey species

4. Measure amount of food consumed can be difficult to establish the right amount and to accurately measure intake
but you can tell which foods are eaten and in what proportions through:
Regurgitations
Stomach contents
Faeces
Video footage (can video under water, on land and attach camera to animal of interest)
Fishery by-catch
Strandings


Right Angled Mixture Triangle (RMT):

- RMTs requires the use of macronutrient proportions creating a useful tool to field-based studies in which accurate
amounts of foods consumed are difficult to collect
This graph will NOT be a question in an exam:

- Supplementary food similar Protein:Lipid ratio (i-iii)
- Complementary foods different P:L ratio (i-ii)

Generalists and specialists
Overarching goal:
- Contribute to the development of a conceptual framework for the study of animal nutrition to solve real world
problems
- Understanding the drivers of food selection and nutritional needs of animals is a first step to find potential solutions to
these problems

Generalists & specialists:
- The dietary generalist-specialist distinction remains poorly characterised
- Diets are almost exclusively considered in terms of foods eaten or their energy content rather than mixtures of the
nutrients and other compounds they contain
- We use the framework of nutritional geometry to develop a multi-nutrient approach to the dietary niche to provide
fresh theoretical insights into generalism

3 ways to classify a generalist/specialist:
1. The range of dietary macronutrient composition on which the animal is able to success, or its fundamental
macronutrient niche
2. The range of food compositions from which it is able to compose a diet that falls within the macronutrient niche
3. The range of ecological and physical attributes of foods that an animal is able to exploit


Fundamental macronutrient niche = the nutritional space in which a population persists

Food composition areas = food that are nutritionally similar but might have different non-nutritional characteristics

This diagram will NOT be a question in an exam:

Example: mountain gorilla two populations of mountain gorillas; red and blue. They have different diets with a different
macronutrient composition




More examples:

Applied nutritional examples
Contribute to the development of a conceptual framework for the study of animal nutritional to solve real world problems
- Biological invasions
- Wildlife conservation
- Production animals
- Companion animals
Nutrition and biological invasions: 4 hypothetical environments with different food availability

Aggression over protein: in the example below, there may be potential protein limitation in the urban environment



Wildlife conservation: the Gannet project

The Gannet project showed that populations of these birds in Australia and New Zealand had different diets with different
macronutrient compositions composition of feeds depended on geographic location



Annual variation in the nutritional space:

Gannets show sex-specific nutritional foraging strategies: males ate more protein rich food than the females




Fishery impacts: Cape gannets

Production animals: Lab vs. field studies
- Could be a mixed approach
- Depending on the study design: controlled and random variables
- Quantify and characterise the number of animals involved

Production animals:
Main goal: Using the nutritional ecology framework to define the optimal macronutrient composition on the diet of production
animals
- Optimise production performance taking into account:
o Production animals as well as their diet have a market price, and there is a premium for high quality
o Environmental and welfare costs are harder to measure but can be targets for taxes and licencing restrictions,
which do have a measureable cost

1) Understand the relationship between the main macronutrients in the fish diet (lipids, protein and carbs)
2) Estimate the nutrient intake of these animals
 3) Set up performance responses based on diet optimization
Animal welfare
Economy
Environment

Companion animals
Cat nutrition: a study aimed to find out how the nutritional composition influenced the behaviour of cats

Learning priorities from this lecture:
1. Define nutritional ecology
2. Highlight some differences between lab and field studies
3. The following concepts:
Nutrient space
Foraging modes
Foods
4. Applied nutrition examples


















 Week 9

Lecture 23: Invasive and Native Carnivorous Mammals

Predators: biology and impacts of feral cats, foxes and dingoes in Australia

Why and how have invasive carnivores thrived?
Human mediation
Introduction effort + assistance
Rapid reproduction, long reproductive span, ecological flexibility
For foxes and cats, introduction of rabbits
Naivet of native species foxes and cats have caused the extinction of ~25native Australian mammals and local
populations of many more species
Environment manipulation to favour predators, active destructions of potential marsupial competitors

Feral cats
Definition
Free-living cats with minimal or no reliance on humans; populations are self-perpetuating
Domestic and stray cats have the potential for contribution to feral cat populations
Ferals are ubiquitous
Diet
Recent continent wide review of cat diet shows 400 species of vertebrates are eaten
Cats are generalist carnivores (but may specialize as individuals)
Diet varies by region
Mammals dominate their diet especially rabbits and rodents
Insects, birds, reptiles depending on region
Impacts
Direct and negative impacts at population level via predation:
o Impacts greatest on small mammals (<220g), ground-active birds and small reptiles
o Larger species (e.g. quolls) are not immune
o Well known evidence from historical studies, pattern analyses, cat diet and other ecological studies, cat-
removal experiments
Indirect impacts via transmission of disease, exploitation competition, and sub-lethal effects (e.g. risk of predation)
Indirect impacts via removal of digging engineer species (e.g. woylies, bandicoots), other strongly interactive species
Cats can have positive impacts tree-nesting birds benefit from cats hunting their predators interactants

Cats as specialists
Cats and foxes consume more small mammals than dingos
Consumption is selective for some species, especially rodents

Where and when do cat-impacts occur?
Cats are ubiquitous, impossible to control everywhere
Strategy needed to identify optimal times and places to put strategies into practice
Need to protect threatened native prey, other prey species and ecological processes
If threatened native prey are to be protected, a decision tree approach can be used:
o Identify species at most risk using vulnerability analysis
o Identify sites/regions where most such species occur
o Assess strategic potential to intervene e.g. are sites accessible, can outcomes of intervention be monitored,
what are the non-target impacts, and when should management be focused

Reducing predator impacts
Culling 1080 poison used extensively for foxes, nothing available for cats (although trials are underway)
Reproductive control TNR, chemical neutering, immunocontraception are all problematic
Biological control nothing available (unless dingos are used as control agents)
Teaching vulnerable prey species
Semi-permeable enclosures

Concluding notes
Introduced predators (largely fox and feral cat) are environmentally damaging
Impacts wrought by disease, competition, especially predation mostly negative impacts
Human-mediation a key factor in success, with intrinsic factors and navet prey
 Several tactical options available for control
Impacts vary geographically and temporally strategic management essential



Lecture 24-25 - Indigenous Knowledge Systems

Learning Outcomes
1. Understand the use of fauna and flora as predictors of weather in indigenous knowledge systems
2. Value the importance of indigenous knowledge systems in animals conservation and management

Australian climate
Australia has a range of climates across the land
Climate is diverse
Monsoon tropics, desert, savannah, alpine and temperate
regions can all be found in various locations
Indigenous people did not have the technology to
determine weather changes, so they sued plants and
animals

Indigenous seasonal descriptions
The diversity of ecological zones cant be meaningfully
simplified to a rigid European seasonal calendar for the
entire continent
Aboriginal people inhabit regions that are geographically and ecologically distinct
The meteorological view of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people is one of great diversity, where the names
of the seasons are often dependent on localized events or resources
Each season has a different relationship with plants and animals
Nature therefore give signs to indicate change in weather

Natural barometer examples
Flying fox: When they move from the inland bush to the rivers during the dry season and nest in the pandanus palm
trees onset of rain is immanent
Ants: building sand/dirt mountains rain
Frogs: increase is volume storm
Bees and butterflies: not in their usual spots rain/storm
Birds: flight height = how bad the weather is going to be
Cockatoo: flocking rain
Wattle bushes blooming rain

Totems
Manifestation of a broader metaphysics of ecological beneficial connectivity, and my contention is that this broader
metaphysics and validated o a significant degree through what Western scholars identify as ecological knowledge
Responsibility to have a relationship with plants and animals and use that to maintain the environment

Conservation and management of the land and animals
Wildlife managers could play a greater role in ensuring that Indigenous wildlife harvesting is sustainable and helping to
address community health and employment challenges facing Indigenous Australians in remote and rural areas
There is a large impact of Western practices on Indigenous land e.g. contemporary harvest rates of snake turtles
Indigenous people only hunt what they need, unlike us


Conclusion
Australia is a large country with 6 different climatic zones
Aboriginal and TSI people had calendars that best described the environment
By understanding wildlife Aboriginal and TSI people were able to predict the weather
The way in which Aboriginal and TSI people managed flora and fauna is as varied as the climate
The introduction of feral animals has lead to a decline in many different species
New management systems are currently being developed using a combination of TKS and western science these
need to be jointly managed

Animals in Indigenous Culture

Animals in Aboriginal culture
Animals used in aboriginal people for thousands of years
Animals appear in art, dreamtime stories, totems, dances, songs
Used as a resource for food, warmth and tools
Animals in art Animals in Dreamtime stories
To tell a story Dreamtime stories depict how the world was made,
May be traditionally or culturally significant and things came into being, and the permanent
Can be depicted in a traditional and/or state we are in as Aboriginal people
contemporary story way E.g. creation, spirits, how we live life
Traditional: The Dreamtime is ours, and our ancestors
o Animals depicted as spiritual creatures memories, what and how we think, imagine, and
o e.g. rainbow serpent creator of the earth, create, in our every day lives
rivers, valleys, hills
o Painted at times in traditional x-ray style
(right) or rarrk style (not dot style) Animals as a resource
Contemporary: Food: meat and eggs
o Artist uses animals to convey a
Warmth: housing, clothing, bedding, shoes
contemporary story or theme
Tools: turtle shells, snake skin
o Animals painted or designed in a
Signs and indicators
contemporary style
Ally: dolphin helps hunting

Ceremony: feathers

Animals in dance Animals as totems

Either appropriate (as the animal), or as a medium Links us to an animal
to tell a story Gives us our strength
Passes down education e.g. teaching to hunt, find Have a country totem and an individual totem
something, use tools Gives responsibilities
Imitation for ceremony, entertainment Allows survival in afterlife

Animals in song
To pass knowledge over long periods of time
Songs passed on from generation to generation





















 WEEK 10
Lecture 24: Introduction to Cultural Competence

Learning Outcomes
Discuss the overarching principles and elements of cultural competence
Discuss the impact of cultural perceptions of animals on community based research and professional practice

What is Culture?
Culture is the shared knowledge and schemes created by a set of people for perceiving, interpreting, expressing and
responding to social realities
Culture can apply to ethnic, religious, political, professional and other social groups
Some/many aspects of a culture can remain in the same through time
Culture is dynamic, can change and/or be enriched, generating diverse streams
Social groups/individuals could have multiple cultural identities
For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, family, kinship, community, connections to the land and spirituality
are fundamental and complex

Cultural Diversity
Diversity generally refers to the individuals who make up a community and reflects the degree of difference among
them
Cultural diversity is generally thought to be associated with countries/regions but in fact it is not circumscribed by
geographical borders
Cultural diversity is more than demographics
o Of course demographic changes can influence cultural diversity
What elements could be included within cultural diversity?
o Ideas, languages, values, beliefs, customs, rituals, relationships, practices, communication, behaviours,
folklore, traditions, perceptions etc.

Cultural Competence
Cultural competence is a set of congruent behaviours, knowledge, attitudes and policies that come together in a system
or organisation or among professionals to enable effective work in cross-cultural situations














Why do animal science professionals need to learn about cultural competence?
CC can assist in creating optimal services for particular ethnic, religious and other social groups attending to the needs
of your clients
o E.g. communities, pet owners, farmers, local/international placements
CC can assist in successfully achieving research projects and engage communities in animal and plant conservation,
management, welfare etc.
CC could be a pathway to help your patients (animals) reach optimum health and welfare
CC could increase revenue for private practitioners, animal/plant science professionals and agriculture/livestock
production
Respect for others including your clients and staff around you and cultural/social groups/people in the area you live or
work
Models and Continuum of Cultural Competence

Implications of Totems
Hypothetical Situation:
Please reflect for a moment on a community-based research situation in an Indigenous community in Arnhem Land,
during which you will need to take samples from crocs for a genetic study. After a consultation process, the community
has consented to you taking samples and to partner with you in the study, but may not be willing to help you capture
the animals
Options:
Exclude that area from the study
Explore the reasons they may not want to disturb/distress the crocs
o For people of the Yirridjdja moiety of this region, crocs are their totem
Crocodiles are rarely killed for food, but their eggs are keenly sought after during the wet season
when the females are nesting maybe you could try a different approach using this information
The benefits to the community and to the animals may need to be explained so they can see the relevance of helping
The approach may need to be varied if there are safety concerns

Stereotypes
Public/general or individual beliefs about social groups, individuals or actions/behaviours from other people
A judgement about a group of people
Are based on prior assumptions
Very often based on generalisations about a group
Examples of kinds of stereotypes:
o Lecturer was from Columbia so everyone assumes he is involved with Cocaine
o Kiwis are sheepshaggers
o Outback people are slow
o Irish people are drunks
o Rangas have no souls
Wow this section is so much fun!!!






WEEK 11 ANSC2005

Wildlife Diseases (1)

This lecture has lots of disease from overseas, the next lecture will focus on Aus diseases this is to introduce various wildlife
diseases with examples.

Diseases and endangerment
Diseases were only investigated historically when they were causing problems for the species at a large scale (were
under threat of extinction either with a major decrease in breeding or lots of deaths) or when they affected
agricultural or human health (believed to have spread from wild animals to agricultural animals)
Now the threats diseases pose in wildlife are recognised due to:
o Effects of diseases on endangered species
o Increasing veterinary involvement in wild life ecology and disease investigations
o Advances in host-parasite biology (H-P-E interactions something goes wrong in one of these interactions)
Wild life disease is now much more recognised
Introduction of pathogens might achieve a similar status to that of alien species introductions
o E.g. introduction of rabbits to Aus has a major effect on the land
o Introduction of foxes and other predators can have a significant effect on other populations such as bird
populations or can cause competition with other predators, OR
o Can bring in pathogens with them as well
o Habitat loss, followed by intro of pathogens = most important cause of extinction
Lots of infectious diseases are introduced as a result of human colonisation, particularly over the past 40,000 years as
they travel, they take animals, cereal and food with them spreading disease into new places spread into wildlife
o Extinction of many animals in the past due to colonisation, has either believed to be as a result of hunting or
the introduction of pathogens
o So, how many diseases are considered native that have actually originated from these introductions? Many
diseases are now considered to be endemic as they have been around for such a long time, however could
have been brought here in prehistoric time by some of the people that moved often
Human-mediated pathogen invasion (pathogen pollution) is implicated in many emerging infectious diseases (EIDs)
affecting wildlife
o E.g. sarcoptic mange very severe in wombats, foxes, coyotes and other mammals believed to have been
originally a human pathogen moved to domestic animals and then wildlife other pathogens could have
done the same thing
o Pathogen pollution = bringing pathogens along with us when moving and bringing our domesticated animals,
as well as with increased trade all over the world, pathogens are spread widely
o E.g. keeping fish in aquariums get bored of them release them into creeks and lakes introduce
pathogens into the water also a form of pathogen pollution
o Pathogen pollution can result in a much more severe result in species that have never been exposed to that
pathogen compared to the original host that has spread the pathogen therefore, can substantially threaten
global biodiversity aka. can cause a wipe out of a large number of species while only causing minor disease in
the animal that originally spread the pathogen
Pathogen pollution is associated with international traffic in:
o Agricultural machinery e.g. soil machinery sold to other places spread in these new places
o Domesticated animals carry pathogens in their skin, and internally
o Food crops and timber carry lots of microorganisms
o Biologically contaminated wastes such as landfill and ballast water
Ballast water = big ships need to be balanced so the bottom section is filled with lots of water to be
heavy come into a port need to up higher as some ports are shallow let the ballast water out
release fish, crustaceous, pathogens into another part of the world
Usually need to release it where there is not much biodiversity seen however this is more expensive
and so many will release the ballast water close to shore
o Produce for human consumption
o When transporting internationally usually only looked at as a form of income, the pathogen pollution is not
focused on
Global hotspots of biodiversity and wilderness sites are also affected:
o E.g. antibodies to domestic chicken pathogen (infectious bursal disease virus) are detected in Antarctic
penguins meaning the virus has been brought into Antarctica from the other side of the world
There is no such thing now as a wilderness, has not been affected around the world

Elements that contribute to the emergence of new zoonoses
Diseases often emerge after changes in the ecology of the host, pathogen or both
 Human population expansion has driven the emergence of human infectious viruses pathogens have become more
virulent as they have become more resistant to the products we, e.g.:
o Dengue fever getting it the second or third time causes sudden fever can have anaphylactic reactions
can die from this, dengue virus is commonly found in tropical countries
o Cholera: increase in population = increase in chance of disease spreading
o Encroachment into wildlife habit (Ross River virus disease, Lyme disease Borrelia burgdorferi) closer
contact to the wildlife when building new houses towards and into wildlife habitat = more exposure to the
disease the animals carry
Elements:
o Microbial/viral (e.g. mutations and evolutions) short generation intervals and therefore can rapidly develop
mutations and resistance to a lot of things such as pesticides
o Individual host (e.g. acquired immunity and lack of immune surveillance e.g. AIDS in humans makes them
more susceptible to other diseases such as Tuberculosis increases spread in population)
o Host population (e.g. transportation and urban crowding)
o Environmental (e.g. ecological and climatic influences climatic change can effect the range of these vectors
increasing temp = allows them to adapt and increase their range in which they can survive and spread disease
spreads across states and countries)
Increases in zoonotic pathogens
o Massively growing global human and livestock populations bring people into closer contact with other animals
o Advanced transportation makes long distance travel possible in less than the incubation period of most
infectious agents can be anywhere in the world in less than 12-24hrs cheaper now and most people in
developed countries can fly and can fly fairly frequently
12-24hrs is within the pre-patent period of lots of diseases, before symptoms will actually show
introduce diseases into new countries
E.G. Sever acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) = SARS coronavirus easily eradicated as you would
only become infected once the symptoms appeared, instead of the symptoms being delayed like most
diseases with SARS this allowed those individuals to be separated so the virus did not spread
o Massive ecological and environmental changes due to modern civilisation
o Bush meat trade and wild animal pets people in developing countries can now pay for better food and
protein so they go out and sell wild animals to these animals this is not very regulated, not very good
hygiene and can increase exposure to a lot more people to the diseases these animals carry
E.g. Ebola virus the more people engage in bush meat trade the more exposure to viruses such as
Ebola

Environmental changes
Shrinking wildlife habitats
o Increased densities of wildlife populations (be forced to live closer together as there are less habitats for them
to spread out) become stressed immune system drops contagious bugs can transfer more efficiency
o Emergence of infectious diseases in wildlife can spread to domestic species or humans
Increased habitat edges
o Increased contact between species in adjacent habitats increased competition and predation (including
birds that are parasites that can now go in to other areas they normally would not have and replace current
eggs of other birds with their own, resulting in a decrease in population numbers of other birds in that area)
o Exposes fragment-dwellers (those that live deep in forests) to new species of vectors or parasites to which
they are less resistant to, as they normally would not be exposed to these pathogens
Normally birds move nests once parasite load gets too high as a result of habitat loss they may not have anywhere
else to go they have to stay there or use another nest that may also have a high parasite load and the parasites
accumulate (either internal or external)
Social and physiological stress as a result of decline in their habitat quality increased susceptibility to disease

Climate change
Anthropogenic (changes in nature made by people) global climate change is likely to greatly affect the geographic range
and incidence of arthropod-borne infectious diseases as temp. increases geographical range of these disease
increases more nave animals are exposed and infected causing more serious disease
o Arthropod vectors include flies, fleas, ticks, mosquitoes and lice
Expansion if geographical ranges of mosquito vectors explains the re-emergence of malaria and dengue in South
America, central Africa and Asia during 80s and 90s
African horse sickness and bluetongue has recently invaded Europe and North America
o It did not invade before as it was too cold as a result of climate change temps are warmer spread more
North

White Nose Syndrome
Disease in bats
First seen in a cave in Schoharie Country, New York
(North America) in February 2006
Several species of bats were affected, including:
o Little brown bat
o Northern long eared bat
o Small-footed fat
o Eastern pipsterlle bat
o Indiana bat
Clinical findings:
o White noses as well as white furry things growing on their body and were
emaciated (abnormally thin or weak)
o Clustered in unusual locations
o Flying outside hibernacula they normally hibernate during winter and their
body temp. decreases so they do not use up all their energy, instead they were
flying during winter instead of hibernating
Pathology:
o White things were fungus that were growing on their skin, face and nose
o Fungal hyphae were also found in their sebaceous glands
o And sometimes, were seen to have inflamed lungs
In order for the body to respond to the fungi, it had to have a higher metabolic rate they were using up their energy
trying to defend against the fungi, and had run out of food before winter had stopped (run out of resources and fat)
and so they were forced to look for food during winter or would have staved no insects were out during this day and
as a result they ended up losing more energy and were dying
Aetiological agents:
o The fungi on these bats were a newly discovered, cold-loving Pseudogymnoascus destructans that invades the
skin of bats they were not previously recognised in bats in North America
o They infect the muzzle, ears and wings of hibernating bats and spread rapidly with mass mortality up to 99%
o No treatment or practical way was known to stop this disease
Mortality:
o 5.6-6.7 million microbats
o Declines in the most severely affected region in the U.S. have exceeded 80%
o As these bats feed on insects it is estimated that they save the U.S. agricultural
industry alone billions of dollars each year in insect pest-control expenses
Recent genetic studies have shown that the fungi originated in Europe and then probably
spread to USA and Canada through human activities such as migration, agriculture and
ecotourism (tourists that like to see bats in caves get fungi on their shoes go to
America taking the fungal spores with them and spreading the disease)
European bats seem to be resistant
Severe disease however, the consequences are still unknown in terms of the population numbers of these species and
the effect on American agriculture
o E.g. how extreme a common population becoming extinct can be includes a vulture species in Indian that
became extinct these birds used to feed on dead carcasses of cows etc. would eat the whole thing within a
couple of hours which meant less of these bodies needed to be buried and less potential disease could be
spread after a 95% mass decrease in which in a few years they went extinct wild dogs and rats began
eating the carcasses spreading disease and population explosive in these species occurred as a
consequence they particularly spread rabies as India has the largest problem of rabies (30-80,000 people die
from rabies each year)

Black-footed Ferrets
When European settlers came to North America they wanted to use a lot of the land for their
cattle to graze on, and as a result exterminated all the prairie dog species by killing them
the black-footed ferrets live off these species causing a major decrease in population
Extinct by the late 1950s
Recent shows they nibble growth, making the grass grow a lot more nutritious
A small population was re-discovered in 1964 in South Dakota
Studied this population began to decrease again 9 ferrets were captured for captive
breeding
In 1974 the wild population had become extinct
 Captive-breeding was not successful last captive ferret died in 1979 become extinct once again
1981 a small relict population was discovered in Wyoming
o 129 ferrets in 1984
o 1985 population had declined once again captive breeding program began once again
o Canine distemper virus and sylvatic plague were believed to be the agents of the decline
o 24 were captured and placed in a captive breeding facility
o 6 of those died soon after from canine distemper
o Both these diseases still greatly threaten captive and re-introduced populations
Sylvatic plague was due to the bacterium Yersinia pestis = form of bubonic plague = black death killed 25 million
people in 1300s
o Did however had a benefit to opening up the land as land was sold led to more individuals being given
rights democracy
Rats = primary host and fleas transmit the disease to other animals
Plague = not native to Americans, therefore not resistant
o Introduced to San Fran. in early 1900s from rats on Asian trading ships
Praire dogs and black-footed ferrets are both highly susceptible to the disease
Y. pestis (sylvatic plague causing bacterium) spread rapidly through prairie dog colonies via infected fleas with almost
100% mortality once again because they have no evolutionary exposure to the disease and so it is almost always fatal
It is 100% fatal in these ferrets which are also infected by fleas or by eating a prairie dog
that is infected with or has died from the plague
All captive ferrets receive an effective vaccine prior to being released into the wild
Vaccinating wild-born ferrets = time consuming and labour intensive
Vaccination of prairie dogs is impractical they are too small and it is too expensive
Dusting prairie dog burrows with pesticide reduces the no. of fleas = minimising
outbreaks of plague
o However, still very labour intensive + time consuming + costly
Efforts are underway to develop an oral plague vaccine for prairie dogs aim is to stop
the spread through the colony and as a result hopefully the ferrets will not contract the
disease

Black-footed Ferrets Distemper
Caused by paramyxovirus
Affects domestic and wild dogs + ferrets + other closely related animals can also kill off lions
Respiratory, GI and neurological signs eventually death
Spreads by contact with infected respiratory droplets, faeces, urine and bodily fluids or when the dead infected
animal is eaten
Mortality rate = approaches 100%
Less common and devastating than the plague as distemper does not kill the prairie dogs, however still threatens
isolated ferret populations
New recombinant canary pox vectored vaccine = safe and effective is currently being implemented
Administered to all captive ferrets prior to release and wild ferrets captured during surveys
Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD)
CWD is a transmissible neurological disease of deer and elk in North America that
produces small lesions in the brain eventually leads to death
Characterised by loss of body condition, behavioural abnormalities (become
depressed) and death
It is a transmission spongiform encephalopathy (TSE) similar to mad cow disease
in cattle and scrapie in sheep
o Prion disease
o Mad cow disease can be transferred to people affects brain outbreak
of mad cow disease in Britain: got into the cattle by putting sheep from abattoirs into their meat meal in their
food this was not done in Europe as they were warned this could happen
Unknown origin also unknown as to how it arose and this may never be determined
Results in a reduction of size of wild deer and elk populations
Believed to have been limited to the wild to a small endemic area in North-Eastern Colorado, South-Western Wyoming
and South-Western Nebraska, however recently was also found in several new areas across the North American
continent
o Has broken out and moved after being for so long in one area has resulted because humans have been
relocating these animals particularly because hunting is popular in North America
o As a result population numbers in farms increase Farmers to get more money out of this will sell their deer
to other farmers to get money for them
 Has also been diagnosed in commercial game farms in several states and provinces
o Winter is the hardest time for deer to survive and so farmers feed them grains all begin to feed from the
same area increase transmission from one deer to another as saliva goes onto the food and transmits the
disease
Implications for free-ranging populations of deer and elk can be significant people still try and do this
Agencies do not translocate deer and elk from CWD endemic areas
Surveillance programs are expensive and draw resources from other wildlife needs
Modelling: CWD could substantially harm infected cervid populations by lowering adult survival rates and destabilising
long-term population dynamics
o Very serious disease for the species
cwd c
Aetiology: abnormal prion protein (PrP ) induces conformational changes in normal prion proteins (PrP ) over a long
incubation period (years)
Clinical sings:
o Progressive behavioural changes
o Emaciation weakness
o Ataxia
o Salivation
o Aspiration pneumonia
o Death
Transmission:
o In saliva, faeces and urine Environmental contamination
o Minimum incubation period = 16 months
o When hunting they are told not to touch the carcass particularly the spinal cord, let alone eat them some
people probably have eaten it and so far has not caused disease in humans
o Group feeding such as winter supplements increase numbers for hunting facilities the spread of CWD
o Index case: captive mule deer in 1960s
o Affected species: mule deer, WTD, elk and moose

West Nile Virus (WNV)
History:
o 1937: First isolated from a febrile woman in the West Nile Distinct of Uganda
o Negative strand RNA virus of the family Flaviviridae
o 1957: WNV outbreak in Israel been around for a long time
o Early 1960s WNV noted in horses in Egypt and France many animals are susceptible to this as it has been
around for a while
o 1999: WNV first seen in North America got here by a mosquito
vector via aeroplane
o Number of cases and deaths rapidly spread across North America
(image to the right)
300 captive alligators that died in 2002 in Florida had high viral loads of
WNV at necropsy
Alligators have WNV titres as high as birds and can also act as reservoirs
Mosquitos transmit it from infected birds However, must reach a certain
titre to infect mosquitoes
o Horses and humans do not produce high titres are not good
transfer hosts










A
s
WNV
sprea
d
across the US from 1999 to 2005 it caused:
 o 19,655 human cases
o 23,117 equine cases
o 53,268 dead birds reported from 308 species w an estimated mortality in the millions of birds many would
have probably gone unnoticed as they are in the wild
Aetiology: Arbovirus (arthropod-borne), Flavivirus
Index cases:
o Uganda 1937
o USA 1999
o Endemic in Africa, Middle East, Western, Central and Western Asia
Vectors:
o Cultex pipiens (night feeder) mosquito
o Aedes aegypti (day feeder) mosquito
o Argasid (soft) and amblyommine (hard) ticks
o Possible bird-to-bird direct transmission
(experimental)
Susceptible species:
o Corvids (American & fish crows, blue jays)
o Many other avian species
o Horses and people are dead-end hosts they do not
transmit it but they do get sick
o Other reported species: Racoon, skunk, rabbit,
squirrel, chipmunk, bat, cat, seals and alligators
o Most animals as they have no had any previous
exposure to the disease

Clinical signs:
o Fever, ataxia, paresis, paralysis, death
o In people: flu-like symptoms or fatal neurological disease
Prevention and control:
o Insect (mosquito) repellents; insecticides: larvacides, adulticides killing off the vectors is the best that can be
done
o Vaccines equine (killed virus)


Wildlife Diseases (2)
Australian Bat Lyssavirus (ABLV)
First recognised in June 1996
Subsequently shown to belong to a new genotype within the Lyssavirus gene, however, ABLV is more closely related to
classic rabies virus than any of the other 5 genotypes of Lyssavirus
Although the first case of ABLV was detected in 1996, one retrospectively diagnosed case occurred in Jan. 1995
 Nov. 1996: First recognised human infection
o Was bitten by a yellow-bellied sheathtail bat (insectivorous bat) about 4.5 weeks before onset of illness This
is the only microbat shown to carry this disease
o Died from a rabies-like illness 20 days after first becoming unwell
Dec. 1998 a 37-year-old QLD woman died from ABLV, 27 months after being bitten by a flying fox (fruit bat) very
long incubation period, rabies normally has an incubation period of ~2 weeks
o Clinical presentation, duration and course of the illness however, are virtually indistinguishable from those
seen in rabies
o Has distinct stages starts with a short illness and culminates in coma and death
o Rabies is transferred by bite inserts into skin tracts up the peripheral nerves and goes up to the brain
virus travels back down to the salivary glands so it spreads via saliva
o Common signs of rabies = severe aggression or severe depression (very dopey and do nothing)
Pain and paraesthesia (increased irritability) near the bite site and signs of autonomic instability = such as
hypersalivation, which is also commonly seen in rabies
o Those infected with rabies are afraid to swallow their own saliva useful for the virus as it allows a greater
spread this is another classic sign of rabies infection
ABLV has been found in all four Australia flying fox species
o All ABLV-infected bats have been either unwell or dead at the time of tissue collection
Although rare, ABLV infection is lethal
o Rabies = 99.9% fatal there have been only 1 or 2 cases of people who have recovered this is nothing
compared to the large number of those dying
ABLV appears to be widespread throughout Aus so any bat in Aus must be assumed to have the potential to transmit
ABLV
o Particularly those showing signs of illness

ABLV distribution
Only reported in Aus
However, also probably occurs in bats in Southeast Asia
Rabies closely related Lyssavirus occurs throughout the world except on some islands
Believed to be a recent disease that has spread so quickly, as there is little internal genetic variation in the virus not
sure where it came from but has spread quite widely in Aus

ABLV epidemiology
ABLV cycle is maintained by all main flying fox species and at least one microchirpterid (microbat) species (the one
mentioned in the human case)
Infection in bats appears to mimic rabies in other mammals:
o A long, variable incubation period followed by acute progressive, fatal clinical disease
o Manifested as abnormal behaviour and paralysis + sometimes will have those that are quite and will not do
much just be depressed
Virus is shed in the saliva during the clinical phase of the disease and it is presumed that biting is the major mode of
transmission to other hosts
o In Central and South America classic vector and transmitter of rabies = Vampire bats: small bats with sharp
teeth take a small bite into the jugular vein animals dont feel it at night time drink the blood they
have a high proportion of the virus and therefore when they bite cows for e.g. they transfer the virus cows
look like they are choking as they do not want to swallow and so the farmer thinks there is something stuck in
its throat stick hand down there get cut from the teeth + saliva there full of the virus transmits
Small proportion of healthy bats show low titres to lyssavirus these could indicate exposure to the virus that didnt
take on produced antibodies for it, rather than having a recovery from an established infection
No carrier state has been demonstrated however, there might be subclinical bats or those with a variety of
neurological signs such as:
o Aggression
o Abnormal vocalisation
o Paralysis
o Inability to fly or sitting on the ground, and
o Not attempting to escape handling
Prevalence of ABLV in opportunistic submissions of sick, injured and/or orphaned flying-foxes is typically 5-10% but may
be as low as 1% or as high as 17% depending on species of bats
o Large variation in proportion of the bats with the virus
Adult bats and bats with CNS signs have a higher prevalence of the virus, compared to juvenile bats of the same species
or have non-CNS clinical signs
 Seroprevalence (level of pathogen in a population, as measured in blood serum) in sick, injured and rescued
microchiroptera (microbats) (up to 5%) is lower than for megachiroptera (fruit bats) (up to 20%), but also varies
between species
One study found that the yellow-bellied sheath-tailed bat (microbat that infected the women previously mentioned)
had significantly higher antibody prevalence (up to 62.5%) than other species
Low internal genetic diversity of Pteropid ABLV isolates indicate the virus cycle in flying foxes is probably recent
o Normally when pathogens go into a new host mutations occur over time genetic variation is seen
shows the virus has been around for a while, since the genetic diversity is low in ABLV = recent virus

ABLV diagnosis
Diagnosis is based on post-mortem laboratory detection of virus, viral antigens and RNA in the brain, spinal cord and
salivary glands
o In NSW and other states: if scratched or bitten by a bat bat must be euthanised, head removed and sent to
become examined
o Get re-vaccinated every time you get bitten
o Some people out there that look after flying foxes often will always get bitten the health regulations
behind this do not match these people as they do not find it practical to get re-vaccinated on a daily basis
Clinical and necropsy signs should not be considered confirmatory based on gross appearance or clinical says,
particularly as ABLV cannot be detected during the incubation period travelling along nerves to the brain not
initiating an immune response cannot be detected

ABLV treatment
None available
Death is inevitable once clinical signs appear
Suspected ABLV infected bats must be euthanised + submitted to appropriated animal health authority for forwarding
to diagnostic lab

ABLV prevention and control
Often impractical
Transmission can be minimised in captive bats but keeping a closed colony completely separated from contact with
wild birds reliability of rabies vaccine in protecting against ABLV in bats has not been characterised vaccinated bats
must be handled with the same degree of caution as unvaccinated bats as we do not know how effective the vaccine is
in bats
o Highly effective in dogs and humans however, no evidence to prove its effectiveness in bats
ABLV is emerging, at least partly because of habitat destruction bats are under pressure as their habitats are
shrinking driving bats closer to humans with roosting sites being redistributed into more urban areas increasing in
frequency and contact between bats, humans and domestic animals
o Now moved to Adelaide previously not been seen here
o Largest colony of flying foxes = in Sydney Largest suburb = in Gordon with 70,000 flying foxes, during
breeding seasons increase to 100,000

Viral diseases in Macropods
1. Viral chorioretinitis causes inflammation to the retina and the brain = become blind very rapidly
Aetiology: Wallal and warrego viruses associated with outbreaks can be widespread in several species of kangaroo
Spread by Culicoides species and possibly by a mosquito not sure
Signs:
o Occasionally conjunctivitis usually externally the eyes look normal
o Severe choroiditis/retinitis retina is inflamed and cannot see anything, usually do not hop away and
are not scared as they cannot see when someone approaches and if they do, they run away and hit
into trees
o Degeneration of the optic nerve
Poor to absent pupillary light reflex poorly functioning vision and eye
Complex blindness
Treatment:
o None
o Prophylaxis (treatment given or action taken to prevent
disease) (during outbreaks):
Topical long-acting pyrethrins transmitted by biting
insects (tiny) can go through insect screens in the
house and so these long-acting pyrethrins should be
used however nothing can be done in the wildlife
 Environmental insecticides in enclosures can be impractical
o Not sure who the vectors are could be possums

2. Wallal virus serogroup in black wallaroos live in the NT restricted area where they live
Aetiology: wallal vvirus isolated from black wallaroos showing signs of severe disease and death
Possibly spread by culicoides species
Signs:
o Sudden onset severe depression and appetence
o Ocular and nasal discharge
o Inflammation and ulceration of mucous membranes and skin e.g.
conjunctivitis
o Acute form: quick deterioration to DIC and death
o Chronic form: slower form epidermal excoriation and sloughing of lower
legs, feet, scortum and mucous membranes


Peanut butter sandwich with amoxicillin antibiotic to prevent secondary infection (image to the
right)
Males are black while females are dull grey can the below wallaroo was castrated he turned
dull grey looks like a female now awwww!












Epidemiology:
o Black wallaroos are naturally restricted to the Arnhem land escarpment and do not live naturally at lower
altitudes such as the Territory Wildlife Park the virus does not live at these higher altitudes (restricted areas
where they live)
o Restricted range could be due because if they come down they get this disease become sterile or die

3. Tammar Wallaby Sudden Death Syndrome
Tammar wallabies (macropus eugenii) are small, nocturnal macropods that originally ranged throughout
south-western WA, southern SA and their offshore islands
o Do well in captivity reproduce well in captivity and used often in research for studying marsupial
biology, behaviour and physiology
Over 6 weeks in Oct. 1998 more than 85 of the 234 tammar wallabies held at a Syd research facility died
suddenly
Sudden deaths also occurred in 6 other research facilities and zoological gardens in NSW b/w Oct. and Dec.
1999, and one in a research facility in QLD March 1999
Death was rapid all affected tammars died within 12 hrs of showing signs of disease
Although 120 tammars, are known to have died, population census suggest about 230 tammar wallabies might
have actually died these are extensive enclosures and some might have died inside holes or predators come
in and eat them etc.
Gross post mortem:
o Extensive congestion and haemorrhage in a range of thoracic and abdominal organs, major muscle
groups and in subcutaneous tissues in some cases subcutaneous oedema was seen
Aetiology: Orbivirus (probably from the Eubenangee serogroup)
Signs: Sudden death
Epidemiology: summary outbreaks following very heavy rain when insects are abundant breed very well
when there is lots of water
Epidemiology:
o Could have resulted from human intervention by moving susceptible macropod species into a
geographical area well north of it usual habitat and into the potential range of pathogenic orbivirus
other macropods are not affected


Image to the right: Oedema of the face,
redness of the eye (conjunctivitis) and
hyphema (bleeding of the eye)
Image below: Oedema is seen in all the
subcutaneous tissues around the eye +
conjunctivitis









I
m
age to the right: Fibrin throughout the thorax
and on the lungs very severe pneumonia and
fibrinous exudate throughout the chest
Image below: close up of the fibrin there
may be haemorrhage in the lungs and all the
fluid here is abnormal












4. Oral necrobacillosis (lumpy jaw) in Kangaroos:
Aetiology:
o High levels of causative non-sporing anaerobic bacteria
Fusobacterium necrophorum, Nocardia, Bacteroides and
Dichelobacter species) caused by a whole range of bacteria
may be in low numbers in the jaw kangaroo damage their
teeth or gums bugs grow and result in infection of pulp cavity
(centre of the tooth) goes down to the mandible into the
bone so now there is no blood flow here and antibodies and
antibiotics cannot work this damage normally occurs as some
macropods and elephants too, go through forward progression of
the molar teeth (their teeth move forward and shed while the
new ones grow) just like kids when they are teething
o Overcrowding when water begins to flood contaminate one
another
o Poor hygiene
o Trauma scared run away and hit into a fence damaging their teeth
o Stress
o Poor diet (soft food, low vit. A, cheap rough/low quality forage that has spikes) also allows the bugs to
get in
Signs:
o Inappetence, dysphagia (difficulty or discomfort when swallowing as they are sore) and as a result
drool
o Swollen jaws, lips, tongue or neck with necrotic, fetid (halitosis bad breath) and erosive lesions if
there is no puss coming out put finger on the jaw and then small it if it smells = lumpy jaw
 o Can also affect the oesophagus, stomach, liver, lungs and occasionally legs and feet nothing can be
done
o Nasal discharge, pneumonia, gastroenteritis and septicaemia
More common in captivity but does occur in the wild also
Prophylaxis
o Improve husbandry: remove faeces daily (disease passes out through here), several raised feeding
stations (do not feed from the group as faeces contaminate the ground), green leafy branches, feed
good quality hay, lucerne, fruit, vegetables, branches with bark and make sure they have enough vit.
A
o Remove affected animals
o Spell affected enclosures >4 weeks
Treatment:
o If maxilla and mandibular bones are unaffected = has not gotten into the bone:
Isolate animals
Radical surgical debridement remove teeth and any affected bone
Flush with 2% chlorhexidine
Appropriate antibiotic therapy
If bones are affected: euthanise no treatment will just infect all
the other animals
o WHY?
Can treat the incisors but once it is inside the premolars and molars
there is nothing that can be done
Case 1: 2/3 of the head would have had to have been removed to remove all
infected tissue and bone was not viable had to be euthanised
Case 2: puss in the eye not swollen does not look like lumpy jaw until you actually
get inside necrosis throughout the jaw into the bone no way to effectively remove this

Puss in the eye goes all the way up from the bone into the eye

These animals live in extensive areas and so you cannot pick up the signs until it is too late and they are very weak



Case 3: more lesions here puss goes all the way up to the eye and went all the way into the brain

Case 4: went all the way up into the nasal cavity
Case 5: puss came out of the jaw and there was a loss of fur associated also
o Post mortem: entire lower jaw was necrotic
 o Dark sections in the x-ray = where the bone begins to be lost entire lower jaw would have to be removed and
since it has probably progressed all the way upwards both jaws would have had to be moved
o Has also progressed to the liver

Case 6 swollen, red eye, yellow ears and massive necrosis



Tularemia (Rabbit Fever)
Aetiology Francisella tulaern
o Tularensis (Type A) rabbits, squirrels
o Holarctica (Type B) aquatic animals
Survives 3-4 months in mud, water and dead animals exposure to another
animals can be quite high
Vector-bone:
o Ticks
o Flies (deer-fly)
Disease:
o Dogs and cats: fever and abscesses at site of infection
o Horses: fever, depression, stiffness
o Young swine: fever depression, dyspnoea
o Wildlife: usually found moribund or dead
o Also affects humans: bitten by a tick can get it
Believed to have been exotic to Aus however there have been some cases
Public health:
o Ulceroglandular, typhoidal, pneumonic
o Marthas vineyard cases (1978, 2000)
Tularemia is a notifiable disease in Aus.
o A novicida-like subspecies isolated from a foot wound sustained in brackish water in the NT in 2002 healed
uneventfully following drainage and antibiotics
o Separate cases in 2 women on TAS West Coast bitten and scratched by injured possums (particularly brushtails
will bite if scared) they stopped to help beside bush roads May and Nov. 2011
o Contracted a mild form of the disease common in the Northern hemisphere
which causes a persistent but treatable skin infection and both recovered
following antibiotic treatment

Protozoal Diseases
Cutaneous Leishmaniasis
o Found some kangaroos in the same parks as black-wallaroo
Aetiology:
o Undescribed Leishmania species first believed to be exotic to Aus until
cases were found, thankfully not seen to affect humans yet
o Insect vector, likely Culicoides species they do not fly high so they only bite
lower areas of the body such as tails, and reach the ears
Signs:
o Affects red kangaroos in tropics humid and out of their comfort zone
o Ulcerative and popular skin lesions insects bite these animals and cause
lesions, keepers were also bitten on their feet/legs but were not infected
o Nearby adult antilopine wallaroos and agile wallabies had only mid illness as
they are local and endemic and therefore are used to these bugs

***For the exam: likes to test about the topics: understand some of the major diseases, why they are a problem and why the
animals are affected how they got there and what to do here do not need to know everything but know at least ONE
example really well to illustrate example

Wildlife telemetries
Outline
Studying free-range animals
A tool for behavioural ecology
Applications to wildlife

Studying free-range animals
What is the challenge?
o Studying wild animals in their natural environments often presents major challenges to field biologists many
species are shy and avoid humans, others live in habitats where direct observation is difficult or impossible
o Paying attention to what they are doing the entire day sometimes can only see the animal at a small time of
the time, e.g. dolphins in the NZ swim super fast and only come out for 30 seconds
o Capturing and tagging the animal is a big challenge but not the biggest challenge
o Sample size is important
o Largest challenge: tracking the animal 85% of the time the goal = recapture the animal to collect the data
this is where the trickiest thing is

Some definitions
Telemetry: generally includes devices that store data on-board (archival data loggers) for later downloading or
transmission
o This is about putting something on the animal
Biotelemetry: includes measurements of activity that are more relevant to behaviour e.g. chewing, audio or,
measurements of environmental conditions that are relevant to organismal physiology (e.g. body temp.)
o This is about the measurements of the behaviour of the animal
Most recent data in Antarctica = comes from the penguins that have these devices on them not only do we get info
on the penguins themselves but we also get info on the environment they are in
Tracking: most basic type of telemetry that involves determining where an animal is located spatially (sometimes
referred to as locational or positional telemetry).
o Using fixed receiving stations, it is possible to determine fine-scale movement and activity patterns
o This is quite expensive, around $1000 + need to pay for the satellite every time you connect to it and
download info, per month ~$50 for one encounter depending on the amount of data needed to answer the
question
o It will give you the location of the animal in fixed time
Biologging: can be defined as use of miniaturised animal-attached tags for logging and/or relaying data about an
animals movements, behaviour, physiology, and/or environment.

Biologging in different taxa
Biologging is also used in ants to get information on social networking want to see how these animals find food, how
they establish social connections with other ants etc.
Size of Biologging devices varies greatly from use on elephant seal, turtle, or to use on ants this is shown in the
image below different reasons include blood pressure, location, heart rate, thermal properties, ventilation and
locomotion





Important to understand the pros and cons of these devices there will probably be only one question in the final exam on this
he just wants us to relax and enjoy the lecture and he will guide us towards what that question is!

A tool for behavioural ecology

Biologging developments video;
** youtube video- pioneers of wildlife telemetry
About the field of automatic detection of birds and other animals
Tracked wild animals by radio
Transmitters were used to track animals development of these was done at a faster rate than before and now there
were miniature transmitters that could be used on smaller animals
Still cannot determine why some populations decline or grow, these questions are still open
o They track as many animals as they can to get more knowledge, hopefully eventually will be able to track small
animals long term to create a global system and open up new understandings of these animals by following
them for their entire lives
Could not determine where exactly the animal would be next as the bird will go anywhere however, they could only
go onto roads and could only guess where the bird would be next
Bird transmits a signal received by a distant receiver received by an antenna that has a certain directivity so you
can tell which direction the bird is coming from detect the signal by a radio receiver
Learned more about the migration of these birds by following them at night and watching where they land in the
morning
o Also listened to their heartbeats and recorded the sounds they produced
Long term projects do not fly well in science; they are difficult to maintain a lot of their work as a result was self-
financed
o Self-belief and consistency is important

Biologging developments:
There are more studies using Biologging science in marine habitats than in terrestrial ones
o Marine habitats are more complex for researchers as the animal disappears in the animal this is why so many
people are interesting in studying marine wildlife
The possibilities to recapture animals carrying biologgers as well as their size are important factors that influence
deployment decisions
Image below he is not doing drugs it is an old technique used to measure diving depth of animals
o Let the kettle boil once the vapour is released placed the straw above it so the walls are covered with
moisture suck sugar through the straws seal this cut the sides of the straw and put the sealed size
close to the animal and the open side of the periphery of the animal this relies on physics and chemistry
when the animal dives the pressure inside the straw will be equal to that on the outside of the straw = the
environment the water will consume the sugar inside the straw doing this with different depths = can
develop a scale and work out the maximum diving depth the animal reaches









Image to the right is a more sophisticated device allowing measurement of heart rate
of seabirds by doing normal electrocardiograms
Normal GPS devices are also used need to recapture these animals
o Mainly done in seabirds but also done in wildlife with the use of collars







This device to the right lets the researcher get data based on the movements of the animal on the Y, X and Z axis
This has been important to pick up behavioural events while animals are trying to catch their prey, flapping in birds or
breathing rates
Now trying to understand in zoos how much an animal moves and how much food it requires for its activity level
Massive contribution has been made the main goal of this is to provide a 3D picture to understand what the animal is
doing and the environment is which the animal is moving in the decisions that the animal makes based on all of these
factors
Video footage of animals during flight and other movements has also
been recorded this began in 1987 with National geographic using a
very large camera animal ethics would not have supported something
like this now-a-days
o Current cameras are basically the size of a USB and has the
ability to record up to 18hrs most cameras can only record up
to an hour or so





Biologging is expanding
Biologging have made significant contributions to our understanding on how animals
utilise their 3D environments
Behavioural observations provide info of the behaviour of the animals from the
human observers perspective whereas animal-borne cameras collect visual info
from the animals perspective
Working with dpi this year to try and put cameras on white sharks to see what they
are doing

Biologging and research questions
Nowadays the use of Biologging technologies allows researchers to study virtually all
aspects of animal biology from birth to death
Lots of info has been achieved from behaviour foraging efficiency and what they are eating, energetic budges, how
the animals distribute the resources they are achieving, reproduction and growing events
Depending on the questions we want to ask type of questions that can be asked are listed below
o Can ask questions about their physiology and behaviour
o Using satellite trackers or Bluetooth to get continuous, real-time data
o Allowing us to enhance management skills and protect endangered animals




















Limitations and challenges
Listed below:
 o Cost for e.g. cameras are expensive ~$1000, customising cameras to function in different environments such
as harsh wind conditions, rain, aquatic environments etc. to miniaturised the camera, etc. costs a lot and
takes a lot of work
o Sample sizes need to be large however when they are small the question may be interesting and can help
advance the field that you are studying
o Need for calibration in everything particularly with GPS and cameras to understand the location they are
filming, when diving, the diver will use a straw and measure with each meter how much sugar was consumed
in that one straw to be able to work out how deep these animals are swimming
o Most difficult part = new generation is needed here for computer programming now there is an ability to
collect lots of data sometimes excel does not work properly with such a large file with lots of data points
need to know how to extract the data based on what you are asking
o Burden on the animal standards has been created based on the normal mass of the animal and how much
the animal can be created over the last couple of years aerodynamics has been created to see how much
these factors affect the movement of the animal
o Ethical issues are important sometimes satellite trackers are used by leaving them on the animal until the
animals mould or die they usually never recover these trackers however it is important to work out how
many animals die after they leave their parents etc.

Applications to wildlife
Helicopters patrolling areas has also been used for
larger animals to try and prevent poaching of these
species such as rhinos
Also trying to implement this with shark nets
Similar to this has also been implemented on stranded
animals such as dolphins
Satellite collars in pandas in china have been used to
see which areas they migrate to different seasons and
what they consume during these periods they found
that migration is related to their nutritional
requirements for that period
o They found that panda migration is important
to support milk production and bone growth
o The image below is an e.g. of the Ca and P
that they need in spring and summer and in autumn
o During their migration they have pit stops
o Quality of foods varies













B
i
rd cameras have been used to detect fishing boats in marine protected areas
o These cameras have GPS on them they have found how deep these
boats enter into marine protected areas in which they deplete the food
supply for these animals
Found that pelagic prey such as fish and cephalopods often have a wide and
patchy distribution
Research in NZ has been done for conservations of these species as they want
to get quota on capturing some of these fish to understand in which areas
these animals are foraging
o Central place foragers with foraging trips between 8-16hrs
o This always areas to become protected so that humans do not fish here
and kill all the fish that these animals rely on as their food supply











Masked boobies Lord Howe Island Australia
Conservation status: Masked boobies are considered vulnerable as of 2012 by the IUCN
Established where these animals were foraging as well as the foraging budgets to work out what they were doing
during their trip
o They used mola mola (ocean sunfish) to dive and gather their prey this is an association that has never seen
before
Miniaturised video camera was used:
o 70-80g
o 18hrs of continuous recording
o Continuous GPS tracking
o Waterproof up to 20m
Always us to understand the profitability to the animals can
understand how much time they spend searching for the food, where
they find it and the quality of the food
The graph below shows how much the boobies need to eat and they
have also worked out once they capture the prey how many grams of
proteins and lipids are present to work out their energetic budget
o This has led us to understand the real motives of predators to
kill animals

















Eastern grey kangaroos at Nelson Bay
Helps understand who they hand out with their social relationships, what food they eat,
how far they go and what kind of foods they consume and their interactions with humans
Analysing the videos is difficult as the animals move very fast

Dog cams to unravel infectious disease pathways and wildlife interactions
Cameras + sophisticated algorithms can be used to determine pathways for disease
transmission
Try to understand contact grades of rabies entering the country

Dusky dolphin project
Recent project
Tag was deployed in Kaikoura (NZ)
Camera was customised to work with dolphins
In Dec. will go and re-test the camera again









Some work has also been done with the dairy group to try and understand how the cows select the grasses that they eat







Week 12
ANSC2005 Lecture 29 Vertebrate Husbandry

Vertebrate husbandry general
- For all species, captivity must provide as much as possible the species requirements for
o Nutrition
o Environment
o Behaviour
o Reproduction (one of the basic drives of all species)
o Emotional wellbeing (social animals must be in groups need to try and mimic their natural circumstances)
- Appropriate husbandry can only be provided if the species can be correctly identified
- Knowing the species allows for the correct husbandry requirements to be applied
 - Good husbandry is based on knowing as much about the species natural environment, biology and physiology as
possible
- Basic information required includes knowing the species natural
o Distribution and habitats used
o Nesting/burrowing/denning (e.g. hollow trees)
o Diet (carnivore, herbivore, omnivore, strictly fish only, etc.)
o Behaviour (feeding, social, reproductive)
o Longevity (how long will animals live, reproduce, etc.)

Vertebrate husbandry stress
- All wild animals have evolved to cope with non-repetitive acute, even severe, stress like the proximate presence of
predators
o Chronic stress can kill animals can occur in a captive environment where they are not provided for effectively
(dulls down their immune system, makes them more prone to disease)
o Better to have one corner of viewing when in captivity to reduce stress, enclosures with 360 viewing is highly
stressful for an animal as humans are considered predators to most species (should be 180 maximum)
- The smaller the captive environment and the less it resembles the species natural environment the more chronic stress
the animals will experience
o Chronic stress compromises animals health and welfare and their reproductive capacity
- Signs of stress
o Acute stress signs:
Warning signs in social species (ground thumping, vocalisations)
Flight: rapid running, flying, swimming away from the source of stress
Aggression: attempts to damage and neutralise the source
Trembling, ear flicking, rapid breathing
Licking forearms (kangaroos, wallabies) drops the temperature in a time of stress
o Chronic stress signs:
Weight loss or poor weight gain in juvenile animals
Inappetance or anorexia that reduce faecal output
Excessive escape attempts e.g. in snakes leading to mouth damage and severe oral infections
Hyperactivity that in some species becomes listlessness when stress is prolonged
Stereotypic behaviours: pacing, turning, chewing, head weaving and bobbing
Increased incidence of diseases
Poor reproduction (captivity is the major driver of poor reproduction due to the chronic stress)
Increased aggression towards other animals including people
Killing their young

Housing requirements
- Housing requirements for all captive vertebrates in marine or zoological parks, circuses and other places in NSW are
mandated by the Exhibited Animals Protection Act 1986 (Schedule 3 Licensing standards housing fencing, caging and
exercise facilities)
- The animals enclosure must resemble as much as possible its natural habitat to aid its physical and emotional
wellbeing and behaviour
- Enclosures must be structurally sound, kept in good repair and allow for adequate movement and exercise
- 1. Spatial requirements
o Size of enclosure
Must provide sufficient space for exercise and social needs such as foraging space on the ground or in
trees, water, etc.
o Position of enclosure
For many species the enclosure must be out of direct all day sunlight (e.g. the enclosure can face
north where it will receive morning sun but be partly shaded in the heat of the day)
Nocturnal species can be stressed by prolonged direct sunlight
o Weather protection
Enclosures should have areas where bedding, hollows, nests, burrows, etc. are under cover away
from sunlight, wind and rain
- 2. Temperature and humidity requirements
o Many species have strict temperature and humidity requirements, particularly tropical and rainforest species
o Most desert adapted species can tolerate wide temperature ranges as temperatures in inland deserts fluctuate
from extreme hot to sub-zero, but they cannot tolerate humid conditions
Shingleback skinks often suffer fungal infections due to the humid conditions in Sydney and other
coastal areas
o It is important to provide an environment within the species natural temperature and humidity range
 o Species, such as the eastern blue-tongue skink and diamond python which inhabit forested areas, require
medium to high humidity
o Damp conditions which favour mould growth and other pathogens can be avoided by providing adequate
airflow such as large vents at the top of large enclosures housing reptiles
o Poikilothermic species (reptiles, amphibians) should be provided a thermo-gradient with heated and unheated
ends which allows the animal to move towards or away from the heat source to attain and maintain its
preferred body temperature
o Sick poikilotherms usually require higher temperatures than normal to help their immune systems combat
infections
o Temperature changes are required by some species to trigger reproduction some reptiles require a period of
cooler temperature to stimulate reproduction
- 3. Substrate requirements
o Although ideally the substrate should be as natural as possible, a dirt floor can be unhygienic and a smooth
concrete base painted with non-toxic sealer to stop moisture and urine seeping in and allowing bacteria and
fungi and other pathogens from contaminating the area is often used instead
Add fresh dry dirt, fresh foliage, plants in terracotta planters, and sandstone rocks to make it more
naturalistic
- 4. Naturalistic enclosure furnishings
o Dry native leaves can be scattered around the ground to stimulate foraging (mental stimulation is important)
o Climbing branches to simulate the natural environment and stimulate exercise
o Nest boxes, hollow tree stumps or caves
o Hang thick ropes within the enclosure for exercise and enrichment for climbing species
o Plenty of hollows in which to hide
o Eucalyptus stumps for climbing and sleeping
o Place treat logs (where food is hidden) around the enclosure
- Enclosure design
o Many exhibits are generally simple, mostly large areas free of obstacles
o Fences should be straight or curved with curves of about 45 instead of 90 corners as fleet footed vertebrates
generally run or hop along fence lines when frightened (e.g. during catching) at great speed and will often hit a
corner sustaining serious injury or death
o Fences should be high enough to prevent escape and made of chain mesh (not too taut to prevent easy
climbing) appropriate for the species with external posts so the animals do not hit them when running or
hopping along the fence line
o An outward facing overhang of about 60cm or an electrified fence top might be required to dogs and foxes
out. A second inward facing overhang might be
required to keep in agile species such as rock-
wallabies
o Small species are most likely to be taken by
foxes if the outer area is not predator proof
o Enclosures should have trees and shrubs well
away from the fences (to prevent injury along
the fence line), to provide shelter and security
o A feed shed will keep food dry and provide
shelter
o Feed racks within shelters should be on the
walls to keep the food dry and clean
o The floor can be sand (not some species need
to be careful of sand impaction as it can often
be fatal), hay, sawdust (dust-free) or concrete
for easy cleaning and might need to be large if it is to be used for both feeding and shelter
o Several sheds are required for large groups to minimise aggression and allow sharing of food
o The shed entrance should face away from prevailing winds for maximum protection
o The yard substrate can be grass, sand, soil or leaf litter although many species have been held successfully on
concrete floors
o Woodchip substrates have caused foot problems that resolved when this was replaced by leaf litter
o Sandy substrates can lead to GIT problems in many species from cockroaches to elephants
o Ideally a well ventilated and dark recovery shed can be attached to enclosure to allow safe recovery from
general anaesthesia
o It should be placed next to a recovery enclosure which has fences covered with shade cloth
o Enclosures should have enough ground cover to allow individuals to hide from each other and people
o Large animals, like red and grey kangaroos, require shrubs and trees for shade
o Smaller species require a lot of ground cover such as grass tussocks, bushes, solid and hollow logs and rock
piles
 o Enclosures should include adequate cover to shelter from wind, rain and temperature extremes but these
should all be away from the fences

Health quarantine
- All additions to a group or enclosure must pass through a period of strict quarantine to
o Minimise the risk of introducing pathogens
o Allow the new animal(s) to gradually adapt to the new diet (prevent GIT upsets), new habitat, new staff and
new work routine
o Allow the staff to acquaint themselves with the new individual(s)
- The period of quarantine and tests required varies depending on
o The species
o Their source
o The animals ages
o The animals clinical histories
o Particular pathogens of concern
o Best quarantine period to minimise the risk of pathogens is as long as possible if they are social species, this
could really stress them so need to compromise depending on the species

Health disease
- Need to deal with the health of the herd, not necessarily the health of the individual
- All animals showing signs of contagious disease must be separated from all other animals until deemed healthy
- Effective treatment first requires an accurate diagnosis veterinary assessment is required
- Infections with virulent organisms or serious zoonotic pathogens could require euthanasia rather than treatment,
especially in common species such as brushtail possums
- Examples of pathogens potentially requiring euthanasia are:
o Some Salmonella spp., NNB reptile and birds
o Australian bat lyssavirus fatal in people
o Clostridium perfringens (cause death in animals when they are very stressed)
o Tasmanian devil facial tumour
o Psittacine beak and feather disease (PBFD)
o Chytridiomycosis in amphibians
o Chladmydia psittaci in birds (zoonotic)

Health hygiene
- Hygiene and cleaning
o Food must be prepared with high standards of cleanliness of both food (high quality) and utensils
o Food and water bowls should be replaced daily and excess food removed to discourage rodents
o Enclosures must be kept clean to minimise contamination by pathogens and thus the risk of disease (including
zoonoses)
o Waste (faeces and left over food) should be removed from the enclosure daily (break the parasite life cycle).
Gloves and aprons should be worn while cleaning
o Concreted feeding stations that can be easily cleaned and dried minimise contamination
o Determine how frequently nest material, soil and branches should be changed
o Faecal accumulation predisposes to diseases such as lumpy jaw, helminthosis, coccidiosis and salmonellosis so
faeces should be raked from enclosures daily
o Sheds and feeding areas should be thoroughly raked and cleaned daily to minimise health problems from poor
hygiene
o Parasite loads can build quickly in captivity if hygiene is below standard


Health records

- Detailed accurate records for each animal are essential to maintain good health, including:
o Behavioural changes
o Oestrus in females
o Feed preferences and breeding triggers
o Medication dosages and times
o Vaccinations given and when due
o Breeding records
- Records
o Arrival: date, source, parents
o Veterinary examinations: e.g. blood tests, cloacal smears, faecal tests
o Growth: including age, weight, height and length
 o Departure: death, transfer

ANSC2005 Lecture 30 Vertebrate Husbandry

Health identification
- Accurate records require the animal to be identified
- Identification methods:
o Transponder chips between the scapulae (mammals), pectoral muscles (birds) or abdominal (small mammals)
or coelomic cavities (reptiles)
o Ear notching
o Coloured plastic ear tags in different positions in the ear
o Metal ear tags (e.g. small mammals)
o Leg or flipper bands (birds; penguins)
o Identification using size, colour, sex and markings
o Freeze branding
o Tattoos on the inside of the ear, lower lip, gums or inside hind leg (groin)

Health nutrition
- Captive diets
o Require clean fresh water daily do not use automatic watering systems which can become contaminated and
spread disease
o Food can be provided ad-libitum to species with low incidence of obesity but should be restricted to others
o Most large carnivores require 1 or 2 starve days a week to avoid becoming obese
To stimulate wild situations
o If feeding mostly meat, Ca must be added to avoid problems with osteoporosis and other bony abnormalities
o Feeding whole carcases minimises this risk but can pose a greater risk of contamination
o Most omnivorous species can adapt to different diets as long as the food is digestible and nutritious
o Food items for herbivores (e.g. wallabies)
Hay
Hard vegetables such as sweet potato, carrots, occasionally apple, dried corn and commercial pellets
(treated with a coccidiostat to prevent coccidiosis)
Lucerne bails should have a few stalks which can predispose to lumpy jaw by piercing the gums
Some institutions feed lucerne chaff to avoid problems with stalks
o Food items
Bread should only be offered to facilitate treatments (e.g. antibiotics) as significant amounts of soft
food can predispose macropods to lumpy jaw
Mineral blocks are often provided to rectify mineral deficiencies
o All dietary changes should be gradual to avoid GIT problems due to rapid changes in the gut microflora
- Particular requirements
o Vitamin C (most wild species produce their own vitamin C)
Required by primates, guinea pigs, fruit-eating bats and some birds
Other species produce enough ascorbic acid for their needs so it is not considered a vitamin in them
o Full spectrum (UVA and UVB) lighting is necessary for proper skeletal growth and to prevent metabolic bone
disease, particularly in reptiles
For many reasons, artificial lights are a poor and often inadequate substitute for direct sunlight
Most glass and acrylic block UVB and most UVA
Metabolic bone disease
Reptiles need to bask to reach and maintain their preferred body temperature and to
produce adequate vitamin D for Ca metabolism
Can get sway back due to lack of Ca
o Taurine
Required by felids (cats) which have a poor ability to produce it leading to retinal degeneration, hair
loss and tooth decay
Many passerine birds seek out taurine-rich spiders to feed their young, particularly just after hatching
o Pregnancy
Pregnant and lactating animals have significantly increased requirements for energy and protein
o Live food
Many reptiles and some fish only eat live prey but many can be taught to ear carcasses
- Captive diets
o Food should be fed off the ground preferably in feeding sheds
o This reduces the incidence of diseases such as lumpy jaw and helminth parasites
o Wall mounted or double sided free standing hay racks are best for bails of Lucerne
 o Hay nets are generally more difficult to refill and can result in macropods becoming entangled

Vertebrate behaviour
- Many vertebrates are nocturnal with bimodal peaks of activity in the first 3 hours after sunset and sunrise (crepuscular)
- Group size and thus gregariousness generally increases with body size, openness of habitat and proportion of grasses in
the diet
- So small species which live in closed forests tend to be non-social, and
- Large species which graze open grasslands live in well organised gregarious societies

Housing
- Walk-through exhibits
o These can work well if the species and individuals are calm
o Shy species such as brush-tailed rock wallabies and parma wallabies are unlikely to tolerate proximity to
visitors unless hand-raised
o Species such as red kangaroos, Kangaroos Island kangaroos, red-necked wallabies and domesticated species
are often very tolerant and can be patted
o Visitors should be discouraged from feeding animals as the food (e.g. bread and biscuits) can often transfer
pathogens and cause disease
o Fenced off refuge areas are important for animals to feed and rest away from the public
o The use of roped off refuge areas and frequent monitoring of walk-through enclosures, particularly on busy
days, is necessary to prevent the public harassing the animals
o Although hand-raised animals can be very approachable and tolerant, hand-raised males can often be very
aggressive towards people in enclosures and are not recommended, especially males of large or dangerous
species

Capture and restraint
- Timing of capture and handling
o Animals can overheat on warm days or if chased for too long so all captures should be organised for early
morning when it is coolest, even before staff usually start work
o Another advantage at this time is the absence of visitors
- Catching bags
o Should be made of thick open-weave cloths such as hessian, so the animals settle down faster in the darkness
and are able to breathe normally
o Rounded corners avoid the neck being bent and asphyxiating the bagged animal
o Thick cloth also reduces the likelihood of large hind digits tearing a hole in the bag
o A wide mouth allows the animal to be easily enclosed
o Woolsacks are often used to bag large animals
o Captures should be as efficient and quick as possible to minimise distress and injury
o Stressed animals can sustain severe injuries by running into fences and other obstacles
o To minimise capture time the capture must be planned well and everyone should understand their role clearly
prior to starting
- Many animals move quickly along fences when approached in small enclosures
- Small animals (< 15kg) are best caught by 2-3 people slowly herding them along a fence towards 1-2 people ready with
hoop nets or ready to catch the tail
- Animals often use narrow paths behind feed sheds so these can be good points for a catcher to wait at the far end
- Animals are less likely to use fence lines if tussocks and other cover are available
- A large macropod (> 15kg) can be slowly trapped in a corner of the exhibit by 3 or 4 people
- As it tries to escape the catcher grasps the tail close to the base then transfers it quickly into a catching bag held by a
second person as the wallaby or kangaroo generally kicks and twists vigorously
- Tie the bag securely making sure the tail is not protruding
- If the requisite skills or facilities are unavailable large animals can be immobilised with a dart
- However, darting introduces a range of other potential risks such as hitting the wrong area etc.
o Pole syringe
o Field anaesthesia: dart shot at the animal
- Adding inner fences to form funnels or other confined spaces can facilitate capture
- Temporary funnels of hessian mesh about 2m high supported by star pickets can be setup to trap target animals and
facilitate capture
- To minimise the risk of capture myopathy and depending on the weather and the animals temperament, no more than
4-5 capture attempts should be made
- If the animal begins panting heavily, drooling or licking forearms then postpone capture for another day
- Weighing and examination
o Animals less than 15kg can be weighted using hanging scales
o Larger animals can be placed in a bag on walk-on scales
 o Ensure the eyes are kept covered during the examination to minimise stress
o Examine the eyes, ears, general body condition and the teeth and gums for any lesions (e.g. lumpy jaw)
- Release
o Released animals tend to move off quickly and erratically so there should be as few people as possible in the
enclosure to minimise noise and stress
o Flighty animals can break their neck from a collision when released so the release area should be open and
away from large logs, fences, sheds or trees
o Ensure the animal has recovered sufficiently from anaesthesia and can maintain balance before releasing it
o Keep low, retreat slowly toward a fence and exit the enclosure