Gehyra Geckos Prioritize Warm Over Humid Environments.

Maintaining stable hydric and thermal states are dual challenges for reptiles that inhabit terrestrial environments with variable conditions across time and space. Under some conditions, reptiles face a conundrum where both physiological parameters cannot be simultaneously maintained at preferred levels by behavioral or physiological means. Prioritization of behavioral regulation of hydric or thermal state, and at which point this prioritization changes, was tested for nine species of congeneric tropical geckos by assessing their use of microhabitats with distinct thermal and hydric conditions in a controlled environment.

Investigating avian competition for surface water in an arid zone bioregion.

Interference competition has the potential to alter avian assemblages at long-lasting arid zone waterholes, particularly in a warming world, as more potentially aggressive species frequent these sites to drink. We used camera traps and observational surveys to investigate interference competition between terrestrial avian species at six long-lasting waterholes across three sampling seasons (two summers and one winter) within the MacDonnell Ranges Bioregion in central Australia. The proportion of individuals drinking for each of four dietary classes (granivores, nectarivores, omnivores, and insectivores) was modelled in relation to their abundance in the immediate waterhole habitat, which informed the potential for competition in each season.

Activity of (great desert skinks) at burrows in relation to plant cover and predators.

Increased predation where ground cover is reduced after severe wildfire is increasingly implicated as a factor causing decline of vulnerable prey populations. In arid central Australia, one species detrimentally affected by repeated wildfire is the great desert skink or (), a distinctive lizard of the central Australian arid zone that constructs and inhabits multi-entranced communal burrows. We aimed to test whether or predator activity at burrow entrances varied with cover and how respond to predator presence.

Dynamics of bird assemblages in response to temporally and spatially variable resources in arid Australia.

Bird assemblages in arid Australia are often characterized as being highly variable through time in response to boom and bust dynamics, although the importance of habitat in structuring assemblages at a local-scale is also recognized. We use a novel approach to investigate the importance of rainfall variability in structuring bird assemblages in a resource-limited environment. Monthly bird surveys were conducted at ten plots for 8 years at a botanical and zoological park in central Australia, including five irrigated plots within a fenced area and five natural plots outside.

Ranking buffel: Comparative risk and mitigation costs of key environmental and socio-cultural threats in central Australia.

Changed fire regimes and the introduction of rabbits, cats, foxes, and large exotic herbivores have driven widespread ecological catastrophe in Australian arid and semi-arid zones, which encompass over two-thirds of the continent. These threats have caused the highest global mammal extinction rates in the last 200 years, as well as significantly undermining social, economic, and cultural practices of Aboriginal peoples of this region. However, a new and potentially more serious threat is emerging.