Australia Archives - EcoEvo@TCD

13/12/201913/12/2019

Home and Away: Australian expats

Natural history museum collections are invaluable snapshots of history. Research collections are snapshots of the animals and plants collected in history. Research collections are also a reflection of the people and attitudes at the time it was curated. There is a well-represented collection of native Australian animals in the Zoology Museum at Trinity College Dublin. Well-represented in many sense of the word. This is a story about the red land down under, Australia, and the collection of Australian animals held in overseas museums around the world. It is a story in parts. This is the third and final part.

Australian expats

The pride of the Zoology Museum is Ireland’s last Great Auk (Pinguinus impennis). As the Great Auk exemplifies, all you need to have a lecture room named after you is to be extinct. But this isn’t a story about extinct Irish birds.

There is a bird in the Museum labelled as a night parrot (Strigops habroptilus). As I’ve described in a previous story, the vernacular name for this specimen is kakapo (literally night parrot in Maori), an endemic New Zealand bird. Kakapos are great. They deserve a blog post to themselves, but this isn’t a story about New Zealand birds.

22/11/201922/11/2019

Home and Away: Monotreme mistakes

Natural history museum collections are invaluable snapshots of history. Research collections can be used to trace how animals have changed over time. Collections are also a reflection of the people and attitudes at the time it was curated. There is a well-represented collection of native Australian animals in the Zoology Museum at Trinity College Dublin. Well-represented in many sense of the word. This is a story about the red land down under, Australia, and the collection of Australian animals held in overseas museums around the world. It is a story in parts. This is the second part. Read the first part here.

Monotreme Mistakes

Echidnas (Tachyglossus aculeatus) are monotremes; Order Monotremata within Class Mammalia. They have hair and produce milk like other mammals but unlike other mammals, they lay eggs. Monotremes are endemic to Australia and New Guinea and consist of the four species of echidna and the platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus).

The echidna (Tachyglossus aculeatus) in the Zoology Museum

01/11/201904/11/2019

Home and Away: Would a Rosella by any other name smell as sweet?

Natural history museum collections are invaluable snapshots of history. Research collections are snapshots of the animals and plants collected in history. Research collections are also a reflection of the people and attitudes at the time it was curated. There is a well-represented collection of native Australian animals in the Zoology Museum at Trinity College Dublin. Well-represented in many sense of the word. This is a story about the red land down under, Australia, the collection of Australian animals held in overseas museums around the world. It is a story in parts. This is the first part.

An eastern quoll, *Dasyurus viverrinus*, labelled as a native cat

Would a Rosella by any other name smell as sweet?[efn_note] Rosellas, an endemic Australian bird in the Order Psittaciformes, was named by European settlers after Rose Hill (now Paramatta), New South Wales[/efn_note]

This story traces its roots to the day that Europeans invaded Australia, but we will start with the Saturday the 26^th October 2019. For most of the world, Saturday was not a particularly notable day. It was the beginning of the Bank Holiday long weekend here in Ireland; I enjoyed a walkabout through the local park. But as the sun dawned on Uluru in the Northern Territories, Australia, it was the start of a historic day.

03/04/201903/04/2019

Sisters in Science: Dr Liz Dobson

Dr Liz Dobson in her veterinary science research lab

Header image courtesy Zoos Victoria

In answer to the call for posts about ‘Modern Women in Science’, I decided to write about my sister: Dr Elizabeth Dobson BSc (Biology), BSc (Vet. Bio), BVMS (Hons), MSc, Diplomate ACVP.

Why my sister? Well, first because she’s an accomplished scientist in the field of veterinary and wildlife pathology. And second, because she’s had a unique career. It’s an example of how scientists can draw on diverse experiences to shape their future and play an active role in carving out a professional niche that aligns with their goals (and financial needs!).

10/03/201818/02/2019

Firehawks: waking up to stories of the Dreamtime

Fire is an essential part of the ecology of many savannah and grassland ecosystems. In some cases, fire is the only way of removing older grasses that are no longer profitable for herbivores to consume. As well as having benefits for local ecology, grassland fires also offer great feeding opportunities. I have seen large groups of raptors and insectivorous birds gather at the fringes of bushfires in Kruger National Park, to take advantage of the animals flushed into the open by the moving fire front. In Australia, a number of raptors are frequently seen around bushfires. These birds; black kites (Milvus migrans), whistling kites (Haliastur sphenurus), and brown falcons (Falco berigora) are known as firehawks. In Malamalak, an Aboriginal language, the black kite is known as Kerrk, a reference to its call “kerrk-kerrk-kerrk“.There is an intriguing story about Kerrk:

“In the creation period or dreamtime, Kerrk stole fire sticks from the Dingo, so that he could cook the Cheeky yam. Kerrk is still attracted to fires and occasionally he can be seen carrying burning sticks from an existing fire to start more fires further away.” Continue reading “Firehawks: waking up to stories of the Dreamtime”