Dr Leo Joseph, Director of CSIRO's Australian National Wildlife Collection, with some of the Collection's specimens of tiger-parrots. (CSIRO)

Research at the Australian National Wildlife Collection

The Australian National Wildlife Collection undertakes research aimed at preserving Australia’s rich biodiversity.

• 14 November 2007 | Updated 14 October 2011

• Current projects
• Collaborations
• Planned reearch

The Australian National Wildlife Collection (ANWC) research addresses the diversity, evolution, and conservation of Australia's wildlife, focusing on the taxonomy (scientific classification), systematics and phylogenetics (study of evolutionary relationships among organisms and the classification to reflect them) and biogeography of Australasian terrestrial vertebrates.

Basic questions addressed by the ANWC are:

• What kinds of wildlife do we have?
• What are their characteristics and where do they live?
• How have they evolved?
• How are they related to wildlife in other parts of the world?
• How can we conserve our wildlife for future generations?

ANWC research assists in:

• documenting regional populations
• discovering species unique to particular regions
• setting priorities for conservation
• developing cost-effective, environmentally sustainable conservation plans and land management strategies
• enhancing public awareness of conservation issues.

ANWC research has led to:

• discovering and documenting new species of land fauna
• providing vital data used in action plans for conservation of endangered species
• contributing to the formation of heritage areas and reserves, including Kakadu National Park and World Heritage Area, and Shoalwater Bay Conservation Reserve
• providing information for government agencies, non-government organisations and companies to develop sustainable environmental management strategies.

Current projects

Current projects include:

• defining fundamental units of biodiversity within the Australian terrestrial vertebrate fauna - ANWC scientists combine traditional morphological techniques with molecular technology to enhance our knowledge of the distribution and evolutionary origins of Australia's birds, mammals and other vertebrates
• predictive modelling of distributions of bird species - this work looks at past, present and future distribution and provides essential information for identifying areas and species of importance to conservation. Critical gaps in our knowledge of Australia's birds have been filled by fieldwork in:

  • the Kimberleys
  • south Western Australia
  • the Murray-Darling Basin
  • the Pilbara region
  • western Cape York Peninsula
  • with more fieldwork in the Great Victoria Desert planned.
• using molecular genetic techniques to determine the relationships and population movements of Australian waterbirds - Australia’s waterbirds display ‘boom or bust’ population cycles that pose many interesting biological problems. The aim of ANWC work here is to estimate population structure and dispersal patterns for selected species.
• exploring techniques to derive stable isotope data from feathers and hair as a new way of understanding the movements of highly mobile wildlife in space and time.
• evolution of widespread Australian birds with close attention to those of the arid zone
• evolution of the southern Australian desert fauna
• digitisation of the ANWC Sound Library.

Collaborations

ANWC scientists undertake collaborative work with other research partners including:

• local universities by way of Honours and doctoral students and these are seen as especially critical to the ANWC's future of productive involvement in biological research
• New South Wales Environmental Trust and government agencies in a multidisciplinary project to assess gene flow in vertebrate species occupying fragmented and altered woodland landscapes in regions of NSW
• Australian National University and Charles Sturt University to look at migratory connectivity of waterbirds between Australia and Papua New Guinea
• South Australian Museum, University of Adelaide and Western Australian Museum to look at cryptic diversity in small terrestrial vertebrates
• Australian National University to look at stable isotopes and their use in tracking wildlife
• University of Canberra and the Australian Federal Police in Wildlife Forensics, in particular genetic work on black-cockatoos
• Australian Wildlife Conservancy and Australian National University in a study of conservation and management of a naturally patchy bird species in the tropics
• University of Bristol, UK, in a study of the evolution of the parrots of the Crimson Rosella complex
• Australian Wildlife Health Network to monitor Australian waterbirds for the presence of avian influenza
• Institut de Recherche pour le Developpement, Thailand, in the study of mammalian diversity in south-east Asia.

Planned research

Research currently being planned includes:

• exploiting Australia’s isoscape. Feathers and hair preserve a chemical signature of the local environment in which they grew. Consequently, collections have the potential to provide insights into environmental changes and movements of populations over time
• Directory of Australian Birds Volume 2. Volume 1 of this series is a landmark publication describing Australian perching birds - the second volume will cover all non-perching birds including ducks, gulls, waders, parrots, pigeons and kingfishers.

Find out more about the Australian National Wildlife Collection.