Asia Haines (Armstrong)

Wildlife Research in Australia: Practical and Applied Methods is a guide to conducting wildlife research in Australia. It provides advice on working through applications to animal ethics committees, presents general operating procedures for a range of wildlife research methods, and details animal welfare considerations for all Australian taxa. Compiled by over 200 researchers with extensive experience in field-based wildlife research, teaching and animal ethics administration, this comprehensive book supports best practice research methods and helps readers navigate the institutional animal care approval process. Wildlife Research in Australia will help foster a national approach to wildlife research methods, and is an invaluable tool for researchers, teachers, students, animal ethics committee members and organisations participating in wildlife research and other activities with wildlife. Certificate of Commendation, The Royal Zoological Society of NSW 2023 Whitley Awards: Zoology Resource [Book Synopsis]

Marine megafauna such as cetaceans, elasmobranchs and sea turtles attract considerable public attention. Despite their popularity relatively little is known about their populations in Australia. This is due to inherent challenges faced in researching megafauna in the wild, including the difficulty of locating and tracking species, their often remote distribution and elusive nature. The advent of photo identification techniques and the engaging of citizen scientists have contributed to research outputs and increased general understanding of many marine megafauna populations. We present three case studies about how citizen scientists contribute to research in the Moreton Bay Marine Park: 'Project Manta', 'Grey Nurse Shark Watch' and 'Dolphin Watchers'. Based on our comparative assessment of the case studies we identify several benefits of using photo identification (photo-ID) techniques on marine megafauna for this region. These include: (i) the extra data provided by citizen scientists substantially increases research effort and coverage in time and space; (ii) citizen scientists are self-funded or funded through tourism programs and substantially reduce the costs of data collection for research while supporting local tourism ventures, (iii) citizen science programs help disseminate research results to participants through increased contact with researchers, thereby increasing public education outcomes, and (iv) citizen science programs have had tangible downstream outcomes for conservation efforts including participation in stakeholder groups, data being used for threatened species assessments, and monitoring of sick and injured animals over time. We identify several challenges with marine megafauna citizen science programs including: (i) raising awareness of projects and accessing photos, (ii) limitations of image-matching software, (iii) development of online database structures that are transferable across projects, (iv) maintaining engagement with public participants, and (v) long-term funding. We make recommendations to address these challenges and propose future directions to improve citizen science programs in the region.