The Wildlife Lab

20/03/2026

I talked at length about the need to manage at scale - councils working together. Also that culling while effective is not the only solution over alternatives like managing roost sites, protecting infrastructure and moving flocks on. Also controlling breeding. Unfortunately most of this didn’t make the cut.

20/03/2026

Rob was interviewed about invasive corellas in the Perth and Bunbury region. Thanks to Nine.com.au for the opportunity and it should air on the Perth News at 6pm. The lab is working on a genetic project to identify hybrid corellas with Sean Buckley as well as starting research on corella ecology more broadly.

14/03/2026

Rob will be crossing live via zoom to ABC TV News Breakfast show at 730 Perth time/1030 AEST tomorrow talking rodenticides and what the ban means. Tune in if you remember!

13/03/2026

The newly announced rat poison bans are a long time coming. But what does it means for wildlife? Rob’s thoughts are out in The Conversation, reflecting on a decade working towards this outcome with Mike Lohr CUBE - Curtin University Behavioural Ecology Owl Friendly Margaret River Region and many more.

Rat and mouse baits are an everyday product. But these chemicals can persist in the tissues of rodents that eat them for months and poison native animals.

10/03/2026

: Woo hoo! 🦉 Together, we did it! The regulator is now recommending a BAN on the public sale of bird-killing rat poisons.

After massive public pressure and a decade of campaigning by BirdLife Australia and other conservation groups, the APVMA has strengthened its recommendation to include the removal of second-generation anticoagulant rodenticides (SGARs) from retail sale. This announcement comes just one week before the original submission period was due to close.

This was not the original decision proposed by the APVMA, and if approved and implemented, SGARs would be restricted to licensed professionals and removed from shelves, marking one of the biggest conservation wins for Australian wildlife in recent years.

These toxic baits have been killing owls, eagles, and other native wildlife across Australia. This new recommendation is a huge step forward in protecting our birds and other animals.

Victory is in sight, and it is thanks to all of you. Over 10,000 submissions to the APVMA were from BirdLife Australia supporters alone. The APVMA heard your voices and we thank them for listening.

While this is a huge win for wildlife, we still need this recommendation to be finalised and signed off. So over to you, Julie Collins, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry of Australia, to make it official.

There is still work to do so stay tuned for more and we thank you so much for your passion and support. Today, you have all made a difference for Australia's wildlife.

📸 Ray Sayers, Rebecca Harrison & Teresa Madgwick

10/03/2026

Breaking: APVMA suspends sale of persistent owl poisons in Australia! We have fought tirelessly for years about the secondary impacts of second generation rodenticides and after meeting with the APVMA last week this is not an outcome we had anticipated!

We hope this is a prelude to a permanent ban on sale to consumers pulling Australia in to line with other developed countries.

The Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority (APVMA) has today certified that it is in the public interest for chemical products contai

20/02/2026

Sobering and shocking results from our recent research on Masked Owls.

11/12/2025

Celebrating another amazing year with my lab. Sadly not everyone could be there today for our lab lunch celebration, but grateful to be able to work with such amazing colleagues and students. Wishing everyone a relaxing holiday period.

01/11/2025

The amazing Bec Quah who I have the privilege of supervising with Anna Hopkins, Harriet Mills and Saul Cowen, just got their first PhD paper published! Bec used eDNA to examine the diet of the world’s rarest marsupial and explores how this approach can help find new suitable habitat by also looking at the diet of its fungi-eating friends that share similar habitats - quokkas and bush rats. Well done Bec! Check it out here:

Understanding resource use and availability is critical for the success of wildlife translocations, especially for species with complex diets. Mycophagous (fungus-feeding) diets are particularly challenging to study due to the difficulty in identifying fungal species, many of which remain undescribe...

08/09/2025

Yesterday was National Threatened Species Day on the day the last thylacine died. Today Rob’s latest research was published on another silent extinction. A sub-species of Lewin’s Rail, a cryptic waterbird, existed in southwestern Australia but has long been enigmatic and mysterious. Rob and co-authors methodically piece together the known evidence for this population including an international detective effort to find all known museum specimens. Sadly we may be too late.

Read it here:

History and status of Lewin’s Rail Lewinia pectoralis clelandi in south-western Australia

05/09/2025

We’ve been lucky enough to recruit a few new lab members recently and will be featuring them over the next few weeks!

Introducing Lisa Sinclair as a new PhD student working with Rob, Dr Tim Doherty (former lab PhD student and now DBCA Research Scientist) and lab Research Fellow Mike Craig.

Lisa hails from the USA with a masters degree from Purdue and extensive experience in West Africa in recent years. She will be working on the impacts of fire on threatened mammals in the south-west forests. We’re excited to have her on board and she’s wasted no time getting to grips with the local wildlife including this beautiful Woma python in today’s lab. Welcome Lisa!