SPEAKER: Ms Fernanda Alves (PhD candidate), Division of Ecology & Evolution, Research School of Biology, The Australian National University, Canberra.

DATE & TIME: Friday, 11th September 2020 @ 12:00 noon

LOCATION: Seminar to be streamed via Zoom. Click HERE to connect.

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ABSTRACT.

The forty-spotted pardalote is a cryptic, sedentary specialist species endemic to Tasmania. Forty-spotted pardalotes were historically distributed across Tasmania where their favourite food tree, white gum (Eucalyptus viminalis), occurs, however due to habitat loss and degradation, introduced predators, competitors and drought they are now mainly restricted to two offshore islands of Tasmania (i.e. Bruny and Maria).

In addition to forty-spotted pardalotes known threats, in 2012 a parasitic fly (Passeromyia longicornis) was identified as a potential new threat, causing severe nestling mortality, however its prevalence across the landscape is unknown. Reintroduction has been proposed to forty-spotted pardalotes with the aim to create insurance populations on the main Island of Tasmania. However given the high-risk nature of reintroductions, understanding habitat requirements and finding ways to manage current threats is essential to inform reintroduction trials.

My PhD aims to understand basic biological and ecological features of forty-spotted pardalotes to inform the feasibility of a reintroduction plan for the species. For one of my chapters I aimed to test a cost-effective way to improve breeding success in forty-spotted pardalotes in areas of high-prevalence of the fly P. longicornis.

I am also working on the mapping of white gums (Eucalyptus viminalis) across Tasmania, a key habitat feature for forty-spotted pardalote and investigating genetic diversity across the landscape to inform possible sources of birds for translocation trials.

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BIO.

I am a conservation biologist with an interest in population ecology and management of threatened species and their habitat. I am interest in how populations interact with the environment after landscape changes and how management interventions can help the persistence of populations.

I got my Bachelor in Biological Sciences in 2007 and since then I have assisted in several projects on endangered species in Brazil and Australia. In 2014, I completed my Masters in Zoology at the University of São Paulo in Brazil. For my Masters’ research, I looked at basic population parameters (i.e. density and habitat requirements) of the endangered red-billed curassow (Crax blumenbachii) to inform its recovery plan.

I have been working with the Difficult Bird Research Group at ANU since 2015 as a research assistant in several projects. In 2017, I started my PhD at the Research School of Biology on the conservation and management of the endangered forty-spotted pardalote (Pardalotus quadragintus).

For more information click HERE.

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