In this issue

	ECOS Issue 173

Features

Joining the camel train Feral camels cause significant environmental damage in Australia's arid interior. Demand for exported camel meat is strong, but getting culled wild camel meat to market is difficult. Rachel Sullivan finds renewed interest in managing camels as fenced livestock. Learn more

Carbon accounting: our newest, cleanest export?
Australian company CarbonSystems made headlines around the world in May when it won the contract to provide Microsoft with software for monitoring and managing carbon emissions. A track record in carbon accounting – thanks to Australia's introduction of a National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting (NGER) Act in 2007 – helped tip the decision in its favour.
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Totally wild: postcards from the Gulf Four CSIRO researchers recently took part in a field trip to a unique, private nature reserve abutting the Gulf of Carpentaria. The 305,000-hectare Pungalina–Seven Emu reserve is the result of a partnership between the Australian Wildlife Conservancy (AWC) and indigenous landowner, Frank Shadforth, a Garawa man. Learn more

Leadership and prompt action could save species Failure to act quickly on evidence of rapid population decline led to the first mammal extinction in Australia in the last 50 years, the Christmas Island pipistrelle (Pipistrellus murrayi), in 2009. The fate of another iconic species, the migratory orange-bellied parrot (Neophema chrysogaster), hangs in the balance. Learn more

Models show Australia’s tropical sea-life heading south Researchers warn that ocean warming will result in ‘tropicalisation' of marine biological communities off the Western Australian coast. Learn more

Rats in the ranks: the introduced black rat in Australia Black rats (Rattus rattus) would have to be one of the most loathed animals on the planet. They spread disease, damage crops and infrastructure, and are a major threat to wildlife globally. But they are also one of the world's most successful species, and have followed humans to almost every environment on Earth. Learn more

Dr Dirk Mallants: expert on groundwater and patience Groundwater specialist Dr Dirk Mallants of CSIRO understands the importance of patience. As he explains to ECOS in this interview, the timescales on which groundwater processes operate can be as long as millennia. Learn more

Trees and non-flying mammals: a hollow understanding For many of Australia's mammals, tree hollows are critical habitat. Ross Goldingay argues that to make informed decisions about the conservation of species that use tree hollows, we need more research on the role that hollows play, and on the shelter needs of the animals that use them. Learn more

The deeper riches of river country
At Nauiyu Nambiyu on the Northern Territory's Daly River, Ngan'gi-speaking people observe the signs of Wirirr marrgu, or 'burn grass season'. Elder, Patricia Marrfurra McTaggart, says when the wet season ends, people go out harvesting fish, pig-nosed turtle, long-necked turtle, snapping turtle, echidna, rock python and water lilies. It is, she says, a season of plenty.
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