Our Team
Cluster leads:
Associate Professor Kathy Townsend
Members:
Associate Members:
Associate Professor Andrew Olds
Why this Cluster exists
Working on megafauna presents a broad range of challenges, especially regarding the habitats in which they are living. This includes access to animals, tracking, tagging, funding, ethics, permitting, and outreach. This cluster exists to bring people together to support a cross-collaboration of methodologies, skills, and disciplines to help manage and overcome these challenges.
This UniSC cluster is well placed to tackle these challenges, being home to an impressive group of megafauna researchers who are engaged in and leading local, national and international collaborations.
The formation of the Marine and Terrestrial Megafauna Cluster facilitates an innovative approach to team development, mentorship opportunities, leadership structures and joint funding initiatives. The research conducted by the cluster will further increase UniSC’s increasing reputation in marine and terrestrial science and directly build on our strengths in the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 14. Life below water, 15. Life on Land, and 13. Climate Action.
The streamlining of these initiatives will also promote new and exciting opportunities for prospective undergraduate and post-graduate students to join our award-winning team of researchers.
Our work
The Marine and Terrestrial Megafauna Cluster are currently undertaking a range of biological and ecological research programs on the following species:
| Marine |
Cetaceans (dolphins, whales), Sirenians (dugongs), Elasmobranchs (sharks, rays, chimaeras), Teleosts (fish), Marine reptiles (turtles, sea snakes) and Aves (seabirds). |
| Terrestrial |
Marsupials (kangaroos, koalas, quolls, possums, gliders, dasyurids), Reptiles (lizards, snakes), Aves (birds) and Placental Mammals (bats, sunbears). |
Below are just some of the projects our team are currently involved in:
Detection Dogs for Conservation (DDC)
Globally recognised for facilitating non-invasive measures to protect endangered koalas and quolls.
Leaf to Reef Project
Leaf to Reef project examines the resilience of coral reef systems. The Lady Island a revegetation project is providing insights to help us understand how the revegetation impacts the in a downstream in a new, whole eco-system approach.
Project Manta
Based at the University of the Sunshine Coast, Project Manta is bringing together scientists, industry partners and the geneal public to establish important baseline data of manta rays and their relatives, to aid in their conservation.
Reshark
UniSC is part of a global collaboration joining 15 countries and 44 aquariums in efforts to hatch and raise zebra sharks for releasing back into the wild in imperilled Indonesian waters within 5-10 years.
Marine Reserve Use by Coastal Sharks
Focusing on the critically endangered grey nurse shark, this long-term program has determined the importance of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) for this and other apex shark species.
SEQ Eastern grey kangaroo conservation project
Since 2014 we have worked closely with local governments and the community to understand the impacts of urbanisation on the iconic eastern grey kangaroo. The project aims to inform sustainable management of declining populations of kangaroos in Southeast Queensland.
Citizen Science and koala protection
Answering the question of how can we create long lasting behavioural changes so that communities become Koala Guardians.
Bat and bird activity around cotton crops
Impacts of landscape connectivity on bat and bird activity in cotton, and the value of acoustic monitoring technology: benefits for natural pest suppression.
Flying fox interactions with humans
Modelling suitable habitat for flying foxes to inform better conservation and management, and reduce conflict with humans.
Our impact
The Marine and Terrestrial Megafauna Cluster achieves the UniSC strategic goals in generating short- and long-term benefits, including:
Raising the profile of animal science
Through our research and engagement outputs, we highlight animal science to the broader community, attract new students to UniSC, and contribute to increasing student enrolments. As a school-based centre, our members undertaking the research are the same lecturers teaching our students. This connection facilitates a greater richer student experience by being part of our real-world research and participate in job-readiness by providing applied skills.
Research Impact
Our cluster members make a difference to our local, national, and international communities as we undertake research that is strategically aligned, regionally beneficial and globally impactful. Through our collaborations and leadership, we will further improve UniSC’s overall ERA performance and already considerable strengths in the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), including 13. Climate Action, 14. Life below water, and 15. Life on Land.
Engagement
Members of our Cluster have some of the largest engagement portfolios across UniSC, with a strong citizen science component. We will continue to drive growth in prosperity and human potential in our communities by further building on our powerful industry, government, regional and global partnerships. This will lead to improved regional impact and improved performance for Times Higher Education’s university global impact assessment.
People and Culture
The cluster will further build on UniSC’s reputation as an emerging powerhouse in the Australian marine and terrestrial science community. This is resulting in the university increasingly becoming a workplace of choice: attracting national and international HDR’s, ECR’s, and established researchers to UniSC. Our management structure is designed to foster a positive organisational culture through distributed leadership and explicit focus on diversity, equity and inclusion. The cluster will bring together a highly skilled and engaged workforce by nurturing existing members and attracting new talent to continuously build leadership, inclusiveness, capacity, and impact.
Exciting things on the horizon:
- Turtle Rehabilitation and Research Facility, Fraser Coast – dedicated to advancing our understanding of marine animal strandings, including anthropogenic impacts on their health. The facility will provide critical information to marine park managers and traditional owners to enhance the survival chances of local marine life in the Fraser Coast region.
- Unravelling Cryptic Bull Shark Ecology – dedicated to understanding nearshore human-shark interaction risks, critical for informing contemporary shark control programs on Australia’s east coast.
- Dolphins as Marine Bioindicators – focusing on anthropogenic impacts, and how dolphin health reflects habitat quality in a climate change hotspot.
- Biomechanics in the Field – using accelerometers and machine learning to study the behaviour of terrestrial and marine animals in their natural habitat.
- Bats of K’gari – combing bioacoustics and ecophysiology to reveal how the bats of K’gari respond to environmental changes such as increases in tourism and a changing fire regime.
- Urban bats – quantifying the impact of habitat degradation and pollution (particularly resulting from urbanisation) on physiological and immunological traits of bats, and if they contribute to increased viral shedding.
In the news
Aggressive shrimps and surprising predators make life tough for spanner crabs
For years, fishers have suspected sharks of stealing their spanner crab catch. Now a University of the Sunshine Coast study has cleared sharks and instead uncovered three unexpected culprits taking a bite out of Australia’s commercial crab industry.
Study investigates the 'trashy' lives of white ibis
Australia’s native white ibis is a bird with a bad reputation. Now a research project in Moreton Bay is trying to better understand the lives of ‘bin chickens.’
Floods, new mystery disease impact starving marine turtles
USC has teamed up with wildlife rescuers to help deal with a large increase in stranded, sick, and deceased marine turtles.