A race against time
Professor Baker and Dr Gray’s research focuses on finding the fastest and most efficient ways to locate the elusive Julia Creek dunnart, which is listed as endangered in Queensland.
“It’s a race against time because we are losing so many mammals in Australia,” Professor Baker said.
“We have a biodiversity crisis – a human-caused mass extinction event – so we want to identify the best ways to find these animals as quickly as we can.
“If we can’t find them, we can’t protect them.
“My hope for the bigger picture is that the best detection methods we identify can then also be used to more easily locate and protect populations of other threatened animals.”
From peanut butter and bacon traps to airborne DNA
Finding dunnarts in the remote Julia Creek landscape is easier said than done.
QUT researchers are using a mix of methods – some are tried and true, but others are new techniques.
The most ‘old school’ method is the faithful Elliott trap, a small metal box, which has a one-way door and is loaded with a tasty treat.
“We use peanut butter and bacon – peanut butter is kind of the universal bait for any sort of small mammal,” Dr Gray said.
A natural career path
Dr Gray says she followed a natural career path to the dunnarts’ world.
“I always loved animals,” she said.
“As a kid, I wanted to become a vet. But I did a placement in Grade 10 and quickly realised I didn’t want to operate on animals … I wanted to see them out in the wild in their natural setting.
“I had a really good science teacher in high school and he introduced me to the idea that ecology could be a job.”
Dr Gray went on to study a Bachelor of Applied Science at QUT, majoring in ecology, and then an Honours and PhD with Professor Baker as her supervisor.
After that, she worked as an ecological consultant in Dubbo and Brisbane.
“But I’d kept in touch with Andrew over the years and one day he took me out to lunch and said he had some funding for this Julia Creek dunnart project and invited me to apply as a postdoc,” she recalled.
“I jumped at the chance because I really love small mammals – that’s what I’m passionate about.
“I think academia is probably one of the only jobs where you have the time to delve deeply into questions. It’s really a curiosity thing for me. You are trying to answer those fundamental questions about a species – where they occur and what they do.
“Dunnarts are so cryptic – and I find that fascinating.
“They are generally nocturnal, so not a lot of people see them – they shelter in soil cracks and are really hiding in plain sight.”
Professor Baker, like many ecologists, credits David Attenborough documentaries for inspiring him as a child.
“Mammals drew me from a young age via TV – I guess they are furry and sometimes cute, but other times ferocious,” he said.
“At the end of Year 12 in 1987, I was torn between science and archaeology. I was enthralled by the Indiana Jones movies, so I naturally chose the latter.
“But I lasted just six weeks in the course, faced with a range of dry texts and nary a primeval underground lair stocked with artefacts in sight. So I dropped out.”
He then worked and travelled for a while, before starting a science degree at QUT in 1990. He studied mammals in his third year, fish behaviour in his honours year and bird genetics for his PhD.
“In 1998, after completing my doctorate, I landed a part-time job at the Queensland Museum and met someone who would change my life – Dr Steve Van Dyck (one of Australia’s best mammal taxonomists),” he said.
“I ended up back at QUT as an academic in 2004. Several years later, Steve interested me in some antechinus projects, and I have been full steam ahead on mammals ever since.”
Team dunnart
Professor Baker and Dr Gray are working with many collaborators for their dunnart project, including Greg Mifsud, Dr April Reside, Professor Susan Fuller, Carnarvon Canines, Southern Gulf NRM, and Dr Faith Walker. Other researchers include students Alice Bakker, Eloise Tighe, Cameron Charley, Dana Ford, Charlotte Woods, Emily Gugenberger, Kate Moffatt and Charlotte Patterson, with extra field work assistants also volunteering their time.
The research is principally funded by Multicom Resources as part of an Offset Management Plan conceptualised by Multicom Resources and Epic Environmental and approved under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act) for the Saint Elmo Vanadium project (EPBC 2017/8007). Additional funding and resources are provided by QUT. DESI rangers and the Guwa Koa Aboriginal Corporation have provided key access and on-ground support for the team to study protected populations of the species, and a range of landholders have generously provided access so the team can search for dunnarts on private land.
Aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals
In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all.