Non-native rusa deer ( Cervus timorensis ) were introduced to the 380-ha Wild Duck Island, an important flatback turtle nesting site in Broad Sound Islands National Park, Queensland, Australia, in the mid-2000s. Initial attempts to remove the population through ground and aerial culling (2007–2017) were unsuccessful. A more comprehensive eradication program commenced in 2018, employing aerial culling. In late 2019, a grid of 4...

Hand control for dexterous and strength-based tasks involves several levels of the neuromuscular system which interact to produce force. We investigated hand force, motor unit (MU) control, and intermuscular coherence in specialist-trained groups to identify how training may affect neuromuscular force control and motor neuron activity. Equal groups of ten strength-trained (rock climbers) and dexterity-trained (musicians) indiv...

Biological control agents (BCAs) provide a successful and environmentally beneficial alternative to synthetic pesticides for plant pathogen control. Despite this, the identification of BCAs through screening techniques, has not been widely defined and understood. One of the research gaps for BCAs, is that many current screening techniques used for BCAs, have minimal replicated studies, resulting in limited research to demonstr...

Ecosystems worldwide are increasingly being invaded by multiple species, and the rate of biological invasion is accelerating, leading to more interactions among invasive species. One such interaction that has received little attention is the phenomenon of ‘serial replacement’ or ‘over-invasion’, where an established invasive species is supplanted by a second invasive species. Understanding this interaction is important as cont...

Non-native deer are becoming increasingly common in peri-urban landscapes, where they pose a risk to the health and wellbeing of people. Professional vehicle-based shooting is commonly used to control deer populations in these complex landscapes, but the effectiveness and cost of this method have seldom been evaluated. We analyzed the effectiveness and cost of using professional vehicle-based shooting to reduce the abundance a...

Deer populations and their impacts on forest ecosystems are increasing globally. Given the imperative and expense to mitigate impacts of invasive deer, we aimed to elucidate critical drivers of (i) deer density, (ii) deer impacts, and (iii) the relationship between them, to facilitate targeted management. We used quantile regression forests to model deer density (faecal pellet counts at 1948 locations) and impacts (browsing an...

Large herbivores typically have consistently high prime‐aged adult survival and lower, more variable, juvenile, and senescent survival. Many kangaroo populations undergo greater fluctuations in density compared with other large herbivores, but age‐ and sex‐specific survival of kangaroos and their response to environmental variation remain poorly estimated. We used long‐term capture–mark–recapture data on 920 individuals to inv...

Decades of research and policy interventions on biodiversity have insufficiently addressed the dual issues of biodiversity degradation and social justice. New approaches are therefore needed. We devised a research and action agenda that calls for a collective task of revisiting biodiversity toward the goal of sustaining diverse and just futures for life on Earth. Revisiting biodiversity involves critically reflecting on past a...

Apex predators can have substantial and complex ecological roles in ecosystems. However, differences in species‐specific traits, population densities, and interspecific interactions are likely to determine the strength of apex predators’ roles. Here we report complementary studies examining how interactions between predator per capita metabolic rate and population density influenced the biomass, population energy use, and ecol...

With ongoing introductions into Australia since the 1700s, the European rabbit ( Oryctolagus cuniculus ) has become one of the most widely distributed and abundant vertebrate pests, adversely impacting Australia's biodiversity and agroeconomy. To understand the population and range dynamics of the species and its impacts better, occurrence and abundance data have been collected by researchers and citizens from sites covering a...