Arts

Food competition between American mink and otters was measured by comparing the diets of sympatric mink and otter populations with those of allopatric populations. Niche breadth was narrower for otters than mink. Niche breadth was wider for both mink and otters on islands where they co-existed in comparison to that of the allopatric populations. Niche overlap was lower in sympatric populations on islands with mammalian prey, however, niche overlap was not reduced on small islands without mammalian prey. Obtained data suggest that mink and otter compete for food resources and, when alternative prey sources are available, mink become more generalist predators to avoid competition with otters. However, when alternative prey sources are not available, both species become more generalist.

The extent to which anti-predator mobbing can be modified in response to new predators was investigated by examining the response of terns (Sterna hirundo and S. paradisaea) and gulls (Larus fuscus, L. argentatus and L. canus) to introduced mink Mustela vison, native otter Lutra lutra and rabbit Oryctolagus cuniculus models in areas inhabited by mink and areas uninhabited by mink. Gulls and terns typically flock over predators of adult birds (a fleeing response), whilst diving at predators of chicks and eggs (an attacking response). Terns in mink-inhabited areas flocked over a model of a mink, but did not dive at it as much as they dived at otter and rabbit models. A stronger fleeing rather than attacking response suggests that adult terns perceive mink as a threat to themselves as well as to their chicks and eggs. Gulls, in comparison, dived at the mink model, indicating that mink are not perceived as a threat to the adults of these considerably larger species. Both gulls and terns showed a much lower level of response to mink in mink-free areas, suggesting that the type and extent of mobbing is altered through experience with predators and the level of risk associated with mobbing the predator.

The proposition that visual field asymmetries can be produced through priming the left hemisphere with verbal material was investigated. In the first experiment a two-choice neutral detection task was established to measure biases of attention between the visual fields. In the second experiment, a priming effect was achieved by superimposing each trial with a verbal recognition task. Reaction time and error measures showed no sign of a right visual field advantage. In the third experiment, the neutral detection trials were intermixed with trials associated with a word recognition task. A significant right visual field advantage was found for the word recognition task. However, this pattern of asymmetry was not found for the neutral detection task. In the fourth experiment the level of difficulty associated with neutral detection task was increased. The effect of expectancy was investigated by manipulating the proportion of neutral and verbal stimuli. Despite these manipulations, the pattern of results was essentially the same as those observed in the previous experiment. These experiments demonstrate that verbal priming does not affect the distribution of spatial attention.

This short story was inspired by a newspaper report about George Davidson's solo effort to hunt a whale at the age of 70.  This occurred a little while after the death of Old Tom and the departure of the last of the Eden killer whales, but in this story I have moved the two events closer together, to explore the themes of aging and hunting in men and whales.

Copyright Agency has developed Reading Australia to make significant Australian literary works more readily available for teaching in schools and universities. These works are being supplemented with online teacher resources and essays by popular authors about the enduring relevance of the works. The list of titles has been selected by the Australian Society of Authors’ (ASA) Council. The ASA’s Council were asked to select works they thought students and others should encounter, to give a view of Australia’s rich cultural identity: works that would tell Australia’s history and also how we are currently developing as a nation. The ASA Council are adamant that this list should be merely the beginning, and it should be built upon with other works that have already been published, as well as the great new works that continue to be published in Australia.

Why is Australia so prone to fires? Have we made things better or worse? Is it possible to live in the Australian bush and be safe from fire?
No other continent on Earth is as susceptible to bushfires, over such a large area, as Australia. Fires are an ongoing part of our history, ecology and culture. Yet, despite repeated disasters across all states throughout the last two centuries, we seem to be no better at surviving bushfires today than we were when fires burnt though the first European settlements. A Future in Flames is a personal journey to find out what we have learnt from the lessons of the past and to understand why, after so many years, people are still dying in bushfires.

For a century, the killer whales of Twofold Bay herded baleen whales towards the harpoons of local whalers, helping them hunt and sharing the rewards. It was a life of industry, adventure and strange and unique partnership between whale and man.
As fewer baleen whales frequented the Australian east coast, the killer whales and the whaling industry they supported slowly disappeared. The body of the last killer whale, Old Tom, was retrieved in 1930 – marking the end of an era in Australian history. Killers in Eden explores how this relationship between whaler and killer whale developed, using our modern knowledge of killer whales to untangle fact from myth. The new and updated edition identifies new Eden killer whales not previously recognised, and provides the latest research in whale evolution and killer whale behaviour.