Field notes
We’re catching up with some of our sponsorship recipients so you can see how your contributions help conserve our natural history and keep the Aussie spirit of adventure alive.
OUR MOST RECENT SERIES of grants has gone to 10 incredible projects, including one in which readers can get involved. Wildlife of the Central Highlands (WOTCH) is a Victorian volunteer citizen science group that surveys for rare and threatened species in the cool temperate rainforest and montane forest habitat. WOTCH focuses on critically endangered Leadbeater’s possums and submits formal reporting to help protect important ecosystems (learn more at www.facebook.com/VICWOTCH).
Another forest adventure is following on from our story in AG 136 about the first full-length portrait of a Tasmanian swamp gum.The Tasmanian Tree Project team will be attempting to photograph a 90m tree on the South-East Asian island of Borneo. They will use innovative rigging techniques to take hundreds of photos from different perspectives, which will be stitched together to create the first complete image of one of these tropical trees. So far the Tasmanian project has received great TV and media coverage, particularly because of the beautiful video they produced in the process (see it at www.australiangeographic.com.au/issue136).
Finally, Phoebe Meagher of the Taronga Conservation Society in Sydney will be doing important work tackling environmental problems from the lab, as she develops chemical fingerprinting to detect wild animals that are being smuggled and sold as captive-bred. She hopes to use dietary information stored in feathers, fur, quills and scales to trace the origins of animals under import or export.