Earlier this year I published a book called Ecology of Urban Environments. It’s a text book for university students, but it contains lots of great stories about urban nature that I’d like to share with everyone! So I’m starting a new series of blog posts – Urban Ecology Stories. The spotted handfish –…
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At last – the final installment of this intriguing trilogy! The third reason that frogs and roads don’t mix is that the noise of road traffic (cars, trucks, motorcycles and other vehicles) can make it difficult for frogs to be heard by other frogs. Anyone who has listened to a group of frogs calling at…
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In Part 1 of this series, I showed how difficult it was for frogs to cross busy roads without getting run over. The second reason that frogs and roads don’t mix flows on from the first one – if frogs can’t cross roads safely, then they can’t move safely between different areas of habitat that…
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Frogs are small animals that hop or walk along the ground. Roads are long stretches of gravel, concrete or bitumen that allow vehicles like cars, trucks and motorbikes to go from one place to another. These vehicles are often large and heavy, and travel very fast – much faster than frogs can hop or walk. …
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The city of Melbourne, Australia is home to about 14 species of frogs, depending on where you draw the boundaries. And the boundaries of Melbourne are spreading outwards at a cracking pace, with new suburbs being built on its western, northern and south-eastern edges. Melbourne is already one of the most sprawling cities in the…
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A grey-headed flying-fox; photo by Ian Kitchen Flying-foxes are big bats – the biggest in the world! They belong to a group of mammals known as the Megachiroptera (pronounced “megga-kai-roptera”) or megabats. Unlike their smaller cousins (the Microchiroptera or microbats), they like to eat fruit, pollen and nectar rather than insects. Megabats are only found…
Read MoreWelcome to my blog! I’m an ecologist at The University of Melbourne in Victoria, Australia. An ecologist is a type of biologist who studies living things (like animals, plants and fungi) and their environment (the places where they live). I study frogs, birds, and other animals that live in cities. This type of research is…
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