New Zealand fur seals have been increasing in abundance across Australia over the past 20 years, with annual population growth rates of 10–15%. Recent changes in distribution in Western Australia suggested that the population was increasing and expanding in range beyond the known historical distribution. We aimed to determine the growth rate of individual colonies and the overall population across Western Australia and identify new breeding and haulout sites. We used the direct count technique to estimate New Zealand fur seal pup production at 17 breeding sites. We estimated pup production to be 3518 in the 2010/11 austral summer, producing a resultant population estimate of ∼17 200 New Zealand fur seals in Western Australia. This represented an exponential growth rate over the past 12 years of ∼1% per annum, a significant reduction from the estimated rate of 10% per annum between 1989 and 1999. There were clusters of colonies that showed large annual declines of 6–7% in pup production over the past 12 years and at other colonies maximal rates of increase of pup production were 6–9% per annum. Three new breeding colonies were discovered. It appears that the New Zealand fur seal population is nearing its carrying capacity in Western Australia.

Ticks (Ixodidae) were collected from northern quolls (Dasyurus hallucatus) from three sites on the Atherton Tableland, north Queensland. Four species of ticks (Haemaphysalis humerosa, Ixodes fecialis, I. holocyclus and I. tasmani) were collected from quolls. Prevalence of infestation of ticks varied from 44 to 92% across the three sites. The collection of the three species of Ixodes represents new host records for D. hallucatus, thus adding valuable new details to the ecology of the parasite fauna of an endangered marsupial.

Toxoplasma gondii is a cosmopolitan protozoan parasite of felids that also has significant implications for the health of wildlife, livestock and humans worldwide. In Australia, feral, stray and domestic cats (Felis catus) are the most important definitive host of T. gondii as they are the only species that can excrete the environmentally resistant oocysts that provide a major source of infection for mammals and birds. In Tasmania, the rapid decline of the Tasmanian devil (Sarcophilus harrisii) may allow an increase in feral cat abundance, thereby increasing the risk of T. gondii infection to a range of susceptible wildlife species. At present, there is scant information on the prevalence of T. gondii infection in feral cat populations across Tasmania. We tested feral cats from 13 regions across Tasmania for the presence of T. gondii–specific IgG antibodies using a modified agglutination test. Results were combined with serosurveys from three previous studies to enable a comparison of seroprevalence among 14 regions across Tasmania. We found that 84.2% (224 of 266) of cats tested positive for T. gondii IgG antibodies. This is among the highest rates of prevalence recorded from Australia, and significantly higher than for most other countries. Adult cats had higher seroprevalence than kittens but there was no difference between sexes. In Tasmania, seroprevalence was high in 12 of 14 regions (range: 79.3–100.0%), with only two regions (Tasman Island and Southern Tasmania) recording significantly lower seroprevalence (≤50%). This suggests a high risk of infection across Tasmania, and has significant implications for wildlife conservation should feral cat abundance increase with the ongoing declines in Tasmanian devils.

The pygmy bluetongue lizard, Tiliqua adelaidensis, is an endangered scincid lizard that occurs in remnants of natural grasslands in the mid-north of South Australia. We assessed the factors affecting body condition of male and female lizards, using body size residuals as an index, over five sampling years. We included sex, phenotypic (patterned or plain morphs), temporal (sampling year and activity period within year), and climatic factors in our analyses. The results indicated that sampling year and activity period within the year were the two most important factors influencing variation in body condition of both male and female lizards over the period of the study. There were similar trends when we considered males and females separately. However, when prepartum and postpartum females were analysed separately, sampling year did not affect their body condition. None of the analyses showed any significant effect of phenotype on body condition. Winter–spring rainfall was positively correlated with body condition of females in the prepartum period, but showed no significant effect on mean body condition of any other grouping of adult lizards, nor a consistent direction of correlation among the different subsets of adult lizards that we considered. The substantial annual variations in the body condition of lizards, although of uncertain cause, provide important information for conservation managers who monitor persisting populations of this endangered species.

Since the European settlement of Australia in 1788, 25 mainland terrestrial mammal species have become extinct, more than on any other continent during this period. To determine if the causal factors are still active, it is necessary to better understand the species and their status preceding these regional extirpations or extinctions, and examine the historical record for clues to the cause(s) of these declines. From an extensive review of historical material, primarily newspaper accounts, we collated >2700 accounts of quolls. We discovered 36 accounts that demonstrate the propensity for quolls to become hyperabundant. The geographical distribution of accounts implies that most refer to Dasyurus viverrinus, but an account from Normanton district (Queensland) likely applies to D. hallucatus. More than 110 accounts demonstrate that disease/parasite epizootics occurred in south-eastern Australia, commencing on mainland Australia possibly in the goldfields region of Victoria in the 1850s, or in south-eastern South Australia and south-western Victoria in the mid to late 1860s, and implicate these as the initial primary factor in the regional extirpation of Australia’s quolls. The loss of D. viverrinus populations in south-eastern Australia was reportedly from population abundances and densities that were sporadically extraordinarily high, hence their loss appears more pronounced than previously suspected. Accounts describing the widespread, rapid and major loss of quolls suggest the possible involvement of several pathogens. Ectoparasites such as Uropsylla tasmanica and ticks appear to be described in detail in some accounts. A few others state comortality of Felis catus and Canis lupus familiaris, suggestive of a disease of either or both of these species, such as Canine Distemper Virus, a morbillivirus with a propensity to be non-host specific, that may have caused the decline of the quolls, perhaps vectored by the reported ectoparasites. We also collated 23 presumed independent accounts of cats negatively impacting quolls, two of which describe significant mortality, and three presumed independent accounts of fox predation. These highlight the capacity of both of these introduced predators to have reduced quoll distribution and abundance.