EV5209, 2001-03-05

How to Manage Visitor Impacts in Protected Areas

Introduction.

The objectives of nature area management are often twofold: To protect the natural environment and to facilitate recreational use (FNNPE 1993). These two objectives are not always compatible, and in order to maintain the natural setting, it is sometimes necessary to regulate the recreational use of an area (Vorkinn, 1998).

The carrying capacity model is an effective tool for the management of a protected area recreation resource. Within the model are four primary sub-capacities, namely, physical capacity, biological capacity, social capacity and facility capacity; combined they are essential to the appropriate management of protected areas recreation resource environments (Symmonds et al. , 2000). Read the rest of this entry »

ZL2103, 2000-11-16

Study Of Desiccation in the species Litoria caerulia and Bufo marinus

Abstract

Comparisons of rates of cutaneous evaporative water loss in Litoria caerulea, Bufo marinus, and agar models, specimens of each were placed in desiccating chambers and their weights recorded over time. The experiment showed that neither species desiccated as fast as its agar model, implying that neither loses water as fast as a free water surface. L. caerulea lost water more slowly than B. marinus, most likely because of its relatively impermeable dorsal skin, and to the secretion of a protective lipid membrane.

B. marinus were examined of its behaviour for water-conservation by placing toads in enclosures containing a number of artificial shelters, with one irrigated and one dry half.

By observing the toads after a couple of days of acclimatisation we could determine their preference. We found that toads tend to form aggregations, and seeking shelter sites on the irrigated soil to reduce the evaporative water loss.

Lastly, the desiccating power of various microhabitats were examined by placing agar models of frogs and toads into four different conditions and monitoring their mass loss over seven days. We found that sunny microhabitats caused faster evaporative water loss than shady ones, and that open microhabitats caused faster evaporative water loss than covered ones. Read the rest of this entry »

Bat’s Adaptation to Urbanization

Group Project in Zl3205 – Wildlife Ecology and Management, 2000-10-30

Group members: Imelda Noli, Jessica Gautherot, Roger Uusitalo and Stefan Martensson.

Introduction

While Australia is thought of as being the ‘land of the marsupials’, the native , terrestrial mammal fauna includes a remarkable diversity of eutherian mammals. This large number of endemic genera and species belong to only two orders: rodents (Rodentia) and bats (Chiroptera) (Knox et al. 1999). Bats’ long history in Australia is know through fossil records to starts as early as the late Oligocene (about 23 million years ago). Because they are flying mammals, water is less of a barrier to dispersal and the perhaps it is no surprise that the early arrival of bats came from Asia.

The impact of humans on bat populations is mixed. The increase in agriculture and the clearing of wide forest areas in Europe during the Middle Ages might have increased the species diversity and population sizes of bats in the same way it did for songbirds (Neuweiler, 2000). Read the rest of this entry »

TO3025, 2000-10-30

Brown Bear Tourism Management

(With Special Regard to British Colombia, Canada)

Introduction

Too often, brown bears are portrayed as either vicious killers or as Winnie-the-Pooh, when neither case is true. The truth is brown bears do sometimes attack humans. The truth also is that brown bears are very much like humans. They eat mostly plants and grains, but love sugar, meat and fat. They stand upright. They can be jealous, possessive, and promiscuous – they even spank their children (GORP, 2000).

At present, there are eight different types of bears. They include:

the Giant Pandas (Ailuropoda melanoleuca), Spectacled bear (Tremarctos ornatus), Sloth bear (Melursus ursinus), Sun bear (Helarctos malayanus), Asiatic black bear (Ursus thibetanus), American black bear (Ursus americanus), Polar bear (Ursus maritimus) and Brown bear (Ursus arctos) (Anon.2., 2000). Read the rest of this entry »

ZL2102, 2000-10-11

Implications of Transmission Thresholds of Parasites

Introduction

For any invading species it is useful to distinguish between three distinct phases of the invasion process: getting there, becoming established and spreading. However, for parasites’ establishment and maintenance thresholds are fairly clear and sometimes measurable in practice (Dobson & May, 1986).

In spite of the advances in the prevention and treatment of parasitic infections, diseases caused by parasites even today are more common than any other kind of disease, particularly in subtropical and tropical areas and countries (Rohde, 1993).

This paper will discuss transmission thresholds for invading species to new ecosystems. Read the rest of this entry »

TO3025, 2000-10-03

Field notes and Reflections of the Fieldtrip 2000

Day 1 – Sunday 24 th September

FIRST STOP

We started our journey to drive to Ingham located 111 km north of Townsville to visit the Hinchinbrook Visitor Centre , were we kindly met by Patricia and George. Hinchinbrook Visitor Centre is owned and operated by the local shire council.

We spent about 30 minutes there collecting information and brochures. The visitor centre has wide range of brochures of many operators around north Qld.

The hour drive up to Ingham meant an increase in the rainfall from 1m in Townsville to 2.2 in Ingham. This difference is enough to be suitable for rainforest and that is what Ingham is used to be before it got cleared. The clearing has been extensive the latest months. Read the rest of this entry »

Daily Reflections Sunday the 24th of September. Read the rest of this entry »

Grasshoppers

Abstract

We collected a wide range of grasshoppers of different body sizes to find the best morphological predictor of jump distance by measuring total body length, total, proximal and distal leg length and compared it to jump distance. Food consumption was measured through fecal production over seven days to find the best morphological predictor of food consumption.

We found a strong significant relationship between both proximal leg length vs. body length and jump distance vs. body length, thus the question was raised if there also was a relationship between proximal leg length and jump distance. We could not statistically find a significant relationship between proximal leg length and jump distance. Read the rest of this entry »

ZL3205, 2000-08-23

Commercial Exploitation of Wildlife Populations

Introduction

Not everyone cares about the fate of the environment or wild animals. Some people would not worry if the world’s wild animals disappeared overnight, because they are city people. Although people have always made use of wild animals, the scale of use is far greater than in primitive ages (Bolton, 1997).

Everything has been visited… everything exploited. Now pleasant estates obliterate the famous wilderness area of the past. Ploughed fields have suppressed the forests; domesticated animals have dispersed wildlife. Beaches are ploughed, mountains smoothed and swamps cleaned… We weigh heavily upon the world; its resources hardly suffice to support us. As our needs grow larger, so do our protests that already nature does not sustain us.

This could be stated by any modern conservationist or environmentalist, but it was written by a Tertulian in 200AD. Even then, there were conservation and environmental problems of similar kind facing modern technological society (Webb, 1997). Read the rest of this entry »

TO3025, 2000-08-23

Can Economic Mechanisms by Ecotourism Contribute to Sustainable Development of Natural Resources?

Introduction.

Tourism has the potential to provide funds for conservation, to set sustainable user limits, to preserve a nation’s historical and cultural heritage and to protect natural attractions. It also has the potential to destroy. If tourism is not planned and managed in the right way it can destroy vegetation, create overcrowding which leads to erosion and other impacts including pollution of rivers and beaches and litter, for example, at trekking areas (Goeldner, 2000).

This mega-industry now exceeds three trillion US dollars annual turnover and is expected to reach almost eight trillion US dollars by 2005. It is estimated that about 204 million people or almost a quarter of the working population of the world are employed directly or indirectly by the tourism industry (WTO, 1993). Ecotourism is still the most rapidly expanding sector of the tourism industry, with annual growth at 10 to 15 per cent, compared to mass tourism which is growing at 4 per cent (Mieczkowski, 1995). Read the rest of this entry »