Hi John,
I like the idea of having an article about the Brown Mountain crayfish
before it's even formally described :)
The transcript of the Environment East Gippsland v VicForests court
case is online, and it includes testimony and a survey/report from Rob
McCormack (Day 8), who's one of the discoverers of the crayfish.
Originally it was thought to be an Orbost spiny crayfish, but
VicForests disagreed, saying you couldn't tell from the photo and it
was probably a more common species. So the environmentalists had
another look and it turned out to be an undiscovered species. The
outcome of the case is that VicForests has been found to be failing to
do animal surveys before logging (largely they have done none at all),
and must now show that they are doing so, as required by our laws.
http://www.eastgippsland.net.au/?q=campaigns/brown_mountain/court_documents
McCormack talked about the process of having it described too, so
that's in the transcript if you'd like a read. (I should look over it
again). No idea which scientific journal it will be published in or
how it will be licensed.
And I believe this page shows a photo of the crayfish, though it's
labeled Endangered Orbost Spiny Cray:
http://www.greenlivingpedia.org/Brown_Mountain_old_growth_forest
Peter.
On Mon, Sep 20, 2010 at 6:42 PM, John Vandenberg jay...@gmail.com wrote:
Thanks for raising some more possibilities Peter.
[[VicForests]] doesn't exist, and is only mentioned four times on
English Wikipedia. The court case also has enough coverage in RS to
be notable in its own right; it does sound like a landmark decision.
http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-national/environmentalists-hail-court-win-20100811-11zgj.html
http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/prosecution-withdrawn-20100812-121iz.html
Do we know where the description of the Brown Mountain crayfish is
going to be published? A google search for that name turns up only
one page: [[User:Pengo/missing]]! ;-)
Can we talk to the discoverer? It would be lovely if it was published
in a CC journal, like [[w:ZooKeys]], which has a partnership with EOL
and Wikispecies, so the images can be used on Wikipedia immediately.
Otherwise we could ask the discoverer to consider releasing some
images under a CC license.
I'm footloose in Brisbane this week, with two nephews to entertain.
If anyone wants some photos of animals in a zoo somewhere in SE Qld,
let me know and I should be able to grab them and upload them in
October.
btw, we don't have a Wikipedia nav template for Zoos; the closest is
[[List_of_zoos#Australia]]. That is another task for October ;-)
--
John Vandenberg
On 9/20/10, Peter Halasz qub...@gmail.com wrote:
Hi,
A recent supreme court case was fought around a number of endangered
species in Victoria. I don't know how many of them have specimens in
zoos, but I was hoping to find some time to try to find out and get
some shots and video. The two main charismatic ones are:
- the spot-tailed quoll (aka tiger quoll)
- the long-footed potoroo
Other important species that played roles in the recent court case
(Environment East Gippsland v VicForests) are: giant burrowing frog,
large brown tree frog (Litoria littlejohni), Sooty Owl, Powerful Owl,
Greater Glider, Square-tailed kite, Orbost spiny crayfish, Brown
Mountain crayfish (newly discovered, and still in the process of being
described...this last one definitely won't be at zoos),
Other topics of interest include: hollow bearing trees, as many of our
endangered species rely on tree hollows either for shelter or for prey
(or both). I've started [[tree hollow]], but it could use a boost; and
Australia's logging industry which is both a major threat to
endangered species and also may play a role in conservation as they
move to plantation-based production: e.g. the major deal in Tasmania
happening right now, which may see the end of native forest logging in
Tasmania (also home to Tiger Quolls), and there's some talk of a
similar deal in Victoria.
The tiger quoll in particular could use some new images, and can
probably be found at zoos? It's mainland Australia's largest carnivore
marsupial and is the mainland population is particularly endangered.
Chris Belcher has a good write up about them and their current status here:
http://eastgippsland.net.au/files/Spot-tailed_quoll_Belcher_December_2009.pdf
I think we should be capable of taking some points out of the document
for Wikipedia and getting some new shots of quolls, and improving some
of the other articles. If anyone wants to organise a trip to any of
Melbourne's zoos, I'm in.
Also, despite being the photographer for the Leadbeater's Possum
single pic on Wikipedia, I'd really love to see it replaced with a
photo of one which wasn't stuffed. Leadbeater's Possum is Victoria's
faunal emblem (and is highly endangered).
Peter Halasz
User:Pengo
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