Scanlon, A., Roetman, P., Stead, M., Gray, S., Lethbridge, M. (2017) Little Corellas: social and ecological research for management in South Australia. Discovery Circle Initiative, University of South Australia, Adelaide. Acknowledgements The Little Corellas project has been run in South Australia by the Discovery Circle (www.discoverycircle.org.au), a citizen science initiative at the University of South Australia. We thank all the contributors to this project, in particular the members of the South Australian community who contributed time completing surveys, participating in workshops, and showing us around their towns during 2015 and 2016. The Little Corellas project was approved by the University of South Australia’s Human Research Ethics Committee (34915) and Animal Ethics Committee (U22-15). The project was conducted with the support of: University of South Australia Department of Environment, Water and Natural Resources Local Government Association of South Australia As well as six local government areas: Alexandrina Council City of Marion City of Salisbury District Council of Mount Barker The Flinders Ranges Council Town of Gawler Project team Discovery Circle, University of South Australia: Dr Annette Scanlon is an environmental scientist and works as a research assistant at the Discovery Circle at the University of South Australia. For this project, she was particularly involved in developing and conducting the social survey, Mental-Modeler workshops, field data collection, data analysis and contributed to project design. Annette also led the writing of this report. Dr Philip Roetman is the research leader of the Discovery Circle initiative; he is particularly interested in citizen science – actively involving the wider community in research projects. Philip was the overall project leader for the Little Corellas project and was particularly involved in developing the research design of the project as well as developing and conducting the social survey, Mental-Modeler workshops and data analysis, and he also contributed to the writing of this report. Michael Stead is an applied ecologist and professional scientist with experience and expertise relating to: ecological and mathematical modelling; pest and overabundant species management; survey and monitoring design; landscape ecology and restoration; aerial surveys. He was employed at the Discovery Circle to contribute to the Little Corellas project. Michael undertook the habitat modelling and wrote the habitat modelling section of this report. Michigan State University and Mental Modeler: Dr Steven Gray is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Community Sustainability at Michigan State University and lead developer on the Mental Modeler software. Steven provided research planning support for designing the modelling workshops, including analysis of the models and scenario building. Flinders University: Dr Mark Lethbridge has research interests in vegetation condition monitoring using field and remote sensing, optimization algorithms, decision support tools in production and natural resource management and ecological, movement and spatial modelling. Mark oversaw the habitat modelling and contributed to project design. Table of Contents List of Tables ........................................................................................................................................ i List of Figures ....................................................................................................................................... i List of Photos ....................................................................................................................................... ii List of Photo panels ............................................................................................................................. ii Key results and recommendations ................................................................................................................... 1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................................ 1 What’s in this report ........................................................................................................................... 2 Key results ........................................................................................................................................... 3 1. Social factors ......................................................................................................................................... 3 2. Environmental factors ........................................................................................................................... 4 Recommendations .............................................................................................................................. 5 Long-term actions and considerations ........................................................................................................... 5 Medium-term actions and considerations ..................................................................................................... 7 Short-term actions and considerations .......................................................................................................... 8 Responsibility for management actions ......................................................................................................... 8 Glossary of Terms (relative to little corellas) .................................................................................................. 11 Acronyms .......................................................................................................................................... 13 Introduction ................................................................................................................................................ 14 Scope and purpose of the report ...................................................................................................... 14 Legislation, Permits and codes ......................................................................................................... 15 Background to little corella problem sites in South Australia .......................................................... 16 A mixed-methods approach to investigate a contentious environmental issue .............................. 17 Human-wildlife conflict ..................................................................................................................... 17 Human-bird conflict .......................................................................................................................... 18 Biology and ecology of little corellas ................................................................................................ 20 Description ................................................................................................................................................... 20 Distribution .................................................................................................................................................. 20 Reproduction ................................................................................................................................................ 20 Food, water and roosting resources............................................................................................................. 21 History of little corella problems .................................................................................................................. 21 Our mixed-methods approach ....................................................................................................................... 22 Phase 1: Online survey ................................................................................................................................. 22 Phase 2: Community workshops – creating interactive “Mental Models” ................................................... 22 Phase 3: Field data collection at little corella sites ...................................................................................... 22 Phase 4: Little corella habitat suitability models ......................................................................................... 24 Phase 5: Data synthesis - creating the master model .................................................................................. 24 Phase 6: Sharing results ............................................................................................................................... 25 Results ................................................................................................................................................ 26 The Little Corella Survey ................................................................................................................... 26 Broad community engagement ................................................................................................................... 26 Participant opinions of and experiences with little corellas ......................................................................... 26 What do you LIKE about little corellas? ....................................................................................................... 28 What do you NOT like about little corellas? ...............................................................................................