SPRING/SUMMER2018 2013 ISSUE No.209 223 Read about the next step on page 10 Pure Sands donation Tammy & Tony, business owners of Pure Sands, visited our office on 27 April to present Wildlife Queensland with a cheque for $1,000. Our president Peter Ogilvie was on hand to accept the cheque and thank them What's inside for their generous donation. Pure Sands makes an outstanding Pure Sands donation ......................1 collection of sterling silver and glass rings and Kroombit tinkerfrog breeding ..........1 pendants featuring sand from Sunshine Coast President’s Report ..........................3 beaches (collected with permission). They Projects Report ...............................4 hand craft their jewellery in Noosa Heads. Goannas - our living dragons ..........6 As Pure Sands shares our passion for raising awareness of the devastation micro Around the Tracks...........................8 plastics cause to our beaches and marine life, Wildlife Land Fund news ..............10 they kindly donate $1 to Wildlife Queensland WPSQ in action ............................11 for every ring sold! See our website for more Tony, Tammy and Peter with the large cheque information. Endangered Kroombit tinkerfrog Taudactylus pleione captive breeding In a 2011 edition of this newsletter Harry Hines introduced readers to the critically endangered Kroombit tinkerfrog. Harry is still working on bringing this frog back from the brink has provided the following report on a captive breeding project. The Department of Environment and Science’s Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service (QPWS) and Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary (CWS) have commenced a collaborative project to undertake captive breeding of the critically endangered Kroombit tinkerfrog Taudactylus pleione. This comes on the back of a successful captive breeding trial using the closely related Eungella tinkerfrog T. liemi, by Professor Jean-Marc Hero (formerly of Griffith University), Dr Ed Meyer (consultant Suite 1, Level 1, 30 Gladstone Road, ecologist) and Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary. Highgate Hill QLD 4101 Australia In early February 2018, Ed Meyer and Harry Hines, Senior Phone +61 7 3844 0129 Conservation Officer QPWS, undertook a field trip to Kroombit The partially gravid female Kroombit Email [email protected] Tops National Park to collect a small number of tinkerfrogs tinkerfog at Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary, www.wildlife.org.au for captive breeding. Efforts were focussed on finding an Apr 2018. Photo: Michael Vella. ISSN 1835-7019 (print) ...continued page 2 ISSN 1835-7105 (digital) ...continued from page 1 adult female but they were unable to locate one (due in part to the very wet, cold and windy conditions prevailing at this time). They did however locate and collect an indeterminate, possibly sub-adult female and an adult male on this trip. A subsequent collecting trip in March 2018, with Saskia Lafebre and Kimberly Revelly from Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary (CWS), Harry Hines of QPWS and Ben Revelly (a QPWS volunteer), resulted in the collection of a second indeterminate individual and a partially gravid adult female. Animals collected from the wild were carefully transported back to a dedicated husbandry facility at Currumbin within 48 hours of capture. They have all settled in to their new home and are eating well. It is hoped that the adult female will develop a full complement of eggs over the coming months with a view to breeding in spring. A male Kroombit tinkerfrog, in the wild, Kroombit Tops National Park, Feb 2018. Photo: Ed Meyer Amphibian chytridiomycosis, a fungal treatment and in subsequent weeks, has project and other conservation work at disease responsible for declines and shown that all four animals collected from Kroombit Tops (in particular feral animal disappearances of frogs across the globe, the wild are now chytrid free. control) is critical to the continued survival is a major threat to the tinkerfrog species Depending on the sex of the sub-adults of the Kroombit tinkerfrog. Other important both in the wild and in captivity. The collected, additional animals may be contributors to this project include present preceding work with the captive population collected from the wild this spring. The and former staff of CWS, including Michael of Eungella tinkerfrogs at CWS, developed Kroombit tinkerfrog husbandry team will Vella, Saskia Lafebre, Natalie Hill and regularly assess the progress of captive Matt Hingley. Department of Environment frogs and evaluate the need for additional and Science staff (past and present) and animals as required. In the longer term, it is numerous volunteers have also contributed hope to release captive bred animals back over many years to our understanding of the to the wild. distribution and abundance of the Kroombit tinkerfrog, its status, and the need for Fitzroy Basin Association (FBA) helped captive breeding. Thanks are also owed to finance this important project and have the local QPWS staff for use of the barracks supported survey and monitoring of (warm, dry and mostly leech free!) and their threatened frogs at Kroombit Tops over ongoing efforts in controlling feral animals many years. Their ongoing support of this at Kroombit. Harry Hines gently coaxes a Kroombit tinkerfrog from its antifungal bath into sterile housing for transportation to Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary, Feb 2018. Photo: Ed Meyer safe treatment protocols to rid adult and subadult tinkefrogs of amphibian chytrid fungus. In keeping with these protocols, treatment of Kroombit tinkerfrogs for chytrid commenced in the field, 12 hours after capture. Pre-treatment chytrid infection status was assessed by carefully swabbing the flanks and ventral surfaces of the frogs and subsequent DNA analyses. After swabbing, each frog was treated with a 10 minute bath in an antifungal solution. This same treatment was repeated every 24 hours for 10 days after capture. Analysis of skin swabs of the frogs immediately post- The captive breeding facility at Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary, Apr 2018. Photo: Saskia Lafebre 2 www.wildlife.org.au/wqnews/223 2018 Issue 223 President’s Report It will be of little interest to most Each conservation group had an eight minute window to raise matters readers to know that I spent a large relating to one key topic. I highlighted our plastics campaign, and part of May in Japan. What may congratulated the government on the action it has taken to ban single use be of interest is that I visited the plastic bags and to introduce a cash-for-containers scheme (actions that beautiful Yakushima World Heritage were also supported by the Opposition). The Minister expressed her strong Area. Located on Yakushima Island support for action on plastics, highlighting the damage certain plastics are (a circular island with a diameter of having on our native wildlife. roughly 23 km located 60 km south of I stated our desire for clear and unambiguous legislation to ban the Kyushu Island), the property covers some 40 percent of the volcanic island. deliberate mass release of helium balloons, and that we also supported It contains mountains up to 2000 metres elevation and temperate rainforest the preparation of a Plastic Pollution Reduction Strategy, expressing our with Japanese cedar trees (Cryptomeria japonica), many of which are hope that a public discussion paper would be released later this year. We thousands of years old. My previous visit was in 2001 when I was a guest suggested that the Minister might also consider raising with her State and of the Japanese Government as a lead-up to a World Heritage Conference Federal counterparts at the end of June Meeting of Environment Ministers in 2003 which was held at the only other natural (as opposed to cultural) the possibility of phasing out polystyrene packaging in Australia. In addition, World Heritage site in Japan – Shirakami Sanchi. I stated our strong support for a significant portion of the income from the I mention this to reinforce the importance of World Heritage sites in the Waste Levy being allocated to nature conservation matters, particularly protection of unique segments of the natural environment. This recognition, protected area acquisition and management. The Minister advised that a which is difficult to achieve, adds a global dimension to the area as well as percentage of the levy income would be devoted to environmental matters, an invaluable additional level of protection beyond that which is already but exactly what that would encompass has yet to be determined. afforded under national and state laws. Queensland has all or part of five I will let you know more about the above issues as some fragments of World Heritage areas (WHAs) within its borders: (i) Fraser Island WHA, (ii) clarity emerge. Riversleigh section of Australian Fossil Mammal Sites WHA, (iii) Great Barrier Reef WHA (in part), (iv) Gondwana Rainforests of Australia WHA (in part), Best wishes, and (v) Wet Tropics of Queensland WHA. Wildlife Queensland has representatives on two World Heritage advisory committees. Des Boyland is appointed to the Fraser Island WH Scientific Advisory Committee, and I have been appointed to the Gondwana Rainforest WH Community Advisory Committee. The latter committee met on 21-22 June and is presently considering, amongst other matters, the implications of a development application inside Main Range National Peter Ogilvie Park which lies within the WHA. The matter is still being assessed by the President Commonwealth Government under the World Heritage provisions of the Wildlife Preservation