Bat acoustic surveys are a key tool for research and surveying of echolocating bats in Australia, but inconsistent reporting practices hinder their effectiveness. This review evaluates the reporting practices of Australian bat acoustic studies and identifies gaps in call identification and survey methodology. Standardising these practices will enhance data quality and improve bat conservation efforts across the country. Photograph by Holly Winkle.

Lightweight bite-resistant materials offer potential to reduce injuries and blood loss from shark bites, while maintaining flexibility for the user. This study aimed to assess effectiveness of four different bite-resistant fabrics at reducing damage resulting from bites from white and tiger sharks, two species responsible for the most fatalities in Australia. We highlight the ability of bite-resistant material to potentially reduce injuries, haemorrhaging and tissue loss from shark bites. There were no significant differences in substantial and critical damage between bite-resistant materials. Photograph supplied by Flinders University.

This article belongs to the collection: White Sharks Global proceedings and recent advances in white shark ecology and conservation.

The numbers of North Flinders Ranges thick-billed grasswren have declined markedly in some parts of its range in recent years. We used models to create maps of grasswren habitat suitability for two periods (1994–2011 and 2012–2023) which show a 25% reduction in predicted suitable habitat. This method has furthered understanding of factors that influence grasswren habitat suitability and can benefit conservation management efforts. Photograph by Sam Gordon.

Human-altered landscapes are exposing wild lowland tapirs to disease threats. This study identified key infectious agents and health indicators in tapirs across pristine and disturbed habitats in Brazil, showing that location strongly influences disease risk. These findings support targeted health monitoring and management strategies to safeguard tapir populations amid growing environmental change. Photograph by Renata Carolina Fernandes-Santos.

Wildlife monitoring must be cost-efficient, considering limited conservation budgets, and part of efficient monitoring is the evaluation of the different methods available. We evaluated two potential methods (spotlighting and thermal imaging) and found that there was a clear effect of method on detectability for several arboreal marsupial species in the Strathbogie region in north-eastern Victoria, Australia. There remains future work to better understand how variation in the abundance of each species influences species-level detectability in the region. Photograph by Nicholas Tan.