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No quantitative information exists on the movement patterns of Brolga, Antigone rubicunda (Gruidae) although the species is considered to undertake seasonal movements between breeding and non-breeding areas, and has been also described as both non-migratory and partly migratory. Information on this species' movement behaviour is required to understand its basic ecology and inform conservation management across its range. Thus, we sought to investigate whether Brolgas in southern Australia undertake seasonal movements, to define routes travelled by individuals, and to clarify the species' migratory status. Here, for the first time for this species, we quantified the distances travelled, timing of movements between breeding and non-breeding areas, and individual-level differences in movement patterns. We deployed GPS transmitters on five adults, six juvenile and 12 unfledged 6–9 week chicks in Victoria, Australia. Individuals were monitored for 71–646 days. These Brolgas showed partial migratory behaviour, with the south-west Victorian population including resident and migrating individuals, moving 6–30 km and 96–111 km between breeding and non-breeding areas respectively and some remaining resident throughout the year. Brolgas moved 1.6 km from roost to foraging areas on average throughout the year, the majority (95%) of these movements were within 5.2 km and overall Brolgas moved shortest distances during the non-breeding season. We discuss the main potential drivers for these movement patterns. These findings may assist local conservation planning and add to our understanding of Australian waterbird movements more broadly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Considerable resources are spent on habitat restoration across the globe to counter the impacts of habitat loss and degradation on wildlife populations. But, because of time and resourcing constraints on many conservation programs, the effectiveness of these habitat restoration programs in achieving their long-term goals of improving the population viability of particular wildlife species is rarely assessed and many restoration programs cannot demonstrate their effectiveness. Without such demonstration, and in particular demonstrating the causal relationships between habitat restoration actions and demographic responses of the target species, investments in restoration to achieve population outcomes are of uncertain value. Approach: Here, we describe an approach that builds on population data collected for a threatened Australian bird – the Grey-crowned Babbler Pomatostomus temporalis - to evaluate how effectively targeted habitat restoration work improves its viability. We built upon an extensive historical survey by conducting surveys 13 years later at 117 sites stratified by presence/absence of restoration works and by detection or not of birds in the first survey. Our performance metric was the number of individuals in a social group, which is both a measure of local abundance and directly related to breeding success. We employed an occupancy model to estimate the response of Grey-crowned Babbler social group size to the effects of time, restoration works, local habitat as measured by the density of large trees, and distance to the nearest other known group of babblers. Results and implications: Babbler group size decreased over the survey period at sites without restoration works, but restoration works were effective in stemming declines where they were done. Restoration was responsible for a difference of about one bird per group of 3-5 individuals; this is an important effect on the reproductive success of the social group. Effectiveness of restoration works targeted at the Grey-crowned Babbler was only demonstrable by sampling through time and including control sites without restoration works. This work demonstrates that while calls for better monitoring of restoration are valid, scope exists to recover a signal of effectiveness from opportunistic retrospective analyses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evolutionary and genetic knowledge is increasingly being valued in conservation theory, but is rarely considered in conservation planning and policy. Here, we integrate phylogenetic diversity (PD) with spatial reserve prioritization to evaluate how well the existing reserve system in Victoria, Australia captures the evolutionary lineages of eucalypts, which dominate forest canopies across the state. Forty-three per cent of remaining native woody vegetation in Victoria is located in protected areas (mostly national parks) representing 48% of the extant PD found in the state. A modest expansion in protected areas of 5% (less than 1% of the state area) would increase protected PD by 33% over current levels. In a recent policy change, portions of the national parks were opened for development. These tourism development zones hold over half the PD found in national parks with some species and clades falling entirely outside of protected zones within the national parks. This approach of using PD in spatial prioritization could be extended to any clade or area that has spatial and phylogenetic data. Our results demonstrate the relevance of PD to regional conservation policy by highlighting that small but strategically located areas disproportionally impact the preservation of evolutionary lineages.