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Goblin Flea
''Stephanocircus domrowi'', the goblin flea, is a critically endangered insect endemic to the Australian state of Victoria. It is host specific, and lives only with the co-endangered Leadbeater's possum. Although it has been suggested as a good candidate species for conservation, there is presently no work directed towards its conservation. The key threat factor driving the decline of the Leadbeater's possum, and by extension the co-endangered goblin flea, is logging in the mountain ash forests of the Victorian central highlands. To avoid extinction, a number of conservation steps will need to be taken including amalgamating the goblin flea into the captive breeding program for its host at Healesville Sanctuary Healesville Sanctuary, formally known as the Sir Colin MacKenzie Sanctuary, is a zoo specialising in native Australian animals. It is located at Healesville in rural Victoria, Australia, and has a history of breeding native animals. It is one ....Kwak, M.L., 2018. Aus ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Victoria (Australia)
Victoria is a state in southeastern Australia. It is the second-smallest state with a land area of , the second most populated state (after New South Wales) with a population of over 6.5 million, and the most densely populated state in Australia (28 per km2). Victoria is bordered by New South Wales to the north and South Australia to the west, and is bounded by the Bass Strait to the south (with the exception of a small land border with Tasmania located along Boundary Islet), the Great Australian Bight portion of the Southern Ocean to the southwest, and the Tasman Sea (a marginal sea of the South Pacific Ocean) to the southeast. The state encompasses a range of climates and geographical features from its temperate coastal and central regions to the Victorian Alps in the northeast and the semi-arid north-west. The majority of the Victorian population is concentrated in the central-south area surrounding Port Phillip Bay, and in particular within the metropolit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Leadbeater's Possum
Leadbeater's possum (''Gymnobelideus leadbeateri'') is a critically endangered possum largely restricted to small pockets of alpine ash, mountain ash, and snow gum forests in the Central Highlands of Victoria, Australia, north-east of Melbourne. It is primitive, relict, and non-gliding, and, as the only species in the petaurid genus ''Gymnobelideus'', represents an ancestral form. Formerly, Leadbeater's possums were moderately common within the very small areas they inhabited; their requirement for year-round food supplies and tree-holes to take refuge in during the day restricts them to mixed-age wet sclerophyll forest with a dense mid-story of ''Acacia''. The species was named in 1867 after John Leadbeater, the then taxidermist at the Museum Victoria. They also go by the common name of fairy possum. On 2 March 1971, the State of Victoria made the Leadbeater's possum its faunal emblem. History Leadbeater's possum is thought to have evolved about 20 million years ago. It ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Conservation Biology Of Parasites
A large proportion of living species on Earth live a parasitic way of life. Parasites have traditionally been seen as targets of eradication efforts, and they have often been overlooked in conservation efforts. In the case of parasites living in the wild – and thus harmless to humans and domesticated animals – this view is changing. Endangered parasite species A note published in 1990 pointed out that the captive breeding and reintroduction program to save the black-footed ferret would cause the loss of its specific parasites and demanded "equal rights for parasites". A paper in 1992 warned that not only the loss of certain host species from the wild, but host population bottlenecks or the fragmentation of host populations would predictably lead to the extinction of host-specific parasites. The paper also noted that parasites exert selective pressures upon their host populations that increase host genetic diversity. At first, this view met with open scepticism. However, i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Healesville Sanctuary
Healesville Sanctuary, formally known as the Sir Colin MacKenzie Sanctuary, is a zoo specialising in native Australian animals. It is located at Healesville in rural Victoria, Australia, and has a history of breeding native animals. It is one of only two places to have successfully bred a platypus, the other being Sydney's Taronga Zoo. It also assists with a breeding population of the endangered helmeted honeyeater. The zoo is set in a natural bushland environment where paths wind through different habitat areas showcasing wallabies, wombats, dingoes, kangaroos, and over 200 native bird varieties. Guided tours, bird shows and information areas are available to visitors. History Dr Colin MacKenzie (knighted in 1929) set up the Institute of Anatomical Research in 1920 on of land which had formerly been part of the Aboriginal reserve known as Coranderrk. The Reserve passed to the Healesville Council in 1927 and became the ''Sir Colin MacKenzie Sanctuary'' in 1934. The first ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Conservation-induced Extinction
Efforts to save endangered species may, paradoxically, lead to conservation-induced extinction of other species. This mostly threatens the parasite and pathogen species that are highly host-specific to critically endangered hosts. When the last individuals of a host species are captured for the purpose of captive breeding and reintroduction programs, they typically undergo anti-parasitic treatments to increase survival and reproductive success. This practice may unintentionally result in the extinction of the species antagonistic to the target species, such as certain parasites. It has been proposed that the parasites should be reintroduced to the endangered population. A few cases of conservation-induced extinction have occurred in parasitic lice. Examples * Parasite: '' Colpocephalum californici'' – host: California condorDunn RR 2009. Coextinction: anecdotes, models, and speculation. In Holocene Extinctions (ed. S.T. Turvey), pp. 167–180. Oxford University Press, Oxford, U ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
