Rick Shine - Evolutionary Biology

Natural selection: countering the cane toad threat

The invasion of cane toads across tropical Australia has caused massive declines in some native species ... but not all of them. Mysteriously, some species appear to be unaffected, perhaps because they have been able to evolve responses to counter the threat. It is vitally important to understand this diversity, in order to predict which native species will be most vulnerable to cane toads and how the impact can be limited.

Professor Shine’s research on invasive cane toads has provided new ecologically informed approaches to toad control, based on chemical communication systems and host-parasite biology. This work, using both lab and field methods, provides a simple way to predict a species’ vulnerability. Conservation efforts can therefore focus, in the most cost-effective way, on the species at greatest risk.

Extinction rates for vertebrate species are higher in southern Australia than almost anywhere else in the world. To save endangered taxa, researchers need to understand the causal links between habitat modification and population viability, then develop solutions to those problems. Close collaboration with wildlife management authorities and other stakeholders is vital.

Shine’s research on endangered species of reptiles not only identifies threatening processes such as habitat shifts – wrought by direct human disturbance, altered fire regimes, and climate change – but also explores the feasibility of landscape-scale habitat restoration.

The highly endangered broad-headed snake, restricted to rocky outcrop habitats in southeast NSW, is the ideal flagship species for such research. Shine has established an ambitious collaboration with wildlife managers to help reverse the population decline. The research aims to identify and reverse the habitat changes that threaten this species along with the diverse faunal assemblage with which it is associated.