31 – The national malleefowl monitoring effort^395including local governments, non-government organisations, mining companies
and Indigenous Ranger groups. The number and distribution of AM sites, and the
number of stakeholders, makes it one of the largest attempts at AM in Australia,
and one of the few examples of active AM.
The malleefowl AM experiment is an ambitious and rare example of active
AM, but does not remove the need to learn passively about threats and
management from the larger network of malleefowl monitoring sites. The f low of
monitoring data from over 150 sites across Australia provides us with a valuable
opportunity to learn passively about the responses of malleefowl to a wide array of
environmental factors and management interventions and to be open to ecological
surprise (Lindenmayer et al. 2010), and to track any potential responses of the
species to climate change. These two approaches – the narrow experimental
approach exemplified by the AM predator baiting experiment, and the broad and
passive approach involving the analysis of all the monitoring data – are compatible
and complementary, and together will lead to a better understanding of malleefowl
ecology and appropriate management. They will also have broader application by
providing valuable information about how other species, such as kangaroos, goats
and cats, respond to predator baiting.
Lessons learned
● (^) Monitoring the number of active mounds at monitoring sites does not require
specialist skills and/or experience, which facilitates volunteer participation.
● (^) Monitoring is a necessary component of AM. The NMRT has contributed to
the success of the malleefowl monitoring program by overseeing the
monitoring design, recruiting and maintaining the interest of citizen scientists,
and ensuring consistent data collection.
● (^) The NMMD has provided a centralised data repository that has facilitated
consistent data collection and regular reporting.
● (^) AM requires a carefully thought out monitoring design to ensure there is
sufficient power to detect effects due to management and resolve uncertainty.
Power analysis is a useful tool for managing expectations about how long an
AM experiment might take to learn.
● (^) Champions have been crucial to the success of the monitoring and AM
programs; that is, a core set of leaders who have supported the project, guided
others, and lobbied for widespread participation.
Acknowledgements
This work would not have been possible without the help of the National
Malleefowl Recovery Team, the Victorian Malleefowl Recovery Group, and the
hundreds of citizen scientists across Australia who have volunteered their time