Invasive animals can have a wide range of impacts in natural systems. The introduced Asian house gecko Hemidactylus frenatus has invaded widely in Australia, but is largely restricted to human-altered landscapes. Hoskin (2011) has argued that H. frenatus has the potential to negatively impact Australian ecosystems by invading natural habitats. We examine this contention by reviewing an extensive standardised fauna survey dataset collected in northern and central Queensland during the key period of H. frenatus expansion from the 1990s to 2012. In light of these data we also re-examine data from other areas that suggest H. frenatus is a benign threat and is unlikely to become an environmental pest within Australia. On current evidence, we conclude that H. frenatus is unlikely to spread much beyond areas of human influence.

We isolated 18 new, polymorphic, microsatellite markers from Holothuria scabra, a commercially important species of sea cucumber found throughout the Asia-Pacific region. Next-generation sequencing was used to identify 206 unique loci for which primers were designed. Of these unique loci, we trialled 65 primer pairs in the target species, and 48 (74%) amplified a product of the expected size. Eighteen loci were found to be polymorphic and reliable, and were screened for variation in 50 individuals, from a single population from Croker Island, Northern Territory, Australia. Observed heterozygosity ranged from 0.00 to 0.96 (mean = 0.46) and the number of alleles per locus from 2 to 28 (mean = 9.61). These loci will be useful for the investigation of population structure and mating systems in H. scabra and may also be of use in other holothurian species.

Managing the availability of shelter sites is central to the conservation of vertebrate wildlife dependent on tree hollows (cavities) because hollow abundance has been reduced in many landscapes and trees do not typically acquire hollows until they are at least 100 years old. Artificial hollows (nest boxes) provide one option to offset local shortages in tree hollows. However, knowledge of preferred designs is required for this to be effective. We investigated nest box preference by the eastern pygmy-possum (Cercartetus nanus), a small marsupial recognised as threatened across part of its geographic range in eastern Australia. We installed nest boxes of four different designs in each of 30 plots where tree hollows were scarce. Designs showed no significant difference in thermal profile. We captured 223 adult and subadult pygmy-possums within 78% of the 120 boxes. Breeding females used boxes more frequently than adult males and showed a preference among the designs whereas males did not. Females favoured plywood nest boxes over a PVC design offering a horizontal cavity. Use of the PVC design increased when repositioned to present a vertical cavity. Thus, breeding females are selective of the cavities used to rear young, which may limit local population size.

Hypotheses relating to the annual frequency distribution of mammalian births are commonly tested using a goodness-of-fit procedure. Several interacting factors influence the statistical power of these tests, but no power studies have been conducted using scenarios derived from biological hypotheses. Corresponding to theories relating reproductive output to seasonal resource fluctuation, we simulated data reflecting a winter reduction in birth frequency to test the effect of four factors (sample size, maximum effect size, the temporal pattern of response and the number of categories used for analysis) on the power of three goodness-of-fit procedures – the G and Chi-square tests and Watson’s U² test. Analyses resulting in high power all had a large maximum effect size (60%) and were associated with a sample size of 200 on most occasions. The G-test was the most powerful when data were analysed using two temporal categories (winter and other) while Watson’s U² test achieved the highest power when 12 monthly categories were used. Overall, the power of most modelled scenarios was low. Consequently, we recommend using power analysis as a research planning tool, and have provided a spreadsheet enabling a priori power calculations for the three tests considered.

The neriid fly Telostylinus angusticollis is being developed as a model organism for experimental research on developmental plasticity, nongenetic inheritance, ageing and sexual selection. No genetic information is currently available for T. angusticollis, so to facilitate paternity analyses for experimentation we characterised 17 polymorphic microsatellites for this species based on MiSeq sequences. The loci had, on average, 4.1 alleles and the observed heterozygosity ranged from 0.250 to 0.889. We show that MiSeq can be used successfully to develop microsatellite markers.

Many researchers and educators need to provide Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) to their Animal Ethics Committee (AEC) for the purpose of trapping, handling, and temporarily housing small mammals. We devised general SOPs that are compatible with most existing ones for Australia and had these SOPs reviewed by a panel of Australian experts. The SOPs may be used as guidelines by researchers who need to provide such protocols to their organisation or AEC, or in teaching.

La Roche Percée, in New Caledonia, is the most important loggerhead turtle rookery outside of Australia for the eastern Pacific genetic stock. The females nesting on this beach are genetically similar to the females found at the Mon Repos rookery in Queensland, Australia. This study shows how nest temperature affects the phenotype of genetically similar populations. During the 2010–11 breeding season, mean nest temperatures were significantly higher at La Roche Percée (31.8°C) than at Mon Repos (29.5°C) and the mean for the three-days-in-a-row maximum nest temperatures was also significantly higher at La Roche Percée (34.6°C), than at Mon Repos (31.7°C). Differences were found in mean hatching success (La Roche Percée 83 ± 3%, Mon Repos 96 ± 2%) and emergence success (La Roche Percée 76 ± 3%, Mon Repos 93 ± 3%). Hatchlings from La Roche Percée also had significantly lower fitness characteristics, having smaller carapace size (La Roche Percée 1565 ± 7 mm², Mon Repos 1634 ± 5 mm²), slower self-righting times (La Roche Percée 4.7 ± 0.1 s, Mon Repos 2.7 ± 0.1 s) and slower crawling speed in terms of both absolute speed and body lengths per second (La Roche Percée 2.5 ± 0.2 cm s^–1 or 0.57 ± 0.05 body lengths s^–1, Mon Repos 4.6 ± 0.1 cm s^–1 or 1.04 ± 0.02 body lengths s^–1). Nest temperatures at La Roche Percée approached the upper limit of embryo thermal tolerance towards the end of incubation (34°C) and this condition may contribute to the lower hatching and emergence success and lower fitness characteristics of hatchlings at the La Roche Percée rookery.

Genetic parentage studies can provide detailed insights into the mating system dynamics of wild populations, including the prevalence and patterns of multiple paternity. Multiple paternity is assumed to be common among turtles, though its prevalence varies widely between species and populations. Several important groups remain to be investigated, including the family Chelidae, which dominate the freshwater turtle fauna of the Southern Hemisphere. We used seven polymorphic microsatellite markers to investigate the presence of multiple fathers within clutches from the white-throated snapping turtle (Elseya albagula), an Australian species of conservation concern. We uncovered a high incidence of multiple paternity, with 83% of clutches showing evidence of multiple fathers and up to three males contributing to single clutches. We confirm a largely promiscuous mating system for this species in the Burnett River, Queensland, although a lone incidence of single paternity indicates it is not the only strategy employed. These data provide the first example of multiple paternity in the Chelidae and extend our knowledge of the taxonomic breadth of multiple paternity in turtles of the Southern Hemisphere.

Mammals that forage for food by biopedturbation can alter the biotic and abiotic characteristics of their habitat, influencing ecosystem structure and function. Bandicoots, bilbies, bettongs and potoroos are the primary digging marsupials in Australia, although most of these species have declined throughout their range. This study used a snapshot approach to estimate the soil turnover capacity of the southern brown bandicoot (Isoodon obesulus, Shaw 1797), a persisting digging Australian marsupial, at Yalgorup National Park, Western Australia. The number of southern brown bandicoots was estimated using mark–recapture techniques. To provide an index of digging activity per animal, we quantified the number of new foraging pits and bandicoot nose pokes across 18 plots within the same area. The amount of soil displaced and physical structure of foraging pits were examined from moulds of 47 fresh foraging pits. We estimated that an individual southern brown bandicoot could create ∼45 foraging pits per day, displacing ∼10.74 kg of soil, which extrapolates to ∼3.9 tonnes of soil each year. The digging activities of the southern brown bandicoots are likely to be a critical component of soil ecosystem processes.