Understanding how fire influences animal behaviour, such as movement and resource selection, is important for ecosystem management because it can improve our capacity to predict how species will respond. We assessed microhabitat selection by two small mammals, the bush rat (Rattus fuscipes) and agile antechinus (Antechinus agilis), in response to a low intensity prescribed fire. We used spool and line tracking and touch pole vegetation surveys to quantify microhabitat selection along 21 trails for bush rats and 22 for antechinuses before and after fire. In unburnt areas, bush rats showed positive selection for sedges, logs, and habitat complexity, with selection further increasing in burnt areas for sedges, ferns, shrubs, habitat complexity and unburnt patches. Agile antechinuses showed no significant microhabitat selection in unburnt or burnt areas and no change in response to fire. Their lack of response to ground fires may be due, partially, to their scansorial behaviour and use of tree hollows as refuge sites. Strong selection by bush rats for small unburnt patches suggests that even low intensity, patchy fires such as planned burns can impact bush rats and that high burn patchiness may help bush rats persist in recently burnt areas. Future fire planning should consider both behavioural and population responses of animals to fire.

Deriving estimates of demographic parameters and the processes driving them is crucial for identifying wildlife management options. The short-beaked echidna (Tachyglossus aculeatus) is the most widely distributed native Australian mammal, yet little is known of its population dynamics due to its cryptic nature. Consequently, assessment of the impacts of climate and threats on echidna populations has been difficult. We analyse 19 years (1996–2014) of mark–recapture data to estimate survival and reproductive rates of a Tasmanian population of short-beaked echidna, and to evaluate the influence of regional weather patterns on its demographics. Population size showed high year-to-year variation, ranging from 1 to 40 echidnas km² across the study area. Known-fate modelling of radio-tracked individuals suggested that climatic conditions impacted survival; average longevity was estimated at 16.7 years but only 4.8 years when the total spring/summer rainfall was below 125 mm, and 6.25 in years when temperatures more frequently exceeded 32°C. Recruitment, estimated from Pradel analyses, was low in the population (β = 0.08) and not significantly affected by climate. These results are the first quantitative estimates of climate effects, survival, and recruitment for this species, and suggest that climate-enhanced drying and temperature increase would pose a threat to echidna populations in Tasmania.

Feral populations of Chelodina longicollis (Shaw, 1794) have established in Tasmania but many aspects of their biology in the wild remain unknown. A number of C. longicollis specimens were available for examination for parasites. Two species of digenean parasites were found in three of the 11 turtles examined: a Choanocotyle sp. and Thrinascotrema brisbanica Jue Sue & Platt, 1999. This is the first report of parasites from feral turtles in Tasmania. Due to the lack of native populations of freshwater turtles in Tasmania, these parasites must also have been introduced to Tasmania and have established life cycles in the new environments. The implications of such introductions, without suitable definitive hosts available to assist in establishing parasite infections, is discussed. An updated list of digenean parasites reported from Australian freshwater turtles is presented.

Communication signals underpin the social lives of animals, from species recognition to mate selection and territory defense. Animal signals are diverse in structure between and within species, with the diversity reflecting interacting factors of shared evolutionary history, constraints imposed on senders and receivers and the ecological context in which signalling takes place. The dragon lizards of Australia (family Agamidae) are known for their movement-based visual displays and are useful models for how ecology influences behaviour. However, we know little about the communication strategies of many species. Our aim here was to provide new knowledge on some of these species, focusing on the north-west of Western Australia. We filmed within-species pairwise interactions of Diporiphora superba, D. bennetti, D. sobria and Ctenophorus isolepis isolepis. We describe and quantify for the first time push-up displays by D. superba and C. isolepis isolepis and tail waving displays of D. bennetti. Only D. sobria did not generate movement-based visual signals. We have confirmed that more species engage in such behaviour than previously reported, but further work is required to document the full repertoire of these species. The implications of our work are discussed in the context of signal structure, function and environmental context.