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HP Waudby

@hpwaudby.bsky.social
1.3K followers 297 following 29 posts

Dr Helen P Waudby. Conservation biologist working with threatened species in southern NSW. Northern Territorian. Natural history; fieldwork; wildlife; wildflower photography.

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Reposted by HP Waudby
Dominique Berteaux @dominiqueberteaux.bsky.social · 29/11/2025
Submitted a paper this week to Arctic Science proposing a new way to index collared lemming abundance in the polar desert. The method uses the urine marks lemmings naturally leave on plastic cards placed in their habitat for 48 hours. I call it the pee-card method! 🧪🌿🌎🦊 #wildlife #Arctic #North
Collared lemming at Alert, Nunavut. Picture by Audrey Le Pogam.
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HP Waudby @hpwaudby.bsky.social · 04/08/2025
Nice chorus of Endangered Sloane’s froglets (and a few other species) at CSU’s David Mitchell wetlands yesterday afternoon. The Thurgoona campus is a hotspot for them #wildoz #threatenedspecies #wetlands @gulbali-institute.bsky.social
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HP Waudby @hpwaudby.bsky.social · 31/07/2025
www.abc.net.au/news/2025-07...
abc.net.au
Gardeners unite to save 'spectacular' grevillea in Snowy Mountains
There are fewer than 1,000 in the wild, but it is hoped a group of green thumbs can help save the Tumut grevillea from extinction.
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CSIRO Publishing @csiropublishing.bsky.social · 28/07/2025
In2016, conservation biologist @jodirowley.bsky.social embarked on a mission into some of the most rugged terrain in Australia, the Northern Tablelands of NSW, to find a tiny rare frog, which hadn’t been seen in over 40 years. But what she found was unexpected: cosmosmagazine.com/magazine/fin...
An aerial view of Ebor Falls in Guy Fawkes River National Park, New South Wales. A caption reads: "Conservation biologist Jodi Rowley embarked on a mission into some of the most rugged terrain in Australia, the Northern Tablelands of New South Wales, to find a tiny rare frog, which hadn’t been seen in over 40 years. But what she found was unexpected." The photo is credited as taken by tracielouise, Getty Images Signature.
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CSIRO Publishing @csiropublishing.bsky.social · 28/07/2025
Jodi's adventure of rediscovery is one of many precarious, hilarious and thought-provoking stories from the front line of ecology fieldwork included in our book, Wild Science, edited by @hpwaudby.bsky.social. Find it in bookshops or online: www.publish.csiro.au/book/8128/
The cover of the book Wild Science, featuring a silhouette of a grazing reindeer on a mountain slope, over a background photograph of Ebor Falls in Guy Fawkes River National Park, New South Wale, taken by tracielouise, Getty Images Signature.
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HP Waudby @hpwaudby.bsky.social · 16/07/2025
Amazing image of one of Australia’s unique and Critically Endangered bird species. So good to see them breeding! This kind of sighting would be a once in a lifetime experience for many people. David has been working on the species for over 20 years now.
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HP Waudby @hpwaudby.bsky.social · 16/07/2025
Ever had that feeling of being watched..? Reminded when I looked up from frog surveys to find I was the one being surveyed. By a southern bell frog. Creep.
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HP Waudby @hpwaudby.bsky.social · 31/05/2025
Wonderful discovery by one of my colleagues. Really demonstrates the critical importance of repeated surveys in threatened species conservation and planning.
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HP Waudby @hpwaudby.bsky.social · 23/03/2025
Massive rainbow after a storm at Nanya Station in south west NSW. Couldn’t help but smile.
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HP Waudby @hpwaudby.bsky.social · 23/03/2025
Some solid rainfall in NSW’s south west mallee last week. Enough to encourage burrowing frogs to make their way to the surface. Lots of these little Sudell’s frogs out looking for a mate #wildoz #frogs #desertrain #Neobatrachus
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Professor Euan Ritchie FAMS @euanritchie.bsky.social · 17/03/2025
Hot off the press! One of former PhD student and now Dr Ange Pestell's thesis chapters esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/... Continued cross-disciplinary collaboration is needed to ensure large environmental datasets are available to train & test machine learning algorithms.
esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Smart camera traps and computer vision improve detections of small fauna
Limited data on species' distributions are common for small animals, impeding conservation and management. Small animals, especially ectothermic taxa, are often difficult to detect, and therefore req....
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The Australia Institute @australiainstitute.org.au · 27/02/2025
End salmon farming in Macquarie Harbour now. As hundreds of thousands of salmon are dying, the PM is throwing public money at the polluting, tax-avoiding foreign corporations, putting them over Australia's people and wildlife. It has to stop. Add your name: theaus.in/save_the_skate
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HP Waudby @hpwaudby.bsky.social · 26/02/2025
It’s been a quiet week of fauna monitoring in far south west NSW. This young knob-tailed gecko (Nephrurus levis) was a highlight. Adults can get up to ~10 cm. This one was around 5. Those eyes… #WildOz
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HP Waudby @hpwaudby.bsky.social · 26/02/2025
Pie-dish beetles (Helea spp.) are so cool. They use their exaggerated flanges a bit like a shield to fend off predators. We see lots of them in the mallee #Coleoptera #WildOz
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HP Waudby @hpwaudby.bsky.social · 25/02/2025
The mallee of south west NSW is a magic place at twilight. Heat still radiating off the sand. Birds winding down for the day.
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HP Waudby @hpwaudby.bsky.social · 29/12/2024
Common brown butterfly (Heteronympha merope) on this morning’s walk. Fluttering its last as it lay on the path. Typically lots around Albury at this time of year.
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Dr Vanessa Pirotta @drvanessapirotta.bsky.social · 18/12/2024
Get ready for goosebumps, this is my FAVOURITE moment from the 2024 @marinemammalogy.bsky.social conference held in Perth, Western Australia. #whale
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Ricki Coughlan @rickicoughlan.bsky.social · 16/12/2024
Christmas Bells right on cue in Royal National Park . . .
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Kathryn Selmes @kathrynselmes.bsky.social · 15/12/2024
This beautiful, tiny cuckoo wasp (~8mm) has been loitering around my insect hotel, waiting for a suitable wasp to lay an egg. Once laid, she will then lay hers, which will hatch first and eat all the food left for the other wasp. #wasps #insects #nature #backyardbiodiversity #kleptoparasitism
A tiny shiny emerald green wasp waits by a hole on an insect hotel for a wasp to lay an egg. She will then lay hers, which will eat all the food left for the other one.
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Tim Curran @timcurran.bsky.social · 14/12/2024
And this cracker by Helen Waudby @euanritchie.bsky.social @manusaunders.bsky.social et al.
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HP Waudby @hpwaudby.bsky.social · 13/12/2024
Tiny wildflowers still waving their heads above the drying grasslands of the NSW Riverina. Bindweed, mallee fringe-lily & yellow rush lilies.
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HP Waudby @hpwaudby.bsky.social · 11/12/2024
www.publish.csiro.au/WR/WR24065?j...
publish.csiro.au
Girrimarring wiirrilgal bulany ngayanbading (bat nest-type fur sun-like): blending traditional knowledge and western science to create roosting habitat for the threatened golden-tipped bat Phoniscus p...
Context Despite being widely distributed along eastern Australia, the golden-tipped bat (Phoniscus papuensis) is listed as Vulnerable in New South Wales (NSW). The 2019–2020 wildfires affected an esti...
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Professor Euan Ritchie FAMS @euanritchie.bsky.social · 06/12/2024
Buy @hpwaudby.bsky.social’s book, it’s full of cracking yarns www.publish.csiro.au/book/8128/?f...
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Ricki Coughlan @rickicoughlan.bsky.social · 05/12/2024
Whoa! I'm feeling very satisfied, accomplished and just so deeply rewarded by this simple reality. The proof has arrived and it's everything I hoped it would be. I had next to no sleep last night but as of tomorrow I will be doing a final edit and then, it will be on sale. #birds #birding
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HP Waudby @hpwaudby.bsky.social · 18/11/2024
Great to be back out in the field after 7 months of parental leave. Listening to the water birds fussing about and bell frogs calling at Gayini on twilight was a bit magic…
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Dr Manu Saunders FRES @manusaunders.bsky.social · 18/09/2024
Got my copy! Thanks @hpwaudby.bsky.social for inviting me to be part of this awesome collection of stories highlighting the diversity of experiences working with nature. Hope this book inspires more readers to explore ecology and conservation opportunities! 🌏 publish.csiro.au/book/8128/
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HP Waudby @hpwaudby.bsky.social · 21/07/2024
www.publish.csiro.au/book/8128/
publish.csiro.au
Wild Science
What’s it like to study polar bears in the wild? How do you raise children among large carnivores? And how do you find a frog that no-one has seen for 40 years? From deserts to rainforests and even t...
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HP Waudby @hpwaudby.bsky.social · 01/07/2024
Desert heath-myrtle, Baeckea crassifolia (south west of Alice Springs, NT) #wildflowers
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HP Waudby @hpwaudby.bsky.social · 09/12/2023
Anurophagy is fairly common in larger frog species like the southern bell frog. It’s always fascinating to observe during monitoring #wildoz
A large green and brown frog eating a smaller frog
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HP Waudby @hpwaudby.bsky.social · 21/11/2023
A few days in the mallee of south west NSW
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HP Waudby @hpwaudby.bsky.social · 11/11/2023
Checking nest boxes I set up to try and entice western pygmy possums living in the mallee in far south-west New South Wales. No actual possum yet (75 more boxes to go), but did find a promising little leaf nest in one #wildoz
A nest of leaves inside a nest box probably made by a western pygmy possum
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juli g pausas @jgpausas.bsky.social · 24/10/2023
In defense of NATURAL HISTORY, a discipline in danger "We are all interested in understanding the natural world, but we often fall into the habit of abstracting our research away from its natural contexts & complexities" @KNanglu 🧪🌍 #evolution biodiversity onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
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HP Waudby @hpwaudby.bsky.social · 20/10/2023
Just accepted in Australian Journal of Zoology, our paper on Aprasia inaurita
publish.csiro.au
Spatial prioritisation of survey and management efforts for a threatened pygopod in south-western NS...
Determining species’ distributions is challenging for cryptic species that are difficult to detect using standard techniques. The mallee worm-lizard (Aprasia inaurita Kluge 1974) is a cryptic reptil...
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HP Waudby @hpwaudby.bsky.social · 17/10/2023
Chariot wheels (Maireana cheelii) are a federally listed threatened species. Pretty cool to see how ants collect the fruit and leave it lying around the entrance to their nest. I was told that it’s often the first tip off to the species’ presence!
Maireana cheelii, a small chenopod plant, in fruit.Maireana cheelii fruit capsules littered around the entrance of an ants’ nest.Maireana cheelii fruit littered around the entrance to an ants’ nest.
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David Pocock @davidpocock.bsky.social · 15/10/2023
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Dr Kylie Soanes @drkyliesoanes.bsky.social · 04/10/2023
Did you know that cities are great places for nature conservation? In fact, sometimes they’re *necessary*. Our research found 39 threatened species that ONLY occur in Australia’s urban environments. So we better get better at sharing cities with nature theconversation.com/the-39-endange…
A map of Australia showing the locations of threatened species that only occur in cities. Some plants and animals illustrated. By Elia Pirtle
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Dr Kylie Cairns @drcairns.bsky.social · 03/10/2023
I’m new to #BlueSky - aiming to continue my scicom about dingoes, dogs and hybridisation. A few months ago I published the results of a 6+ year study updating DNA methods for dingo ancestry testing. Surprisingly we found hybridization was uncommon in Australia! theconversation.com/new-dna-test...
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HP Waudby @hpwaudby.bsky.social · 25/09/2023
Just gave my annual lecture to Federation University students doing their Arid Zone Ecology course. Really engaged bunch of students with insightful questions. Keeps me hopeful.
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