Sydney, June 7: Flinders University and other experts are joining two significant projects aimed at saving endangered species in South Australia and beyond.
The projects, focusing on Australian Sea Lions and Pygmy Bluetongue Lizards, are part of a $24 million funding initiative from the Australian Government to support 73 threatened native species.
Across Australia, 61 projects have received Saving Native Species grants of up to $500,000 each.
These initiatives aim to protect various threatened species, including frogs, birds, fish, invertebrates, mammals, reptiles, and plants. The projects are designed to mitigate extinction risks, particularly for the 110 priority species listed in the 10-year Threatened Species Action Plan, supported by $550 million in funding.
Flinders University Professor Mike Gardner has secured over $499,863 for a project to enhance land management practices to save endangered Pygmy Bluetongue Lizards. The project will use conservation and detection dogs to locate these lizards for study. Professor Gardner, who leads the Laboratory of Evolutionary Genetics and Sociality (LEGS) at Flinders University, emphasises the importance of further studying the threatened species in South Australia’s Mid North grassland regions.
“Our project seeks to make significant inroads to our knowledge of these remote populations and to remove barriers to conservation by promoting best practice farming and land management practices and improving the condition of native grasslands through plantings,” he says.
The Pygmy Bluetongue Recovery Team will use conservation sniffer dogs to find and monitor the lizards, which are typically found in spider burrows on farming land. Workshops with landowners will be held throughout 2025, focusing on known lizard populations near Burra, Bundaleer North, Clare, South Hummocks, and Eudunda. Partners include the Nature Foundation, Northern and Yorke Landscape Board, and local landowners.
Another grant of over $409,000, led by Professor Simon Goldsworthy from the South Australian Research and Development Institute (SARDI), will trial shelters at Australian Sea Lion breeding sites nationwide. Professor Goldsworthy, Program Leader of Marine Ecosystems at SARDI and Flinders affiliate, will work with partners including senior SARDI scientist Dr. Roger Kirkwood and Flinders University ecologist Dr. Ryan Baring. The team will conduct extensive sampling and surveillance across southern Australia.
Professor Goldsworthy has spent over 25 years gathering data to address the decline in sea lion populations, including statewide monitoring in SA and a 20-year microchipping program at Seal Bay on Kangaroo Island.
“Despite major declines (>60 per cent) in Australian sea lion populations over the last four decades, our understanding of the key threats to the species and causes for declines is poor, hampering conservation efforts,” he says.
The project aims to integrate new and existing data to identify common factors among populations that are declining, stable, or increasing. It will also explore the impact of extreme heat on pup survival and assess whether pup shelters can enhance resilience and adaptive capacity to climate change. Collaborators include researchers from Macquarie University, University of Sydney, University of Western Australia, the Minderoo Foundation, and the Department for Environment and Water.
Additionally, Dr. Baring and Flinders University PhD student Brad Martin are participating in a new citizen science program on the Eyre Peninsula.
The ‘Marine Hitchhikers of Eyre Peninsula’ project, led by marine ecologist Janine Baker and funded by a $49,990 grant from the South Australia Department for Environment and Water, seeks public input on introduced or exotic species found between Port Augusta and Coffin Bay.
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