Hunt for Aussie animal not seen for 30 years: 'Rarest in the world'
The hunt is on for a rare lizard not seen in over 30 years. Found only in one part of regional Australia, residents are being asked to scour paddocks and roadsides for the specific conditions the Bathurst grassland earless dragon needs to survive.
'It hasn't been seen since the mid-90s, and it could be holding on in someone's back paddock without anyone knowing,' ecologist George Madani explained to Yahoo News.
'This species is perhaps one of the rarest reptiles, not just in Australia — but the world. It's on the cusp of extinction and if it's going to persist, we need to be able to find it so we can protect it.'
Of the four species of grassland earless dragon three are listed as critically endangered, and one is endangered. Madani heads up the Grassland Earless Dragon Alliance, a listed charity that advocates for their protection.
It had been thought the Victorian species was extinct as it hadn't been seen since the 1960s, but then in 2023, authorities confirmed with Yahoo News it had been rediscovered at a single site west of Melbourne. While it's possible the Bathurst species could be extinct, the rediscovery of the Victorian species renewed hope the Bathurst species might persist.
Related: Rare Aussie animal you can only see at one zoo
Working with the NSW Department of Environment's Saving our Species (SoS) program and the Central Tablelands Local Land Services, the Grassland Earless Dragon Alliance has put together an online questionnaire that contains five simple questions designed to ascertain whether dragons are living on properties. It's not just Bathurst itself that could harbour the species, but also the surrounding local government areas of Blayney and Oberon.
Less than 1 per cent of the southeastern Australian habitat the four species need for survival remains in good condition. So finding sites that could harbour the Bathurst species won't be an easy task.
'We're looking for natural temperate grassland and we're looking for habitat that hasn't been modified, so areas that haven't been ploughed or subject to lots of fertilising,' Madani explained.
'If there's any sort of small surface rock scattered through the paddocks, that's also good, because the dragons will use them. And these dragons co-occur with wolf spiders, which they rely on, because they utilise their burrows for shelter.'
Related: Fears for future of tiny lizard stalling construction of 310,000 new homes
While over-grazed land isn't ideal, paddocks with a few sheep in them are perfect. That's because they are able to keep the grass level low without denuding it completely.
'What we want landowners to know is if dragons have persisted on their property for that long, then clearly what they're doing is right. And we don't want them to change any of their practices,' Madani added.
'We want them to continue business as usual, and we might be able to learn from them.'
Landholders who discover dragons on their properties could be able to access extra government funding to undertake weed control and fencing. If you think your land could be home to the rare Bathurst species, you can fill out the questionnaire here.
Love Australia's weird and wonderful environment? 🐊🦘😳 Get our new newsletter showcasing the week's best stories.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
17 hours ago
- Yahoo
Doctor mistakenly implants wrong embryo in IVF patient mix-up
One of Australia's top IVF providers mistakenly implanted a patient with her own embryo instead of her partner's. Monash IVF said the incident occurred on June 5 at a clinic in Melbourne but did not provide further details, such as how it learned of the bungle or what the couple planned to do next. The company said it was supporting the couple, who it did not identify. It marks the second fertility clinic mix-up of its kind in the country, heightening concerns about an industry that did not have much active government oversight until recently. The clinic said the patient's embryo was mistakenly implanted under a treatment plan which called for an embryo from the patient's partner to be transferred. The incident builds on a reputational maelstrom for Monash IVF, which was already reeling from an April disclosure that an Australian woman had given birth to a stranger's baby after a fertility doctor accidentally implanted the wrong embryo in Brisbane in 2023. That mix-up sparked concerns about security protocols at IVF clinics and an industry which is only now in the process of being more regulated. Monash claimed the world's first IVF pregnancy five decades ago and is Australia's second-largest IVF provider, carrying out nearly a quarter of the country's 100,000 assisted reproductive cycles a year, according to industry data. "This mix-up, the second reported incident at Monash IVF, risks shaking confidence not just in one provider but across the entire fertility sector," said Hilary Bowman-Smart, a researcher and bioethicist at the University of South Australia. Shares of Monash IVF were down 25 per cent by mid-session on Tuesday, against a rising broader market. The stock is just over half its value before the April announcement. "We had thought the Brisbane clinic embryo transfer error was an isolated incident," Craig Wong-Pan, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets, said in a client note. "We believe there is now risk of a greater impact of reputational damage and market share losses to MVF's operations." Monash IVF had already hired a lawyer to run an independent investigation after the Brisbane incident, and said on Tuesday it has extended the scope of that investigation. It added that it was installing interim extra verification safeguards to ensure patient confidence. It said it had reported the Melbourne incident to the Victorian Department of Health and industry licensing body, the Reproductive Technology Accreditation Committee (RTAC), part of industry group the Fertility Society of Australia. Victorian health minister Mary-Anne Thomas said the department was investigating the company and the incident. "Families should have confidence that the treatment they are receiving is done to the highest standard," she said. "It is clear Monash IVF has failed to deliver that, which is completely unacceptable." Fertility Society president Petra Wale said the incident would have had an emotional toll on the family, but stressed mistakes in the sector were rare. The society reiterated a call to implement nationally consistent laws around IVF. Currently, the country's IVF industry is regulated by a combination of industry bodies and state and territory health departments, resulting in a governance and compliance system that some groups say is too complex. Reports of transferring the wrong embryo are rare, according to fertility experts, and Monash's Brisbane mix-up was widely reported as the first known case of its kind.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Yahoo
Lincoln City football kit features coded message
Lincoln City's new home kit honours a Victorian mathematician whose work is in every computer and smartphone. George Boole, who was born in the city in 1815, invented Boolean logic - a system that is regarded as the foundation for computer programming. Advertisement In a tribute to the pioneering mathematician, binary code spelling out We Are Imps will feature on the football club's shirt for the upcoming season. City's chief growth and innovation officer Jason Futers said: "We wanted to celebrate George, his life and contribution to the world, by bringing it into the design of the home kit." George Boole invented Boolean logic, a system that is still used in computers and smartphones to this day [Getty Images] In 1849, the shoemaker's son was appointed chair of mathematics at Queen's College in Cork in the Republic of Ireland. Four years later, he secured his place in the history books after publishing the Laws of Thought, a book containing a description of practical concepts for an algebra of logic. Advertisement The former teacher, who founded two schools, is commemorated throughout his home city. He is featured on a window inside the city's cathedral known as the teaching window and there is also a plaque on his Pottergate house. There is also a mention on an obelisk to city greats in St Mark's Shopping Centre and a large bronze statue outside Lincoln railway station. "He created a logical framework called Boolean logic, that is literally the foundation for binary code, which is itself the foundation for computer programming," Mr Futers added. "You can't underestimate the importance of Boole in modern society." Advertisement Listen to highlights from Lincolnshire on BBC Sounds, watch the latest episode of Look North or tell us about a story you think we should be covering here. More on this story Related internet links
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Yahoo
If books could kill: The poison legacy lurking in libraries
The Victorians loved the colour green. In particular, they loved a vibrant shade of emerald created by combining copper and arsenic, which was used in everything from wallpaper to children's toys. "This colour was very popular for most of the 19th Century because of its vibrancy and its resistance to light fading," says Erica Kotze, a preservative conservator at the University of St Andrews. "We know that many household items were coloured with arsenic-based green pigments. It was even used in confectionery." The trouble is, the combination of elements used is toxic and that's still a problem more than a century later. And it's a particular problem when it comes to old books. Victorian bookbinders used arsenic as well as mercury and chrome to create striking covers. And unlike domestic items, books have survived in archives around the world, creating a 21st Century problem from 19th Century fashion. Prolonged exposure to multiple green books can cause low level arsenic poisoning. Long-term exposure can cause changes to the skin, harm to the liver and kidneys and a reduction in red and white blood cells, which can lead to anaemia and an increased risk of infections. In 2019, an attempt to tackle the problem was set up in Delaware between the Winterthur Museum and the state university. The Poison Book Project tested books and drew up a list of titles which are potentially harmful to humans. These included four books in the National Library of France, which were immediately withdrawn. Inspired by this, Erica Kotze called on her colleague Dr Pilar Gil, who trained as a biochemist before working in Special Collections at the University of St Andrews. Dr Gil took a practical approach to surveying the thousands of historic books in their collection. "The most important thing was to find a non-destructive, portable instrument that could tell us if it was a poisonous book or not," she says. She rule out X-ray technology because of the fragile nature of the books being examined and instead looked to the geology department. They had a spectrometer - a device that measures the distribution of different wavelengths of light - for detecting minerals in rocks. "Minerals and pigments are very similar," says Dr Gil, "so I borrowed the instrument and started looking for emerald green in books." She tested hundreds of books and then realised she was looking at a breakthrough. "I realised there was a distinctive pattern to the toxic ones. It was a 'eureka' moment. I realised it was something that no one had seen before." The next task was to speak to the physics department to build their own prototype. Dr Graham Bruce, senior research laboratory manager explains how it works. "It shines light on the book and measures the amount of light which shines back," he says. "It uses green light, which can be seen, and infrared, which can't be seen with our own eyes. The green light flashes when there are no fragments of arsenic present, the red light when there are pigments." The new testing device is smaller and will be less costly to produce and use than a full-scale spectrometer It has already been used to survey the thousands of books in the St Andrews collections and in the National Library of Scotland, and the team hope to share their design with other institutions around the world. "We're lucky as a large institution to have expensive kit, so that we can test 19th Century potentially toxic books," says Dr Jessica Burge, deputy director of library and museums at the University of St Andrews. "But other institutions with big collections may not have those resources, so we wanted to create something which was affordable and easy. It doesn't require a specialist conservator or analysis, and it's instant." It's also a problem which isn't going away. If anything, toxic books will become more harmful as they get older and disintegrate. Identifying them means they can stored in a safe way and still enjoyed with controlled access and precautions such as wearing gloves. "It will continue to be a live issue," says Dr Burge. "But I think that the biggest issue for institutions at the moment is that any book that's got a green cover from the 19th Century is being restricted because they don't know. "And as libraries and museums, that's not really what we're about. We want people to be able to use the books and help bring back access to collections, rather than restricting their use."
