Earless dragons were presumed extinct in Australia – now Daisy and Kip have sniffed out 13 of them
The Victorian grassland earless dragon – Australia's most imperilled reptile – had not been seen for 50 years and was thought extinct before its remarkable rediscovery on privately owned grassland in 2023.
Given this 'second chance' at survival, Garry Peterson, the zoo's general manager of threatened species, said the organisation launched intensive training and search efforts the same year.
'We're really lucky to have a second opportunity with this species that was presumed extinct,' Peterson said.
But it wasn't going to be easy to find them. It's thought there are probably fewer than 200 dragons left in the wild and the short, nuggetty and extremely rare dragons often hid inside wolf spider burrows or under rocks, making them challenging to find using traditional survey techniques.
That's where the zoo's dogs came in.
After a year of training, Daisy, a 6-year-old lagotto romagnolo and Kip, an 8-year-old kelpie cross, had sniffed out a total of 13 of the wild dragons by March this year, in return for treats, cuddles, ball games and praise.
Daisy mostly works with wildlife detection dog officer Dr Nick Rutter, who said it was a 'career highlight' when she finally found a dragon on her own in May 2024, making him feel 'an overwhelming cascade of joy'.
The palm-sized reptiles were 'bloody gorgeous', he said, with intricate patterns down their backs and striking colours during the breeding season.
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Daisy and Kip were chosen for their safe behaviour around small animals, and experience surveying for threatened species, like Baw Baw frogs and freshwater turtles.
Each undertook about 80 days of scent-based training and survey work, initially sniffing out a small number of captive animals and graduating to opportunistic lessons in the field when biologists came across a wild dragon.
When assessed, the dog-handler teams detected earless dragons with speed and accuracy, according to results published on the National Environmental Science Program's Resilient Landscapes hub.
Emma Bennett, who has researched the effectiveness of detection dogs in searching for rare species, said dogs provided a scent-based search method that was complimentary to traditional surveys using visual cues.
'If something is hidden, or camouflaged, in a burrow, and just difficult to see, it might be easy to smell,' she said.
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Detection dogs were being successfully used in Australia, as well as globally, for finding threatened species, searching for invasive viruses and pathogens, and conducting bird and bat surveys at wind farms.
Bennett, who has worked with detection dogs for 20 years and was not involved with the zoo project, said success relied on a strong partnership between human and hound.
'From the dog's perspective, the role of the human is to carry the ball around for when they do find something, and then to throw it,' Bennett said.
Zoos Victoria also trained two other dogs, Sugar and Moss, to search for dragon scats – droppings roughly the size of corn kernels. While the dogs were effective at finding them, they were limited by how quickly scats were scavenged by ants and other invertebrates in the wild.
Historical records show the Victorian grassland earless dragon was once recorded in St Kilda, Moonee Ponds and Sunbury, habitat that disappeared as housing and farmland expanded. Approximately 0.5% of suitable grassland habitat remains.
Dr Jane Melville, senior curator of terrestrial vertebrates at Museums Victoria Research Institute – who named the Victorian grassland earless dragon as a distinct species in 2019 – said its rediscovery was a reminder that animals could still persist, even in places where they hadn't been seen in decades.
'They've shown amazing resilience,' she said. 'This little dragon has managed to hold on under really difficult circumstances.'
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Belfast Telegraph
a day ago
- Belfast Telegraph
Victorian house in south Belfast saved from being turned into apartments after campaign victory
A CGI image of the failed development plan at Annadale Avenue A decision made at the Belfast City Council Planning Committee has ended the long running saga of an application for the proposed demolition of the former Bees Knees Nursery at 18 Annadale Avenue, BT7, by Cregagh Developments Ltd, of Grennan Road, Newry. The controversial application involved the demolition of the existing Victorian building for the construction of a residential development consisting of 14 units. That would have involved nine apartments within a three-storey building, and five two storey terraced dwellings, along with associated landscaping and car parking. The applicant submitted viability information regarding various potential options to retain and convert the existing building to other uses, making the case that retention of the existing building was not feasible. Of six options, the applicant said the only viable one was nine apartments and five townhouses. The application had been in the system for over a year and a half, with committee members attending a site visit to the location in March 2024. Some 21 third party objections were made to the council, including one from the MP for South Belfast and Mid Down, Claire Hanna, one from the SDLP MLA for South Belfast, Matthew O'Toole, and one from the Belfast Civic Trust, a charity promoting good architecture in Belfast. There was also an objection from Green Councillor for Lisnasharragh Brian Smyth and two objections from Alliance MLA for South Belfast Paula Bradshaw. Objectors said the demolition of the existing building would have negatively impacted on the Victorian character of the area, would have been a great historical and cultural loss, and would have set a 'sustainable precedent' for the area. They said the residential amenity would have been affected by loss of light and overlooking, arguing the proposed design was overbearing, with a lack of architectural detail. They added there was insufficient parking provision, no disabled spaces, with access to the road being too narrow. Objectors objected to the planned removal of a cherry tree, said local biodiversity would be badly affected, and added that the development would devalue nearby properties. The Stormont Department for Infrastructure Rivers Division and NI Water objected to the proposals. Despite this, council planning officers recommended the plan for approval, with a list of conditions. A previous officer report on the application stated: 'It is a sustainable location with good access to shops, jobs, services, amenities and public transport. The site is considered a suitable location for housing; the proposal would make effective use of previously developed land and is of an appropriate density. 'No affordable housing is provided due to viability. The applicant has submitted a viability assessment which has been independently appraised, which concludes that the proposal is unviable with the inclusion of any affordable housing provision or commuted sum. 'The design, height, scale and massing of the proposed buildings are considered in keeping with the surrounding character and not considered to impact the surrounding listed buildings.' At the August meeting of the council's Planning Committee held this week, the application went to a vote, with only six elected members supporting the application, all from the DUP, while 12 elected members, from Alliance, the SDLP and Sinn Féin, voted against the application. A representative for local residents said at the meeting: 'We are quite concerned about the imposing nature of this build, and how close it is to our border. The southwest facade is quite overbearing, and we are even worried about our mature shrubs. 'It would be so sad to see this beautiful old building demolished. The incredible Victorian gardens at the back, with sweetpea and apple trees, would be turned into a parking lot.' A CGI image of the failed development plan at Annadale Avenue Belfast History Explained: Who was Mary Ann McCracken? An agent for the developer told the committee: 'Extensive investigations demonstrated that retention was not viable. Additional testing was then documented at the request of the committee, which was also done, and all options were independently verified to be unviable. 'While retention was not viable, the applicants committed to the sustainability principle to salvage materials such as red brick, roof tiles and stone sills for reuse in the proposed development. But importantly, the existing building is not listed, and is not located in the conservation area. A previous proposal for demolition and redevelopment for 14 apartments was granted in 2009.' Alliance Party councillor Tara Brooks said: 'I have sympathy for the applicant, and the situation they find themselves in, but I propose we refuse planning. It does not sit right with me to vote to have this building demolished. 'I understand that it is not listed, and the applicant can go ahead and demolish it anyway, but I cannot in all conscience vote to permit its demolition.' DUP councillor Dean McCullough said: 'The report is pretty clear. We all have aspirational ideas about what we want, but viability is viability. I think this applicant has gone out of their way to do everything they can, within a framework, to make this viable. 'I don't know what else they can do, they have come to this committee time and time again, with amendment after amendment, and are now probably running effectively at a loss.' He said the application was 'competent and sound' and would 'benefit the city'. The committee gave planning officers delegated authority to finalise the precise refusal reasons. Read more
The Guardian
2 days ago
- The Guardian
Andrew Saint obituary
In the introduction to his book The Idea of the Architect (1983), Andrew Saint wrote: 'We are at present in the midst of a widespread transformation of 'architectural history', with its emphasis on aesthetics, design and authorship, into 'building history', which has broader social and economic preoccupations.' Continuing this shift was his life's work, and Saint, who has died of lymphoma aged 78, also inspired and influenced several generations of writers on buildings and their social contexts. His first book was Richard Norman Shaw (1976), a brilliant monograph on a late Victorian architect – effectively a doctoral thesis, begun while he was a lecturer at Essex University. The years 1850 to 1914 remained his focus and he had a lifelong involvement with the Victorian Society. He completed the book after joining the Greater London council (GLC) in 1974 to work on the long-running Survey of London project. Originated in 1894, the survey researches London buildings by district, and has so far published 55 volumes. The experience of working on the survey was formative for Saint, who recalled how Francis Sheppard, then its general editor, had recently begun to 'treat areas of London in a holistic way, drawing urban development, architecture and social and economic history together'. In the final decade before the GLC was abolished in 1986, Andrew and others from the survey made lasting alliances with members of the council's historic buildings division, then flexing its muscles to win conservation battles by the quality of its research and advocacy, notably over Covent Garden, which was under threat of redevelopment. Saint's research then took a different turn. Admirers of Stirrat Johnson-Marshall, an architect dedicated to public service who died in 1981, were keen to celebrate his memory and that of a like-minded generation. Saint accepted the task of writing up the story, for which the GLC gave him six months' leave. Knowing individuals such as David and Mary Medd, famous for their role in the Hertfordshire schools building programme, gave Saint an exemplar of interdisciplinary collaboration through the chain from patronage and innovative construction to the grace notes of murals and sculpture. He organised public reminiscence sessions at the Architectural Association in 1984 that reunited many involved in Hertfordshire schools, as well as projects such as the Festival Hall, the Alton estate in Roehampton and the rebuilding of Coventry. Published in 1986 as Towards a Social Architecture, the resulting book showed how technical and humanist aims were integrated in such projects. A year later came the first listing of a post-1945 building and the instigation of the '30-year rule' that allowed buildings in England to qualify for listing on reaching that age. Once the GLC was dissolved, its historic buildings division remained under English Heritage. Saint moved across, joining old friends such as Robert Thorne, and new recruits, including Elain Harwood, Roger Bowdler and Steven Brindle, and setting the pace for the team researching threatened buildings. Monday morning team meetings always ended in the pub. At the start of the 1990s, the minister for the environment, Baroness Blatch, encouraged a more active approach to listing postwar buildings and an innovative study programme was established with an expert committee. Martin Cherry of English Heritage, who directed the research, said that Saint's 'commitment to it was important in providing confidence to senior policymakers that it was worthwhile and had substance: his academic reputation helped, but also his ability to demonstrate that postwar building, particularly housing and schools, was a force for good'. Taking a quote from Auden, A Change of Heart, as a title, Saint wrote the text for a pamphlet that launched the project in public in 1992. In 1995, he was headhunted for a newly created chair at the University of Cambridge School of Architecture, where he experienced a less congenial working culture. His belief that architects were not as important as they thought themselves was strengthened, and he began work on his longest book, Architect and Engineer – a study in 'sibling rivalry', published in 2007, that sought to understand their different characteristics. At Cambridge, he struggled to persuade colleagues to publish for the new Research Assessment Exercise, but became a notable supervisor of doctorates, with students including James Campbell and Timothy Brittain-Catlin, who have altered the Cambridge course to become more grounded and practical in ways he desired. Saint was happy to take voluntary severance from Cambridge in 2006. He returned to the Survey of London as general editor, invigorating the research and publishing programme by completing work already in hand on Clerkenwell and, with colleagues, adding volumes on Woolwich, Battersea and South Marylebone. He personally undertook most of the volume on Oxford Street before stepping down to half time and then, in 2015, to retirement, by which time the survey was being administered by the Bartlett School of Architecture at UCL. Saint continued to be active as an author and editor, with a book on late Victorian London published in 2021, and editorship of the Victorian Society's journals and its series of monographs. A book on Waterloo Bridge and its Surrey side hinterland awaits posthumous publication. Born in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, Andrew was the younger son of Elisabeth (nee Butterfield) and the Rev Arthur Maxwell Saint (known as Max). The family moved to Cheltenham, where Andrew went to Dean Close junior school, and then to Christ's Hospital school, Horsham. Andrew relished Latin and Greek, singing and playing the cello, while hating sports, and made strong friendships. His interest in architecture came from 'church crawling' with his parents, from the Aston Webb buildings of his school, and later from Oxford, where he studied classics. When his father became chaplain of Guy's hospital, he lived in London for the first time and loved the abandoned feeling of the Southwark riverside. Taking Oxford entrance a year early, he got an exhibition to Balliol College, and spent time in Italy at the British School at Rome. A master's degree at the Warburg Institute in London on Ruskin led to his first part-time teaching job in the art department at Essex University. From the early 1970s until the late 80s, Saint was the partner of Ellen Leopold, an American architect and academic, and they had two daughters, Lily and Catherine. After the relationship ended, Ellen, Lily and Catherine settled in the US, while Saint remained in London, living in a Duchy of Cornwall terrace house in Kennington. He had another daughter, Leonora, from a relationship with Annachiara Cerri. In later life, his partner was the Dutch art historian Ida Jager. He is survived by Ida and his daughters. Andrew John Saint, architectural historian, born 30 November 1946; died 16 July 2025
Daily Record
3 days ago
- Daily Record
Church to open to the public for Dumfries and Galloway's Doors Open Day
People will have the chance to look around All Saints Episcopal Church in Challoch on September 6. A Galloway church is set to open its doors to the public. All Saints Episcopal Church in Challoch is taking part in Dumfries and Galloway's Doors Open Day on Saturday, September 6. It's a chance to experience one of the region's finest examples of a small country Victorian house of worship, with the public welcome to go along between 10am to 4pm. All Saints is well-suited to this year's Doors Open Days theme of architectural heritage; windows to the past, doors to the future. The Anglican church will not only showcase its architectural heritage, but will marry this with its spiritual heritage in the form of a tour, devised for the day using a self-guiding leaflet. The tour will lead visitors round the grounds and inside the church, themed and decorated for the following day's annual harvest festival thanksgiving service. All Saints Priest in Charge, Rev Dawn Matthew, said: 'We want our visitors to get a feel of how the church's architecture is designed to connect us with, and raise awareness of, something greater than ourselves. 'I and members of our congregation will be on hand to offer further guidance and answer questions. A parallel tour will be available for children and families, with prizes, so this will be a great day out for everyone. 'And visitors won't go hungry either as ploughman's lunches will be served between 12pm and 2pm, and cakes and drinks will be available throughout the day. 'We look forward to welcoming everyone to our beautiful inclusive family church at the foot of the Galloway hills. 'Our treasures include magnificent stained glass windows by world-renowned Victorian designer and manufacturer Charles Eamer Kempe, a spectacular hand-painted ceiling, and a serene graveyard that includes war heroes, and family members of the Earls of Galloway. '2025 is a special year for us as we celebrate our 140-year anniversary. The church, designed by architects W G Habershon and Pite of London, was built in 1871-72 as a private chapel for the owner of nearby Penninghame House, Edward James Stopford-Blair. 'On his death in 1885, he bequeathed the church and then-rectory to the Diocese of Glasgow and Galloway, creating today's All Saints Church.' The Challoch event is part of the larger Doors Open Days initiative across Scotland, coordinated by the Scottish Civic Trust.
