[Wikimediaau-l] Zootober

[Peter Halasz]

Hi John,

I like the idea of having an article about the Brown Mountain crayfish
before it's even formally described  :)

The transcript of the Environment East Gippsland v VicForests court
case is online, and it includes testimony and a survey/report from Rob
McCormack (Day 8), who's one of the discoverers of the crayfish.
Originally it was thought to be an Orbost spiny crayfish, but
VicForests disagreed, saying you couldn't tell from the photo and it
was probably a more common species. So the environmentalists had
another look and it turned out to be an undiscovered species. The
outcome of the case is that VicForests has been found to be failing to
do animal surveys before logging (largely they have done none at all),
and must now show that they are doing so, as required by our laws.

http://www.eastgippsland.net.au/?q=campaigns/brown_mountain/court_documents

McCormack talked about the process of having it described too, so
that's in the transcript if you'd like a read. (I should look over it
again). No idea which scientific journal it will be published in or
how it will be licensed.

And I believe this page shows a photo of the crayfish, though it's
labeled "Endangered Orbost Spiny Cray":
http://www.greenlivingpedia.org/Brown_Mountain_old_growth_forest

Peter.

On Mon, Sep 20, 2010 at 6:42 PM, John Vandenberg <jayvdb at gmail.com> wrote:
> Thanks for raising some more possibilities Peter.
>
> [[VicForests]] doesn't exist, and is only mentioned four times on
> English Wikipedia.  The court case also has enough coverage in RS to
> be notable in its own right; it does sound like a landmark decision.
> http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-national/environmentalists-hail-court-win-20100811-11zgj.html
> http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/prosecution-withdrawn-20100812-121iz.html
>
> Do we know where the description of the Brown Mountain crayfish is
> going to be published?  A google search for that name turns up only
> one page: [[User:Pengo/missing]]! ;-)
> Can we talk to the discoverer?  It would be lovely if it was published
> in a CC journal, like [[w:ZooKeys]], which has a partnership with EOL
> and Wikispecies, so the images can be used on Wikipedia immediately.
> Otherwise we could ask the discoverer to consider releasing some
> images under a CC license.
>
> I'm footloose in Brisbane this week, with two nephews to entertain.
> If anyone wants some photos of animals in a zoo somewhere in SE Qld,
> let me know and I should be able to grab them and upload them in
> October.
>
> btw, we don't have a Wikipedia nav template for Zoos; the closest is
> [[List_of_zoos#Australia]].  That is another task for October ;-)
>
> --
> John Vandenberg
>
> On 9/20/10, Peter Halasz <qubero at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> A recent supreme court case was fought around a number of endangered
>> species in Victoria. I don't know how many of them have specimens in
>> zoos, but I was hoping to find some time to try to find out and get
>> some shots and video. The two main charismatic ones are:
>>
>>  - the spot-tailed quoll (aka tiger quoll)
>>  - the long-footed potoroo
>>
>> Other important species that played roles in the recent court case
>> (Environment East Gippsland v VicForests) are: giant burrowing frog,
>> large brown tree frog (Litoria littlejohni), Sooty Owl, Powerful Owl,
>> Greater Glider, Square-tailed kite, Orbost spiny crayfish, Brown
>> Mountain crayfish (newly discovered, and still in the process of being
>> described...this last one definitely won't be at zoos),
>>
>> Other topics of interest include: hollow bearing trees, as many of our
>> endangered species rely on tree hollows either for shelter or for prey
>> (or both). I've started [[tree hollow]], but it could use a boost; and
>> Australia's logging industry which is both a major threat to
>> endangered species and also may play a role in conservation as they
>> move to plantation-based production: e.g. the major deal in Tasmania
>> happening right now, which may see the end of native forest logging in
>> Tasmania (also home to Tiger Quolls), and there's some talk of a
>> similar deal in Victoria.
>>
>> The tiger quoll in particular could use some new images, and can
>> probably be found at zoos? It's mainland Australia's largest carnivore
>> marsupial and is the mainland population is particularly endangered.
>>
>> Chris Belcher has a good write up about them and their current status here:
>>
>> http://eastgippsland.net.au/files/Spot-tailed_quoll_Belcher_December_2009.pdf
>>
>> I think we should be capable of taking some points out of the document
>> for Wikipedia and getting some new shots of quolls, and improving some
>> of the other articles. If anyone wants to organise a trip to any of
>> Melbourne's zoos, I'm in.
>>
>> Also, despite being the photographer for the Leadbeater's Possum
>> single pic on Wikipedia, I'd really love to see it replaced with a
>> photo of one which wasn't stuffed. Leadbeater's Possum is Victoria's
>> faunal emblem (and is highly endangered).
>>
>> Peter Halasz
>> User:Pengo
>>
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