Work with wildlife

If you work with wildlife or in wildlife conservation, our Advanced Certificate of Wildlife Conservation & Management course will help you step up to an exciting management career! In this wildlife management course, you will learn about habitats, farming, urban planning, ecology and biology, and the recovery of threatened species.  You will also study law and administration, wildlife management techniques, and how to conduct a case study research project.

Learning Outcomes

Outcomes achieved by undertaking a course where you’ll learn how to work with wildlife include:

• Learning about the concepts and need to work with wildlife and conservation
• Exploring conservation values, biological diversity and threatening processes (ecology, ecosystem and biome)
• Gaining an understanding of biodiversity indicators, genetic drift, habitat and life span, habitat fragmentation and habitat degradation and loss
• Studying the types of soil degradation, the types of erosion and marine degradation
• Examining pollution, including land, air and water pollution
• Understanding unsustainable harvesting/hunting, invasive species and climate change
• Attaining knowledge of population isolation/conservation genetics
• Gaining insights into disease – extinction and disease, density and disease and the impacts of disease control measures
• Learning about the recovery of threatened species, the categories of risk, species vulnerability to endangerment, rarity and ability to disperse
• Exploring the degree of specialisation, population variability, life span, reproductive rate, recovery of species, threat management, habitat conservation and critical habitat and protecting habitat
• Gaining an understanding of research population growth, habitat use, conservation genetics, captive breeding, translocation, public involvement and terminology
• Studying plant groups and plant identification (names and scientific names)
• Examining vegetation, flora survey techniques and line surveys
• Studying stock identity and assessment, stock biomass and stock management methods
• Examining capture and mixed methods, non-capture methods and non-lethal whale research techniques
• Understanding farm planning, planning farm activities, off-property effects, biological and climactic considerations, socioeconomic options, urban planning and urban management
• Attaining knowledge of examples of information to be collected and analysed and decisions that need to be made
• Gaining insights into managing threatened wildlife populations, recovering threatened species, manipulating populations, reintroducing species and the removal of predators/competitors
• Learning about captive breeding, manipulating habitat, revegetation/restoration, exclusion fencing for threatened species, creating corridors and designing and planting a fire break
• Exploring wildlife management, including the approaches and the purpose of preservation and conservation, the reasons for managing wildlife and decision-making in wildlife management
• Gaining an understanding of decisions regarding wildlife populations, important concepts and considerations, the needs of wildlife, population limiting factors, good wildlife habitats and range, distribution and habitat
• Studying carrying capacity, succession, habitat fragmentation, habitat diversity, biological control and integrated pest management
• Examining wildlife ecology, including population ecology, community ecology, ecosystem ecology, interactions within a community, competition, predation, parasitism, commensalism and mutualism
• Understanding the food web, the web of life, energy flow and imbalances
• Attaining knowledge of wildlife habitats, the classification of habitats, habitat types, animals’ use of features within habitats and the location and characteristics of biomes and common wildlife
• Gaining insights into nest boxes, logs, surface rocks and ground cover and creeks, wetlands and dams
• Learning about the requirements of birds in captivity, habitat features used by birds, changes to habitats, air and water pollution, toxicants and deforestation and afforestation
• Exploring population dynamics and pest management, birth or fecundity rate, death or mortality rate and population growth rate
• Gaining an understanding of the control of pests or undesirable wildlife species, the objectives of control, the effects of control on a population, mortality manipulation and biological control
• Studying mosquitoes, grasshoppers (locusts) and birds and mammals
• Examining feral animals in Australia and the total eradication of foreign species in New Zealand

And more!

Top 10 Australian animals at risk of extinction

Australia is populated by plants and animals unlike anything else in the world (which is more than enough reason to work with wildlife!) But unfortunately, we also have an unenviable record of animal extinctions. Here are ten species currently at risk.

#1. Regent Honeyeater – Anthochaera phrygia

Status: Critically Endangered

You can find these birds in woodlands, eucalypt forests, orchards and urban gardens. They feed mainly on the nectar of a small number of eucalypt species and act as a pollinator for many flowering plants. Widespread clearance of their habitats and competition for nectar from larger, more aggressive honeyeaters have caused their numbers to decline dramatically over the past 30 years.

#2. Orange-bellied Parrot – Neophema chrysogaster

Status: Critically Endangered

Work with wildlife and you’ll understand the importance of wildlife conservation, especially with species classed as “Critically Endangered”. A small ground parrot, the Orange-bellied Parrot migrates to South Australia and coastal Victoria from Tasmania, where they spend autumn and winter foraging on salt marsh vegetation. The decline of this bird is influenced by habit loss and their breeding range.

#3. Eastern Curlew – Numenius madagascariensis

Status: Critically Endangered

The Eastern Curlew takes an extraordinary annual migratory flight to Russia and north-eastern China to breed, then fly back to Australia! You can spot them in coastal regions of southern northeastern Australia. Unfortunately, their numbers have declined by more than 80 per cent in the past 40 years due to habitat destruction.

#4. Numbat – Myrmecobius fasciatus

Status: Endangered

The Numbat is a small to medium-sized marsupial found in West Australia, South Australia and New South Wales. Numbats are hunted by many animals like foxes, feral cats, dingoes and birds of prey. Because their diet consists mainly of termites, they are active during the day, and at night, they hide in burrows or hollow logs.

#5. Gouldian Finch – Erythrura gouldiae

Status: Endangered

The impressive colour of this beautiful bird’s feathers has made them a target of the bird trade up until the early 1980s. However, currently the leading cause of their decline is changes in habitat due to fire and land clearing. But fire also plays a significant role in their survival. In the dry season, they rely on controlled fires to burn the undergrowth so they can find seeds. In the wet season, they look for lush new growth that provides plenty of seeds

#6. Mountain Pygmy-possum – Burramys parvus

Status: Endangered

These tiny possums have specific habitat needs that limit their distribution and affect their ability to increase their population significantly. They are only found in alpine and sub-alpine regions of southern Victoria and around Mt Kosciuszko in New South Wales. Every year, they go through a prolonged hibernation over winter of up to seven months and only emerge in early spring to mate. Unlike most other possum species, they are found close to the ground where they hunt for their primary food sources — Bogong moths and other invertebrates.

#7. Northern Quoll – Dasyurus hallucatus

Status: Endangered

You will find this spotted carnivorous marsupial in northern Australia, from Western Australia to southeast Queensland. They feed primarily on invertebrates and vertebrates such as birds, snakes, frogs, lizards and small mammals. In the wild, they only live for one to three years and are susceptible to fire, cane toad toxins and introduced predators like cats and foxes. Changes in habit, including habitat degradation through over-grazing and urban development, have also reduced numbers.

#8. Woylie – Bettongia penicillata ogilbyi

Status: Endangered

Also known as the Brush-tailed Bettong, this is an extremely rare, rabbit-sized marsupial. It has a largely fungivorous (mushroom) diet, so in the past, have played an essential role in the dispersal of fungal spores that helped native plants grow. Like many small Australian marsupials, their rapid decline is caused by the introduction of cats and foxes. Other factors include disease, changes in fire regimes, competition with rabbits for food, and grazing animals’ impact on land clearing.

#9. Black-flanked Rock Wallaby – Petrogale lateralis laterali

Status: Endangered

These wallabies are now endangered, although they were once found in abundance across parts of South Australia, Western Australia and the Northern Territory. They are nocturnal, live in rugged, rocky areas and emerge at dusk to feed. Changes to fire patterns, clearing its habitat, and introducing wild cats and foxes have all threatened their existence. Today, they only survive in small, isolated populations.

#10. Purple-crowned Fairy Wren – Malurus coronatus coronatus

Status: Endangered

There are two subspecies of the Fairy Wren. The western subspecies are found in the Victoria River District of the Northern Territory and the Kimberley region of Western Australia. They are known as “cooperative breeders”, meaning offspring from previous breeding seasons will remain with their parents and help raise subsequent broods. Fire regimes and current pastoral practices have been detrimental to their preferred habitat, leading to their decline.

 

Gain a strong understanding of wildlife conservation and crucial management strategies to work with wildlife with our Advanced Certificate of Wildlife Conservation & Management.