Bulletin

Issue: January/February 2008

News

Miner obsession wins national award

More than 25 years of research led by La Trobe University's Dr Michael Clarke into the behaviour and ecology of Bell Miners, Noisy Miners and the endangered Black-eared Miner has been recognised by the Royal Australasian Ornithologists' Union.

Dr Clarke, an Associate Professor in Zoology, won the 2007 D L Serventy Medal, the most prestigious award for professional ornithologists in Australasia, honouring those who make an outstanding contribution to the scientific literature in the field of ornithology.

Dr Clarke's interest in Bell Miners was sparked by their unusual social organisation, and particularly the species' attentive behaviour in rearing their young - sometimes involving up to 30 different adult birds in raising a single brood of chicks. He has used a wide range of scientific approaches from field studies to the latest molecular and genetic techniques to understand the evolution of this cooperative behaviour.

He has also studied the Noisy Miners' often-observed habit of hyper-aggression and the links between this behaviour and environmental degradation, including eucalypt dieback and rural tree decline. Dr Clarke's work aims to generate guidelines that will help land managers restore degraded habitats.

He is concerned to avoid extending the habitat for the aggressive and despotic Noisy Miners at the expense of other smaller, insectivorous birds - through revegetation.

Dr Clarke has an international reputation for his studies in conservation biology. His group's research on the endangered Black-eared Miner has been hailed as critical to much of the recovery effort directed at saving this threatened species.

Dr Clarke and members of his laboratory also carry out studies into processes that threaten and degrade the habitats of birds. He recently began a major collaborative project with Dr Andrew Bennett from Deakin University to identify the properties of fire-affected mallee landscapes that most influence the survival of wildlife: birds, mammals, reptiles, invertebrates and plants.

The D L Serventy medal citation also praised Dr Clarke's skills as a teacher and mentor. When three of his postgraduate students were selected to present their research to an international ornithological congress in Beijing, they were one of the largest contingents from any single ornithological laboratory.

Dr Clarke has been chairperson of the Scientific Advisory Committee to the Victorian Minister for the Environment in relation to the Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act, and has a long-standing involvement with three scientific advisory bodies overseeing the conservation of nationally endangered honeyeaters.

The honour for Dr Clarke continues a tradition of excellence in ornithological research at La Trobe. His colleague, Dr Richard Zann, was awarded the Serventy Medal in 1998.