Amos Smith, Arushi Arora and Bernice Qin, all UWA science students, are three of the latest interns to support the work of Birdlife Australia through an ongoing partnership with the McCusker Centre for Citizenship that is helping students make a meaningful contribution to conservation.
The interns assisted with valuable research to aid in community efforts to protect populations of native bird species including Carnaby’s black cockatoos.
Arushi and Bernice both helped with mapping and managing data on the black cockatoos.
Bernice, majoring in Remote Sensing and Spatial Data Science in her Environmental Science Degree, worked on the Black Cockatoo Habitat Suitability Project, helping to improve understanding and protection of breeding areas for cockatoos.
She said her contribution would help Birdlife Australia and could have wide-reaching impact across the community:
“For the media and the public, the coverage and discussion of this project will hopefully raise awareness about bird protection and environmental conservation,” she said.
“The provision of data for scientific researchers and institutions, will aid understanding of black cockatoo breeding areas and distribution, and inform future research; for governments and policymakers, this data analysis can provide valuable insights and feed into recommendations to support effective conservation policies."
Amos, studying Conservation Biology, worked on Operation Rainbow Roost, mapping data on rainbow lorikeets in the Perth Metro area; the spread of this invasive species has an impact on native bird species.
“I used to always admire the rainbow lorikeets and think they were quite beautiful, but they are actually invasive and highly aggressive, and affect our native birds like Red-capped Parrots and Pardalotes by out-competing them for habitat such as tree hollows in which they breed,” Amos said.
“I was able to contribute to research outputs on the rainbow lorikeet data; this will hopefully give better insight into how these birds operate and inform future management decisions to control the impact they have on our native bird populations, he said.
Dr Sam Rycken, Birdlife Australia researcher and internship supervisor, said that the efforts of the interns had been fantastic.
“Working across several projects at the same time, the assistance of the interns at BirdLife was instrumental to generate research outputs, mobilise volunteers and manage our data.
“I am grateful for their work and dedication and believe both the interns and myself get a lot out of these collaborations,” he said.
“I am looking forward to hosting more interns in the future, who can work with us at BirdLife on worthwhile research that results in positive conservation outcomes for threatened species.”
Image: Birdlife Australia researcher, Dr Sam Rycken, with UWA student intern Bernice Qin