Dale Wright

RMIT University | RMIT · Centre for Urban Research

Here, we aim to identify and validate core principles and outcome indicators for agro-ecological landscape resilience. We address four related questions: (1) which outcome indicators and process principles feature most prominently in the seminal literature on resilient agro-ecological landscapes? (2) to what extent are these principles represented...

Abstract. We present observations from a small collection of longhorns belonging to the subfamily Prioninae and collected during an expedition in the rainy season to a newly designated protected area, Mahimborondro, in North-East Madagascar. The material includes a new species (S. mahimborondroensis sp. nov.) of Closterini (Prioninae) from a small...

The Karoo is a unique region in South Africa in terms of its ecological processes and endemic species. Large areas are needed to maintain viable populations of nomadic birds that follow erratic rainfall events and subsequent food and nesting resources, as well as ephemeral standing water. Whereas many species are adapted to arid conditions, our tra...

Species richness has become the common currency of studies of biodiversity. Here we consider measures of species richness for the birds of the arid Karoo region of South Africa. We measured species richness at two scales: at the broad-scale using pentads (5 × 5′); and at the fine scale, using point counts to determine important landscape features....

Subsequent to publication of the article by Lee et al. [Lee ATK, Fleming C, Wright DR. 2018. Modelling bird atlas reporting rate as a function of density in the southern Karoo, South Africa. Ostrich 89(4): 363–372], several links to download the data that were initially used were no longer accessible as a result of changes made to the SABAP2 websit...

Landscape stewardship is considered an important place-based approach to addressing sustainability challenges. Working at landscape-level requires collaboration between diverse landscape stakeholders. In this study, we partnered with local stewardship practitioners across six cases in South Africa to investigate how they facilitate collaboration to...

Habitat loss and degradation are among the most pressing threats facing global biodiversity. Increasing the network of both protected areas and conservation areas is considered an important mechanism for conserving biodiversity and improving land management. Private land conservation and the establishment of privately protected areas has emerged as...

The relationship between true population density and abundance indices derived from atlas data can be used to estimate population size, a metric that is vital for assessing the conservation status of animal species. However, this relationship remains understudied. Meanwhile, there is growing concern for the avifauna of South Africa's arid southern...

Private land conservation has an increasingly important role in ensuring global conservation networks are comprehensive, adequate and representative. To contribute to the Convention on Biological Diversity’s Aichi Target 11, areas on private land must be either privately protected areas (PPAs) or ‘other effective area-based conservation measures’ (...

There is remarkably little documented information in the scientific literature on any of the 18 species of buttonquail as they are very difficult to observe in the wild. This lack of information has hampered informed conservation decision making. We undertook the first biome-wide survey for the fynbos endemic Hottentot Buttonquail Turnix hottentott...

The Hottentot Buttonquail Turnix hottentotus is an endangered terrestrial turnicid and is endemic to the Fynbos biome, South Africa. Due to its secretive nature and apparent rarity almost nothing is known about the species, but its range has been subject to anthropogenic modification, invasion by alien plant species and is vulnerable to climate cha...

Water affects distribution of many species, but climate change is set to change rainfall patterns and hence water availability. In South Africa, various global climate-change models suggest a drier future for the winter rainfall regions with implications for survival of plant and animal species of the fynbos region. Most birds offload heat by evapo...

Citizen science is a useful approach for conducting scientific research; however, an understanding of the motivations, satisfactions, and other aspects of volunteers’ psychology is essential for conservation scientists wishing to mobilize this resource. We tested psychometric instruments for assessing the motivations, satisfactions, and advocacy ro...

The taxonomy of, and phylogenetic relationships among, African canaries typically assigned to the genus Serinus sensu lato (including the putative genera Alario, Pseudochloroptila, Serinops, Ochrospiza, Dendrospiza and Crithagra) were investigated, based on 823bp of the mitochondrial cytochrome b gene. Two clades emerged: (1) Palaearctic and Afrotr...