Every year, students in the School of Environmental and Conservation Sciences taking our Wildlife Biology unit (BIO376) wake up early to head out on campus and monitor our resident quenda population.

Dr Kate Bryant, Senior Lecturer, researcher and unit coordinator of BIO376 has been leading student field monitoring of the quendas (Isoodon fusciventer) on campus for over 10 years! Under her guidance, students have diligently set live traps every year and recorded their captures – including the sex, reproductive status and body measurements of the quenda. They then release each quenda back into the remnant bushland and gardens at Murdoch University where they live.

The quenda population on campus is dynamic, showing clear responses to local and global pressures. In effect, they are one of the litmus tests we can look at to gauge how biodiversity is responding to not only global climate change and the related extreme weather events, but also local impacts resulting from on-campus activities and development.

The Wildlife Biology students learn about their subject species in the classroom, including its priority conservation status, habitat requirements, and its industrious digging activity that helps to keep our urban bushlands healthy. Then they are out in the field recording the morphological and biological data needed to assess the quenda population’s health and structure, and learning essential wildlife field skills.

Murdoch University is a living laboratory. We offer our students the rare advantage of being immersed in the systems they are studying. And these learning opportunities are available to all of our students – right here on campus!

The data Kate and her students are collecting helps the School support the University strive for authentic sustainability, ensuring these amazing marsupials continue to live alongside us and support our quest for biodiversity education and conservation. It is a truly mutually beneficial relationship between the School of Environmental and Conservation Sciences and our resident quenda!

 Images provided by Rochelle Steven and Robert Fyfe (top right)