2020 VIRTUAL FLYING-FOX FORUM

The 2020 Flying-fox Forum was conducted virtually and we had over 155 attend to share, discuss and gain insight into the conservation & management of flying-foxes in Australia. You can download the agenda or access the replay of the 2 day event.

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About the Forum

The Forum provides up-to-date research and insight into the management and conservation of flying-foxes and their habitat right across their range.

Ecosure has facilitated and lead five successful annual forums, which have been attended by experts in the field and delegates from local, state and federal government, research institutions, NRM groups, NGOs, wildlife care organisations and conservation groups.

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2020 Flying-fox Forum Speakers

Meet Our Speakers

Pia Lentini

Senior Research Fellow, School of BioSciences

Pia is a Senior Research Fellow with the University of Melbourne’s School of BioSciences, where she conducts research on wildlife management in contested urban, agricultural, and forested ecosystems. She has published and presented extensively on mammals, birds, and invertebrates, as well as environmental policy, but is particularly interested in bat ecology and conservation. Pia also teaches Wildlife Management at the University, is an Associate Editor for the journals Animal Conservation, and Biological Conservation, and sits on the Board of Wildlife Victoria.

Keren Cox-Witton

Senior Project Officer, Wildlife Health Australia

Keren Cox-Witton is the Senior Project Officer at Wildlife Health Australia. She is aveterinarian with an interest in wildlife health and epidemiology and has worked at WHA since 2010. Keren coordinates the WHA Bat Health Focus Group, which has a broad membership and considers bat health issues in the context of biosecurity, public health, domestic animal health and environmental impacts in Australia. Keren’s role at WHA also includes co-ordination of wildlife disease surveillance programs involving zoo-based hospitals and sentinel veterinary clinics, administering a national database of wildlife health information, and maintaining a national dataset for Australian bat lyssavirus.

Doug Gimesy

Conservation & Wildlife Photojournalist

Doug is a conservation, wildlife and animal welfare photojournalist, with a focus on Australian issues. He also runs an environmental focused communication consultancy called ’The framing effect”. Originally trained a zoologist, bioethicist and with a Masters of Environment (specialising in policy and communication), his recent work has focused on the Australian bushfires, as well as the conservation and animal welfare issues facing the platypus and the Grey-headed Flying-fox. He is an Associate Fellow of the International League of Conservation Photographers ILCP and a contributing photographer to the likes of BBC Wildlife Magazine, National Geographic, Audubon, NY Times, NewCorp, and Australian Geographic.

Michelle Jeffrey

National Capital Authority, Manager Open Space

Michelle is the Open Space Manager for the National Capital Authority (NCA), managing the green assets, open spaces, and memorials of Canberra which make the National Capital. Significant assets in this portfolio include the Parliamentary Zone, Anzac Parade, Commonwealth Park, Kings Park, the National Rose Gardens, the Old Parliament House Rose Gardens, Lindsay Pryor National Arboretum, national memorial sites and commemorative spaces, conservation areas, diplomatic sites, outdoor art, fountains, ponds and event spaces.

Stephen Brend

Grey-headed flying-fox Project Officer, Yarra Bend Park

A qualified zoologist, Stephen has over 20 years’ experience of managing wildlife conservation projects. His areas of expertise encompass endangered species conservation, protected area management, rural development, habitat ecology, and scientific research, and are supported by excellent written and verbal communication skills. Competent in all aspects of project management, including fundraising, previous employment has always involved leadership roles, often in isolated, field conditions. Emphasis is placed on collaborative management, stakeholder engagement, capacity building and consensus generation.

Tim McGrath

Threatened Species Officer, Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment

Tim has been working for the Australian Government for the last 10 years in the Threatened Species section. Prior to that he worked privately as a consultant ecologist in Queensland. His role with the Commonwealth is diverse but relates largely to threatened species listing assessments and conservation planning, particularly for reptiles. Other responsibilities include supporting regulatory areas of the Department with threatened species advice, engaging with traditional owners on the conservation of culturally important species, educating the agricultural sector on its responsibilities to threatened species under national environmental law and managing some responsibilities for nationally listed flying-foxes.

Warrick McGrath

Director Regulatory Strategy and Design, Biodiversity Division, Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning

Warrick is the Director of Regulatory Strategy and Design at DELWP. He has worked across three states in various regulatory design and policy roles over the last 20 years.

Lorraine Oliver

South East Biodiversity and Conservation, Department of Planning, Industry and Environment

Lorraine studied in Resource and Environmental Management, but her focus has always been on the people-part finding solutions to complex environmental problems. She has worked in threatened species conservation roles in south-east NSW for 20+years. Her role has always focussed on building connections between the community, the species or ecological communities under threat and the researchers working to conserve them. I have used many techniques, and those have all been drawn-upon since I began working on flying-fox conservation in 2015

Sue Ellis

LGNSW, Flying-fox Habitat Restoration Project

Sue Ellis is the Flying-fox Project Officer for the LGNSW Flying-fox Habitat Restoration Project. Her presentation draws on the work of the expert Advisory group and consultants who contributed to the design of this restoration project. Sue has a long term voluntary involvement in restoration and rehabilitation work in her local community on the Central Coast of NSW and a background in program management, adult education and community capacity building.

Matt Bradford

Senior Experimental Scientist, CSIRO Land and Water

Matt is a plant ecologist working out of CSIRO’s Atherton laboratory. He has 30yrs experience working primarily in rainforests and tropical woodland conducting botanical surveys and amassing datasets on long term plots. Another facet of his work has been investigating the role of seed dispersal in the rainforest, including Cassowaries and Flying-foxes.

Vural Yazgin

Manager, Statewide Wildlife Programs | Grampians - Forest, Fire and Regions | Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning

Vural has been involved in GHFF management since 2003 in various capacities including monitoring GHFF across metropolitan Melbourne during and after the relocation project in 2003. He is the Manager of the Statewide Wildlife Programs in DELWP and also the lead for the GHFF Discussion Paper project. Vural has a Master Degree in Wildlife Ecology and Management from the University of Melbourne.

Rod van der Ree

GHFF Victoria, Technical Executive - Ecology

Ecologist with specialist expertise and > 20 years experience in road ecology, urban ecology and wildlife research and monitoring. Currently blending ecological consulting at WSP with applied research at The University of Melbourne. Chair of the Victorian Roadside Environmental Committee and the Australasian Network for Ecology and Transportation.

Sera Steves

Secretary of Bats and Trees Society of Cairns

Sera holds a degree in Biology and Psychology with an Ethology focus and is currently working on her masters in Zoology and Ecology including research on crocodiles and blossom-bats. Sera has been in the zoo industry for 12 years working in both Australia and the United States as a zookeeper, animal trainer and wildlife presenter. Her main focus is birds and reptiles, but bats have been an interest of hers since she was a child. Sera is promoting bats and tourism using a model developed by Bat Conservation International in her home state of Texas.

Jess Bracks

Principal Wildlife Biologist, Ecosure

Jess is a Wildlife Biologist with 15 years’ practical experience with wildlife through positions in the veterinary, zoo and consulting industries. She has extensive experience in risk assessment and managing human/wildlife conflict, with demonstrated successful outcomes developing and implementing mitigation measures for a diverse array of wildlife. Jess is passionate about driving pragmatic wildlife management policy, balancing the needs of community and conservation, and is driving a National Flying-fox Strategy and Working Group to ensure a consistent and strategic national approach to flying-fox management and conservation.

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Megan Davidson

CEO Wildlife Victoria

Dr Megan Davidson is CEO of Wildlife Victoria, a large Not for Profit, Registered Charity whose purpose is wildlife rescue and protection, education, and advocacy. She is Secretary of Friends of Bats & Bushcare, the Parks Victoria volunteer group that cares for the Yarra Bend Park camp in Fairfield/Kew in Melbourne and conducts the annual soft release process for hand-reared Grey-headed flying-foxes. She is also an authorised flying-fox foster carer.

Hugh Pitty

Friends of Glebe Wetlands, Community Coordinator

-Hugh Pitty is the Community Coordinator for the Friends of Glebe Wetlands, a local conservation group in Bega on the Far South Coast of NSW. Hugh leads the Friends of Glebe Wetlands as a group of volunteers who conduct monthly flying-fox counts of the seasonal Grey-headed flying-foxes that form a breeding camp at the Glebe Park Lagoon each year from around October/November through to April/May. Through this valuable citizen science initiative, Hugh has built a data-set spanning the last eight years (2012 to 2020), which has made a valuable contribution to the National Flying-Fox Monitoring Program and also underpinned education about flying foxes in the local community.

Justin Welbergen

Associate Professor, Sydney Western University

Justin is an Associate Professor of Animal Ecology at the Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment (Western Sydney University), where he leads the Lab of Animal Ecology. He is also President of the Australasian Bat Society (ABS), a ~500-member non-profit organisation whose aim is to promote the conservation and study of bats across Australasia. Justin has published his work in SCIENCE, Nature Climate Change, Current Biology and Proceedings of the Royal Society, Series B (2,3) and BMC Biology, among others; and he has contributed to several high-profile reviews in Annual Reviews in Ecology, Evolution and Systematics, Ecology Letters, Biological Reviews, Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, and Animal Behaviour.

Tyron de Kuawe

Natural Areas Conservation Officer, Sunshine Coast Council

Tyron is a Natural Areas Conservation Officer with a strength in developing novel management techniques for wildlife conservation and conflict issues. Tyron is highly experienced in flying-fox management and conservation and is a member of the SEQ flying-fox managers group and the LGAQ/DES flying-fox special working group. He also presented at Annual flying-fox forum 2019 on novel Heat-stress Autonomous Response Unit, for which he was a Finalist for Sunshine Coast Council CEO Awards 2019 Innovation Category (Project lead). Tyron was also involved in the Queensland-first trial of subsidised services program for flying-fox management.

Lindsay Delzoppo

Director -Wildlife Northern Operations, Department of Environment and Science

Lindsay is the Director of Northern Wildlife Operations, where he is responsible for: public and stakeholder engagement, delivery of cassowary, crocodile and flying-fox management programs, development of wildlife management policies such as flying-fox codes of practice and roost management guidelines, and investigations and compliance under Queensland’s Nature Conservation laws. His previous roles include Director of Environmental Impact Assessment (DEH), Director of Regional Service Delivery (DERM), Director of Sustainable Industries (Environmental Protection Agency), and Regional Director for the far northern region of Queensland (QPWS).

Jason van Weenen

Ecologist, Threatened & Abundant Species, Department for Environment and Water, SA

Jason is an ecologist with the South Australian Department for Environment and Water and has been working with threatened species conservation projects and native species management for 24 years. He now sits within the ecology team of the Green Adelaide Landscapes Region and has been involved with flying foxes since their arrival in South Australia in 2010. In his personal time, Jason is committed to the restoration of bushland areas in his care, volunteering in wildlife conservation projects and leading biodiversity conservation activities on one of SA’s offshore islands

Maree Treadwell Kerr

President of Bats and Trees Society of Cairns

Maree has a Masters of Wildlife Management and is currently undertaking a higher degree examining societal values for flying foxes by assessing impact of education/interpretation programs, including tourism potential, in changing attitudes toward flying-foxes. She is a joint convenor of the Australasian Bat Society’s (ABS) Flying-fox Expert Group and created and coordinates the annual ABS Australasian Bat Night program, including coordinating the Cairns Bat Festival since 2015. Maree has presented to national conferences of Wildlife Tourism Australia, Australasian Wildlife Management Society, Australasian Bat Society,and Interpretation Australia on the subjects of bat tourism, interpretation and flying-fox management.

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Where Was it Held?

The Forum was held at Ecosure’s office in Brisbane where the team utilised technology to gather speakers from all across Australia to share insight, research and messages to forum delegates who could login from the comfort of their homes.

We used HOPIN, one of the world’s leading all-in-one virtual event platform where attendees can learn, interact, and connect with people.

You can access all the LIVE recordings and PDF downloads instantly.

Access the 2020 replay