Bird Conservation Scholars 2022: Carla Bruinsma and Erin Bok

Project summaries

Carla Bruinsma is a UTAS honours student studying the distribution of forty-spotted pardalote habitat in Tasmania. She has a particular interest in feral animal eradication, re-introduction ecology and land management. The research the Bird Conservation Fund is supporting aims to validate the modeled distribution of Eucalyptus viminalis, the tree that the endangered forty-spotted pardalote depends upon for foraging. This information will help scientists assess the viability of re-introducing the forty-spotted pardalote into its historical range.

Erin Bok will be working on a PhD project investigating manna, a sugary juice produced by E viminalis trees, which is the pardalotes’ main food source. Erin is working to understand what factors underpin variation in manna quantity and quality, and how these factors drive pardalote behaviour, fitness and ultimately the woodland bird community more broadly.