This postgraduate student award is made possible through the generosity of Allen Keast, Emeritus Professor of Biology at Queens University, Kingston Ontario, Canada. Professor Keast is arguably Australia's most influential ornithologist if account is taken of the scope of his research, the number of scientists with whom he has worked, and the part he has played in educating the global ornithological community about Australia's birds. Professor Keast is a Fellow of the RAOU and was awarded the D. L. Serventy Medal in 1995. His desire to fund a postgraduate award stems from a lifelong passion to encourage and support young ornithologists. Allen Keast sadly passed away in May 2009.

2011 PAKRA Recipient

The winner of the PAKRA 2011 is Christine Connelly of Deakin University. Her research project was titled "Coping in the big city: Investigating the effects of urbanization on eastern yellow robin populations in Melbourne, Victoria".

Urbanization is recognised as a key threat to biodiversity. However, the effects of urbanization on native fauna in Australia are poorly understood. There is a need for studies that investigate the responses of individual species to urbanization. The eastern yellow robin is an ideal model species for investigating urbanization because it occurs in some urbanized areas, but is known to decline in response to urban disturbance and has previously been shown to be significantly threatened by fragmentation processes in agricultural landscapes. It is widely distributed and locally abundant, and is a ground foraging insectivore, which increases the likelihood of capture. Ground foraging bird species are declining in woodland ecosystems of southern Australia. Further detailed information about how this species responds to the specific pressures of urbanisation is critical to our understanding of how to manage urban remnants, to ensure the continuing success of eastern yellow robins and other ground foraging, insectivorous species.
 
This project will contribute to our understanding of individual species responses to urbanization, a key threatening process for many native Australian bird species. It will further our knowledge about the response to urbanization of eastern yellow robins, and thereby facilitate better management of remnant woodlands to ensure the continuing success of this species.

2010 PAKRA Recipient

The winner of the PAKRA 2010 is Kate Stevens of Deakin University. Her research focuses on the behaviour and ecology of the Grey-crowned Babbler Pomatostomus temporalis.

The Grey-crowned Babbler (GCB) is listed as endangered within Victoria and numerous knowledge gaps persist. To ensure survival of GCBs, further ecological and biological studies will ensure that the best available conservation information is made available for management strategies.

In Victoria the GCB is largely persisting within decreasing areas of roadside vegetation. Coupled with this, Babblers are habitat specialists and under increasing pressure from the effects of fragmentation on their highly social and cooperative breeding nature. This study is focused on specific aspects of GCB ecology that are currently poorly understood. A comparative habitat-use analysis, incorporating different vegetation types across an environmental gradient, will determine critical habitat resources across the southern part of their range. Determining fragmentation and isolation thresholds will help identify populations under greatest risk of extinction, and an understanding of brood-nest site-selection patterns will highlight areas of reproductive processes which may be better managed.