A University of Queensland (UQ) scientist who has won a $50,000 UQ Foundation Research Excellence Award this week plans to establish the world’s largest echidna research centre.
The awards are a highlight of UQ Research Week, being held this week to celebrate UQ's outstanding research.
Dr Steve Johnston, senior lecturer and reproductive biologist in UQ’s School of Animal Studies, plans to set up a national research centre to be housed on Queensland’s Gold Coast.
Dr Johnston said the project provided a rare opportunity to develop an in-depth echidna research facility for the first time anywhere in the world.
“The project aims to allow scientists from Australia and overseas to study the animals in a way that has never been possible before,” Dr Johnston said.
“Echidnas are ubiquitous in the sense that you’ll find them everywhere from Kosciusko National Park to the middle of the desert.
“The problem is that they are very cryptic, so it is very difficult to observe them in the wild.
“This has been an issue in the past in trying to work on these animals and that is why it would be so good to have a dedicated facility with a decent number of animals to study.”
Dr Johnston said the UQ Echidna Study Program would probably attract a lot of attention from overseas because of the key that echidnas hold in terms of understanding the evolutionary process of animals.
“Echidnas are very primitive mammals and they can teach us a lot about evolutionary biology,” he said.
“They will also help us to understand the reproductive physiology of animals including other mammals, reptiles and even birds.
“We expect the research will enable us to learn more about the reproduction of animals such as those in the endangered monotreme group which includes the platypus, and the short and long-beaked echidnas.”
Dr Johnston said scientists had not had access to a decent number of captive echidnas to study in the past and this is why so little was known about them.
“If you only study these animals in the wild, you miss a lot of the physiology of the echidnas because they can not be observed at all times,” he said.
“By monitoring the animals 24 hours a day, we will have the chance to learn about broad aspects of their physiology and their behaviour patterns.”
Dr Johnston’s other previous research projects have focused largely on wildlife reproduction and developing techniques for assisted breeding.
He is a past recipient of Australian Research Council funding for study programs with animals such as koalas, the southern hairy nosed wombat, the ibis, black marlin and Australian parrots.
For more information contact: Dr Steve Johnston, Senior lecturer and Reproductive Biologist at UQ’s School of Animals Studies, telephone: 0408 280 963 or Tiffany Lippett, Senior UQ Communications Officer, telephone: (07) 3365 2049. Pix of Dr Johnston and a spiny friend are available from UQ photo library coordinator Diana Lilley at telephone 07 3365 2753.
