Background. We studied the occurrence of two sympatric wallabies, the red-necked pademelon (Thylogale thetis) and the red-legged pademelon (T. stigmatica) in north-eastern New South Wales, Australia in relation to structural habitat attributes. At our study site, both species inhabit closed forest environments and have overlapping distributions, but T. thetis leaves the forest at night to graze adjacent grassy forest edges whereas T. stigmatica remains within the forest and browses forest vegetation. The objectives of the study were to investigate how structural attributes of two forest types, wet sclerophyll forest and rainforest, relate to the fine-scale occurrence of these two wallaby species within the forested environment.

Methods. We gathered occurrence data from 48 camera trap stations divided equally between rainforest and wet sclerophyll forest. At each camera point, we also measured a range of structural habitat attributes to determine habitat affiliations for the two Thylogale species. Principal component analyses were used to describe major trends in habitat, and generalised linear models were used to describe the efficacy of the variables in predicting habitat occurrence of each species.

Results. The number of occurrences of Thylogale thetis was significantly greater than occurrences of T. stigmatica, which was driven by significantly greater occurrences of T. thetis in wet sclerophyll forest. There was both spatial and temporal partitioning between the two species; there was a significant difference in the occurrences of the two species at individual cameras and T. stigmatica had a different activity schedule than T. thetis in wet sclerophyll forest, where the latter reached its greatest rate of occurrence. At a finer (camera station) scale, occurrences of T. thetis increased with proximity to roads and grassy edges and at sites that were less rocky and less steep. T. stigmatica occurrence increased in the presence of rainforest elements like vines, palms and ferns, more ground-level cover and tree-fall gaps and at sites with fewer emergent eucalypts.

Conclusion. Our findings have implications for managing these pademelons and their habitats. T. thetis is a common species that was encountered more often than T. stigmatica, and it responded positively to human disturbance like roadsides and grassy edges, presumably because these areas provided good grazing opportunities. By comparison, T. stigmatica is a threatened species, and it responded to natural disturbance like tree-fall gaps where lateral cover was greater, and where rainforest food plants may be more abundant. Our results suggest, therefore, that conservation of the threatened T. stigmatica requires the preservation of intact rainforest.

Anthropogenic (man-made) noise constitutes a novel and widespread pollutant which is increasing in prevalence in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, resulting in alterations of natural soundscapes. There is proliferating evidence that noise leads to maladaptive behaviour in wildlife, yet few studies have addressed the effect on mammalian parent–offspring interactions. We investigated the impact of road noise on dwarf mongoose (Helogale parvula) offspring nearest-neighbour decision-making while foraging, using a field-based playback experiment. We predicted that offspring would forage closer to groupmates, especially adult and dominant individuals, when experiencing road noise compared with ambient sound to reduce communication masking and alleviate stress. We also predicted that noise would have a reduced effect with increasing offspring age owing to reduced reliance on adult groupmates for provisioning and predator defence. However, we found that mean nearest-neighbour distance and nearest-neighbour intrinsic characteristics (age, sex and dominance status) did not differ significantly between sound treatments, and these responses did not vary significantly with focal individual age. Noise may not impact nearest-neighbour decision-making owing to habituation from chronic natural exposure; alternatively, noise could induce stress and distraction, resulting in maladaptive decision-making. Future work should aim to detangle the underlying mechanisms mediating parent–offspring interactions in conditions of anthropogenic noise.

The Nazi regime occupying Europe during World War II built a series of concentration camps for those opposing the regime, political and criminal adversaries, and eventually victims of the racial, Aryan policy. It was the suggestion of Germany's elite physician to the Schutzstaffel (SS), Reichfuehrer H.H. (Heinrich Luitpold Himmler), to use the available workforce in the camps, before their eventual liquidation. What was the outcome?

The COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated the potential to reduce our carbon footprint especially by reducing travel. We aim to describe healthcare and health education services' contribution to the global climate emergency and identify the need for increased use of virtual health service delivery and undergraduate/postgraduate education to help reduce the impact of health service and health education delivery on the environment. Health care services, as one of the largest contributors to carbon emissions, must take steps to rapidly reduce their carbon footprint. Health services have unfortunately paid little attention to this issue until recently. Virtual healthcare and education have a valuable role in transition to a net carbon-zero outcome. Given the increasing use of and satisfaction with virtual health services such as telehealth, and the increase in virtual education opportunities, it is important that a concerted effort is undertaken to increase their use across health services and education in the future.