The University of Western Australia

Dr Mike Craig

Adjunct Lecturer
Ecosystem Restoration and Intervention Ecology Research Group

Contact details

Address

Ecosystem Restoration and Intervention Ecology Research Group
The University of Western Australia (M084)
35 Stirling Highway
CRAWLEY WA 6009
Australia

Phone

6488 4566

Email

michael.craig@uwa.edu.au

Location

Room G32, Botany and Biology Building, Crawley campus

Biography

I was born in England but emigrated with my family to Australia in 1976. I went to school in Perth and then did my undergraduate and postgradute degrees at UWA, graduating with a BSc(Hons). in Botany and Zoology in 1992 and a PhD in 2001. My thesis was titled "The short-term impacts of logging on the jarrah forest avifauna". I then worked as a Rainforest Ecology faculty at the Centre for Rainforest Studies in the Wet Tropics of Queensland for 2.5. After that I returned to Perth and worked as an environmental consultant for 3 years before returning to research at Murdoch University in April 2005, where I am still based. I became an adjunct at UWA in January 2009 when my current project moved to become based at UWA.

Key research

I am primarily interested in understanding human impacts on ecosystems and how we might ameliorate or reverse those impacts. My particularly focus in on understanding the role that restoration might play in reducing human impacts on faunal communities and developing techniques to increase and accelerate faunal return to restored sites.

Publications

Webala, P.W., Craig, M.D., Law, B.S., Armstrong, K.N., Wayne, A.F. & Bradley, J.S. in press. Bat habitat use in logged jarrah eucalypt forests of south-western Australia. Journal of Applied Ecology

Archibald, R.D., Craig, M.D., Bialkowski, K., Howe, C., Burgess, T.I. & Hardy, G.E.StJ. 2011. Managing small remnants of native forest to increase biodiversity within plantation landscapes in the south west of Western Australia. Forest Ecology and Management 261: 1254-1264.

Archibald, R.D., Craig, M.D., Burgess, T.I. & Hardy, G.E.StJ. 2010. Bird communities in small native remnants of contrasting understorey condition within bluegum plantations. Ecological Management and Restoration 11: 215-217.

Webala, P.W., Craig, M.D., Law, B.S., Wayne, A.F. & Bradley, J.S. 2010. Roost site selection by Southern forest bat Vespadelus regulus and Gould’s long-eared bat Nyctophilus gouldi in logged Jarrah forests, south-western Australia. Forest Ecology and Management 260: 1780-1790.

Craig, M.D., Hobbs, R.J., Grigg, A.H., Garkaklis, M.J., Grant, C.D, Fleming, P.A. & Hardy, G.E.StJ. 2010. Does thinning and burning sites revegetated after bauxite mining improve habitat for terrestrial vertebrates? Restoration Ecology 18: 300-310.

Craig, M.D., Grigg, A.H., Garkaklis, M.J., Hobbs, R.J., Grant, C.D., Fleming, P.A. & Hardy, G.E.StJ. 2009. Does habitat structure influence capture probabilities? A study of reptiles in a eucalypt forest. Wildlife Research 36: 509-515.

Davis, C., Fleming, P, Craig, M., Grigg, A. & Hardy, G. 2008. A funnel trap for capture of small arboreal reptiles. Amphibia-Reptilia 29: 413-423.

Swinburn M.L., Fleming P.A., Craig M.D., Grigg A.H., Garkaklis M.J., Hobbs R.J. & Hardy G.E.St..J. 2007. The importance of grasstrees (Xanthorrhoea preissii) as habitat for mardo (Antechinus flavipes leucogaster) during post-fire recovery. Wildlife Research 34: 640-651.

Craig M.D., Withers P.C. & Bradshaw S.D. 2007. Diet of Ctenotus xenopleura (Reptilia: Scincidae) in the southern Goldfields of Western Australia. Australian Zoologist 34: 89-91.

Craig M.D., Seabrook L.S. & Freeman A.N.D. 2007. Soil surveys in the lower Peterson Creek: how important is sampling scale to identification of original vegetation communities? Proceedings of the Royal Society of Queensland 113: 3-7.

Craig M.D., Garkaklis M.J., Hardy G. E. St.J., Grigg A.H., Grant C.D., Fleming P.A. & Hobbs R.J. 2007. Ecology of the western bearded dragon (Pogona minor) in unmined forest and forest restored after bauxite mining in south-west Western Australia. Australian Journal of Zoology 55: 107-116.

Craig M.D. 2007. The short-term effects of edges created by forestry operations on the bird community of the jarrah forest, south-western Australia. Austral Ecology 32: 386-396.

Craig M.D. 2007. The ecology of the rufous treecreeper in the southern jarrah forest of southwestern Australia and implications for its conservation and management. Australian Journal of Zoology 55: 41-48.

Craig M.D., Withers P.C. & Bradshaw S.D. 2006. Patterns of diet and microhabitat use by four species of sympatric Ctenotus lizards: do they reveal foraging specialisation? Journal of the Royal Society of Western Australia 89: 1-5.

Craig M.D. & Roberts J.D. 2005. The short-term impact of timber harvesting on the jarrah forest avifauna: implications for the design and analysis of logging experiments. Biological Conservation 124: 177-188.

Craig M.D. 2004. The value of unlogged buffers for vulnerable bird species in the jarrah forest of south-west Western Australia. Pp. 774-782 in Conservation of Australia’s Forest Fauna (second edition). Ed. by D. Lunney. Royal Zool. Soc. NSW: Mosman.

Craig M.D. 2004. A comparison of species counts and density estimates derived from area searches, line transects and point counts in the jarrah forest of south-western Australia. Corella 28: 55-59.

Craig M.D. & Chapman A. 2003. The effects of short-term drought on the vertebrate fauna of Wanjarri Nature Reserve. Journal of the Royal Society of Western Australia 86: 133-137.

Craig M.D. 2003. An ecological study of the Blue-faced Parrot-Finch (Erythrura trichroa macgillivrayi) near Yungaburra, Australia. Emu 103: 363-368.

Abbott I., Mellican A., Craig M.D., Williams M., Liddelow G. & Wheeler I. 2003. Short-term logging and burning impacts on species richness, abundance and community structure of birds in open eucalypt forest in Western Australia. Wildlife Research 30: 321-329.

Florentine S.K., Craig M. & Westbrooke M.E. 2003. Flowering, fruiting, germination and seed dispersal of the newly emerging weed Solanum mauritianum Scop. (Solanaceae) in the wet tropics of north Queensland. Plant Protection Quarterly 18: 116-120.

Craig M.D. 2002. The comparative ecology of four passerine species in jarrah forests used for timber production in south-western Australia. Conservation Biology 16: 1609-1619.

Craig M., Darnell J., Davis C., Kirkby T & Singor M. 2001. Waders at Lake McLarty, Western Australia. The Stilt 38: 18-32.

Craig M.D. & Roberts J.D. 2001. Evaluation of the impact of time of day, weather, vegetation density and bird movements on outcomes of area searches for birds in eucalypt forest in southwestern Australia. Wildlife Research 28: 1-7.

Simmons L. W., Llorens T., Schinzig M., Hosken D. & Craig M. 1994. Sperm competition selects for male mate choice and protandry in the bushcricket, Requena verticalis (Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae). Animal Behaviour 47: 117-122.

Simmons L. W., Craig M., Llorens T., Schinzig M. & Hosken D. 1993. Bushcricket spermatophores vary in accord with sperm competition and parental investment theory. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B 251: 183-186.

Roles, responsibilities and expertise

As a Senior Research Fellow, I am responsible for managing all aspects of the ARC Linkage Grant LP0882677 "Understanding successional processes to maintain vertebrate populations in production landscapes" including primary responsibility for experimental design, data collection, manuscript preparation and publication and student supervision. As of February 2011, I supervise 5 PhD students, 2 enrolled at UWA and three enrolled at Murdoch plus 2 honours students, both enrolled at Murdoch.

I have expertise in knowledge of faunal succession in restored areas and techniques to accelerate faunal return to restored areas. I also have expertise in animal sampling techniques using cage, Elliot, funnel and pit trapping and various techniques for censusing bush and waterbirds, including holding an A-class bird-banding licence. I have expertise in identification of Australian vertebrates and birds in most parts of the world.

Funding received

ARC Linkage Grant LP0882677 "Understanding successional processes to maintain vertebrate populations in production landscapes", June 2008, $558 723 over 5 years.

ARC Linkage Grant LP0455309 "Management of rehabilitated bauxite mines to accelerate the return of vertebrate fauna", April 2005, $223 536 over 3 years.

Industrial relevance

Our primary industry partner is Alcoa World Alumina Australia and our research feeds directly into Alcoa's adaptive management system so that improvements to restoration practices can be made as information becomes available.

Languages

English, French, Spanish

Memberships

Society for Ecological Restoration International
Society for Conservation Biology
Ecological Society of Australia
Birds Australia

Previous positions

March 2004 – April 2005
Biota Environmental Sciences
Position: Senior Zoologist

September 2002 – March 2004
Michael Craig Consulting Ecologist
Position: Freelance Environmental Consultant

March 2000 – September 2002
School for Field Studies: Centre for Rainforest Studies
Position: Rainforest Ecology faculty

Teaching

Guest Lecturer in BIOL3303 Conservation Biology and Restoration Ecology at UWA
Guest Lecturer in BIO317 Wildlife Biology and ENV368 Restoration Ecology at Murdoch

Current external positions

Senior Research Fellow, Murdoch University

New and noteworthy

Primary organiser of symposium "How can we restore to maximise faunal recolonisation? Using trait-filter models to identify improvements to restoration practice" to be presented at the Society for Ecological Restoration International 4th World Conference on Ecological Restoration held in Merida, Mexico in August 2011

Current projects

ARC Linkage Grant LP0882677 "Understanding successional processes to maintain vertebrate populations in production landscapes"

Research profile

Research profile and publications