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Our understanding of the habitat needs of grassland fauna is often incomplete because of their cryptic behaviour. This presents a barrier to identifying important habitat attributes, whether these change at different spatial scales, and how this informs management decisions. Here, we use a critically endangered bird, the Plains‐wanderer (Pedionomus torquatus, Pedionomidae), as an exemplar of the challenge of managing grasslands for cryptic species. Until now, almost all ecological knowledge of Plains‐wanderers has come from the detection of nocturnally roosting individuals and habitat assessments at fine‐scales that indicate open swards are preferred habitat. We GPS‐tracked 13 adult Plains‐wanderers to better understand diurnal habitat utilization in native grasslands of south‐eastern Australia. Using these data, we assessed whether Plains‐wanderers select for different habitat attributes during the day and night, and whether this varied according to spatial scale. At the fine‐scale (< 1 ha), daytime foraging occurred in denser swards than those of nocturnal roosting sites. At the patch‐scale (1–50 ha), Plains‐wanderers selected for denser vegetation, with higher grass and lichen cover, whilst avoiding areas where structure was impacted by a high exotic plant cover. Plains‐wanderers did not select habitat based on grassland type at the landscape‐scale (>100 ha). We demonstrate that Plains‐wanderers require grasslands with both open and denser swards to support foraging and roosting. In doing so, we address the biases associated with habitat assessments based on roost‐only locations and extend known habitat associations critical to the successful management of the species. Our findings highlight that a precautionary approach to the classification of habitat requirements is warranted when uncertainty around habitat use of cryptic grassland fauna exists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: There has been an increased international policy focus on the factors that may contribute to, and prevent, the normalization of gambling for young people. However, there is still limited research, which investigates the role of advertising in shaping young people's gambling attitudes and consumption intentions. Methods: Mixed methods study of 111 young people aged 11-16 years recruited from community basketball stadiums in Victoria, Australia, between May and July 2018. Interviewer-assisted surveys investigated recall and awareness of sports betting brands, perceptions of promotional strategies, intention to gamble, and reasons for betting on particular sports. Quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and χ2 tests. Thematic analyses were used to interpret qualitative responses. Results: Young people had high recall and awareness of advertising, with most able to name at least one betting brand (n = 90, 81.1%), and many demonstrating a high awareness of the distinct characteristics (such as colors and appeal strategies) of different brands. A fifth of young people (n = 25, 22.5%) expressed intentions to gamble at 18 years, with boys significantly more likely than girls to state they would gamble (χ2 = 10.90, p = .001). Young people perceived that advertising strategies associated with inducement promotions would be the most influential in encouraging individuals to gamble. While many young people took promotions at face value, there was evidence that some were able to critically engage with and challenge the messages within marketing. Discussion and conclusions: Current regulatory structures appear to be ineffective in limiting young people's recall and awareness of gambling advertising. Lessons from tobacco control support the application of precautionary approaches as a more effective way to limit young people's development of positive gambling attitudes and behaviors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Australia is a federation of States. This political structure necessitates collaborative arrangements between Australian governments to harmonize national regulation of gene technology and food standards. Extensive political negotiation among institutions of federal government has managed regulation of GM crops and food. Well-developed human resources in Australian government provided numerous policy documents facilitating a transparent political process. Workable legislation has been devised in the face of criticisms of gene technology though the political process. Conflicts between potential disruptions to food commodity trade by precautionary proposals for environmental protection were one cause of political tensions, and differences in policy priorities at regional political levels versus national and international forums for negotiation were another. Australian policy outcomes on GM crops reflect (a) strong economic self-interest in innovative and productive farming, (b) reliance on global agricultural market reforms through the Cairns trade group and the WTO, and (c) the importance of Codex Alimentarius and WTO instruments SPS and TBT. Precautionary frameworks for GM food safety assurance that are inconsistent with WTO obligations were avoided in legislation. Since 2008 the 2 major parties, Australian Labor Party (ALP) and the Liberals appear to have reached a workable consensus at the Federal policy level about an important role for agricultural biotechnology in Australia's economic future. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Simple Summary: The domestic cat, Felis catus, is often cross-bred with other species in the cat family to produce hybrid or 'designer' cats that are sought by people as pets. However, hybrid cats are often surrendered to wildlife shelters, or released, which leads to concern that they may establish free-roaming populations and damage native wildlife. In 2008, the Australian government rejected an application, on precautionary grounds, to import savannah cats (hybrids of the domestic cat and serval Leptailurus serval) into the country. We review the limited information informing this decision and then present a framework that identifies the native mammal species likely to have been most at risk of predation from savannah cats if importation and establishment had occurred. Assuming that savannah cats hunt similar prey to those that are hunted by both parent species, we estimate that 91% of Australia's extant terrestrial mammal fauna would likely face some risk of predation from savannah cats, including 93% of non-volant mammal species that have threatened conservation status. The framework results strongly validate the decision to ban savannah cats from Australia. We suggest that our framework approach could be adapted to assess the likely risks that are posed by the arrival of other hybrid cats or hybrids of other animals. Hybrid cats—created by crossing different species within the family Felidae—are popular pets, but they could potentially threaten native species if they escape and establish free-roaming populations. To forestall this possibility, the Australian government imposed a specific ban on importation of the savannah cat, a hybrid created by crossing the domestic cat Felis catus and serval Leptailurus serval, in 2008. We develop a decision–framework that identifies those species of non-volant native mammals in Australia that would likely have been susceptible to predation by savannah cats if importation and establishment had occurred. We assumed that savannah cats would hunt ecologically similar prey to those that are depredated by both the domestic cat and the serval, and categorised native mammals as having different levels of susceptibility to predation by savannah cats based on their size, habitat range, and behaviour. Using this framework, we assessed savannah cats as likely to add at least 28 extant native mammal species to the 168 that are known already to be susceptible to predation by the domestic cat, posing a risk to 91% of Australia's extant non-volant terrestrial mammal species (n = 216) and to 93% of threatened mammal species. The framework could be generalised to assess risks from any other hybrid taxa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]