Photo by Topa Petit, Cercartetus concinnus

Vivianna Miritis

What is your current area of research?

I currently work as the Leadbeater’s Possum Field Officer for Zoos Victoria where I conduct monitoring surveys for Leadbeater’s possums in the wild, in particular the genetically distinct lowland population in Yellingbo Nature Conservation Reserve. Leadbeater’s possums are restricted to a 70 x 90km area in Victoria’s Central Highlands, with exception to the Yellingbo population, which is the only lowland population left in the wild. With less than 40 individuals left in Yellingbo, we are in the process of undertaking a bold plan to translocate the population to a new locality to combat their continuing decline due to the degrading quality of their habitat.

Tell us about your background; what made you interested in research?

I was born in Australia but spent five years of my childhood in Greece. My aunty had a small boat and we would spend most of the summer exploring the islands and snorkelling. I have always felt a close affinity with the ocean and animals, but didn’t really think of conservation biology as a profession until my early 20s.

It definitely took me a while to find my feet coming out of high school. I initially enrolled in a Bachelor of Arts/Science with a double major in psychology and biology. I spent a lot of this time feeling quite lost and ended up graduating with a Bachelor of Science thinking I wanted to be a vet. During this time, I also started working in customer service at Werribee Open Range Zoo (one of Zoos Victoria’s three properties). Zoos Victoria really opened my eyes to conservation work, and it wasn’t until I graduated that I started really exploring wildlife research through volunteering for the zoo’s conservation projects.

I decided to go back to university to undertake a Bachelor of Environmental Science (Wildlife & Conservation Biology), which I completed at Deakin University. This time it felt different, I finally knew exactly what I wanted my career to look like and I made the most out of my degree. I volunteered for dozens of environmental organisations, I completed two overseas placements in South Africa and the Amazon in Peru, and by my third year I felt confident enough to go for an interview for a Research Assistant role at the zoo focusing on herps. Unfortunately, I am terrible at herps, I spent most days sending my herp friend pictures of “frog eggs” only to find out they were in fact condensation or slug eggs. However, they were really impressed with how I interviewed and instead offered me a Research Assistant role focusing on eastern barred bandicoots.

During this role I got to be a part of the eastern barred bandicoot release to Phillip Island, which established a new population of mainland eastern barred bandicoots. Then I took on the French Island cat monitoring, which eventually led to my honours research looking at feral cats and their spatial and temporal interactions with long-nosed potoroos. I’ll have a paper coming out in early 2020 in the Wildlife Research Special Issue, which focuses on how this native species is persisting in the presence of a feral predator and what this means for the future management of threatened mammals.

What are some of the highlights from following this career path?

The greatest highlight by far has to be the places I have been able to visit through study and work. Going overseas for my tertiary placements was one of the best experiences I’ve had so far but also currently working in Victoria’s Central Highlands often makes me catch my breath—mostly, because the work is physically demanding but also because it really is breathtaking. The towering mountain ash, the colourful bark of snow gum, the intricate leaves of myrtle beach, the smell of southern sassafras, the endless creeks, and of course the wildlife, are some of my favourite things about the Central Highlands.

My second highlight was releasing eastern barred bandicoots on to French Island in October this year. This was the first main release of a breeding EBB population to the island and has been in the planning for 12 years. The release was led by one of my mentors, Dr Amy Coetsee from Zoos Victoria, and involved many other people including industry partners and the French Island community. After two years of French Island ferry trips as a Research Assistant and honours student it was amazing to be a part of the release

What do you consider are some of your best achievements?

I am proud of how far I have come—in the last three-and-half years I have completed a second degree with honours, I represented Deakin University as their student ambassador, I landed a job as Research Assistant while still in undergrad, I won the Adolph Bolliger award at the 2019 Australian Mammal Society conference as an honours student, I have my first paper coming out, and I have been accepted to start a PhD in February 2020. I still have a long way to go, there are so many amazing people within the ecology community that inspire me

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Out of everything I listed above, my favourite achievement by far has been landing my current Leadbeater’s Possum Field Officer role. I was following Leadbeater’s possums through the forest long before this role. I would volunteer hours surveying for them and catching even a glimpse of them through the canopy felt really special. Now I work full-time researching them and it often feels quite surreal.

What is your favourite activity in mammal research?

Some of my favourite activities are going out at night and doing spotlight surveys—the forest comes alive at night and I love seeing some of favourite mammals including greater gliders, yellow-bellied gliders, feathertail gliders, brush-tailed phascogales, Leadbeater’s possums… basically anything arboreal.

My second love is visiting arid Australia. I love the red soil, standing barefoot on the warm sand at night and watching the night sky, but I also love desert mammals especially marsupial moles which I hope to one day see in real life.

Do you have an interesting mammal anecdote?

Despite being the size of an apple, Leadbeater’s possums can be very territorial. We often rely on cameras to survey for them, but sometimes during spotlight surveys we try to call them in by mimicking their call. One night we were at a site that hadn’t had any LBP recordings since the Black Saturday fires in 2009. We were using a thermal camera and I started mimicking the LBP call, and there amongst darkness started to appear flashes of heat running up and down the canopy. It was Leadbeater’s possums and they were really drawn to my voice, so much that they were coming down to eye level less than a metre away.

I was trying to contain the smile on my face while trying to continue to call, then out of nowhere I felt this weight on my head, an LBP had launched itself on to my beanie. As quickly as they appeared, they vanished into the night, and we had witnessed the first colony in that area since the 2009 fires.

Do you have any advice for other students interested in mammalogy?

It is a competitive career path but also a really important one, now more than ever we need people who care about our planet and our amazing native wildlife. If you are thinking of going to university to study in this field, then I highly recommend you do. If you are studying, make the most of it, university can only give you the right tools but it’s up to you to gain experience that will set you apart from everyone else. One thing that I don’t regret is volunteering; I have gained so many different skills, made some great connections, and gained experiences that I have been able to talk about in interviews, but most of all I find it incredibly rewarding

What are your plans for the future?

In February 2020 I am starting a PhD at the University of Sydney looking at conserving threatened species in post-fire landscapes on NSW’s South Coast—which unfortunately has become very relevant in the past few weeks. In general, I am interested in research that looks at alternative ways of managing threatened species outside of predator exclusion areas, but mostly I am interested in research that takes into account the aspirations and knowledge of Traditional Owners. The main objectives of my PhD will be to see how refuges, natural and artificial, can be used as a conservation tool for terrestrial mammals post-fire; and to investigate whether the impacts of fire on terrestrial mammals differ between Aboriginal cultural burns and the current conventional hazard reduction burns performed by the National Parks and Wildlife Service.

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