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Go into the draw to win an awesome prize pack!

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Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria is a centre of excellence for botanical research. We play a vital role in the study of Australia's plants, fungi and algae, enriching our understanding of native biodiversity and its urgent conservation needs.

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Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria plays a leading role in the conservation of plants through biodiversity research, programs to protect rare and threatened plants, and the study of habitats. This work is supported by education and visitor programs about the importance of plants to life.

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Keeping your Cat Safe and Happy at Home - RSPCA

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Keeping your Cat Safe and Happy at Home - RSPCA

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Providing a fully enclosed secure outdoor area is a great way of expanding your cat's environment. This option fully encloses an outdoor space for your cat such as an area of your garden, balcony, courtyard, or patio by using a barrier such as net, wire, or solid material to secure all the potential exit points (to the sides and, potentially, overhead). Make sure the enclosure is both escape-proof and animal-proof (to prevent other animals getting in). The enclosure should be attached to your cat's indoor space via a window or cat flap so that they have free and immediate access in and out of the indoor/outdoor spaces.

Having your cat's outdoor space linked to the indoors means your cat can choose where they spend their time. They can retreat into the house if something outside scares them, and there is less risk of accidental escape than if you are moving them into a separate enclosure. If you have a balcony or veranda which can be made escape-proof, this is another option.

Whilst not recommended, if a contained outdoor space linked to the indoors is not possible, you can build a free-standing enclosure, but it's important to make sure that it is safe and secure, and also feels safe and secure to your cat. It should be a large, enclosed area with all of your cat's essential resources in the enclosure. This includes: a variety of elevated platforms at different heights, hiding places, scratching areas, food, water, more than one litter tray, and adequate protection from the weather (e.g. sun, rain, wind) and extremes of heat and cold.

It can be difficult to provide an environment that can be kept at a comfortable temperature in a freestanding enclosure. Ensuring that it does not get too hot or cold is an important consideration as the cat will not have the choice to move to another area to help regulate their temperature. Providing as many options as possible within the enclosure to help your cat regulate their temperature is important. For example, hiding places that that are warm and cosy (such as a box with warm bedding) and hiding places that will be cooler (like shady spots under cat-friendly plants). It is also vital to monitor cats in an enclosure and know the signs of heat and cold stress so that prompt action can be taken if they are in trouble.

Cats must also have the opportunity for daily extended social interaction with their people and time inside the house to meet their social needs and to build and maintain the human-animal bond.

If you have more than one cat, if they are part of the same social group they should be able to socialise with each other. However, putting two or more cats who are not in the same social group into close proximity in an enclosed space with few options to create or maintain distance between them can cause significant stress, and even possibly lead to physical conflict.

It is strongly recommended that a free-standing enclosure is connected to the house (or a part of the house) with a tunnel and cat flap for safety, social connection, and welfare considerations. That way the cat can choose to be inside or in their enclosure whenever they want and wherever they feel safest, happiest, and most comfortable.

What if connecting an enclosure to the house isn't possible?

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Cat Safety - Keeping Your Cat Safe And Happy At Home - RSPCA

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Whether you've just adopted a new cat or kitten, or are considering how best to care for your existing cat, this guide is for you.

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Safe Rodent Control: What to Buy, What to Avoid

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Safe Rodent Control: What to Buy, What to Avoid

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Casey Habitat Heroes - What is wildlife gardening?

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Jump on the bandi-wagon: Meet the Southern Brown Bandicoot

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A simple experiment showing how effective beer traps are compared to slug bait! And an easy DIY.

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Slug Beer Trap VS Slug Pallets - BEST WAY How To Kill Slugs In Garden

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Casey Habitat Heroes - Belinda's pollinator garden

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Don't let them out: 15 ways to keep your indoor cat happy

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Don't let them out: 15 ways to keep your indoor cat happy

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Don’t let them out: 15 ways to keep your indoor cat happy

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Roaming pet cats kill 390 million animals per year in Australia. But keeping cats inside (or contained outside) 24/7 can actually be in their best interest.

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We are building a community of cat owners who can provide their cat with the longest and happiest lives possible, while protecting local wildlife. Join our community today for access to the latest advice, tips, and tools to keep your cat safe and happy.

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What to do if you see a Southern Brown Bandicoot

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iNaturalist is a website and app for identifying and reporting biodiversity, from bandicoots to buttercups! Your observations can contribute to science and conservation, and it's never been easier. I recommend downloading the app to your smartphone, but be careful - it's addictive!

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Dzivula Gube
Marine Conservationist & Underwater Photographer, Kenya

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iNaturalist is a social network for naturalists! Record your observations of plants and animals,
share them with friends and researchers, and learn about the natural world.

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Got any shipping pallets lying around? Whilst nothing beats planting habitat, bandicoot bungalows can act as temporary shelter from predators as they move from A to B.

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SERIES 30 | Episode 10

Sophie visits the bushland home of an environmental scientist who has come up with a nifty housing solution for a cute and curious marsupial, showing Sophie how to build a bungalow for bandicoots.

Cute and curious, Southern Brown Bandicoots were once common throughout many parts of Australia. They live in forests and woodlands and rely on extensive, dense plant cover to survive:

They are nocturnal marsupials with a pointy snout, round rump and short furry tail

They are endangered, and their numbers are stable to declining.

They are found in eucalypt woodlands and forests but their bushland habitats are becoming isolated, leaving them vulnerable to predators (cats and foxes).

They like to eat insects, worms, lizards, plants and even truffle fungi.

Dr Jasmin Packer, Conservation Biologist from the University of Adelaide is aiming to create 'habitat stepping stones' to link fragmented bandicoot habitats. Ione way Jasmin and her team plan to do this is to create "Bandicoot Bungalows" - bushy bandicoot houses that are predator proof and create habitat. If you live in "bandicoot country", here's the info you need to build your own Bandicoot habitat.

Materials

1 pallet made from natural untreated timber

Wire mesh - chicken wire, emu wire or stock fencing wire

4 strong stakes up to 120 cm - star pickets or thick wooden stakes

40 finer stakes up to 120 cm - star pickets, wood, bamboo or similar

Nails

Straw-based mulch or garden cuttings of branches

Hammer

Method

1. 1. Place pallet on flat area within 5 metres of dense habitat that you know, or suspect, is used by bandicoots.

2. 2. Wrap the wire mesh around the pallet covers the top and bottom of pallet. For the entrance, leave one 10 cm opening at each end between top and bottom planks. This hole is big enough for the most vulnerable bandicoots (females and their young) to enter, but not predators. Nail down the mesh.

3. 3. Bang in a strong stake through the gaps in mesh and pallet at each corner to anchor the bungalow and prevent foxes from moving it around.

4. 4. Bang in 10 of the finer stakes to create a picket fence on either side of the 10 cm entrance at one end. Create another picket fence, either side of entrance, with 10 stakes at the other end. The stakes should be less than 5 cm apart (closer is better, to stop cats and foxes).

5. 5. Behind each picket fence, create a second row of picket fence. Leave a 10 cm gap in this row too, at least 30 cm to the left or right of the gap in the first row. This creates a zigzag entrance into the bungalow. Bandicoots are adapted to manoeuvring through dense understorey - they will learn to use this zigzag entrance and will be safe from sneaky paws!

6. 6.Between the picket fences add bales of pea straw, garden cuttings, or anything else that will create dense habitat to protect the bandicoots and any other native creatures that discover your bungalow.

7. 7.Decorate your bungalow with as many colourful things as you like. For instance, tear up an old quilt cover into long strips and braid into a colourful rope that you can weave amongst the picket fence stakes. As well as adding fun and colour to your bungalow, it creates a dense, tangly habitat.

Once the bungalow is built, it's time to pop in some bandicoot-friendly plants and extend the habitat. When revegetating, use plants indigenous to your area, and choose the right mix of low understory plantings (most), shrubs (some) and trees (few). Dense combinations of plants as they appear in nature is the aim and this includes a diversity of species in combination. Remember, a healthy habitat is not always a neat one! Dead plants, broken branches and logs all help create habitat structure needed for bandicoots.

The plants used in the Mt Lofty Ranges area and recommended for Bandicoot habitats include the following:

Understory Plantings & Grasses

Hard mat-rush (Lomandra multiflora ssp. Dura) - tussock plant that provides shelter

Large leaf bush-pea (Pultenaea daphnoides)

Rough leaf common correa (Correa reflexa var. scabridula) - low spreading correa.

Broom rush (Juncus sarophorus) - low spots where water may collect

Grass-tree, (Xanthorrhoea semiplana). The skirts of Xanthorrhoea are popular hideouts for bandicoots.

Red-fruit saw-sedge (Gahnia sieberiana). Tussock forming, popular cover for small marsupials

Shrubs

Erect Hakea (Hakea carinata) - a bandicoot favourite with it's dense prickly foliage.

Silver Banksia (Banksia marginata)

Beaked Hakea (Hakea rostrata)

Hop Goodenia, (Goodenia ovata). Ground covering, spreading.

Cone Bush (Isopogon ceratophyllus) Small prickly shrub.

Trees

Heath Tea-tree, Leptospermum myrsinoides

Key to bandicoot habitat are dense plantings of diverse low understory plants. Research shows that bandicoots like diversity. Jasmin and her team recommend planting a mix of low plants that will grow to provide a mix of foliage, food sources, nesting materials and protective cover. Jasmin wants to encourage others to build bungalows and to also know if the bandicoots to move in. If you have Bandicoots in your local area, then consider their housing needs and find a suitable place for a bandicoot bungalow or two.

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Bandicoot Bungalow - Gardening Australia

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Sophie visits the bushland home of one of Australia's iconic critters to learn how to build a bungalow for bandicoots

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Top Tip: Snail Control - Gardening Australia

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Jane shows some safe ways to deal with snail pests without resorting to poison!

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How to Make an Observation on iNaturalist using our Mobile App

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A quick video demonstrating how easy it is to make an observation with the iNaturalist mobile app.

www.inaturalist.org

Spanish subtitles by Joaquín Cochero.

Chinese (Taiwan) subtitles by Cheng-Tao Lin.

(c) 2017 California Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.

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This is where your iNaturalist sightings end up once they've been approved!

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Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria is a centre of excellence for botanical research. We play a vital role in the study of Australia's plants, fungi and algae, enriching our understanding of native biodiversity and its urgent conservation needs.

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Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria plays a leading role in the conservation of plants through biodiversity research, programs to protect rare and threatened plants, and the study of habitats. This work is supported by education and visitor programs about the importance of plants to life.