Annual Report-2000-2001 - Western Australian Museum - The ...

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of the Western Australian Museum will document this
initiative, and the checklist of accepted names will
be included on the Museum’s web site.
Norah Cooper and Ken Aplin published the
description of a new species of carnivorous marsupial,
Pseudantechinus roryi, the first new mammal species
from Western Australia to be described since 1988.
Ron Johnstone continued work on the second
volume of the Handbook of the Birds of Western
Australia; the project is due for completion within
the next year.
The revised edition of Frogs of Western Australia was
launched on 5 July, and the revised edition of Lizards
of Western Australia I Skinks received the Whitley
Award for best Australian field guide. Laurie Smith
attended the presentation in Sydney and received
the award on behalf of the Museum.
Staff have been kept busy providing specimens and
information for the completion of the Western
Australia: Land and People exhibition in Hackett Hall
and the travelling exhibition Baudin: The French
Connection.
Staff continue to present lectures, interviews and
public seminars, while student projects are facilitated
by all sections within the department. Laurie Smith
has undertaken three times the usual number of
requests from CALM for expert witness statements
resulting from prosecutions pursued by that
department, while identifications for the Customs
Department have been undertaken by all sections.
Anthea Paino, assisted by Lyndal Sleep and Anne-
Marie Shepherd, continued to coordinate the
numerous activities pivotal to the ongoing success
of Alcoa FrogWAtch, while Laurie Smith provided
professional advice and management in the absence
of Ken Aplin. The FrogWAtch program now has a
membership of almost 6,000—an increase of
Western Australian Museum Annual Report 2000–2001
Western Australian Museum–
Science and Culture
2,500—including many from regional areas,
especially Geraldton, Kalgoorlie and Albany.
A highlight was the Frog Friendly Day held at the
Perth site, which attracted large numbers of visitors
on a Sunday during a traditionally quiet time at the
Museum. They enjoyed frog pond building
demonstrations, frog fungus research workshops,
displays by environmental community groups, and
children’s activities, including a ‘frogstickle’ obstacle
course and craft at the Discovery Centre. A new book,
Building Frog Friendly Gardens, which is the
backbone of the ‘Building Frog Friendly Gardens’ kit,
was launched on the day. The book (and kit) fills an
important gap in the literature and aims to encourage
Western Australians to build gardens suitable for
Western Australian frogs. The book has been very
popular and is already in its second printing.
The Alcoa FrogWAtch web site was launched at
. Visitors to
the site can see colour pictures of local frog species,
access audio of their calls, register on line as frogwatchers,
download the latest FrogWAtch
information and email the office.
Staff provided talks to school groups who visited the
Museum and to external schools and communities,
ran information stalls, and guided frog-watching
walks. Frog distribution monitoring continued during
the year.