Hugh Leitwell

Oct 31, 2024 | themonthly.com.au | Hugh Leitwell |Don Watson |Anna Krien |Jason Koutsoukis

Treating all rats and mice like invasive pests has led to extinctions of native rodents important to our ecosystems It’s a midwinter morning in Melbourne when I bump into my neighbour. “If you had 15 minutes with a native rodent expert, what would you say?” I ask. I’m running late to the 70th Annual Scientific Meeting of the Australian Mammal Society, a four-day conference that gathers more than 140 of the nation’s best and brightest ecologists, scientists and conservationists.