SEMINAR: Using genes to assess social structure in the Boodies of Barrow Island

The Boodie or Burrowing Bettong (Bettongia lesueur) is the only macropod that shelters underground in warrens. It is limited naturally to three islands off the west Australian coast, but just 200 years ago it had the widest distribution of any macropod, occupying about 50% of the continent. The seminar will describe what can be eked out of a genetic analysis of the population on Barrow Island, which is at the geographic centre of Australia's largest resource project. Inevitably, it will be short. However, that masks the huge effort required to undertake work of this kind. It was largely undertaken by others, and Felicity Donaldson and Celeste Wale deserve special mention in this regard.