#PHDCHAT
Sprawling through the Top End of the Northern Territory are the only wild Alligators of Australia; the Alligator Rivers. Despite explorer Phillip King incorrectly identifying the inhabitants of the crocodile infested swamp, it is home to a flood of wildlife, some of which you may have never heard of. PhD student Robin Leppitt is researching the Alligator Rivers subspecies of the Yellow Chat, tiny, mostly ground-dwelling, insect-eating birds, which live in some of Australia’s most challenging environments. Robin’s journey is slightly different to most; spending the first 14 months of his PhD without the Chat! His work has clung to self-determination and belief in his research, despite those that believed the bird already too scarce to study.
THE CHAT MAN Robin is a postgraduate student with a keen, family-instilled appreciation of birds, which is obvious once you realise he’s named after one. Moving up to Darwin almost two years ago from the coffee snubbing, brunch smashing life of Melbourne, he took the chance to dedicate the next three to four years of his life studying a little-known bird. Despite the challenges of moving interstate, Robin is adamant that the change has been good with the “weather more to [his] liking and the slower pace of the city [makes it feel as if he] actually ha[s] more time on his hands or maybe it just goes slower.” In comparison to other places in Australia, his favourite aspect of Darwin is how integrated the city is with the environment around it. One doesn’t have to stray too far from home to catch a glimpse of the Territory’s wildlife.
THE RESEARCH: THE RACE BEFORE IT FLIES AWAY The Alligator River subspecies of the Yellow Chat is endangered, and Robin is trying to find out why this is the case. As there is a lack of basic knowledge regarding its ecology and its current distribution, it is difficult to know whether there are any management strategies we can implement to conserve the species in the future. Part of the reason the Chat isn’t well known is that the, “environment in which [they] live in is very challenging for both people and animals”, with high temperatures and the plains either bone dry, muddy, or completely flooded. Despite this, it seems that the Chat is a floodplain specialist, as there have been very few sightings beyond the plains. From what he has seen so far, Robin believes that the Chats may be more vulnerable as their range is restricted by the use of floodplains for cattle production in the Northern Territory. But even where flood plains are protected or unutilised due to the inaccessibility they become “ignored or forgotten, which means feral pigs and weeds have the opportunity to take over the wetlands, which could be making life pretty difficult for the Yellow Chats.”
TRIALS AND TRIBULATIONS As with all long road trips, there are usually a pothole or two (especially in the Territory). In the challenging field sites of the floodplains, Robin has experienced a couple of hiccups, most notably an overnight bogging resulting in a prolonged attack of mosquitoes whilst waiting for rescue. Despite this, he admits “fieldwork was [and is] pretty difficult, but even then, I [get to] come back for weekends so it isn’t really that bad.” What he does find most difficult is the self-direction required in undertaking a PhD and never quite knowing “whether it is the right direction.” There is pressure to make good decisions based on your own knowledge and having the self governance to realise when you made mistakes. Learning to develop self-confidence and maintain motivation in his work has been an ongoing process for Robin during his PhD, and a key component to “getting shit done.”
A GLIMPSE OF HOPE Although undertaking a doctorate is often compared to suffering, there are moments when the stress and confusion are worth it. For Robin, it was when he first set eyes on the Yellow Chat:
“I’d been studying this stupid bird for about 14 months before I had actually even seen it, but I’d finally been given permission to access a particular area of Kakadu where a significant population had actually been recorded. We’d been in this area for a few hours and I went to check an area of the floodplain because it looked like pictures I’d seen of their habitat.”
And sure enough, Robin’s hunch based on 14 months of hard research was right, and there were not one but four little Chats.
“Seeing them for the first time was quite emotional and a good moment. Up until that point it had been difficult to become attached to something I hadn’t seen, and a lot of people were starting to comment [and joke] that I was possibly studying a bird that had already become extinct.”
The long journey to his first sighting of the Yellow Chat took a while to sink in, as straight away Robin thought they should start the “surveys and doing all the science stuff.” But after taking a moment to absorb his achievement, it was great to just enjoy seeing a “beautiful bird and adding another tick to my Australian bird sightings.”
Cara Penton is also a PhD student at CDU studying tree-rats and possums on Melville Island. She enjoys rollerblading along the foreshore at sunset and climbing trees during work hours and her free time. If you are undertaking your PhD here at CDU and would like to be part of #PhDChat please reach out to Flycatcher to celebrate the individual research efforts of our students.
