Roo pelt prize marks student’s success

A Charles Darwin University PhD candidate has received a unique award for delivering an outstanding presentation during a national conference in Brisbane.

Research Institute for the Environment and Livelihoods PhD candidate Stewart Pittard received a kangaroo pelt as a prize for Best Student Presentation during the recent “Conservation through sustainable use of wildlife conference".

Stewart said his presentation addressed overarching themes of the conference, and included a discussion on whether feral buffalo populations at Kakadu National Park could be controlled through harvesting.

“Broadly speaking, my presentation discussed the complex position of the buffalo in the Northern Territory context, as a pest, a resource and an icon,” he said.

Stewart said he drew on hard data and modelled management scenarios during the presentation, entitled “Spatiotemporal population dynamics and management of the feral ungulate assemblage of Kakadu National Park”.