About our team
Our Zoology team is comprised of over 30 consultants who operate throughout NSW and Victoria. The team includes a mix of graduate and mid-level ecologists supported by Senior, Senior Associate, Principal or Technical Director level consultants, ensuring the right mix of skill and experience is available for all our projects.
Our consultants provide considered advice based on a professional scientific understanding of Australia’s fauna and provide a wide range of surveys, monitoring, assessments and desktop studies for our clients.
We also have technical specialists in microbat call detection, wetland bird specialists, wind farm bird and bat impact assessment, bird collision risk modelling as well as two NSW Biodiversity Assessment Method (BAM) accredited consultants.
Our Zoology team works with our clients on impact assessments to support local and state significant developments, wind farm bird and bat utilisation surveys, threatened species monitoring projects, and provides project ecologist services (including pre-clearance surveys, ecological supervision of vegetation clearance, nest box inspections, and dam dewatering services).
We are experienced in a wide range of targeted zoological survey techniques in a variety of ecological environments ranging from urban environments to remote alpine and semi-arid regions across all of Victoria and NSW.
We work across a range of industries including construction, road, renewable energy, residential and industrial development, recreational infrastructure, land and water management, telecommunications and utility services.
Biosis Collision Risk Model
More than twenty years ago, in partnership with Symbolix Pty Ltd, Biosis developed a mathematical model designed to provide quantified estimates of collision risk for birds in wind farms. The Biosis Collision Risk Model has continued to be refined and remains the only model developed for this purpose in the southern hemisphere. It has been applied widely in environmental assessments across the Australian wind energy sector. Click here for more information.
Our Services
- Fauna surveys and inventory
- Targeted threatened fauna surveys and monitoring utilising a range of techniques (including but not limited to: spotlighting, bat call analysis, remote camera trapping, pit fall trapping, cage trapping, call/playback, harp trapping).
- Significant Impact Assessments
- Wildlife capture, relocation, translocation and monitoring.
- Freshwater and terrestrial habitat rehabilitation planning
- Specialist surveys for cryptic fauna, such as bats, reptiles and amphibians
- Onshore and offshore wind farm bird and bat utilisation studies and collision risk assessments.
- Aerial survey for targeted fauna species
- Conservation Management Plans
- Wind farm avian utilisation studies and collision risk assessments
- Kangaroo Management Plans (KMP)
- Compliance assessments (EPBC, REF, SEE, Tests of Significance (i.e. 5 Part Test), SIS)
- Expert witness statements
- Pre-clearance and ecological supervision of vegetation clearance
- Nest box inspections
- Dam dewatering services
- Aquatic Ecology
- Biodiversity Assessment Method (BAM) and Biodiversity Development Assessment Report (BDAR) (NSW)
Key Team Members
Katrina Sofo
Manager – Ecology (Victoria)
Mitch Palmer
Manager – Ecology and GIS (NSW)
Matt Looby
General Manager – Business and Technical Development
Matthew Hyde
Team Leader – Zoology (NSW)
Mark Venosta
Principal Zoologist
Ian Smales
Principal Zoologist