Naturalist on the Bibbulmun
A walking companion
The Bibbulman Track is a World class walking trail that runs just over 1000km through the forests and across the coastal heaths of southwestern Western Australia, from the towns of Kalamundain the North to Albany in the South. Naturalist on the Bibbulman is the story of one man’s journey with his son through this ancient and extraordinary corner of the world. The biodiversity is so extensive that it is im-possible to provide a comprehensive field guide to the Bibbulmun Track. Nevertheless, the author mus-ters his expertise in ecology and evolutionary biology to document the animals and plants found during the Noongar seasons of kambarang and birak, from November to January, with colour photographs throughout. In so doing we learn how evolution has shaped the extraordinary diversity of animals and plants in this corner of the World, the important roles biodiversity plays in providing the stable ecosystem in which we live and prosper, and the serious impacts to that stability imposed by our increasing overexploitation of what is an ancient and fragile landscape.
Naturalist on the Bibbulmun is both a witness statement of the current state of the natural regions of southwestern WA, and a call to arms to protect for our future generations what little remains of one of the world’s most extraordinary natural habitats.
Leigh Simmons is Professor of Evolutionary Biology at the University of Western Australia. He studied at the University of Nottingham where he received his PhD in 1986. After holding a research fellowship at the University of Liverpool UK, he moved to Australia in 1995 to take up his current position in the School of Biological Sciences at The University of Western Australia. His research interests lie in the evolution of reproductive behavior, physiology and morphology in both vertebrate and invertebrate animals. He has published more than 350 scientific articles and five academic books. He is currently Editor-in Chief of Behavioral Ecology, and has been an Editor of Advances in the Study of Behavior since 2009. He held a prestigious Australian Research Council Federation Fellowship from 2005-2009, is a recipient of the Zoological Society of London’s Scientific Medal, the Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour Medal, and was elected to the Australian Academy in 2009.
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