This is a really good subjects to take either as breadth or as a science elective. If you have taken first year biology then you will have heard a lot of the content before BUT in this subject it's really focused on applying that knowledge to Australian wildlife contexts. The blog is a fun and great task and the rubric given tells you exactly what to put in them making it an easy 25% to get. The pracs were fun and coordinated well. There was a not many of past exam questions to prepare you for the MST and Exam however i don't think it was nessesary. if you take the time to think about the concepts learned and begin applying them when making blog posts, seeing animals on the excursions and any other wildlife you come across in every day life, you will be well prepared. This was an easy H1 for me, and i'm not someone who gets them all the time... The 2 reports were definitely the hardest assessment for me in this subject as they required a fare understanding of operating excel to analyse data from the last 2 pracs. And i'm not great with excel, but Raoul did host some webinars to try and explain how to do most of it, this took quite a while to figure out tho. Overall i highly recommend this subject, and it will help you get out on some walks with nature to clear your head whilst also feeling like your doing some work!

If your interested in doing this subject as a breadth, I would highly recommend this subject. However as an ecology major, this subject fell short. If you did biology of Australian flora and fauna, or any of other 1st year biology subjects, this feels like a repeat of that, and does not expand enough on previously learnt concepts, if your doing this as a breadth, and learning about biology for the first time, sure it is interesting, however as someone who was already familiar with the content, personally I found it really boring. Their also was a serious lack of feedback in this subject, which made it really difficult to gage where you're at and to improve, for example, during this subject we where assessed each half of the semester on a wildlife blog which required weekly submission, however we only received feedback for the first half in week 11, after the majority of 2nd half posts had been submitted, so the feedback was pretty useless. The practical and excursions where really fun though, and the lecturers where super passionate, so it was quite a fun subject to do, however the content and the assessment where extremely dissatisfying.

I did this subject as breadth (I'm a linguistics major) and absolutely loved it. Each week involved a few different guest lecturers discussing their research on a particular subgroup of Australian animals, and as such you cover a huge range of content. The three coordinators (Iliana, Raoul, and Clare) all research birds, so the largest segment of the course was spent looking at bird biology. The excursions were fantastic and great fun, as was doing the blog, although it was a lot of work. This subject was definitely not cruisy, but none of the content was particularly hard and a lot of the assessment involved going out in nature to look at wildlife, so it was very enjoyable despite the workload. The assessment consists of two scientific reports (after the midsem break) based on excursions, two worksheets completed during excursions, a midsemester test, a final exam, and the wildlife blog, which consisted of making 1-2 posts about wildlife you find each week. If you're looking at doing this subject as a breadth, you don't really need any science background knowledge besides some high school biology basics, although I found it a bit tricky having to write a scientific report because I hadn't ever done one before. Overall, I would highly recommend this subject!

I honestly found this subject pretty great. The lecturers (Iliana and Raoul) are really passionate about the subject, and the guest lecturers are equally good! However, this subject is no longer the 'wam booster' it used to be with the previous co-ordinator. The exam is totally application (interpreting data, hypothesis etc) and does not reflect the previous exams available online AT ALL. The average for the MST was around 65 and had to be scaled. 15% of your mark is also attributed to a blog which requires weekly posting of wildlife (pictures, videos, paragraphs explaining what you saw etc), which took A LOT OF TIME! They suggest spending at least 3-5 hours, however I easily spent 40+ hours trying to find good pictures suitable to post for it. Overall, this subject is great but requires a lot of time and to be able to get a H1 overall a lot of effort needs to be put in. That being said, it is totally doable with a lot of effort and work and the lecturers are truely fantastic.

Great subject with very engaging content. You can just feel the passion that the lecturers have for this subject. It's sad that Kath is no longer teaching in this subject but I was very lucky to have her before she retire. I cannot guarantee the subject is a 5/5 without her but it is still great nonetheless. Content is great if you love animals at all and you get to go on a different field trip every week.

Awesome subject! Lots of fun field trips and interesting lectures. Not too challenging, exam was pretty relaxed. They even brought in live bats for one of the lectures! My favourite subject ever! Keep in mind though, its coordinator Kath is retiring at the end of the year, and it definitely won't be the same without her (she's the best)

Very fun and relaxing subject to take without too much stress

Great, interesting subject with great lecturers! Pracs are fun and involve a trip to Melb Zoo.