Introducing Wildlife Unlimited’s research of the Mallee Looper caterpillar
In our latest round of grants, distributed in July 2025, we awarded up to $49,200 to Wildlife Unlimited to expand their understanding and research of the Mallee Looper caterpillar.
Significant defoliation of eucalypts has been occurring in the Victorian Mallee since 2023, caused by the Mallee Looper caterpillar, a native species.
Damage by the caterpillars is leading to tree death, which is also exacerbated by drought conditions. This is having significant impacts on the Mallee ecosystem and threatened bird communities.
The grant awarded by the Trust will provide funding for Wildlife Unlimited’s project, which aims to use this crisis as a catalyst for community collaboration and citizen science participation and will leverage existing professional biodiversity networks to enhance collaboration across states.
Through this project, they aim to raise community awareness and encourage citizen scientist participation and will establish five sentinel monitoring sites to gather critical data on the Mallee Looper outbreak.
Data collection will include damage assessments, remote sensing correlations, and monitoring of moth and caterpillar emergence and this information will be used to fill key knowledge gaps in understanding and responding to the Mallee Looper outbreak.
To find out more about Wildlife Unlimited, visit www.wildlifeunlimited.org.au
