ORCID Profile
0000-0002-9719-3771
Current Organisation
University of Tasmania
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Research Topics
In Research Link Australia (RLA), "Research Topics" refer to ANZSRC FOR and SEO codes. These topics are either sourced from ANZSRC FOR and SEO codes listed in researchers' related grants or generated by a large language model (LLM) based on their publications.
Top 5 Research Topics
ANZSRC Field of Research (FoR)
Environmental Science and Management | Conservation And Biodiversity | Ecology | Conservation and Biodiversity | Wildlife and Habitat Management | Terrestrial Ecology | Terrestrial Ecology | Palaeoecology | Global Change Biology | Archaeology Of Hunter-Gatherer Societies (Incl. Pleistocene | Invasive Species Ecology | Archaeology | Evolutionary Biology | Archaeological Science | Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Archaeology | Wildlife And Habitat Management | Palaeoecology | Population Ecology | Animal Systematics, Taxonomy And Phylogeny | Life Histories (Incl. Population Ecology) | Behavioural Ecology | Community Ecology | Quaternary Environments | Ecological Impacts of Climate Change | Population And Ecological Genetics | Landscape Ecology |
ANZSRC Socio-Economic Objective (SEO)
Flora, Fauna and Biodiversity at Regional or Larger Scales | Living resources (flora and fauna) | Climate change | Forest and Woodlands Flora, Fauna and Biodiversity | Control of Animal Pests, Diseases and Exotic Species in Forest and Woodlands Environments | Living resources (flora and fauna) | Integrated (ecosystem) assessment and management | Living resources (flora and fauna) | Wind Energy | Native Forests | Biological sciences | Environmental and resource evaluation not elsewhere classified | Flora, Fauna and Biodiversity of environments not elsewhere classified | Control of pests and exotic species | Livestock | Farmland, Arable Cropland and Permanent Cropland Flora, Fauna and Biodiversity | Living resources (flora and fauna) | Understanding Australia's Past | Control of pests and exotic species | Living resources (flora and fauna) | Integrated (ecosystem) assessment and management | Living resources (flora and fauna) | Expanding Knowledge in the Earth Sciences
Related Links
Publications
Prescribed fire in Eucalypt woodlands: immediate effects on a microbat community of northern Australia
Publisher: CSIRO Publishing
Date: 2013
DOI: 10.1071/WR12133
Abstract: Context Fire is a major ecological factor in many landscapes. Prescribed fires are often used in the management of vegetation for ecological values, wildlife habitat and reduction of risk of wildfire. However, debate continues over whether active fire management is beneficial to flora and fauna. Although bats comprise ~20% of the world’s extant mammal fauna, they have been largely ignored in studies investigating ecosystem response to fire, especially in Australia. Aims In the present study, we aim to investigate the immediate responses of microbats to prescribed fires in a tropical eucalypt woodland.Methods We used a replicated paired experimental design, consisting of burned and unburned treatment and control sites, to investigate how bat activity and community structure change following a prescribed fire. Key results Total bat activity increased significantly following fire. Fire also resulted in changes in the bat species assemblage. Changes in community structure were driven by the following five species: Saccolaimus spp., Chalinolobus nigrogriseus, Chaerephon jobensis, Rhinolophus megaphyllus and unidentified Species c35. Activity of C. nigrogriseus, Saccolaimus spp., C. jobensis and Species c35 increased in the burned sites, whereas changes in the activity of R. megaphyllus were uncorrelated with the effects of fire. Conclusions The effect of fire on these species is consistent with flight patterns and habitat use species with higher wing aspect ratios, such as Saccolaimus spp., which are capable of fast flight but with limited manoeuvrability, became more active in the open conditions created by fire. Implications The results of the present study suggest that prescribed fire as an environmental management tool may be beneficial to bats, at least in the short term, because it increases habitat suitability for a wider range of species.
Red in tooth and claw: how top predators shape terrestrial ecosystems
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 22-03-2010
DOI: 10.1111/J.1365-2656.2010.01706.X
Abstract: Top predators are increasingly recognized as important regulators of ecosystem structure. Elmhagen et al. in this issue show how a recolonizing population of lynx in Finland is in the process of imposing control of the abundance of a mesopredator, the red fox, and relaxing predation pressure on a prey species. Their study shows how ecological restoration programs could use the power of top predators to limit mesopredator populations and control total predation pressure on prey species.
Zoonotic Helminth Diseases in Dogs and Dingoes Utilising Shared Resources in an Australian Aboriginal Community
Publisher: MDPI AG
Date: 08-10-2018
DOI: 10.3390/TROPICALMED3040110
Abstract: The impacts of free-roaming canids (domestic and wild) on public health have long been a concern in Australian Indigenous communities. We investigated the prevalence of zoonotic helminth diseases in dogs and sympatric dingoes, and used radio telemetry to measure their spatial overlap, in an Aboriginal community in the Wet Tropics of Australia. S les collected from dingoes and dogs showed high levels of infection with the zoonotic hookworm, Ancylostoma caninum. Dingoes were also positive for A. ceylanicum infection (11.4%), but dogs were infection free. Whipworm, Trichuris vulpis, infection was far more prevalent in necropsies of domestic dogs (78.6%) than dingoes (3.7%). Dogs were free from Dirofilaria immitis infection, while dingoes recorded 46.2% infection. Eleven dingoes and seven free-roaming domestic dogs were fitted with Global Positioning System collars and tracked over an extended period. Dingo home-ranges almost completely overlapped those of the domestic dogs. However, dingoes and dogs did not utilise the same area at the same time, and dogs may have avoided dingoes. This spatial overlap in resource use presents an opportunity for the indirect spill-over and spill-back of parasites between dogs and dingoes. Tracking and camera traps showed that the community rubbish tip and animal carcasses were areas of concentrated activity for dogs and dingoes.
Predator interactions, mesopredator release and biodiversity conservation
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 09-2009
DOI: 10.1111/J.1461-0248.2009.01347.X
Abstract: There is growing recognition of the important roles played by predators in regulating ecosystems and sustaining bio ersity. Much attention has focused on the consequences of predator-regulation of herbivore populations, and associated trophic cascades. However apex predators may also control smaller 'mesopredators' through intraguild interactions. Removal of apex predators can result in changes to intraguild interactions and outbreaks of mesopredators ('mesopredator release'), leading in turn to increased predation on smaller prey. Here we provide a review and synthesis of studies of predator interactions, mesopredator release and their impacts on bio ersity. Mesopredator suppression by apex predators is widespread geographically and taxonomically. Apex predators suppress mesopredators both by killing them, or instilling fear, which motivates changes in behaviour and habitat use that limit mesopredator distribution and abundance. Changes in the abundance of apex predators may have disproportionate (up to fourfold) effects on mesopredator abundance. Outcomes of interactions between predators may however vary with resource availability, habitat complexity and the complexity of predator communities. There is potential for the restoration of apex predators to have benefits for bio ersity conservation through moderation of the impacts of mesopredators on their prey, but this requires a whole-ecosystem view to avoid unforeseen negative effects. 'Nothing has changed since I began. My eye has permitted no change. I am going to keep things like this.' From 'Hawk Roosting', by Ted Hughes.
GPS collars are more efficient when collecting high-frequency data
Publisher: CSIRO Publishing
Date: 2016
DOI: 10.1071/AM15034
Abstract: Selecting an appropriate fix schedule has a pivotal role when using GPS collars. On the basis of deployments of GPS collars on 35 cats, we report on an often overlooked consideration: that GPS units are more efficient collecting data at high frequencies (15 min between fixes in this study) than low frequencies ( h between fixes).
Ecological specialization and population size in a biodiversity hotspot: How rare species avoid extinction
Publisher: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Date: 17-11-2009
Abstract: Species with narrow environmental niches typically have small geographic ranges. Small range size is, in turn, often associated with low local abundance. Together, these factors should mean that ecological specialists have very small total populations, putting them at high risk of extinction. But some specialized and geographically restricted species are ancient, and some ecological communities have high proportions of rare and specialized endemics. We studied niche characteristics and patterns of distribution and abundance of terrestrial vertebrates in the rainforests of the Australian Wet Tropics (AWT) to identify mechanisms by which rare species might resist extinction. We show that species with narrow environmental niches and small geographic ranges tend to have high and uniform local abundances. The compensation of geographic rarity by local abundance is exact, such that total population size in the rainforest vertebrates of the AWT is independent of environmental specialization. This effect would tend to help equalize extinction risk for specialists and generalists. Phylogenetic analysis suggests that environmental specialists have been gradually accumulating in this fauna, indicating that small range size/environmental specialization can be a successful trait as long as it is compensated for by demographic commonness. These results provide an explanation of how range-restricted specialists can persist for long periods, so that they now form a major component of high- ersity assemblages such as the AWT.
The structure of a micro-bat community in relation to gradients of environmental variation in a tropical urban area
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 28-04-2006
Burning season influences the response of bird assemblages to fire in tropical savannas
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 06-2007
Using the Spatial Population Abundance Dynamics Engine for conservation management
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 11-08-2015
Sex-biased philopatry and dispersal in mammals
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 07-1986
DOI: 10.1007/BF00410373
Systematic study of aqueous monoethanolamine-based CO2 capture process: Model development and process improvement
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 19-11-2016
DOI: 10.1002/ESE3.101
Home range size scales to habitat amount and increasing fragmentation in a mobile woodland specialist
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 18-11-2019
DOI: 10.1002/ECE3.5837
Too hot for the devil? Did climate change cause the mid-Holocene extinction of the Tasmanian devil Sacrophilus harrisii from mainland Australia?
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 24-12-2022
DOI: 10.1111/ECOG.05799
Abstract: The possible role of climate change in late Quaternary animal extinctions is hotly debated, yet few studies have investigated its direct effects on animal physiology to assess whether past climate changes might have had significant impacts on now‐extinct species. Here we test whether climate change could have imposed physiological stress on the Tasmanian devil Sarcophilus harrisii during the mid‐Holocene, when the species went extinct on mainland Australia. Physiological values for the devil were quantified using mechanistic niche models of energy and water requirements for thermoregulation, and soil‐moisture‐based indices of plant stress from drought to indirectly represent food and water availability. The spatial pervasiveness, extremity and frequency of physiological stresses were compared between a period of known climatic and presumed demographic stability (8000–6010 BP) and the extinction period (5000–3010 BP). We found no evidence of widespread negative effects of climate on physiological parameters for the devil on the mainland during its extinction window. This leaves cultural and demographic changes in the human population or competition from the dingo Canis dingo as the main contending hypotheses to explain mainland loss of the devil in the mid‐Holocene.
Factors affecting success of conservation translocations of terrestrial vertebrates: A global systematic review
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 08-2021
Rapid gain and loss of predator recognition by an evolutionarily naïve lizard
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 06-02-2022
DOI: 10.1111/AEC.13148
Abstract: The introduction of mammalian predators often results in loss of native bio ersity due to naiveté of native prey to novel predators. In New Zealand, an island system with virtually no native mammalian predators, introduced mammalian predators threaten a large proportion of the native fauna. A critical step in adapting to introduced predators is the ability to recognize and respond to a novel predation threat. Whether New Zealand's lizards can do this has received little attention. We compared the basking behaviour of native McCann's skinks ( Oligosoma maccanni ) when exposed to a live cat ( Felis catus ), cat body odour, a model raptor (representing a coevolved predator) or procedural controls. We inferred predator recognition from reductions in in idual basking and higher selection for basking sites with greater refuge availability. We tested these behavioural responses for two skink populations: one from an area with high abundance of mammalian predators including feral cats and the other from a fenced conservation reserve where predators have been excluded for over 10 years (3–4 skink generations). Skinks from the high‐predator population reduced basking when exposed to cat and raptor cues, whereas skinks from the predator‐free population did not. These results suggest that within approximately 150 years of exposure to novel predators, McCann's skinks might be able to recognize the threat posed by invasive mammals. However, they also demonstrate that predator recognition and antipredator behaviours may not necessarily be retained once gained. The rapid loss of basking‐related antipredator behaviours might reflect the high fitness costs of reduced basking for this species. Our results indicate that the behavioural response of skinks is flexible and that skinks may maximize in idual fitness by balancing the risk of predation with the costs of antipredator behaviours.
LARGE-HERBIVORE DISTRIBUTION AND ABUNDANCE: INTRA- AND INTERSPECIFIC NICHE VARIATION IN THE TROPICS
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 02-2008
DOI: 10.1890/06-2117.1
Macropod studies at Wallaby Creek. 4. Home range and movements of the red-necked wallaby
Publisher: CSIRO Publishing
Date: 1987
DOI: 10.1071/WR9870125
Abstract: Red-necked wallabies were observed to live in small home ranges, the locations of which changed little from season to season and from year to year. Home ranges were situated in places where open areas, used for feeding, lay close to the cover offered by dense vegetation and gullies. The home ranges of medium-sized males tended to be peripheral to areas preferred by females, and by larger and smaller males. Females tended to shift their home ranges towards the edges of large beds of cover as their infants left the pouch. The home ranges of males were larger than those of females, and body size and homerange size were positively correlated among males. Females used larger home ranges in winter than in summer.
Differing impact of a major biogeographic barrier on genetic structure in two large kangaroos from the monsoon tropics of Northern Australia
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 28-01-2014
DOI: 10.1002/ECE3.954
Macropod Studies at Wallaby Creek .1. The Area and Animals
Publisher: CSIRO Publishing
Date: 1987
DOI: 10.1071/WR9870001
Abstract: This paper introduces a series of papers on the ecology, social organisation and behaviour of populations of sympatric macropods (Macropodoidea : Marsupialia) in north-eastern New South Wales. The study site, in the valley of Wallaby Creek, covers partly tree-cleared cattle-grazed pastures and also wet and dry forest communities 10 species of macropods live there. The valley has a moderately high rainfall (1023 mm per annum), falling predominately in summer, and an equable climate of cool winters and warm summers. Soils derived from sedimentary and basaltic rocks and alluvium support naturally erse plant associations further ersified by clearing and establishment of pasture and weed species. Macropods favouring open country occupy the pastures, which can also be used by cover-dependent species where pasture abuts forest or remnant patches of cover. Composition of the macropod community has changed since development of the pasture zone. Dingoes, major predators of some of the macropods, are abundant, and all exotic mammals other than cattle are rare. Populations of two of the macropod species are habituated to approach by observers, and close observation, on foot, of undisturbed animals has become our common study technique. A 1-ha grid has been established over 3.7 km2 of the study site to facilitate exact location of animals and observations. The suitability of the macropod populations for this kind of study results from the attitudes of the landholders.
How many bird and mammal extinctions has recent conservation action prevented?
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 09-09-2020
DOI: 10.1111/CONL.12762
Sarcoptes scabiei: The mange mite with mighty effects on the common wombat (Vombatus ursinus)
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 04-03-2016
Interactions between mammals and ectomycorrhizal fungi
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 12-1996
DOI: 10.1016/S0169-5347(96)10053-7
Abstract: Many ectomycorrhizal (ECM) fungi produce fruit-bodies below ground and rely on animals, especially mammals, for dispersal of spores. Mammals may therefore play an important role in the maintenance of mycorrhizal symbiosis and bio ersity of ECM fungi in many forest ecosystems. Given the pivotal role played by mycorrhizal fungi In the nutrition of their plant hosts and, possibly, in the determination of plant community structure, the ecological significance of mycophagous mammals may extend to the productivity and ersity of plant communities. Mycologists and mammalogists have been aware of the interaction between their study organisms for many years, but recent research has produced new insights Into the evolution of mammal-vectored spore dispersal among ECM fungi, the ecological importance of mycophagy to small mammals, and the effectiveness of mammals as spore-dispersal agents.
A comprehensive database of quality-rated fossil ages for Sahul’s Quaternary vertebrates
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 19-07-2016
Abstract: The study of palaeo-chronologies using fossil data provides evidence for past ecological and evolutionary processes, and is therefore useful for predicting patterns and impacts of future environmental change. However, the robustness of inferences made from fossil ages relies heavily on both the quantity and quality of available data. We compiled Quaternary non-human vertebrate fossil ages from Sahul published up to 2013. This, the FosSahul database, includes 9,302 fossil records from 363 deposits, for a total of 478 species within 215 genera, of which 27 are from extinct and extant megafaunal species (2,559 records). We also provide a rating of reliability of in idual absolute age based on the dating protocols and association between the dated materials and the fossil remains. Our proposed rating system identified 2,422 records with high-quality ages (i.e., a reduction of 74%). There are many applications of the database, including disentangling the confounding influences of hypothetical extinction drivers, better spatial distribution estimates of species relative to palaeo-climates, and potentially identifying new areas for fossil discovery.
Dingoes (Canis dingo Meyer, 1793) continue to be an important reservoir host of Dirofilaria immitis in low density housing areas in Australia
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 2016
No need for disease: Testing extinction hypotheses for the thylacine using multi-species metamodels
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 24-01-2013
Abstract: Population viability analysis (PVA) is widely used to assess the extinction risk of threatened species and to evaluate different management strategies. However, conventional PVA neglects important biotic interactions and therefore can fail to identify important threatening processes. We designed a new PVA approach that includes species interactions explicitly by networking species models within a single 'metamodel'. We demonstrate the utility of PVA metamodels by employing them to reinterpret the extinction of the carnivorous, marsupial thylacine Thylacinus cynocephalus in Tasmania. In particular, we test the claim that well-documented impacts of European settlement cannot account for this extinction and that an unknown disease must have been an additional and necessary cause. We first constructed a classical, single-species PVA model for thylacines, which was then extended by incorporation within a dynamic predator-herbivore-vegetation metamodel that accounted for the influence of Europeans on the thylacine's prey base. Given obvious parameter uncertainties, we explored both modelling approaches with rigorous sensitivity analyses. Single-species PVA models were unable to recreate the thylacine's extinction unless a high human harvest, small starting population size or low maximum population growth rate was assumed, even if disease effects were included from 1906 to 1909. In contrast, we readily recreated the thylacine's demise using disease-free multi-species metamodels that simulated declines in native prey populations (particularly due to competition with introduced sheep). Dynamic, multi-species metamodels provide a simple, flexible framework for studying current species declines and historical extinctions caused by complex, interacting factors.
Latitudinal gradients in abundance, and the causes of rarity in the tropics: a test using Australian honeyeaters (Aves: Meliphagidae)
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 31-05-2006
DOI: 10.1007/S00442-006-0456-6
Abstract: Several studies have uncovered interspecific latitudinal gradients in abundance (population density) such that tropical species tend to be, on average, less abundant than species at higher latitudes. The causes of this relationship remain poorly studied, in contrast to the relative wealth of literature examining the relationship to latitude of other variables such as range size and body mass. We used a cross-species phylogenetic comparative approach and a spatial approach to examine three potential determining factors (distribution, reproductive output and climate) that might explain why abundance correlates with latitude, using data from 54 species of honeyeaters (Meliphagidae) in woodland environments in eastern Australia. There is a strong positive correlation between mean abundance and latitude in these birds. Reproductive output (clutch size) was positively linked to both abundance and latitude, but partial correlation analysis revealed that clutch size is not related to abundance once the effects of latitude are removed. A subsequent multiple regression model that also considered range size, clutch size and body mass showed that latitude is the only strong predictor of abundance in honeyeaters. In the separate spatial analysis, the climatic variables that we considered (temperature, rainfall and seasonality) were all strongly linked to latitude, but none served as a better predictor of abundance than latitude per se, either in idually or collectively. The most intriguing result of our analyses was that the cross-species latitudinal pattern in abundance was not evident within species. This suggests an intrinsic cause of the pattern of 'rarity in the tropics' in Australian honeyeaters. We suggest that evolutionary age may provide a key to understanding patterns of abundance in these birds.
Fire, people and ecosystem change in Pleistocene Australia
Publisher: CSIRO Publishing
Date: 2016
DOI: 10.1071/BT16138
Abstract: Since the 1960s, Australian scientists have speculated on the impact of human arrival on fire regimes in Australia, and on the relationship of landscape fire to extinction of the Pleistocene megafauna of Australia. These speculations have produced a series of contrasting hypotheses that can now be tested using evidence collected over the past two decades. In the present paper, I summarise those hypotheses and review that evidence. The main conclusions of this are that (1) the effects of people on fire regimes in the Pleistocene were modest at the continental scale, and difficult to distinguish from climatic controls on fire, (2) the arrival of people triggered extinction of Australia’s megafauna, but fire had little or no role in the extinction of those animals, which was probably due primarily to hunting and (3) megafaunal extinction is likely to have caused a cascade of changes that included increased fire, but only in some environments. We do not yet understand what environmental factors controlled the strength and nature of cascading effects of megafaunal extinction. This is an important topic for future research.
Olfactory communication to protect livestock: dingo response to urine marks of livestock guardian dogs
Publisher: CSIRO Publishing
Date: 2017
DOI: 10.1071/AM15049
Abstract: The behavioural mechanisms by which livestock guardian dogs (LGDs) protect livestock from wild predators are not yet fully understood. LGD urine could play a part, as scent-marking the boundaries of a territory could signal occupation of the area to predators. Past selection for dogs that were most effective in deterring predators could have resulted in LGDs that produce urine with predator-deterrent properties. In this research, 28 captive dingoes (14 male and 14 female) were tested for their response to urine marks of LGDs (Maremma sheepdogs), herding dogs (Border Collies) and other dingoes, with distilled water used as a control. The response of the dingoes to the scents was measured using eight variables. For most variables, the response to the test scents was not statistically different from the response to the control. Test minus control was calculated for each test scent category, and used to compare responses between different test scents. The response to Maremma urine was similar to the response to Border Collie urine, and resembled a reaction to a conspecific. We found no evidence of predator-repellent properties of LGD urine. Our results suggest that dingoes readily engage in olfactory communication with Maremmas. It therefore seems likely that they would recognise territorial boundaries created by working Maremmas.
Automated feeders: new technology for food supplementation experiments with mammals
Publisher: CSIRO Publishing
Date: 2004
DOI: 10.1071/WR03092
Abstract: Experimental manipulations of food supply in wild populations are often confounded by a number of factors, such as induced immigration to local populations receiving food supplements and intraspecific competition for access to feed stations. Here, we describe newly developed automated feeding stations, designed to dispense weighed food supplements to specific experimental animals. The feeders incorporate a data logger that records the identification and weight of each animal and the time of the visit to the feeder.Using the common brushtail possum (Trichosurus vulpecula) as a model medium-sized mammal, we present results of an 18-month field trial. Each free-ranging experimental possum was fitted with a collar containing a transponder chip, allowing them access to a feeder. During the field trial, experimental possums were found to show a significant increase in body mass compared with control animals, which showed a slight decrease in mass. Body masses recorded by the feeders for experimental possums did not differ from mass data recorded during live-trapping sessions.The automated feeding stations represent an advance over previous methodology and the first time supplementary food has been delivered in a controlled automated fashion in a wild mammal population. The implications of the feeders to future studies of resource supplementation in mammals are discussed.
Behaviour of the Bilby, Macrotis lagotis (Reid), (Marsupialia : Thylacomyidae) in Captivity
Publisher: CSIRO Publishing
Date: 1983
DOI: 10.1071/WR9830077
Abstract: The behaviour was observed, in captivity, of the bilby Macrotis lagotis, a fossorial bandicoot of central Australia. Most of the observations were made at night, but some were of below-ground behaviour during the daylight hours. Bilbies proved to be relatively passive in comparison with other bandicoots, and a rigid dominance hierarchy amongst males was maintained without destructive fighting. Dominant males chased subordinate males out of and away from burrows and the alpha male maintained priority of access to all the well used burrows in the enclosure. Males scent-marked around burrows the dominant male usually marked over scents left by other bilbies. Males shared burrows freely with females, and copulation appears to take place down burrows. Information is also given on female-female and mother-young behaviour, and some suggestions are made concerning the social structure of wild bilbies. Activity cycles, feeding behaviour, etc. are described.
Diet and breeding of the rufous spiny bandicoot Echymipera rufescens australis, Iron Range, Cape York Peninsula
Publisher: CSIRO Publishing
Date: 2007
DOI: 10.1071/AM07021
Abstract: A population of the rufous spiny bandicoot Echymipera rufescens australis was studied for 14 months by live-trapping, and diets were determined by faecal analysis. The population had a high density (approximately 48 in iduals on a trapping grid of 2.25 ha). A wide variety of foods were eaten, but fruits and seeds contributed the largest proportion of material to faeces, followed by invertebrates, fungi and dicot plants. Echymipera rufescens may potentially be a significant seed disperser for some plants, such as Pandanus zea. There was a short breeding season, with births occurring between December and March. Females produced one or two litters per year. Mean litter size was just under three, and litter size increased with the mother?s mass. Females produced a mean of 4.9 young per year. We conclude that although E. rufescens is a ?typical? bandicoot in that it is omnivorous and has high fecundity, it is more frugivorous and has a somewhat lower reproductive rate than other Australian bandicoots.
Species extinction and the relationship between distribution and abundance
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 07-1998
DOI: 10.1038/28385
Occupancy of the Invasive Feral Cat Varies with Habitat Complexity
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 21-09-2016
The aftermath of megafaunal extinction: Ecosystem transformation in Pleistocene Australia
Publisher: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
Date: 23-03-2012
Abstract: Following the arrival of humans in Australia 40- to 50,000 years ago, many species of large vertebrates rapidly became extinct. By analyzing sediment cores from a site in northeastern Australia, Rule et al. (p. 1483 see the Perspective by McGlone ) show that the extinction of the Australian megafauna caused important ecosystem shifts. Prominent among these were a shift from rainforest vegetation to sclerophyllous vegetation and a sustained increase in the incidence of fire. The cores also provide evidence of the cause of megafaunal extinction in Australia, ruling out climate and anthropogenic fire as possible causes while confirming that the extinctions closely followed human arrival. These findings show how landscapes sometimes have been fundamentally changed by the indirect effects of early humans—which underscores the impact that even prehistoric human societies had on natural systems.
Relative demographic susceptibility does not explain the extinction chronology of Sahul’s megafauna
Publisher: eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd
Date: 30-03-2021
DOI: 10.7554/ELIFE.63870
Abstract: The causes of Sahul’s megafauna extinctions remain uncertain, although several interacting factors were likely responsible. To examine the relative support for hypotheses regarding plausible ecological mechanisms underlying these extinctions, we constructed the first stochastic, age-structured models for 13 extinct megafauna species from five functional/taxonomic groups, as well as 8 extant species within these groups for comparison. Perturbing specific demographic rates in idually, we tested which species were more demographically susceptible to extinction, and then compared these relative sensitivities to the fossil-derived extinction chronology. Our models show that the macropodiformes were the least demographically susceptible to extinction, followed by carnivores, monotremes, vombatiform herbivores, and large birds. Five of the eight extant species were as or more susceptible than the extinct species. There was no clear relationship between extinction susceptibility and the extinction chronology for any perturbation scenario, while body mass and generation length explained much of the variation in relative risk. Our results reveal that the actual mechanisms leading to the observed extinction chronology were unlikely related to variation in demographic susceptibility per se, but were possibly driven instead by finer-scale variation in climate change and/or human prey choice and relative hunting success.
Macropod studies at wallaby creek VI. A validation of the use of dung-pellet counts for measuring absolute densities of populations of macropodids
Publisher: CSIRO Publishing
Date: 1987
DOI: 10.1071/WR9870139
Abstract: Densities of red-necked wallabies Macropus rufogriseus banksianus and eastern grey kangaroos M. giganteus at Wallaby Creek were estimated from dung-pellet counts, and these estimates were compared with the actual densities, known from censuses of in idually recognisable animals. Rates of pellet accumulation were measured by clearing and re-surveying permanently marked plots. Trials measured the rates at which pellets disappeared, and defaecation rates were measured in a concurrent study. Pellets disappeared quickly during warm, moist conditions (and at rates which varied with habitat), but survived well in cold, dry conditions. Winter is considered to be the most appropriate season to run dung-pellet surveys in this or similar environments. Dung-pellet surveys estimated red-necked wallaby density with consistent accuracy, regardless of whether counts of in idual pellets or counts of pellet groups were used. Counts of in idual pellets underestimated grey kangaroo density, but counts of pellet groups returned more accurate estimates. Inaccuracies in previous estimates of macropodid density derived from dung-pellet surveys appear to have been due to the inappropriateness of defaecation rates measured on captive animals.
Hope and caution: Rewilding to mitigate the impacts of biological invasions
Publisher: The Royal Society
Date: 22-10-2018
Abstract: Rewilding is a novel approach to ecological restoration. Trophic rewilding in particular aims to reinstate ecological functions, especially trophic interactions, through the introduction of animals. We consider the potential for trophic rewilding to address biological invasions. In this broad review, we note some of the important conceptual and ethical foundations of rewilding, including a focus on ecosystem function rather than composition, reliance on animal agency, and an appeal to an ethic of coexistence. Second, we use theory from invasion biology to highlight pathways by which rewilding might prevent or mitigate the impacts of an invasion, including increasing biotic resistance. Third, we use a series of case studies to illustrate how reintroductions can mitigate the impacts of invasions. These include reintroductions and positive management of carnivores and herbivores including European pine martens ( Martes martes ), Eurasian otters ( Lutra lutra ), dingoes ( Canis dingo ), Tasmanian devils ( Sarcophilus harrisii ) and tule elk ( Cervus canadensis nannodes ). Fourth, we consider the risk that rewilding may enable a biological invasion or aggravate its impacts. Lastly, we highlight lessons that rewilding science might take from invasion biology. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Trophic rewilding: consequences for ecosystems under global change’.
Effects of season and fire on the diversity of hypogeous fungi consumed by a tropical mycophagous marsupial
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 11-2001
Trophic rewilding establishes a landscape of fear: Tasmanian devil introduction increases risk-sensitive foraging in a key prey species
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 19-09-2019
DOI: 10.1111/ECOG.04635
Biodiversity losses and conservation responses in the Anthropocene
Publisher: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
Date: 21-04-2017
Abstract: Bio ersity is essential to human well-being, but people have been reducing bio ersity throughout human history. Loss of species and degradation of ecosystems are likely to further accelerate in the coming years. Our understanding of this crisis is now clear, and world leaders have pledged to avert it. Nonetheless, global goals to reduce the rate of bio ersity loss have mostly not been achieved. However, many ex les of conservation success show that losses can be halted and even reversed. Building on these lessons to turn the tide of bio ersity loss will require bold and innovative action to transform historical relationships between human populations and nature.
Criteria for assessing the quality of Middle Pleistocene to Holocene vertebrate fossil ages
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 10-2015
Harnessing the power of ecological interactions to reduce the impacts of feral cats
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 02-01-2019
Macropod studies at Wallaby Creek. 5. Patterns of defecation by eastern gray kangaroos and red-necked wallabies
Publisher: CSIRO Publishing
Date: 1987
DOI: 10.1071/WR9870133
Abstract: Patterns of defaecation by free-living eastern grey kangaroos Macropus giganteus and red-necked wallabies M. rufogriseus were studied by following animals and recording defaecations directly. For both species, rates of defaecation measured in this way were higher than previous measurements made on captive animals. Eastern grey kangaroos rarely defaecated while resting, but did so often during the first hour or two after their midday rest period females defaecated more often than did males. In both species, defaecations tended to fall in bouts, with two or three in fairly quick succession.
Correction to: ‘A triple threat: high population density, high foraging intensity and flexible habitat preferences explain high impact of feral cats on prey’ (2021) by Hamer et al.
Publisher: The Royal Society
Date: 16-11-2022
An exotic woody weed in a pastoral landscape provides habitat for many native species, but has no apparent threatened species conservation significance
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 31-08-2018
DOI: 10.1111/EMR.12338
Lack of chronological support for stepwise prehuman extinctions of Australian megafauna
Publisher: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Date: 25-07-2013
Ecological and evolutionary legacy of megafauna extinctions
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 09-10-2017
DOI: 10.1111/BRV.12374
Abstract: For hundreds of millions of years, large vertebrates (megafauna) have inhabited most of the ecosystems on our planet. During the late Quaternary, notably during the Late Pleistocene and the early Holocene, Earth experienced a rapid extinction of large, terrestrial vertebrates. While much attention has been paid to understanding the causes of this massive megafauna extinction, less attention has been given to understanding the impacts of loss of megafauna on other organisms with whom they interacted. In this review, we discuss how the loss of megafauna disrupted and reshaped ecological interactions, and explore the ecological consequences of the ongoing decline of large vertebrates. Numerous late Quaternary extinct species of predators, parasites, commensals and mutualistic partners were associated with megafauna and were probably lost due to their strict dependence upon them (co-extinctions). Moreover, many extant species have megafauna-adapted traits that provided evolutionary benefits under past megafauna-rich conditions, but are now of no or limited use (anachronisms). Morphological evolution and behavioural changes allowed some of these species partially to overcome the absence of megafauna. Although the extinction of megafauna led to a number of co-extinction events, several species that likely co-evolved with megafauna established new interactions with humans and their domestic animals. Species that were highly specialized in interactions with megafauna, such as large predators, specialized parasites, and large commensalists (e.g. scavengers, dung beetles), and could not adapt to new hosts or prey were more likely to die out. Partners that were less megafauna dependent persisted because of behavioural plasticity or by shifting their dependency to humans via domestication, facilitation or pathogen spill-over, or through interactions with domestic megafauna. We argue that the ongoing extinction of the extant megafauna in the Anthropocene will catalyse another wave of co-extinctions due to the enormous ersity of key ecological interactions and functional roles provided by the megafauna.
Introducing a new top predator, the dingo
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Date: 23-01-2014
Brave new green world - Consequences of a carbon economy for the conservation of Australian biodiversity
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 05-2013
Ants as indicators for vertebrate fauna at a local scale: An assessment of cross-taxa surrogacy in a disturbed matrix
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 10-06-2009
Continental-Scale Governance and the Hastening of Loss of Australia's Biodiversity
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 12-2013
DOI: 10.1111/COBI.12189
Animals as Agents in Fire Regimes
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 04-2020
Abundance and the Environmental Niche: Environmental Suitability Estimated from Niche Models Predicts the Upper Limit of Local Abundance
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Date: 08-2009
DOI: 10.1086/600087
Abstract: Ecologists seek to understand patterns of distribution and abundance of species. Studies of distribution often use occurrence data to build models of the environmental niche of a species. Environmental suitability (ES) derived from such models may be used to predict the potential distributions of species. The ability of such models to predict spatial patterns in abundance is unknown we argue that there should be a positive relationship between ES and local abundance. This will be so if ES reflects how well the species' physiological and ecological requirements are met at a site and if those factors also determine local abundance. However, the presence of other factors may indicate that potential abundance is not attained at all sites. Therefore, ES should predict the upper limit of abundance, and the observed relationship with ES should be wedge shaped. We tested the relationship of ES with local abundance for 69 rain forest vertebrates in the Australian wet tropics. Ordinary least squares and quantile regressions revealed a positive relationship between ES and local abundance for most species (>84%). The relationships for these species were wedge shaped. We conclude that ES modeled from presence-only data provides useful information on spatial patterns of abundance, and we discuss implications of this in addressing important problems in ecology.
The Remaking of Australia's Ecology
Publisher: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
Date: 08-07-2005
The virtuous circle: predator-friendly farming and ecological restoration in Australia
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 15-06-2016
DOI: 10.1111/REC.12396
Determinants of loss of mammal species during the Late Quaternary ‘megafauna’ extinctions: life history and ecology, but not body size
Publisher: The Royal Society
Date: 07-11-2002
Climate change not to blame for late Quaternary megafauna extinctions in Australia
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 29-01-2016
DOI: 10.1038/NCOMMS10511
Abstract: Late Quaternary megafauna extinctions impoverished mammalian ersity worldwide. The causes of these extinctions in Australia are most controversial but essential to resolve, because this continent-wide event presaged similar losses that occurred thousands of years later on other continents. Here we apply a rigorous metadata analysis and new ensemble-hindcasting approach to 659 Australian megafauna fossil ages. When coupled with analysis of several high-resolution climate records, we show that megafaunal extinctions were broadly synchronous among genera and independent of climate aridity and variability in Australia over the last 120,000 years. Our results reject climate change as the primary driver of megafauna extinctions in the world’s most controversial context, and instead estimate that the megafauna disappeared Australia-wide ∼13,500 years after human arrival, with shorter periods of coexistence in some regions. This is the first comprehensive approach to incorporate uncertainty in fossil ages, extinction timing and climatology, to quantify mechanisms of prehistorical extinctions.
The contribution of fungus to the diets of three mycophagous marsupials inEucalyptusforests, revealed by stable isotope analysis
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 04-1998
Edge effects created by fenced conservation reserves benefit an invasive mesopredator
Publisher: CSIRO Publishing
Date: 2020
DOI: 10.1071/WR19181
Abstract: Abstract ContextFenced reserves from which invasive predators are removed are increasingly used as a conservation management tool, because they provide safe havens for susceptible threatened species, and create dense populations of native wildlife that could act as a source population for recolonising the surrounding landscape. However, the latter effect might also act as a food source, and promote high densities of invasive predators on the edges of such reserves. AimsOur study aimed to determine whether activity of the feral cat is greater around the edges of a fenced conservation reserve, Arid Recovery, in northern South Australia. This reserve has abundant native rodents that move through the fence into the surrounding landscape. MethodsWe investigated (1) whether feral cats were increasingly likely to be detected on track transects closer to the fence over time as populations of native rodents increased inside the reserve, (2) whether native rodents were more likely to be found in the stomachs of cats caught close to the reserve edge, and (3) whether in idual cats selectively hunted on the reserve fence compared with two other similar fences, on the basis of GPS movement data. Key resultsWe found that (1) detection rates of feral cats on the edges of a fenced reserve increased through time as populations of native rodents increased inside the reserve, (2) native rodents were far more likely to be found in the stomach of cats collected at the reserve edge than in the stomachs of cats far from the reserve edge, and (3) GPS tracking of cat movements showed a selection for the reserve fence edge, but not for similar fences away from the reserve. ConclusionsInvasive predators such as feral cats are able to focus their movements and activity to where prey availability is greatest, including the edges of fenced conservation reserves. This limits the capacity of reserves to function as source areas from which animals can recolonise the surrounding landscape, and increases predation pressure on populations of other species living on the reserve edge. ImplicationsManagers of fenced conservation reserves should be aware that increased predator control may be critical for offsetting the elevated impacts of feral cats attracted to the reserve fence.
The effects of weather variability on patterns of genetic diversity in Tasmanian bettongs
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 15-03-2021
DOI: 10.1111/MEC.15847
Abstract: While the effects of climate (long‐term, prevailing weather) on species abundance, range and genetic ersity have been widely studied, short‐term, localized variations in atmospheric conditions (i.e., weather) can also rapidly alter species’ geographical ranges and population sizes, but little is known about how they affect genetic ersity. We investigated the relationship between weather and range‐wide genetic ersity in a marsupial, Bettongia gaimardi , using dynamic species distribution models (SDMs). Genetic ersity was lower in parts of the range where the weather‐based SDM predicted high variability in probability of B. gaimardi occurrence during 1950–2009. This is probably an effect of lower population sizes and extinction–recolonization cycles in places with highly variable weather. Spatial variation in genetic ersity was also better predicted by mean probabilities of B. gaimardi occurrence from weather‐ than climate‐based SDMs. Our results illustrate the importance of weather in driving population dynamics and species distributions on decadal timescales and thereby in affecting genetic ersity. Modelling the links between changing weather patterns, species distributions and genetic ersity will allow researchers to better forecast biological impacts of climate change.
Biotic interactions influence the projected distribution of a specialist mammal under climate change
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 07-06-2012
The significance of topographic complexity in habitat selection and persistence of a declining marsupial in the Kimberley region of Western Australia
Publisher: CSIRO Publishing
Date: 2016
DOI: 10.1071/ZO16015
Abstract: Mammalian species in northern Australia are declining. The resources that many species from this region require to persist in the landscape remain poorly understood. We examined habitat selection and diet of the scaly-tailed possum (Wyulda squamicaudata, hereafter called Wyulda) in the north-west Kimberley, Western Australia, in relation to variation in complexity of rocky habitat, habitat heterogeneity, and recent fire history. We fitted GPS tags to 23 Wyulda between January 2013 and February 2014 and analysed step selection between GPS fixes to describe habitat choice. We assessed diet by microscopic analysis of plant fragments from 47 faecal s les. In idual Wyulda preferentially foraged in locations with high rock complexity and high habitat heterogeneity in a wide variety of habitats, but denned exclusively in complex rock piles. They used savannas of a range of post-fire ages, including recently burnt (1–2 months after fire) and long unburnt ( months after fire). They were highly frugivorous with, on average, 77% of plant fragments per scat s le identified as fruit epidermal layers. Overall, rock complexity appears to be an important landscape attribute for Wyulda, as it may provide den sites and protect fire-sensitive landscape features such as fruiting trees and habitat heterogeneity.
The short-term response of feral cats to rabbit population decline: Are alternative native prey more at risk?
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 15-11-2020
Adjustment of offspring sex ratios in relation to the availability of resources for philopatric offspring in the common brushtail possum
Publisher: The Royal Society
Date: 07-10-2001
Geographic variation in the ecological effects of extinction of Australia's Pleistocene megafauna
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 14-07-2016
DOI: 10.1111/ECOG.01612
Abstract: Recent studies suggest that extinction of Pleistocene megafauna had large impacts on the structure and functioning of ecosystems, including increased fire and shifts in vegetation state. We argue that the ecological effects of mega‐herbivore extinction are likely to have varied geographically, and might have been reduced in environments of low productivity. We tested this at Caledonia Fen, a cool, high‐elevation site in southeast Australia with a palynological record reaching back approximately 140 ka. The dung fungus Sporormiella indicated that large herbivores were present through most of the early part of the last glacial cycle, but declined abruptly between 50–40 ka and did not recover. This event corresponds with evidence for continent‐wide extinction of Australia's Pleistocene megafauna at that time. An earlier episode of low Sporormiella occurrence coincided with evidence of raised water levels in the fen. Changes in wetland conditions can alter the accumulation of Sporormiella , but there was no such change when Sporormiella counts fell in the period 50–40 ka. We found no evidence that the decline in Sporormiella triggered increased fire or a change in vegetation, which remained a low grass/shrub steppe. This contrasts with a warmer and more humid site, Lynch's Crater in northeast Australia, where decline of dung fungi was followed by increased fire and transition from mixed sclerophyll forest and rainforest to uniform sclerophyll forest. Our results suggest that the magnitude of ecological responses to Pleistocene megafaunal extinction varied geographically, under the control of regional climates.
Sexual dimorphism and synchrony of breeding: variation in polygyny potential among populations in the common brushtail possum, Trichosurus vulpecula
Publisher: Oxford University Press (OUP)
Date: 11-2003
Effects of predator control on behaviour of an apex predator and indirect consequences for mesopredator suppression
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 04-10-2012
Regional population structuring and conservation units in the platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus)
Publisher: CSIRO Publishing
Date: 2013
DOI: 10.1071/ZO13029
Abstract: The platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus) has a wide distribution in Australia, encompassing the southern island of Tasmania and a broad latitudinal range of the mainland from the temperate south to the tropical north. We used 12 microsatellite markers from 235 in iduals s led from 13 river systems to examine patterns of genetic differentiation and gene flow throughout the species’ range. Using a Bayesian approach we identified three large-scale groupings that correspond closely to geographically distinct regions of the species’ distribution: the tropical northern mainland, the subtropical and temperate southern mainland, and Tasmania. Six additional clusters were found within the regional groups, three in the northern, two in the southern mainland regions, and the last in Tasmania. These clusters coincided with major river drainages. Genetic differentiation was generally high, with pairwise Fst values ranging from 0.065 to 0.368 for regions and 0.037 to 0.479 for clusters. We found no evidence of contemporary gene flow among the three clusters in the north, but some migration may occur between the larger clusters in the south. Due to the high genetic structuring and lack of gene flow between these three regional populations of the platypus we recommend their treatment as evolutionarily significant units (ESUs) within the platypus species. We have also detailed several smaller management units (MUs) existing within our study area based on subregional clusters and geographically significant features.
Range size‐abundance relationships in Australian passerines
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 28-02-2006
Testing the role of climate change in species decline: Is the eastern quoll a victim of a change in the weather?
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 24-06-2015
Deep Intronic Sequence Variants inCOL2A1Affect the Alternative Splicing Efficiency of Exon 2, and May Confer a Risk for Rhegmatogenous Retinal Detachment
Publisher: Hindawi Limited
Date: 21-08-2016
DOI: 10.1002/HUMU.23050
Abstract: COL2A1 mutations causing haploinsufficiency of type II collagen cause type 1 Stickler syndrome that has a high risk of retinal detachment and failure of the vitreous to develop normally. Exon 2 of COL2A1 is alternatively spliced, expressed in the eye but not in mature cartilage and encodes a region that binds growth factors TGFβ1 and BMP-2. We investigated how both an apparently de novo variant and a polymorphism in intron 2 altered the efficiency of COL2A1 exon 2 splicing and how the latter may act as a predisposing risk factor for the occurrence of posterior vitreous detachment (PVD)-associated rhegmatogenous retinal detachment (RRD) in the general population. Using lification of illegitimate transcripts and allele-specific minigenes expressed in cultured cells, we demonstrate variability in exon 2 inclusion not only between different control in iduals, but also between different COL2A1 alleles. We identify transacting factors that bind to allele-specific RNA sequences, and investigate the effect of knockdown and overexpression of these factors on exon 2 splicing efficiency. Finally, using a specific cohort of patients with PVD-associated RRD and a control population, we demonstrate a significant difference in the frequency of the COL2A1 intronic variant rs1635532 between the two groups.
Livestock guardian dogs and animal welfare: Comment on “Animal welfare considerations for using large carnivores and guardian dogs as vertebrate biocontrol tools against other animals”
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 08-2019
Rapid megafaunal extinction following human arrival throughout the New World
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 10-2013
Developing a national framework for dingo trophic regulation research in Australia: Outcomes of a national workshop
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 31-07-2009
A native apex predator limits an invasive mesopredator and protects native prey: Tasmanian devils protecting bandicoots from cats
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 13-02-2020
DOI: 10.1111/ELE.13473
Correction: Sarcoptes scabiei: The Mange Mite with Mighty Effects on the Common Wombat (Vombatus ursinus)
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 14-04-2016
Causes of extinction of vertebrates during the Holocene of mainland Australia: Arrival of the dingo, or human impact?
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 09-2003
DOI: 10.1191/0959683603HL682FA
Abstract: The arrival of the dingo in mainland Australia is believed to have caused the extinction of three native vertebrates: the thylacine, the Tasmanian devil and the Tasmanian native hen. The dingo is implicated in these extinctions because, while these three species disappeared during the late Holocene of mainland Aus tralia in the presence of the dingo, they persisted in Tasmania in its absence. Moreover, the dingo might plausibly have competed with the thylacine and devil, and preyed on the native hen. However, another variable is similarly correlated with these extinctions: there is evidence for an increase in the human population on the mainland that gathered pace about 4000 years ago and was associated with innovations in hunting technology and more intensive use of resources. These changes may have combined to put increased hunting pressure on large vertebrates, and to reduce population size of many species that were hunted by people on the mainland. We suggest that these changes, which were quite dramatic on mainland Australia but were muted or absent in Tasmania, could have led to the mainland extinctions of the thylacine, devil and hen.
Adaptive sex allocation in relation to life‐history in the common brushtail possum, Trichosurus vulpecula
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 05-2005
Rarity in the tropics: Latitudinal gradients in distribution and abundance in Australian mammals
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 09-1998
The disappearing mammal fauna of northern Australia: Context, cause, and response
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 02-03-2011
Amplified predation after fire suppresses rodent populations in Australia's tropical savannas
Publisher: CSIRO Publishing
Date: 2016
DOI: 10.1071/WR15011
Abstract: Context Changes in abundance following fire are commonly reported for vertebrate species, but the mechanisms causing these changes are rarely tested. Currently, many species of small mammals are declining in the savannas of northern Australia. These declines have been linked to intense and frequent fires in the late dry season however, why such fires cause declines of small mammals is unknown. Aims We aimed to discover the mechanisms causing decline in abundance of two species of small mammals, the pale field rat, Rattus tunneyi, and the western chestnut mouse, Pseudomys nanus, in response to fire. Candidate mechanisms were (1) direct mortality because of fire itself, (2) mortality after fire because of removal of food by fire, (3) reduced reproductive success, (4) emigration, and (5) increased mortality because of predation following fire. Methods We used live trapping to monitor populations of these two species under the following three experimental fire treatments: high-intensity fire that removed all ground vegetation, low-intensity fire that produced a patchy burn, and an unburnt control. We also radio-tracked 38 R. tunneyi in iduals to discover the fates of in idual animals. Key results Abundance of both species declined after fire, and especially following the high-intensity burn. There was no support for any of the first four mechanisms of population decline, but mortality owing to predation increased after fire. This was related to loss of ground cover (which was greater in the high-intensity fire treatment), which evidently left animals exposed to predators. Also, local activity of two predators, feral cats and dingoes, increased after the burns, and we found direct evidence of predation by feral cats and snakes. Conclusions Fire in the northern savannas has little direct effect on populations of these small mammals, but it causes declines by lifying the impacts of predators. These effects are most severe for high-intensity burns that remove a high proportion of vegetation cover. Implications To prevent further declines in northern Australia, fire should be managed in ways that limit the effects of increased predation. This could be achieved by setting cool fires that produce patchy burns, avoiding hot fires, and minimising the total area burnt.
Conservation trade-offs: island introduction of a threatened predator suppresses invasive mesopredators but eliminates a seabird colony
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 08-2020
An ecological regime shift resulting from disrupted predator-prey interactions in Holocene Australia
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 03-2014
DOI: 10.1890/13-0746.1
Variations in Group Size and Composition in Red and Western Grey Kangaroos, Macropus rufus (Desmarest ) and M. fulignosus (Desmarest)
Publisher: CSIRO Publishing
Date: 1983
DOI: 10.1071/WR9830025
Abstract: Data on group size and composition in red and western grey kangaroos are analysed with respect to population density and season. In red kangaroos, typical group sizes were correlated with density at all times of the year. Analyses of density-group size relationships in each sex showed female typical group size to be correlated with female density but male densities and group sizes to be uncorrelated. Small adult males were the least likely to be with near-oestrous females, and apparently tend to disperse into suboptimal habitats. In the seasonally breeding western grey kangaroos, densities and typical group sizes were correlated during spring and summer, but not during autumn and winter, when groups tended to be larger. This seasonal shift is mainly due to changes in the grouping behaviour of males. These patterns are interpreted as being due to dominance relationships and seasonal reproductive strategies of males.
Response to commentary by Woinarski (Critical-weight-range marsupials in northern Australia are declining: a commentary on Fisheret al. (2014) ‘The current decline of tropical marsupials in Aus
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 21-11-2014
DOI: 10.1111/GEB.12252
Where Do Livestock Guardian Dogs Go? Movement Patterns of Free-Ranging Maremma Sheepdogs
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 29-10-2014
The hookworm Ancylostoma ceylanicum : An emerging public health risk in Australian tropical rainforests and Indigenous communities
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 06-2017
A triple threat: high population density, high foraging intensity and flexible habitat preferences explain high impact of feral cats on prey
Publisher: The Royal Society
Date: 06-01-2020
Abstract: Alien mammalian carnivores have contributed disproportionately to global loss of bio ersity. In Australia, predation by the feral cat and red fox is one of the most significant causes of the decline of native vertebrates. To discover why cats have greater impacts on prey than native predators, we compared the ecology of the feral cat to a marsupial counterpart, the spotted-tailed quoll. In idual prey are 20–200 times more likely to encounter feral cats, because of the combined effects of cats' higher population densities, greater intensity of home-range use and broader habitat preferences. These characteristics also mean that the costs to the prey of adopting anti-predator behaviours against feral cats are likely to be much higher than adopting such behaviours in response to spotted-tailed quolls, due to the reliability and ubiquity of feral cat cues. These results help explain the devastating impacts of cats on wildlife in Australia and other parts of the world.
Making the connection: expanding the role of restoration genetics in restoring and evaluating connectivity
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 12-03-2018
DOI: 10.1111/REC.12692
Feral Cats Are Better Killers in Open Habitats, Revealed by Animal-Borne Video
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 19-08-2015
Interactions between fire, mycophagous mammals, and dispersal of ectromycorrhizal fungi in Eucalyptus forests
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 12-1995
DOI: 10.1007/BF00341344
Using dung fungi to interpret decline and extinction ofmegaherbivores: Problems and solutions
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 02-2015
Determinants of local abundance in a major radiation of Australian passerines (Aves: Meliphagoidea)
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 28-03-2006
Modelling of fossil and contemporary data suggest the Broad‐toothed rat (Mastacomys fuscus) currently occupies a small part of its available climatic niche: Implications of paleontological data for conservation of a threatened species
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 11-05-2023
DOI: 10.1111/AEC.13350
Abstract: We use fossil, sub‐fossil and contemporary records of the Broad‐toothed rat, Mastacomys fuscus , to model changes in its range over the last 21 thousand years. Mastacomys fuscus was exposed to, and flourished in, a much broader range of environmental conditions in the recent past than it occupies today. It also currently occupies a much smaller range than it did in the Late Pleistocene. Apart from a weak response to sea‐level rise in the Holocene, the decline of M. fuscus does not correlate with known climate change. Instead, the contraction of the species' distribution on mainland Australia to high‐elevation areas occurred recently and rapidly. Small changes in the 1000 year BP and present‐day projected distributions imply some contraction of the area of suitable climate to higher elevations of the mainland subspecies M. f. mordicus , up to 2200 m above sea level. However, M. f. mordicus also persists near sea level at Cape Otway (southwestern Victoria) and from sea level to 1500 m above sea level at Barrington Tops (eastern New South Wales, Australia). This suggests suitable habitat may still exist in coastal Victoria and the central Tablelands/Blue Mountains areas. This research highlights the importance and value of using sub‐fossil data to understand changes in the distribution and niche occupation of threatened species as the basis for conservation planning.
State-space modeling reveals habitat perception of a small terrestrial mammal in a fragmented landscape
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 16-08-2019
DOI: 10.1002/ECE3.5519
Evidence that dingoes limit abundance of a mesopredator in eastern Australian forests
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 06-2009
Macropod studies at wallaby creek. VIII. Individual recognition of kangaroos and wallabies
Publisher: CSIRO Publishing
Date: 1989
DOI: 10.1071/WR9890179
Abstract: Recognition of in idual large mammals by natural features is an ancient practice, the usefulness of which has recently become appreciated in field studies. We show that such recognition is possible and repeatable, under particular circumstances, with macropodid marsupials in the field in Australia. In trials, there was a 98% agreement between observers in identification of in iduals of both eastern grey kangaroos Macropus giganteus and red-necked wallabies M. rufogriseus. Characters used to identify in iduals were first definitive ('oddity') characters, and then specific sets of character-states. However, in time observers came to recognise in iduals 'on sight', by unconscious summation of character-states. Recognition skills could be readily learned by observers, allowing almost complete populations of these species to be known and the component members studied in idually. The technique should be applicable in studies of other macropodid populations.
Reconstructing the dynamics of ancient human populations from radiocarbon dates: 10 000 years of population growth in Australia
Publisher: The Royal Society
Date: 11-05-2011
Abstract: Measuring trends in the size of prehistoric populations is fundamental to our understanding of the demography of ancient people and their responses to environmental change. Archaeologists commonly use the temporal distribution of radiocarbon dates to reconstruct population trends, but this can give a false picture of population growth because of the loss of evidence from older sites. We demonstrate a method for quantifying this bias, and we use it to test for population growth through the Holocene of Australia. We used model simulations to show how turnover of site occupation across an archaeological landscape, interacting with erasure of evidence at abandoned sites, can create an increase in apparent site occupation towards the present when occupation density is actually constant. By estimating the probabilities of abandonment and erasure from archaeological data, we then used the model to show that this effect does not account for the observed increase in occupation through the Holocene in Australia. This is best explained by population growth, which was low for the first part of the Holocene but accelerated about 5000 years ago. Our results provide new evidence for the dynamism of non-agricultural populations through the Holocene.
How guardian dogs protect livestock from predators: territorial enforcement by Maremma sheepdogs
Publisher: CSIRO Publishing
Date: 2014
DOI: 10.1071/WR14190
Abstract: Context Livestock guardian dogs (LGDs, Canis familiaris) can be highly effective in protecting livestock from predators however, how they accomplish this, is poorly understood. Whereas it is clear that these dogs spend a high proportion of their time accompanying livestock, and confront predators that approach closely, it is unknown whether they also maintain territories around the areas used by their livestock and exclude predators from those territories. Aims We aimed to determine whether LGD behaviour towards predators is consistent with defence of a larger territory that encompasses the stock, or is based on repelling predators that closely approach livestock. Methods We used audio playbacks and scent placements to simulate incursions by dingoes (Canis dingo) at different locations with the LGD ranges, and used GPS tracking and automatic cameras to monitor responses to these incursions. Key results The LGD responses depended on location of the incursion. When simulated incursions were a significant distance inside the range (about the 50th kernel isopleth), they responded by vocalising, leaving their livestock, and travelling up to 570 m away from the stock to approach the incursion point and display challenging behaviour when incursions were at the boundary of the range (at or beyond the 90th kernel isopleth), they vocalised but did not approach the incursion point, regardless of the location of the sheep. The LGDs in this study worked in groups. Group members responded differently to simulated incursions, some moving to challenge, whereas others remained close to the sheep. Conclusions Our results showed that protection by LGDs extends beyond the immediate vicinity of livestock, and is consistent with the defence of a larger territory. Implications If predators are excluded from this territory, LGDs enforce a spatial separation of predators and livestock. This would reduce risk of attack, but also prevents the disturbance and stress to livestock that would be caused by frequent approaches of predators. Where possible, training and management of LGDs should allow them to range freely over large areas so that they can develop and exhibit territorial behaviour, and they should be deployed in groups so that group members can assume complementary roles.
Short-term pain before long-term gain? Suppression of invasive primary prey temporarily increases predation on native lizards
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 16-03-2020
What can the data on late survival of Australian megafauna tell us about the cause of their extinction?
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 11-2005
Rarity of a top predator triggers continent-wide collapse of mammal prey: dingoes and marsupials in Australia
Publisher: The Royal Society
Date: 31-10-2006
Abstract: Top predators in terrestrial ecosystems may limit populations of smaller predators that could otherwise become over abundant and cause declines and extinctions of some prey. It is therefore possible that top predators indirectly protect many species of prey from excessive predation. This effect has been demonstrated in some small-scale studies, but it is not known how general or important it is in maintaining prey bio ersity. During the last 150 years, Australia has suffered the world's highest rate of mammal decline and extinction, and most evidence points to introduced mid-sized predators (the red fox and the feral cat) as the cause. Here, we test the idea that the decline of Australia's largest native predator, the dingo, played a role in these extinctions. Dingoes were persecuted from the beginning of European settlement in Australia and have been eliminated or made rare over large parts of the continent. We show a strong positive relationship between the survival of marsupials and the geographical overlap with high-density dingo populations. Our results suggest that the rarity of dingoes was a critical factor which allowed smaller predators to overwhelm marsupial prey, triggering extinction over much of the continent. This is evidence of a crucial role of top predators in maintaining prey bio ersity at large scales in terrestrial ecosystems and suggests that many remaining Australian mammals would benefit from the positive management of dingoes.
Extraterritorial hunting expeditions to intense fire scars by feral cats
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 02-03-2016
DOI: 10.1038/SREP22559
Abstract: Feral cats are normally territorial in Australia’s tropical savannahs and hunt intensively with home-ranges only two to three kilometres across. Here we report that they also undertake expeditions of up to 12.5 km from their home ranges to hunt for short periods over recently burned areas. Cats are especially likely to travel to areas burned at high intensity, probably in response to vulnerability of prey soon after such fires. The movements of journeying cats are highly directed to specific destinations. We argue that the effect of this behaviour is to increase the aggregate impact of cats on vulnerable prey. This has profound implications for conservation, considering the ubiquity of feral cats and global trends of intensified fire regimes.
Can trophic rewilding reduce the impact of fire in a more flammable world?
Publisher: The Royal Society
Date: 22-10-2018
Abstract: Large vertebrates affect fire regimes in several ways: by consuming plant matter that would otherwise accumulate as fuel by controlling and varying the density of vegetation and by engineering the soil and litter layer. These processes can regulate the frequency, intensity and extent of fire. The evidence for these effects is strongest in environments with intermediate rainfall, warm temperatures and graminoid-dominated ground vegetation. Probably, extinction of Quaternary megafauna triggered increased biomass burning in many such environments. Recent and continuing declines of large vertebrates are likely to be significant contributors to changes in fire regimes and vegetation that are currently being experienced in many parts of the world. To date, rewilding projects that aim to restore large herbivores have paid little attention to the value of large animals in moderating fire regimes. Rewilding potentially offers a powerful tool for managing the risks of wildfire and its impacts on natural and human values. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Trophic rewilding: consequences for ecosystems under global change’.
Distribution of feeding activity of the Tasmanian bettong (Bettongia gaimardi) in relation to vegetation patterns
Publisher: CSIRO Publishing
Date: 1994
DOI: 10.1071/WR9940249
Abstract: The Tasmanian bettong (Bettongia gaimardi) feeds by digging for the fruit-bodies of hypogeous ectomycorrhizal fungi in dry sclerophyll forest. This study examined variations in the density of food-diggings of B. gaimardi in relation to vegetation patterns in a 150-ha study area. Density of B. gaimardi diggings was highest in Eucalyptus tenuiramus [E. tenuiramis] forest with a high density of mature stems and little ground vegetation this type of vegetation was found on soils of low fertility. Density of diggings also increased towards the dry end of a moisture gradient characterized by a transition from E. amygdalina to E. obliqua, and increased with the density of Acacia dealbata stems. High densities of A. dealbata probably indicate recent burning. Analysis of the fine-scale distribution of diggings showed that diggings were clustered around Eucalyptus and Acacia stems, but showed no pattern in relation to density of ground vegetation.
Body mass and extinction risk in Australian marsupials: The ‘Critical Weight Range’ revisited
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 02-2009
Systematic planning can rapidly close the protection gap in Australian mammal havens
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 2019
DOI: 10.1111/CONL.12611
Separating the influences of environment and species interactions on patterns of distribution and abundance: competition between large herbivores
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 07-2009
DOI: 10.1111/J.1365-2656.2008.01520.X
Abstract: 1. Much recent research has focused on the use of species distribution models to explore the influence(s) of environment (predominantly climate) on species' distributions. A weakness of this approach is that it typically does not consider effects of biotic interactions, including competition, on species' distributions. 2. Here we identify and quantify the contribution of environmental factors relative to biotic factors (interspecific competition) to the distribution and abundance of three large, wide-ranging herbivores, the antilopine wallaroo (Macropus antilopinus), common wallaroo (Macropus robustus) and eastern grey kangaroo (Macropus giganteus), across an extensive zone of sympatry in tropical northern Australia. 3. To assess the importance of competition relative to habitat features, we constructed models of abundance for each species incorporating habitat only and habitat + the abundance of the other species, and compared their respective likelihoods using Akaike's information criterion. We further assessed the importance of variables predicting abundance across models for each species. 4. The best-supported models of antilopine wallaroo and eastern grey kangaroo abundance included both habitat and the abundance of the other species, providing evidence of interspecific competition. Contrastingly, models of common wallaroo abundance were largely influenced by climate and not the abundance of other species. The abundance of antilopine wallaroos was most influenced by water availability, eastern grey kangaroo abundance and the frequency of late season fires. The abundance of eastern grey kangaroos was most influenced by aspects of climate, antilopine wallaroo abundance and a measure of cattle abundance. 5. Our study demonstrates that where census and habitat data are available, it is possible to reveal species' interactions (and measure their relative strength and direction) between large, mobile and/or widely-distributed species for which competition is difficult to demonstrate experimentally. This allows discrimination of the influences of environmental factors and species interactions on species' distributions, and should therefore improve the predictive power of species distribution models.
Maternal Undernutrition Increases Fibrosis in the Late Gestation Fetal Heart
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 2017
Landscape Management of Fire and Grazing Regimes Alters the Fine-Scale Habitat Utilisation by Feral Cats
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 15-10-2014
Use of anthropogenic linear features by two medium-sized carnivores in reserved and agricultural landscapes
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 14-09-2017
DOI: 10.1038/S41598-017-11454-Z
Abstract: Many carnivores are threatened by habitat loss and fragmentation. These changes create linear features and habitat edges that can facilitate foraging and/or travel. To understand the significance of anthropogenic linear features in the ecology of carnivores, fine-scaled studies are needed. We studied two medium-sized carnivores: the endangered Tasmanian devil ( Sarcophilus harrisii ) and the near threatened spotted-tailed quoll ( Dasyurus maculatus ), in a mixed landscape of conservation and agricultural land. Using GPS tracking, we investigated their use of intact habitat versus linear features such as roads, fences and the pasture/cover interface. Both species showed a positive selection for anthropogenic linear features, using the pasture/cover interface for foraging and roads for movement and foraging. Devils travelled along fence lines, while quolls showed little preference for them. Otherwise, both species foraged in forest and travelled through pasture. While devils and quolls can utilise anthropogenic linear features, we suggest that their continued survival in these habitats may depend on the intensity of other threats, e.g. persecution, and providing that sufficient intact habitat remains to sustain their ecological needs. We suggest that the management of both species and probably many other species of carnivores should focus on controlling mortality factors associated with human use of landscapes.
Dietary variation in spectacled flying foxes (Pteropus conspicillatus) of the Australian Wet Tropics
Publisher: CSIRO Publishing
Date: 2006
DOI: 10.1071/ZO06092
Abstract: The diet of Pteropus conspicillatus, a large flying fox, was examined by collecting faeces in traps beneath daytime roost trees in four geographically distinct c s in the Wet Tropics bioregion of North-eastern Queensland, Australia. Faecal analyses revealed that P. conspicillatus utilise a broad variety of plant resources from a variety of habitats. Seed and pulp from figs (Ficus spp., Moraceae) and pollen from the family Myrtaceae were most frequently represented in the faeces from a range of both wet sclerophyll and rainforest habitats. The dietary composition of P. conspicillatus at in idual c s could not be predicted by the habitats located within a typical foraging distance of each c (20 km), and although consistent dietary changes were seen across all c s over time, each c had a unique dietary signature indicative of feeding on a distinct subset of available vegetation. The unique diet of each c and the variety of dietary items consumed suggest that c s may need to be managed on an in idual c -specific basis, and that P. conspicillatus are utilising a broader range of resources than would be expected if the species was a strict ‘rainforest-fruit specialist’.
Habitat amount and quality, not patch size, determine persistence of a woodland-dependent mammal in an agricultural landscape
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 05-10-2018
Top predators constrain mesopredator distributions
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 23-05-2017
DOI: 10.1038/NCOMMS15469
Abstract: Top predators can suppress mesopredators by killing them, competing for resources and instilling fear, but it is unclear how suppression of mesopredators varies with the distribution and abundance of top predators at large spatial scales and among different ecological contexts. We suggest that suppression of mesopredators will be strongest where top predators occur at high densities over large areas. These conditions are more likely to occur in the core than on the margins of top predator ranges. We propose the Enemy Constraint Hypothesis, which predicts weakened top-down effects on mesopredators towards the edge of top predators’ ranges. Using bounty data from North America, Europe and Australia we show that the effects of top predators on mesopredators increase from the margin towards the core of their ranges, as predicted. Continuing global contraction of top predator ranges could promote further release of mesopredator populations, altering ecosystem structure and contributing to bio ersity loss.
Density and home range of feral cats in north-western Australia
Publisher: CSIRO Publishing
Date: 2015
DOI: 10.1071/WR14180
Abstract: Context Feral cats (Felis catus) pose a significant threat to bio ersity in Australia, and are implicated in current declines of small mammals in the savannas of northern Australia. Basic information on population density and ranging behaviour is essential to understand and manage threats from feral cats. Aims In this study, we provide robust estimates of density and home range of feral cats in the central Kimberley region of north-western Australia, and we test whether population density is affected by livestock grazing, small mammal abundance and other environmental factors. Methods Densities were measured at six transects s led between 2011 and 2013 using arrays of infrared cameras. Cats were in idually identified, and densities estimated using spatially explicit capture–recapture analysis. Home range was measured from GPS tracking of 32 cats. Key results Densities were similar across all transects and deployments, with a mean of 0.18 cats km–2 (range = 0.09–0.34 km–2). We found no evidence that population density was related to livestock grazing or abundance of small mammals. Home ranges of males were, on average, 855 ha (±156 ha (95% CI), n = 25), and those of females were half the size at 397 ha (±275 ha (95% CI), n = 7). There was little overlap in ranges of cats of the same sex. Conclusions Compared with elsewhere in Australia outside of semiarid regions, feral cats occur at low density and have large home ranges in the central Kimberley. However, other evidence shows that despite this low density, cats are contributing to declines of small mammal populations across northern Australia. Implications It will be very difficult to reduce these already-sparse populations by direct control. Instead, land-management practices that reduce the impacts of cats on prey should be investigated.
Climate-driven variation in food availability between the core and range edge of the endangered northern bettong (Bettongia tropica)
Publisher: CSIRO Publishing
Date: 2011
DOI: 10.1071/ZO11079
Abstract: The endangered northern bettong (Bettongia tropica) occurs in four disjunct populations in far north Queensland, Australia, at a high density only in its range core (RC). A recent study suggested that B. tropica populations are sparse at the northern and southern range edges (SRE) due to more severe droughts and variable climatic conditions causing fluctuations in the availability of their principal food resource, truffle-like fungi. Truffle availability in the Australian tropics is affected by climate, specifically seasonality of precipitation. We aimed to determine whether the differences in weather patterns between the RC and SRE could be translated to actual differences in truffle availability. Truffle density was consistently lower on the SRE although biomass was slightly higher there due to dominance by drought-tolerant truffle taxa that produce few but large truffles. Lower densities of truffles on the SRE could explain why B. tropica is also less abundant there and why they may be less resilient to competition from the more generalist rufous bettong (Aepyprymnus rufescens). Increasing temperatures and, more importantly, harsher droughts predicted for this region as a result of climate change, may have further detrimental impacts on truffle availability and thus population densities of B. tropica and other mycophagous species.
Pyrodiversity is the coupling of biodiversity and fire regimes in food webs
Publisher: The Royal Society
Date: 05-06-2016
Abstract: Fire positively and negatively affects food webs across all trophic levels and guilds and influences a range of ecological processes that reinforce fire regimes, such as nutrient cycling and soil development, plant regeneration and growth, plant community assembly and dynamics, herbivory and predation. Thus we argue that rather than merely describing spatio-temporal patterns of fire regimes, pyro ersity must be understood in terms of feedbacks between fire regimes, bio ersity and ecological processes. Humans shape pyro ersity both directly, by manipulating the intensity, severity, frequency and extent of fires, and indirectly, by influencing the abundance and distribution of various trophic guilds through hunting and husbandry of animals, and introduction and cultivation of plant species. Conceptualizing landscape fire as deeply embedded in food webs suggests that the restoration of degraded ecosystems requires the simultaneous careful management of fire regimes and native and invasive plants and animals, and may include introducing new vertebrates to compensate for extinctions that occurred in the recent and more distant past. This article is part of the themed issue ‘The interaction of fire and mankind’.
Phylogeny and the selectivity of extinction in Australian marsupials
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 05-2002
Havens for threatened Australian mammals: the contributions of fenced areas and offshore islands to the protection of mammal species susceptible to introduced predators
Publisher: CSIRO Publishing
Date: 2018
DOI: 10.1071/WR17172
Abstract: Context Many Australian mammal species are highly susceptible to predation by introduced domestic cats (Felis catus) and European red foxes (Vulpes vulpes). These predators have caused many extinctions and have driven large distributional and population declines for many more species. The serendipitous occurrence of, and deliberate translocations of mammals to, ‘havens’ (cat- and fox-free offshore islands, and mainland fenced exclosures capable of excluding cats and foxes) has helped avoid further extinction. Aims The aim of this study was to conduct a stocktake of current island and fenced havens in Australia and assess the extent of their protection for threatened mammal taxa that are most susceptible to cat and fox predation. Methods Information was collated from erse sources to document (1) the locations of havens and (2) the occurrence of populations of predator-susceptible threatened mammals (naturally occurring or translocated) in those havens. The list of predator-susceptible taxa (67 taxa, 52 species) was based on consensus opinion from mammal experts. Key results Seventeen fenced and 101 island havens contain 188 populations of 38 predator-susceptible threatened mammal taxa (32 species). Island havens cover a larger cumulative area than fenced havens (2152km2 versus 346km2), and reach larger sizes (largest island 325km2, with another island of 628km2 becoming available from 2018 largest fence: 123km2). Islands and fenced havens contain similar numbers of taxa (27 each), because fenced havens usually contain more taxa per haven. Populations within fences are mostly translocated (43 of 49 88%). Islands contain translocated populations (30 of 139 22%) but also protect in situ (109) threatened mammal populations. Conclusions Havens are used increasingly to safeguard threatened predator-susceptible mammals. However, 15 such taxa occur in only one or two havens, and 29 such taxa (43%) are not represented in any havens. The taxon at greatest risk of extinction from predation, and in greatest need of a haven, is the central rock-rat (Zyzomys pedunculatus). Implications Future investment in havens should focus on locations that favour taxa with no (or low) existing haven representation. Although havens can be critical for avoiding extinctions in the short term, they cover a minute proportion of species’ former ranges. Improved options for controlling the impacts of cats and foxes at landscape scales must be developed and implemented.
Bryophyte dispersal by flying foxes: A novel discovery
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 10-01-2007
DOI: 10.1007/S00442-006-0639-1
Abstract: This research provides the first evidence of dispersal of bryophytes and associated microorganisms through ingestion by a highly mobile vertebrate vector, the spectacled flying fox (Pteropus conspicillatus). Bryophyte fragments were found in faeces collected at four P. conspicillatus' c s in the Wet Tropics bioregion, northeastern Australia. These fragments were viable when grown in culture live invertebrates and other organisms were also present. Our study has significantly increased understanding of the role of flying foxes as dispersal vectors in tropical forests.
Beyond the disease: Is Toxoplasma gondii infection causing population declines in the eastern quoll (Dasyurus viverrinus)?
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 08-2014
Eroding abodes and vanished bridges: historical biogeography of the substrate specialist pebble-mound mice (Pseudomys)
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 03-2007
Livestock guardian dogs as surrogate top predators? How Maremma sheepdogs affect a wildlife community
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 30-08-2016
DOI: 10.1002/ECE3.2412
Management of invasive mesopredators in the Flinders Ranges, South Australia: effectiveness and implications
Publisher: CSIRO Publishing
Date: 2020
DOI: 10.1071/WR19237
Abstract: Abstract ContextSignificant resources have been devoted to the control of introduced mesopredators in Australia. However, the control or removal of one pest species, such as, for ex le, the red fox (Vulpes vulpes), may inadvertently benefit other invasive species, namely feral cats (Felis catus) and rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus), potentially jeopardising native-species recovery. AimsTo (1) investigate the impact of a large-scale, long-term fox-baiting program on the abundance of foxes, feral cats and introduced and native prey species in the Flinders Ranges, South Australia, and (2) determine the effectiveness of a short time period of cat removal in immediately reducing feral cat abundance where foxes are absent. MethodsWe conducted an initial camera-trap survey in fox-baited and unbaited sites in the Flinders Ranges, to quantify the impact of fox baiting on the relative abundance of foxes, feral cats and their prey. We then conducted a secondary survey in sites where foxes were absent, following an intensive, but short, time period of cat removal, in which 40 cats were shot and killed. Key resultsNo foxes were detected within baited sites, but were frequently detected in unbaited sites. We found a corresponding and significant increase in several native prey species in fox-baited sites where foxes were absent. Feral cats and rabbits were also more frequently detected within baited sites, but fox baiting did not singularly predict the abundance of either species. Rather, feral cats were less abundant in open habitat where foxes were present (unbaited), and rabbits were more abundant within one predominantly open-habitat site, where foxes were absent (fox-baited). We found no effect of short-term cat removal in reducing the local abundance of feral cats. In both camera-trap surveys, feral cat detections were positively associated with rabbits. ConclusionsLong-term fox baiting was effective in fox removal and was associated with a greater abundance of native and introduced prey species in the Flinders Ranges. To continue to recover and conserve regional bio ersity, effective cat control is required. ImplicationsOur study showed fox removal has likely resulted in the local release of rabbits and an associated increase in cats. Because feral cat abundance seemingly fluctuated with rabbits, we suggest rabbit control may provide an alternative and more effective means to reduce local feral cat populations than short-term removal programs.
Prey use by dingoes in a contested landscape: Ecosystem service provider or biodiversity threat?
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 21-09-2017
DOI: 10.1002/ECE3.3345
Species Richness and Evenness in Australian Birds
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Date: 04-2008
DOI: 10.1086/528960
Abstract: Species richness and evenness are the two major components of bio ersity, but the way in which they are interrelated is a subject of contention. We found a negative relationship between the two variables for bird communities at 92 woodland sites across Australia and sought an explanation. Actual evapotranspiration (AET) was by far the best predictor of species richness. When AET was controlled for, the relationship between richness and evenness became nonsignificant. Richness is greater at sites with higher AET because such sites support a greater number of in iduals. However, such sites have a greater number of rare species, resulting in lower evenness. A complicating factor is that evenness is best predicted by degree of vegetation cover, with sparsely vegetated sites having significantly lower evenness. We conclude that there are two competing ecological processes, related to energy and water availability, that determine richness and evenness. The first drives total abundance (leading to high richness, low evenness), while the second drives productivity and niche availability (leading to high richness, high evenness). The relative strength of these two processes and the observed relationship between richness and evenness are likely to depend on the scale of the analysis and the species and range of habitats studied.
The dingo and biodiversity conservation: response to Fleming et al. (2012)
Publisher: CSIRO Publishing
Date: 2013
DOI: 10.1071/AM12005
Abstract: Several authors have recently argued that dingoes could be used to help conserve bio ersity in Australia. Fleming et al. (2012) [Australian Mammalogy 34, 119–131] offer the alternative view that restoration of dingo predation is unlikely to help native species, and is more likely to do harm. We think many of the arguments used by Fleming et al. to reach that conclusion are either unsound or beside the point, and we explain why.
Top predator restricts the niche breadth of prey: effects of assisted colonization of Tasmanian devils on a widespread omnivorous prey
Publisher: The Royal Society
Date: 15-03-2023
Abstract: Few landscape-scale experiments test the effects of predators on the abundance and distribution of prey across habitat gradients. We use the assisted colonization of a top predator, the Tasmanian devil ( Sarcophilus harrisii ), to test the impacts of predation on the abundance, habitat use and temporal activity of a widespread prey species, the omnivorous common brushtail possum ( Trichosurus vulpecula ). Before introduction of devils to Maria Island, Tasmania, Australia, in 2012, possums were abundant in open grasslands as well as forests. Predation by devils caused high mortality of possums in grasslands, but in iduals with access to trees had a higher survival probability. Possum abundance declined across the whole island from 2012–2016, as possums disappeared almost completely from grasslands and declined in drier forests with more open understorey. Abundance remained stable in wet forests, which are not preferred habitat for possums but provide better refuge from devils. Abundance and habitat use of possums remained unchanged at a control site on the adjacent Tasmanian mainland, where the devil population was low and stable. This study demonstrates how spatial variation in predator-caused mortality can limit both abundance and habitat breadth in generalist prey species, excluding them entirely from certain habitats.
Terminal reproductive effort in a marsupial
Publisher: The Royal Society
Date: 28-06-2005
Abstract: Life-history theory predicts that as organisms approach the end of their life, they should increase their reproductive effort (RE). However, studies on mammals often find that measures of RE do not vary with maternal age. This might be because offspring have some control over energy transfer which may constrain adaptive variation in RE by mothers, particularly in eutherian mammals where placental function is primarily controlled by offspring. However, in marsupials, energy transfer is primarily by lactation and under maternal control, leaving marsupial mothers free to vary RE. Here, we provide the first analysis, to our knowledge, of age-specific RE in a marsupial, the common brushtail possum. RE, measured as the proportion of maternal mass lost during lactation, was strongly correlated with offspring mass as a yearling. Older females had higher RE, gave birth earlier in the season and were more likely to produce two offspring in a year. Females with high RE in one year were lighter at the beginning of the next breeding season. These results provide the clearest support yet for terminal RE in a mammal.
Ecological consequences of Late Quaternary extinctions of megafauna
Publisher: The Royal Society
Date: 18-03-2009
Abstract: Large herbivorous vertebrates have strong interactions with vegetation, affecting the structure, composition and dynamics of plant communities in many ways. Living large herbivores are a small remnant of the assemblages of giants that existed in most terrestrial ecosystems 50 000 years ago. The extinction of so many large herbivores may well have triggered large changes in plant communities. In several parts of the world, palaeoecological studies suggest that extinct megafauna once maintained vegetation openness, and in wooded landscapes created mosaics of different structural types of vegetation with high habitat and species ersity. Following megafaunal extinction, these habitats reverted to more dense and uniform formations. Megafaunal extinction also led to changes in fire regimes and increased fire frequency due to accumulation of uncropped plant material, but there is a great deal of variation in post-extinction changes in fire. Plant communities that once interacted with extinct large herbivores still contain many species with obsolete defences against browsing and non-functional adaptations for seed dispersal. Such plants may be in decline, and, as a result, many plant communities may be in various stages of a process of relaxation from megafauna-conditioned to megafauna-naive states. Understanding the past role of giant herbivores provides fundamental insight into the history, dynamics and conservation of contemporary plant communities.
Combining paleo-data and modern exclosure experiments to assess the impact of megafauna extinctions on woody vegetation
Publisher: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Date: 26-10-2015
Abstract: Until recently in Earth history, very large herbivores (mammoths, ground sloths, diprotodons, and many others) occurred in most of the World’s terrestrial ecosystems, but the majority have gone extinct as part of the late-Quaternary extinctions. How has this large-scale removal of large herbivores affected landscape structure and ecosystem functioning? In this review, we combine paleo-data with information from modern exclosure experiments to assess the impact of large herbivores (and their disappearance) on woody species, landscape structure, and ecosystem functions. In modern landscapes characterized by intense herbivory, woody plants can persist by defending themselves or by association with defended species, can persist by growing in places that are physically inaccessible to herbivores, or can persist where high predator activity limits foraging by herbivores. At the landscape scale, different herbivore densities and assemblages may result in dynamic gradients in woody cover. The late-Quaternary extinctions were natural experiments in large-herbivore removal the paleoecological record shows evidence of widespread changes in community composition and ecosystem structure and function, consistent with modern exclosure experiments. We propose a conceptual framework that describes the impact of large herbivores on woody plant abundance mediated by herbivore ersity and density, predicting that herbivore suppression of woody plants is strongest where herbivore ersity is high. We conclude that the decline of large herbivores induces major alterations in landscape structure and ecosystem functions.
Polymorphism, mate choice and sexual selection in the Gouldian finch (Erythrura gouldiae)
Publisher: CSIRO Publishing
Date: 2002
DOI: 10.1071/ZO02002
Abstract: Mate choice can result in both assortative mating and directional sexual selection, but few studies have addressed both processes simultaneously. Here we test several hypotheses regarding the possible role of female mate choice in maintaining the face-colour polymorphism of, and affecting directional sexual selection in, the Gouldian finch. These endangered Australian finches are highly sexually dimorphic and are genetically polymorphic for face colour: there are black-, red- and gold-faced in iduals. First we showed that Gouldian finches tend to pair positive-assortatively by face colour morph in aviaries. In a laboratory experiment, we tested whether female mate choice is assortative by face colour. Overall, females neither preferred males of the same or of different face colour morphs as themselves. We found weak evidence for positive assortative female choice at one of the two loci involved in determining face colour. Next, we tested whether females showed frequency-dependent mate choice, and found that they preferred neither rare nor common male morphs. In order to test for directional sexual selection on males by female mate choice, we examined the correlations between male morphological traits and attractiveness to females. We found that tail pin length and bill size are correlated with male attractiveness, and may be under sexual selection. Thus, whilst female mate choice may be an important process in determining the evolution of male morphology, and potentially sexual dimorphism, it does not appear to be the primary force behind the assortative mating pattern among the face colour morphs.
Sahul’s megafauna were vulnerable to plant-community changes due to their position in the trophic network
Publisher: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Date: 20-01-2021
DOI: 10.1101/2021.01.19.427338
Abstract: Extinctions stemming from environmental change often trigger trophic cascades and coextinctions. However, it remains unclear whether trophic cascades were a large contributor to the megafauna extinctions that swept across several continents in the Late Pleistocene. The pathways to megafauna extinctions are particularly unclear for Sahul (landmass comprising Australia and New Guinea), where extinctions happened earlier than on other continents. We investigated the role of bottom-up trophic cascades in Late Pleistocene Sahul by constructing pre-extinction (~ 80 ka) trophic network models of the vertebrate community of Naracoorte, south-eastern Australia. These models allowed us to predict vertebrate species’ vulnerability to cascading extinctions based on their position in the network. We tested whether the observed extinctions could be explained by bottom-up cascades, or if they should be attributed to other external causes. Species that disappeared from the community were more vulnerable, overall, to bottom-up cascades than were species that survived. The position of extinct species in the network – having few or no predators – also suggests they might have been particularly vulnerable to a new predator. These results provide quantitative evidence that trophic cascades and naivety to predators could have contributed to the megafauna extinction event in Sahul.
Resistance and resilience: quantifying relative extinction risk in a diverse assemblage of Australian tropical rainforest vertebrates
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 09-02-2009
Dietary partitioning of Australia’s two marsupial hypercarnivores, the Tasmanian devil and the spotted-tailed quoll, across their shared distributional range
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 27-11-2017
Predicting the future range and abundance of fallow deer in Tasmania, Australia
Publisher: CSIRO Publishing
Date: 2014
DOI: 10.1071/WR13206
Abstract: Context Since the introduction of fallow deer (Dama dama) to Tasmania in the early 1830s, the management of the species has been conflicted the species is partially protected as a recreational hunting resource, yet simultaneously recognised as an invasive species because of its environmental impact and the biosecurity risk that it poses. The range and abundance of fallow deer in Tasmania has evidently increased over the past three decades. In the 1970s, it was estimated that ~7000–8000 deer were distributed in three distinct subpopulations occupying a region of ~400 000 ha (generally centred around the original introduction sites). By the early 2000s, the estimated population size had more than tripled to ~20 000–30 000 deer occupying 2.1 million ha. No study has attempted to predict what further growth in this population is likely. Aims The purpose of our study was to provide a preliminary estimate of the future population range and abundance of fallow deer in Tasmania under different management scenarios. Methods We developed a spatially explicit, deterministic population model for fallow deer in Tasmania, based on estimates of demographic parameters linked to a species distribution model. Spatial variation in abundance was incorporated into the model by setting carrying capacity as a function of climate suitability. Key results On the basis of a conservative estimate of population growth for the species, and without active management beyond the current policy of hunting and crop protection permits, abundance of fallow deer is estimated to increase substantially in the next 10 years. Uncontrolled, the population could exceed 1 million animals by the middle of the 21st century. This potential increase is a function both of local increase in abundance and extension of range. Conclusions Our results identify areas at high risk of impact from fallow deer in the near future, including ecologically sensitive areas of Tasmania (e.g. the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area). Implications The research approach and results are presented as a contribution to debate and decisions about the management of fallow deer in Tasmania. In particular, they provide a considered basis for anticipating future impacts of deer in Tasmania and prioritising management to mitigate impact in ecologically sensitive areas.
Rainfall and topography predict gene flow among populations of the declining northern quoll (Dasyurus hallucatus)
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 25-06-2016
Megafaunal Decline and Fall
Publisher: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
Date: 20-11-2009
Abstract: Declines in North American megafauna populations began before the Clovis period and were the cause, not the result, of vegetation changes and increased fires.
Diet and habitat preference of the Cape York short-nosed bandicoot (Isoodon obesulus peninsulae) in north-east Queensland
Publisher: CSIRO Publishing
Date: 2004
DOI: 10.1071/WR02030
Abstract: Diet and habitat preferences of the Cape York bandicoot (Isoodon obesulus peninsulae) were studied along a rainfall gradient from dry open woodland to wet Allocasuarina–Eucalyptus forest in the Lamb Range, Queensland. I. o. peninsulae was an omnivore-insectivore with invertebrates contributing 35–56% of faecal contents. Roots represented the most important plant food. Grass, forbs, fruits and hypogeous fungi were also eaten but in small quantities. The species was most abundant at the drier end of the rainfall gradient. Preferred habitats in open woodland were characterised by a high grass tree (Xanthorrhoea johnsonii) abundance and high shrub cover in the understorey. In contrast, areas with a tall and dense grass layer in conjunction with a high litter cover were avoided. I. o. peninsulae did not seem to share its habitat with the sympatrically occurring I. macrourus even though the habitat appeared suitable for the latter. More studies are required to evaluate the causes of differing habitat preferences of sympatric bandicoot species.
Philopatry, reproductive success of females, and maternal investment in the red-necked wallaby
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 07-1986
DOI: 10.1007/BF00299949
Would the Australian megafauna have become extinct if humans had never colonised the continent? Comments on 'A review of the evidence for a human role in the extinction of Australian megafauna and an alternative explanation' by S. Wroe and J. Field
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 02-2007
Correlates of Recent Declines of Rodents in Northern and Southern Australia: Habitat Structure Is Critical
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 25-06-2015
Uncertainties in dating constrain model choice for inferring extinction time from fossil records
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 03-2015
Natriuretic peptide levels predict recurrence of atrial fibrillation after radiofrequency catheter ablation
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 2011
DOI: 10.1016/J.AHJ.2010.09.031
Abstract: the presence of atrial fibrillation (AF) is related to increased levels of natriuretic peptides. In addition, increased natriuretic peptide levels are predictive of the development of AF. However, the role of natriuretic peptides to predict recurrence of AF after radiofrequency catheter ablation (RFCA) is controversial. the study aimed to investigate the role of natriuretic peptides in the prediction of AF recurrence after RFCA for AF. pre-procedural amino-terminal pro-atrial natriuretic peptide (NT-proANP) and amino-terminal-pro-B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) plasma levels were determined in 87 patients undergoing RFCA for symptomatic drug-refractory AF. In addition, a comprehensive clinical and echocardiographic evaluation was performed at baseline. Left atrial volumes, left ventricular volumes, and function (systolic and diastolic) were assessed. During a 6-month follow-up period, AF recurrence was monitored and defined as any registration of AF on electrocardiogram or an episode of AF longer than 30 seconds on 24-hour Holter monitoring. The role of natriuretic peptide plasma levels to predict AF recurrence after RFCA was studied. During follow-up, 66 patients (76%) maintained sinus rhythm, whereas 21 patients (24%) had AF recurrence. Patients with AF recurrence had higher baseline natriuretic peptide levels than patients who maintained sinus rhythm (NT-proANP 3.19 nmol/L [2.55-4.28] vs 2.52 nmol/L [1.69-3.55], P = .030 NT-proBNP 156.4 pg/mL [64.1-345.3] vs 84.6 pg/mL [43.3-142.7], P = .036). However, NT-proBNP was an independent predictor of AF recurrence, whereas NT-proANP was not. Moreover, NT-proBNP had an incremental value over echocardiographic characteristics to predict AF recurrence after RFCA. baseline NT-proBNP plasma level is an independent predictor of AF recurrence after RFCA.
Author response: Relative demographic susceptibility does not explain the extinction chronology of Sahul’s megafauna
Publisher: eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd
Date: 19-03-2021
The influences of climate, habitat and fire on the distribution of cockatoo grass (Alloteropsis semialata) (Poaceae) in the Wet Tropics of northern Australia
Publisher: CSIRO Publishing
Date: 2011
DOI: 10.1071/BT10266
Abstract: Cockatoo grass [Alloteropsis semialata (R.Br.) A. Hitchc.] is considered a keystone species in northern Australian ecosystems as it provides a food resource for many species, including several endangered vertebrates. This study examined both local and regional environmental factors influencing cockatoo grass distribution and abundance in the Wet Tropics of north Queensland, Australia. Local distribution and abundance were investigated in the sclerophyll ecotone between open woodland and tall open forest, because little is known about cockatoo grass distribution within this habitat also, the endangered northern bettong (Bettongia tropica) is restricted to this habitat and depends on cockatoo grass for its survival. Regional-scale modelling of distribution was undertaken to examine the climatic tolerances of cockatoo grass in Queensland. Density of cockatoo grass was negatively related to litter cover, soil moisture, and the presence of two dominant grass species, Themeda triandra [Forssk.(R.Br.) Stapf] and Cleistochloa subjuncea (C.E.Hubb.). Soil nutrients (N, C, S, and C : N ratio) were positively related to density of cockatoo grass. A late dry season experimental burn demonstrated that cockatoo grass had high survival to fire, with increased density and flowering in response to fire. Regional-scale modelling using climate variables indicated that cockatoo grass is more suited to the drier end of the sclerophyll habitat range. Cockatoo grass in the woodland-forest ecotone in the Wet Tropics appears to be influenced by several environmental features associated with the ground layer. The species benefits from the reduction in litter cover and competing grass species that result from management actions such as prescribed burning. Understanding of the factors limiting this species, both at a local and regional scale, can be used to guide management of this ecotone habitat for both cockatoo grass and the survival of other species that depend on it.
Ecological and economic benefits to cattle rangelands of restoring an apex predator
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 18-12-2015
Extinctions of herbivorous mammals in the late Pleistocene of Australia in relation to their feeding ecology: No evidence for environmental change as cause of extinction
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 10-2004
Live-trapping of the northern hairy-nosed wombat (Lasiorhinus krefftii): population-size estimates and effects on individuals
Publisher: CSIRO Publishing
Date: 1995
DOI: 10.1071/WR9950741
Abstract: The northern hairy-nosed wombat, one of the most endangered large mammals known, occurs only in Epping Forest National Park, central Queensland. The results of a 3-stage trapping programme, carried out between 1985 and 1993, were used to estimate population size by means of three separate modelling approaches: minimum number alive (MNA), mark-recapture, and trapping effort. Trapping procedure varied among sessions, and each estimator was applied to sessions only where its use was appropriate. The population-size estimate for 1985-86 was 67 (trap effort) with MNA of 58 for 1988-89 it was 62 (Jolly-Seber mark-recapture estimate), with MNA of 48 and upper 95% confidence limit of 77 and for 1993 it was 65 (Chao mark-recapture and trap effort), with MNA of 43 and upper 95% confidence limit of 186 (Chao mark-recapture). No population trends were observed, although variability in estimates and wide confidence intervals meant that power to do so was limited. Trapping affected the health and behaviour of wombats. Animals that were trapped twice within 10 nights lost an average of 0.62 kg (P = 0.006) between captures. Wombats that were trapped twice within the first four nights of traps being set on a burrow showed less weight loss than those trapped for the second time after 5-7 nights (0.23 kg v. 1.54 kg). The effects of trapping appeared to remain with animals for some time, since animals trapped twice more than 30 nights apart and within six months weighed an average of 0.5 kg less (P = 0.013) on second capture. When areas were trapped twice in succession with a 3-week gap, population-size estimates were lower for the second period of trapping. Thus, some wombats may have temporarily left areas disturbed by trapping. The deleterious impact of trapping may be reduced by restricting trapping to periods of four nights. Trapping effectiveness may be increased by minimising disturbance immediately before trapping and by moving traps between periods of trapping.
Selective hunting of juveniles as a cause of the imperceptible overkill of the australian pleistocene megafauna
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 2006
Post-fire habitat use of the golden-backed tree-rat (Mesembriomys macrurus) in the northwest Kimberley, Western Australia
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 14-07-2015
DOI: 10.1111/AEC.12278
Temporal partitioning of activity: rising and falling top-predator abundance triggers community-wide shifts in diel activity
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 27-09-2019
DOI: 10.1111/ECOG.04485
Research supporting restoration aiming to make a fragmented landscape ‘functional’ for native wildlife
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 12-2021
DOI: 10.1111/EMR.12504
Abstract: Temperate woodlands are amongst the most threatened ecosystems in Australia because the land on which they occur is highly suited to agriculture. Two hundred years of habitat loss and fragmentation in the Midlands agricultural region in Tasmania have led to widespread declines in native vertebrates and landscapes with populations of predators including feral Cat ( Felis catus ) and the native‐invasive Noisy Miner ( Manorina melanocephala ). Ecologists at the University of Tasmania co‐designed mechanistic animal‐centric research on mammals and birds in the Midlands to inform vegetation restoration carried out by Greening Australia that would support the recovery of wildlife species. We used species‐appropriate technologies to assess the decisions made by in idual animals to find food and shelter and to disperse across this fragmented landscape, and linked these, together with patterns of occupancy, across multiple spatial and temporal scales. We focussed on a native (Spotted‐tailed Quoll, Dasyurus maculatus ) and an invasive (feral Cat, Felis catus ) carnivore, a woodland‐specialist herbivore (Eastern Bettong, Bettongia gaimardi ) and woodland birds including the native‐invasive Noisy Miner. Our results, which show intense predatory and competitive pressure of cats and populations of Noisy Miner on native fauna, highlight how grounding restoration in the context of ecological interactions is essential to success in managing the impacts of invasive species in restored landscapes. Successful restoration will require innovative approaches in plantings and field experimentation with artificial refuges, to reduce habitat suitability for the Noisy Miner and cats and provide refuges for native mammals and birds to live in the landscape where cats also occur. Our results emphasise the significance of structural complexity of restoration plantings for supporting the recolonisation and persistence of native fauna. At large landscape‐scale, we demonstrate the importance of retaining small habitat elements, including ancient paddock trees, pivot irrigation corners and small, degraded remnants, in facilitating occupancy and dispersal and, therefore, persistence of wild animals across this agricultural region.
Modelling horse management in the Australian Alps
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 2019
DOI: 10.1111/EMR.12350
Canine distemper in Nepal's Annapurna Conservation Area – Implications of dog husbandry and human behaviour for wildlife disease
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 05-12-2019
Fire-related changes in biomass of hypogeous sporocarps at foraging points used by a tropical mycophagous marsupial
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 12-2004
DOI: 10.1017/S0953756204000048
Abstract: Changes in pre- and post-fire biomass of hypogeous fungal sporocarps remaining at locations where an endangered mycophagous marsupial, the northern bettong (Bettongia tropica), had foraged, were assessed in fire-prone sclerophyll forest in northeastern Australia. Low to medium intensity experimental fires were set during the late dry season in 1995 and 1996 and post-foraging biomass of sporocarps (expressed as biomass of sporocarps remaining at recent B. tropica diggings) was measured at unburnt and burnt sites at approximately six-week intervals for a period of 14 months. Post-foraging biomass was significantly higher at burnt sites immediately following fire compared with control sites, solely due to increased biomass of hypogeous species belonging to the family Mesophelliaceae. Several months after fire, post-foraging biomass was significantly higher on unburnt sites compared with very low biomass on burnt sites. Twelve months after fire, the biomass on burnt and unburnt sites was not significantly different, having returned to biomass observed pre-fire. All evidence points toward mesophellioid fungi being greatly more available to bettongs on recently burnt ground, but fire may make several other sporocarp taxa considerably less available several months following fire.
Nice weather for bettongs: using weather events, not climate means, in species distribution models
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 04-2012
Dispersal and population structure of the rufous bettong, Aepyprymnus rufescens (Marsupialia : Potoroidae)
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 26-07-2005
Gap-crossing in fragmented habitats by mahogany gliders (Petaurus gracilis). Do they cross roads and powerline corridors?
Publisher: CSIRO Publishing
Date: 2010
DOI: 10.1071/AM08017
Abstract: The mahogany glider (Petaurus gracilis) is one of the most threatened arboreal mammals in Australia. Although its habitat is affected by fragmentation, gap-crossing behaviour of the species has not been studied. A radio-tracking survey was undertaken on six in iduals (three males, three females) in a woodland patch bisected by a 35.8-m-wide highway and a 31.5-m-wide powerline corridor, in north-east Queensland. The mean home ranges of males were 20.1 ± 3.3 ha, 21.3 ± 7.9 ha and 20.9 ± 8.2 ha, as measured by the Minimum Convex Polygon, Kernel and Harmonic Mean methods respectively. The mean home ranges of females were 8.9 ± 0.5 ha, 9.0 ± 4.2 ha and 8.8 ± 2.3 ha, as measured by the Minimum Convex Polygon, Kernel and Harmonic Mean methods respectively. Two males and one female were observed crossing linear gaps. However, there was less crossing than expected, and females were less likely to cross than males. One male used a narrow strip of woodland at the opposite side of the highway as supplemental habitat for foraging. This in idual also used scattered trees in a grassland matrix for foraging or denning. Another male used a wooden power pole as a launching site to cross the highway. This study emphasises the importance of protecting large trees along linear barriers in open habitat, and suggests that gliding poles may be used to facilitate gap-crossing by mahogany gliders.
What caused extinction of the Pleistocene megafauna of Sahul?
Publisher: The Royal Society
Date: 10-02-2016
Abstract: During the Pleistocene, Australia and New Guinea supported a rich assemblage of large vertebrates. Why these animals disappeared has been debated for more than a century and remains controversial. Previous synthetic reviews of this problem have typically focused heavily on particular types of evidence, such as the dating of extinction and human arrival, and have frequently ignored uncertainties and biases that can lead to misinterpretation of this evidence. Here, we review erse evidence bearing on this issue and conclude that, although many knowledge gaps remain, multiple independent lines of evidence point to direct human impact as the most likely cause of extinction.
Niche breadth and geographical range: Ecological compensation for geographical rarity in rainforest frogs
Publisher: The Royal Society
Date: 19-09-2006
Abstract: We investigated the relationship between diet specialization and geographical range in Cophixalus , a genus of microhylid frogs from the Wet Tropics of northern Queensland, Australia. The geographical ranges of these species vary from a few square kilometres in species restricted to a single mountain top to the entire region for the widespread species. Although macroecological theory predicts that species with broad niches should have the largest geographical ranges, we found the opposite: geographically rare species were diet generalists and widespread species were diet specialists. We argue that this pattern is a product of extinction filtering, whereby geographically rare and therefore extinction-prone species are more likely to persist if they are diet generalists.
Assessment of the potential for competition between two sympatric herbivores - The northern hairy-nosed wombat, Lasiorhinus krefftii, and the eastern grey kangaroo, Macropus giganteus
Publisher: CSIRO Publishing
Date: 2000
DOI: 10.1071/WR99053
Abstract: The northern hairy-nosed wombat, Lasiorhinus krefftii, is a critically endangered grazing herbivore, restricted to a single population of just 65 in iduals in the savanna of central Queensland. Lasiorhinus krefftii shares its habitat with another grazing herbivore of similar body size, the eastern grey kangaroo, Macropus giganteus. This study investigated the potential for M. giganteus to compete with L. krefftii for food. Analysis of faecal residues demonstrated that both herbivores consumed grass almost exclusively, with the exception of small quantities of sedges and dicotyledons. Dietary overlap between M. giganteus and L. krefftii was high, both in the consumption of plant species (90%) and plant parts (99%), suggesting that there is potential for dietary competition. Using the distribution of faecal deposits for both herbivores, analysis of habitat usage by multiple linear regression techniques indicated that M. giganteus exhibits clear associations with some habitat features but proved inconclusive for L. krefftii because of their use of defecation in social marking. However, an examination of the population dynamics of M. giganteus suggested that the densities reported in this study, although highly seasonal, are sufficiently low that competition with L. krefftii for food is currently negligible.
Top carnivore decline has cascading effects on scavengers and carrion persistence
Publisher: The Royal Society
Date: 28-11-2018
Abstract: Top carnivores have suffered widespread global declines, with well-documented effects on mesopredators and herbivores. We know less about how carnivores affect ecosystems through scavenging. Tasmania's top carnivore, the Tasmanian devil (Sarcophilus harrisii) , has suffered severe disease-induced population declines, providing a natural experiment on the role of scavenging in structuring communities. Using remote cameras and experimentally placed carcasses, we show that mesopredators consume more carrion in areas where devils have declined. Carcass consumption by the two native mesopredators was best predicted by competition for carrion, whereas consumption by the invasive mesopredator, the feral cat ( Felis catus ), was better predicted by the landscape-level abundance of devils, suggesting a relaxed landscape of fear where devils are suppressed. Reduced discovery of carcasses by devils was balanced by the increased discovery by mesopredators. Nonetheless, carcasses persisted approximately 2.6-fold longer where devils have declined, highlighting their importance for rapid carrion removal. The major beneficiary of increased carrion availability was the forest raven ( Corvus tasmanicus ). Population trends of ravens increased 2.2-fold from 1998 to 2017, the period of devil decline, but this increase occurred Tasmania-wide, making the cause unclear. This case study provides a little-studied potential mechanism for mesopredator release, with broad relevance to the vast areas of the world that have suffered carnivore declines.
Sympatric predator odour reveals a competitive relationship in size-structured mammalian carnivores
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 25-07-2016
Chronic stress in superb fairy‐wrens occupying remnant woodlands: Are noisy miners to blame?
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 10-06-2019
DOI: 10.1111/AEC.12785
Changing bird communities of an agricultural landscape: Declines in arboreal foragers, increases in large species
Publisher: The Royal Society
Date: 03-2020
DOI: 10.1098/RSOS.200076
Abstract: Birds are declining in agricultural landscapes around the world. The causes of these declines can be better understood by analysing change in groups of species that share life-history traits. We investigated how land-use change has affected birds of the Tasmanian Midlands, one of Australia's oldest agricultural landscapes and a focus of habitat restoration. We surveyed birds at 72 sites, some of which were previously surveyed in 1996–1998, and tested relationships of current patterns of abundance and community composition to landscape and patch-level environmental characteristics. Fourth-corner modelling showed strong negative responses of aerial foragers and exotics to increasing woodland cover arboreal foragers were positively associated with projective foliage cover and small-bodied species were reduced by the presence of a hyperaggressive species of native honeyeater, the noisy miner ( Manorina melanocephala ). Analysis of change suggests increases in large-bodied granivorous or carnivorous birds and declines in some arboreal foragers and nectarivores. Changes in species richness were best explained by changes in noisy miner abundance and levels of surrounding woodland cover. We encourage restoration practitioners to trial novel planting configurations that may confer resistance to invasion by noisy miners, and a continued long-term monitoring effort to reveal the effects of future land-use change on Tasmanian birds.
Environmental temperature affects prevalence of blood parasites of birds on an elevation gradient: Implications for disease in a warming climate
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 19-06-2012
Demography in relation to population density in two herbivorous marsupials: testing for source?sink dynamics versus independent regulation of population size
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 04-12-2004
DOI: 10.1007/S00442-004-1781-2
Abstract: We compared demography of populations along gradients of population density in two medium-sized herbivorous marsupials, the common brushtail possum Trichosurus vulpecula and the rufous bettong Aepyprymnus rufescens, to test for net dispersal from high density populations (acting as sources) to low density populations (sinks). In both species, population density was positively related to soil fertility, and variation in soil fertility produced large differences in population density of contiguous populations. We predicted that if source-sink dynamics were operating over this density gradient, we should find higher immigration rates in low-density populations, and positive relationships of measures of in idual fitness--body condition, reproductive output, juvenile growth rates and survivorship--to population density. This was predicted because under source-sink dynamics, immigration from high-density sites would hold population density above carrying capacity in low-density sites. The study included 13 populations of these two species, representing a more than 50-fold range of density for each species, but we found that in idual fitness, immigration rates and population turnover were similar in all populations. We conclude that net dispersal from high to low density populations had little influence on population dynamics in these species rather, all populations appeared to be independently regulated at carrying capacity, with a balanced exchange of dispersers among populations. These two species have suffered recent reductions in range, and they are ecologically similar to other species that have declined to extinction in inland Australia. It has been argued that part of the cause of the vulnerability of species like these is that they exhibit source-sink dynamics, and disturbance to source habitats can therefore cause large-scale population collapses. The results of our study argue against this interpretation.
Enumerating a continental-scale threat: How many feral cats are in Australia?
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 02-2017
Empirical tests of harvest-induced body-size evolution along a geographic gradient in Australian macropods
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 13-08-2015
Impacts of feral horses in the Australian Alps and evidence-based solutions
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 2019
DOI: 10.1111/EMR.12357
Biodiversity friend or foe: land use by a top predator, the dingo in contested landscapes of the Australian Wet Tropics
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 25-08-2017
DOI: 10.1111/AEC.12427
Obesity and oxidative stress in older adults at risk for dementia a magnetic resonance spectroscopy study
Publisher: Ovid Technologies (Wolters Kluwer Health)
Date: 27-01-2021
Effects of a short fire-return interval on resources and assemblage structure of birds in a tropical savanna
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 04-04-2012
Accidents alter animal fitness landscapes
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 09-03-2021
DOI: 10.1111/ELE.13705
Abstract: Animals alter their habitat use in response to the energetic demands of movement (‘energy landscapes’) and the risk of predation (‘the landscape of fear’). Recent research suggests that animals also select habitats and move in ways that minimise their chance of temporarily losing control of movement and thereby suffering slips, falls, collisions or other accidents, particularly when the consequences are likely to be severe (resulting in injury or death). We propose that animals respond to the costs of an ‘accident landscape’ in conjunction with predation risk and energetic costs when deciding when, where, and how to move in their daily lives. We develop a novel theoretical framework describing how features of physical landscapes interact with animal size, morphology, and behaviour to affect the risk and severity of accidents, and predict how accident risk might interact with predation risk and energetic costs to dictate movement decisions across the physical landscape. Future research should focus on testing the hypotheses presented here for different real‐world systems to gain insight into the relative importance of theorised effects in the field.
Ecosystem engineering by digging mammals: Effects on soil fertility and condition in Tasmanian temperate woodland
Publisher: The Royal Society
Date: 2019
DOI: 10.1098/RSOS.180621
Abstract: Many small- and medium-sized mammals dig for their food. This activity potentially affects soil condition and fertility. Digging is well developed especially in Australian mammals, many of which have recently become rare or extinct. We measured the effects of digging by mammals on soil in a Tasmanian temperate dry sclerophyll forest with an intact mammal community. The density of diggings was 5812 ha −1 , affecting 11% of the forest floor. Diggings were created at a rate of around 3113 diggings ha −1 yr −1 , disturbing 6.5% of the forest floor and displacing 7.1 m 3 ha −1 of soil annually. Most diggings were made by eastern bettongs ( Bettongia gaimardi) and short-beaked echidnas ( Tachyglossus aculeatus ). Many (approx. 30%) fresh diggings consisted of re-excavations of old diggings. Novel diggings displaced 5 m 3 ha yr −1 of soil. Diggings acted as traps for organic matter and sites for the formation of new soil, which had higher fertility and moisture content and lower hardness than undisturbed topsoil. These effects on soil fertility and structure were strongest in habitats with dry and poor soil. Creation of fine-scaled heterogeneity by mammals, and amelioration of dry and infertile soil, is a valuable ecosystem service that could be restored by reintroduction of digging mammals to habitats from which they have declined or gone extinct.
Good dog! Using livestock guardian dogs to protect livestock from predators in Australia's extensive grazing systems
Publisher: CSIRO Publishing
Date: 2012
DOI: 10.1071/WR11135
Abstract: Context Wild predators are a serious threat to livestock in Australia. Livestock guardian dogs (LGDs) may be able to reduce or eliminate predation, but their effectiveness in Australian grazing systems has not been systematically evaluated. In particular, little is known about the effectiveness of LGDs in situations where they range freely over large areas in company with large numbers of livestock. Aims We aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of LGDs as currently used in Australia and determine the factors influencing effectiveness, in particular in relation to scale of management. We also documented how LGDs are managed in Australia, evaluated their cost effectiveness, and identified factors that influence the number of dogs required in different property situations. Methods We conducted a telephone survey of 150 livestock producers with LGDs in Australia, including all livestock types and property situations, in all States. Ten producers were visited, of which one is detailed as a case study. Key results Effectiveness was apparently high: 65.7% of respondents reported that predation ceased after obtaining LGDs, and a further 30.2% reported a decrease of predation. When the number of stock per dog exceeds 100, LGDs might not be able to eliminate all predation. Dogs are often kept free-ranging on large properties where wild dogs are the main predator, but are usually restricted in their movements on smaller properties or with smaller predators. The cost of obtaining a LGD is returned within 1–3 years after the dog starts working. The number of dogs required for a property mainly depends on the number of livestock needing protection, and the main type of predator in the area. Conclusions Provided a sufficient number of LGDs are used, they can be as effective in protecting livestock from predators in Australia when ranging freely on large properties with large numbers of livestock as they are in small-scale farming systems. Implications LGDs can provide a cost-effective alternative to conventional predator control methods in Australia’s extensive grazing enterprises, potentially reducing or eliminating the need for other forms of control. LGDs could play a major role in securing the viability of livestock businesses and reconciling people–predator conflict in Australia.
Roughing it: terrain is crucial in identifying novel translocation sites for the vulnerable brush-tailed rock-wallaby ( Petrogale pencillata )
Publisher: The Royal Society
Date: 12-2020
DOI: 10.1098/RSOS.201603
Abstract: Translocations—the movement of species from one place to another—are likely to become more common as conservation attempts to protect small isolated populations from threats posed by extreme events such as bushfires. The recent Australian mega-fires burnt almost 40% of the habitat of the brush-tailed rock-wallaby ( Petrogale pencillata ), a threatened species whose distribution is already restricted, primarily due to predation by invasive species. This chronic threat of over-predation, coupled with the possible extinction of the genetically distinct southern population (approx. 40 in iduals in the wild), makes this species a candidate for a conservation translocation. Here, we use species distribution models to identify translocation sites for the brush-tailed rock-wallaby. Our models exhibited high predictive accuracy, and show that terrain roughness, a surrogate for predator refugia, is the most important variable. Tasmania, which currently has no rock-wallabies, showed high suitability and is fox-free, making it a promising candidate site. We outline our argument for the trial translocation of rock-wallaby to Maria Island, located off Tasmania's eastern coast. This research offers a transparent assessment of the translocation potential of a threatened species, which can be adapted to other taxa and systems.
A systematic review of the impacts and management of introduced deer (family Cervidae) in Australia
Publisher: CSIRO Publishing
Date: 2016
DOI: 10.1071/WR16148
Abstract: Deer are among the world’s most successful invasive mammals and can have substantial deleterious impacts on natural and agricultural ecosystems. Six species have established wild populations in Australia, and the distributions and abundances of some species are increasing. Approaches to managing wild deer in Australia are erse and complex, with some populations managed as ‘game’ and others as ‘pests’. Implementation of cost-effective management strategies that account for this complexity is hindered by a lack of knowledge of the nature, extent and severity of deer impacts. To clarify the knowledge base and identify research needs, we conducted a systematic review of the impacts and management of wild deer in Australia. Most wild deer are in south-eastern Australia, but bioclimatic analysis suggested that four species are well suited to the tropical and subtropical climates of northern Australia. Deer could potentially occupy most of the continent, including parts of the arid interior. The most significant impacts are likely to occur through direct effects of herbivory, with potentially cascading indirect effects on fauna and ecosystem processes. However, evidence of impacts in Australia is largely observational, and few studies have experimentally partitioned the impacts of deer from those of sympatric native and other introduced herbivores. Furthermore, there has been little rigorous testing of the efficacy of deer management in Australia, and our understanding of the deer ecology required to guide deer management is limited. We identified the following six priority research areas: (i) identifying long-term changes in plant communities caused by deer (ii) understanding interactions with other fauna (iii) measuring impacts on water quality (iv) assessing economic impacts on agriculture (including as disease vectors) (v) evaluating efficacy of management for mitigating deer impacts and (vi) quantifying changes in distribution and abundance. Addressing these knowledge gaps will assist the development and prioritisation of cost-effective management strategies and help increase stakeholder support for managing the impacts of deer on Australian ecosystems.
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