Variable persistence of an iconic arboreal mammal through the Black Summer wildfires

Abstract

Wildfires are predicted to increase in frequency and severity with climate change but detailed understanding of their influence on forest wildlife is lacking for many species. Wildfires vary in their extent and severity among landscapes, limiting generalisations about impacts from a single wildfire. We investigated post-wildfire persistence in the threatened exudivorous yellow-bellied glider (Petaurus australis) in south-eastern Australia. The widespread occurrence of wildfires in the ‘Black Summer’ of 2019–20 enabled populations in three landscapes (90–160 km apart) to be studied. This species has a slow life history (one young per year and >1 year to mature) so post-fire recovery is predicted to be slow. We conducted repeat surveys over 3 years post-fire in each landscape at 25–29 sites that were occupied pre-wildfire. All survey sites were burnt in two landscapes but only 40 % were burnt in the third. We estimated declines in occupancy of 13 %, 40 % and 66 % in burnt forest. The factors driving the variation in decline appear to be a combination of fire severity and the abundance of very large (≥80 cm) hollow (i.e. cavity) -bearing trees that serve as den sites. The implications of this study are that the impacts of wildfires on populations of tree-hollow dependent species can be expected to vary in different landscapes as a consequence of fire severity, rainfall deficit and logging history. Our study suggests the importance of ensuring populations are conserved across a wide geographic gradient, and the value of very large hollow-bearing trees rather than simply the number of any hollow-bearing trees.