Australian Zoologist最新文献

{"title":"Impacts of the 2019 wildfires on large trees and stags in Barking Owl Ninox connivens territories in the lower Richmond River district, north-eastern New South Wales","authors":"D. Milledge, T. Soderquist","doi":"10.7882/az.2022.019","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7882/az.2022.019","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 In November and December 2019, wildfires in the lower Richmond River district of north-eastern New South Wales burned large tracts of forest including the territories of three pairs of Barking Owls Ninox connivens where breeding activity and two active nests were being monitored. Fortunately, an inventory of large trees and stags (≥60 cm diameter at breast height (dbh)) had been conducted on site prior to the impact of the fires. The two nests were destroyed and many large trees and stags were lost or severely damaged. In the four months following the fires, two 1ha plots were established at the centre of each of the three owl territories. Assessments of these plots demonstrated that 22.6% of the large trees and stags were lost or severely damaged, with a third of this total being ≥100 cm dbh. Despite wide variation in the pre-fire canopy tree structure and floristics, and fire extent and severity among the three territory centres, the percentage large tree loss or severe damage was not substantially different among the territories. Overall, there was a slightly higher percentage of smooth-barked canopy tree species lost or damaged compared to rough-barked species, but this result was biased by the absence of rough-barked species from one of the territory centres. The factor that appeared to be the major influence on large tree and stag loss or severe damage across the owl territories was the pre-fire presence of medium or large-sized basal fire-scars. A total of 72.7% of trees and stags with medium or large basal fire-scars was lost compared with a total of only 12.9% of trees and stags with small basal fire-scars. The loss of, or severe damage to 22.6% of large trees and stags recorded by this study from one wildfire event is considered unsustainable given the increase in frequent severe fires predicted by current climate change modelling. Pro-active protection measures are required to counter such losses of large trees and stags in these forests, and examples are provided of some specific measures recommended for this purpose.","PeriodicalId":35849,"journal":{"name":"Australian Zoologist","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-05-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41748123","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Annotated checklist of the herpetofauna of the Pilliga Forest in northern inland New South Wales, Australia for the period January 2006–January 2018","authors":"M. Murphy","doi":"10.7882/az.2022.015","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7882/az.2022.015","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 The Pilliga Forest is one of the largest surviving woodland remnants on the New South Wales western slopes in inland eastern Australia. Collation of personal observations by a resident herpetologist working in the Pilliga Forest over a 12-year period identified 18 frog species and 49 reptile species. One additional reptile species was identified from museum specimen records, and unconfirmed reports of another one frog and seven reptile species are also noted. This paper provides the most comprehensive published account of the herpetofauna of the Pilliga Forest to date, and illustrates the value of observations over an extended period. Comparison with other locations across western New South Wales highlights the high species richness of the Pilliga Forest for both frogs and reptiles. This is in part a function of its location in a biogeographic overlap zone between eastern, western and northern faunal assemblages. Species of particular conservation concern found in the Pilliga Forest include the threatened Hoplocephalus bitorquatus, near-threatened Pseudophryne bibronii and declining woodland reptiles such as Ctenotus allotropis, Diporiphora nobbi, Morelia spilota metcalfei, Acanthophis antarcticus, Brachyurophis australis and Vermicella annulata.","PeriodicalId":35849,"journal":{"name":"Australian Zoologist","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-05-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46739479","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Impact of the 2019–20 drought, heatwaves and mega-fires on Greater Gliders (Petauroides volans) in the Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area, New South Wales","authors":"Philip Smith, Judy Smith","doi":"10.7882/az.2022.017","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7882/az.2022.017","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 We have investigated the impact of the unprecedented drought, heatwaves and fires of 2019–20 on a threatened arboreal marsupial, the Greater Glider (Petauroides volans), in the Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area, an area of over one million hectares. The study involved multiple post-fire surveys in 2020 and 2021 of 16 transects (eight burnt and eight unburnt) for which we had pre-2019 data on Greater Glider numbers. We were unable to find any gliders on two transects burnt at high to extreme severity (100% of eucalypt foliage killed in the canopy and understorey) but Greater Gliders were still present on all six transects burnt at low to moderate severity (44–77% of eucalypt foliage killed), although in significantly lower numbers (mean decline of 43% per transect). Greater Gliders feed on eucalypt leaves and their post-fire survival appears to be dependent on the presence of eucalypt trees with abundant unburnt foliage, which were absent from the more severely burnt transects. Even 17 months after the fires, Greater Gliders were still dependent on these trees, which constituted 36% of trees on low-moderate burnt transects but 77% of trees in which gliders were seen. Gliders were seen feeding on post-fire epicormic regrowth but generally avoided trees with mainly epicormic foliage, possibly because they provided insufficient protection from predators. Greater Gliders were also seriously impacted by the preceding drought and heatwaves, with patchy but significant declines on the eight unburnt transects (mean decline of 34% per transect). We measured the likely impact of the fires on Greater Glider habitat across the World Heritage Area by determining fire severity at a total of 773 precisely located points at which the species had been recorded. An extraordinary 84% of their known sites had been burnt, with 34% burnt at high-extreme severity, 50% burnt at low-moderate severity and only 16% unburnt. Combining these figures with the Greater Glider declines recorded on our transects, we estimate that the Greater Glider population of the World Heritage Area has been reduced by 61% by the extreme events of 2019–20. This is a broad extrapolation from a limited number of sites but it indicates the massive scale of the likely impacts.","PeriodicalId":35849,"journal":{"name":"Australian Zoologist","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-05-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41804209","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Temporal Patterns of Abundance of Birds Along a Transect in Kings Park, Perth: A long-term study","authors":"H. Recher","doi":"10.7882/az.2022.016","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7882/az.2022.016","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Frequency of occurrence data are available for birds along a transect in Kings Park, Perth, Western Australia from 1928 to 2008. These data show a dynamic avifauna with about a third of the sixty-one bird species recorded declining in frequency since 1928, another third, including new colonisers, increased, while a third showed little or no change. Despite the value of these data, frequency data are a coarse measure of changes in abundance. To provide baseline data on avian abundances for monitoring long-term trends in numbers, monthly counts along the transect were made from February 1996 to October 1999, and August 2001 to February 2002, with additional opportunistic counts from 1986 to 2008. Fifty-five species were recorded between 1986 and 2008. An average of 15 to 20 species were recorded during counts with little seasonal variation. Total species abundances were greatest in winter and spring, and least in summer and autumn. The number of individuals of most species changed seasonally, due in part to variation in detectability, but birds also moved into and out of the park. The numbers of some species differed between years, and there were changes in species composition and abundance following fires that burnt the transect. Between 1986 and 2008 two species, Broad-tailed Acanthiza apicalis and Western Thornbill A. inornata, declined to extinction, with the loss of the Western Thornbill a consequence of the 1989 fire. Other species, including Black-capped Sittella Daphoenositta pileata and Yellow-rumped Thornbill A. chrysorrhoa, are in decline, with local extinction predicted by 2030. The data illustrate the importance of abundance data for long-term monitoring and the importance of Kings Park as a refuge for Perth’s birdlife.","PeriodicalId":35849,"journal":{"name":"Australian Zoologist","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-05-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44712259","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Demographic and dietary responses of small mammals to high severity fire","authors":"C. Dickman, D. Happold","doi":"10.7882/az.2022.018","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7882/az.2022.018","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Populations of many animal species decline after fire, with some individuals killed during the fire and others succumbing to impoverished conditions in the post-fire environment. For individuals that survive a fire, an ability to exploit scarce resources in the burnt landscape is particularly important. In this study, we compared the numbers, survival and diets of three species of small mammal at two sites in tall open-forest in the Australian Capital Territory, Australia. The first site was subjected to a high severity experimental fire in February 1980, while the second nearby site was unburnt and served as a control. Relative numbers and survival of the Agile Antechinus (Antechinus agilis) and Mainland Dusky Antechinus (A. mimetes) declined post-fire and remained lower than in the control site until spring 1980 when populations at both sites crashed following the post-mating death of males. These patterns reversed for A. mimetes in 1981 and 1982 and for A. agilis in 1982, with numbers and survival then being higher in the burnt than in the control site. Relative numbers of the Bush Rat (Rattus fuscipes) increased in a similar manner in both sites until the end of the study after 29 months, and monthly survival remained high throughout. The diets of the three species were similar between the control and burnt site before the fire. In the four months post-fire the diets of the two Antechinus species in the burnt site contained fewer ground-dwelling invertebrates compared with the control, whereas the dietary diversity of R. fuscipes in the burnt site increased due to increased consumption of food groups such as grasses and ferns that otherwise were seldom eaten. The dietary diversity of all species was similar between the two sites 12–16 months post-fire. The results suggest that the fire had short-term effects on the two species of Antechinus, most likely by depleting populations of their prey, while the demography of R. fuscipes was scarcely affected by fire owing to its ability to switch food groups within its already omnivorous diet. Dietary flexibility may be an important but often overlooked mechanism facilitating species’ persistence in post-fire environments.","PeriodicalId":35849,"journal":{"name":"Australian Zoologist","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-05-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48474537","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A state-wide picture of koala rescue and rehabilitation in New South Wales during the 2019–2020 bushfires","authors":"D. Lunney, Holly R Cope, Indrie Sonawane, R. Haering","doi":"10.7882/az.2022.013","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7882/az.2022.013","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Koala rescue from the bushfires over the extended 2019–2020 fire season in NSW was a high-profile media topic over many months. We sought to determine how many fire-affected koalas were rescued and admitted to rehabilitation in NSW, what was the fate of these koalas, what parts of the state were involved, and how many other koalas entered rehabilitation at the same time? These matters are not only of broad public interest, it is important information for the conservation and management of koalas. The fire season ended in March 2020. In June 2020 we wrote to and received replies from, the licensed rehabilitation groups in NSW that rescued koalas, seeking to quantify the impact of the 2019–2020 bushfires. The answers were: 209 koalas came into care due to the bushfires, and of these, 106 were either euthanised or died, 74 were released, and the remainder were still in care, but due for release soon. The number of koalas that came into care for reasons not related to the fires over the same time period was 307. From the point of view of each surviving individual koala, the rehabilitation was a success. What the rescue and rehabilitation has done is highlight the difficulties that koalas face in dealing with fire. This information will contribute to koala management at a local, State and Commonwealth level, particularly in relation to koala rehabilitation policies, and it will be increasingly important given the likelihood of more frequent fires.","PeriodicalId":35849,"journal":{"name":"Australian Zoologist","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-05-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46311702","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A feeding observation in a free-ranging Grey Snake Hemiaspis damelii (Günther 1876) in the Murrumbidgee catchment, southern NSW","authors":"D. Michael, T. Schlen, Dana Lanceman","doi":"10.7882/az.2022.011","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7882/az.2022.011","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Feeding observations in free-ranging nocturnal snakes are rare, primarily due to their cryptic behaviour and activity patterns. We describe a feeding observation in a free-ranging Grey Snake Hemiaspis damelii in the Murrumbidgee catchment, southern NSW. Hemiaspis damelii is an anurophagous (frog-eating) specialist, yet the feeding ecology and prey of H. damelii in southern NSW is unknown. Our observations provide the first recorded prey items from the southern parts of its range and highlight a potential feeding strategy used by small anurophagous elapids.","PeriodicalId":35849,"journal":{"name":"Australian Zoologist","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-04-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45670593","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Under a cloak of invisibility: Use of books and book chapters published by the Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales since 1970","authors":"M. Calver","doi":"10.7882/az.2022.012","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7882/az.2022.012","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Between 1970 and 2013, the Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales (RZS NSW) published 30 books, contributing to many relevant or controversial zoological topics as well as documenting the society’s history and offering perspectives on the development of Australian zoology. Authors from eight countries contributed to books or chapters. Over 97% of authors indicated Australian affiliations in addresses. Approximately 67% of papers citing RZS NSW books or book chapters had at least one author with an Australian affiliation. Ten or more authors with affiliations from each of 22 other countries were also included, indicating that the books have an international profile. This conclusion is supported by an examination of global library holdings in WorldCat; all RZS NSW books are held in libraries with the range between 17 and 152 libraries per book. The range of countries holding each book is 4 to 14. The library holdings are an important reminder that citations are not the sole indicator of use of scientific publications, with the books remaining on library shelves because students and others consult them. Although the books and their chapters were often not listed in either Scopus or Web of Science (Core Collection) or Web of Science (all databases), citations to them could still be retrieved using either a secondary documents search (Scopus) or cited reference search (versions of Web of Science). Chapters from twenty-six books were cited in Scopus in 2020 or 2021, indicating that the books have long citation lives. A list of the 20 most highly cited books or chapters included seven chapters from the two editions of Conservation of Australia’s Forest Fauna, indicating a strong interest in this subject. Eight of the books or chapters on the list covered mammals and a further three covered vertebrates generally, so mammals also engendered strong interest. Benchmarking against similar books from another publisher, CSIRO Publishing, found similar problems of a low profile in Scopus and Web of Science (Core Collection) and Web of Science (all databases), but evidence of extensive library holdings.","PeriodicalId":35849,"journal":{"name":"Australian Zoologist","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-04-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42933637","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Raking over the ashes: assessing the impact of fire on native fauna in the aftermath of Australia’s 2019–2020 fires","authors":"C. Dickman, P. Hutchings, Brad Law, D. Lunney","doi":"10.7882/az.2022.037","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7882/az.2022.037","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 The 2021 annual forum of the Royal Zoological Society of NSW raked over the ashes of the unprecedented “Black Summer” bushfires of 2019–2020 in eastern and southern Australia to assess how forest ecosystems and their constituent fauna had fared. This paper provides an overview of the 21 studies that were presented at the forum, now as papers in this theme edition of Australian Zoologist. All the authors were unanimous in their agreement about the unparalleled extent and severity of the fires and the magnitude of their ecological impacts. Whereas much of the focus of the 2019–2020 fires was on vertebrates, significant research was also carried out on a diverse range of invertebrate taxa. The studies of the invertebrate groups found that different taxa respond variably to fire and also emphasised the difficulties in judging the full impact of the fires due to taxonomic impediments. An underlying theme in almost all studies was that long-term and broad-scale monitoring of fauna and faunal habitats is essential if we are to build a robust understanding of how animals respond to fire, and in turn how managers can mitigate the impacts of fire in future. Such monitoring will need to incorporate the effects of other disturbance factors, such as habitat fragmentation, drought, salvage logging and longwall mining, that interact with fire, and also trial new methods to track and assist fauna to cope with the changing fire regimes. Several studies advocated the use of novel and emerging technologies to achieve better monitoring of fauna, while others proposed mapping of large scale, as well as micro-refuges, to maximise fire resilience, or the use of supplementary resources such as nest boxes and artificial roosts to replace those lost in fires. We concur with all the authors that a critically important way to protect and manage our native fauna is through expanded and sustained research and monitoring programs, and by making the key results available to managers and policy makers via peer-reviewed publication.","PeriodicalId":35849,"journal":{"name":"Australian Zoologist","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45131852","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Long-term monitoring of an endangered population of Yellow-bellied Glider Petaurus australis on the Bago Plateau, New South Wales, and its response to wildfires and timber harvesting in a changing climate","authors":"R. Bilney, Peter J. Kambouris, J. Peterie, C. Dunne, Kelly Makeham, R. Kavanagh, L. Gonsalves, Brad Law","doi":"10.7882/az.2022.035","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7882/az.2022.035","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 A population of Yellow-bellied Glider Petaurus australis on the Bago Plateau, on the NSW south-western slopes, was first surveyed across 126 sites in 1995 and this subsequently became the baseline for further population monitoring. A subset of 48 sites was resurveyed in 2010, and about one third of the sites (~40) were surveyed annually on a rotating panel between 2013–2019. Wildfire significantly impacted the Bago Plateau during 2020 and 51 sites were resurveyed post-fire in 2020/21. An occupancy modelling approach was used to estimate trends in occupancy between 1995 and 2020/21, including the influence of various covariates. Initial occupancy was positively associated with the extent of Montane Gums and mixed Wet Peppermint/Montane Gum forest types within a 450 m radius of the survey site. Supported models revealed that colonisation over time was positively associated with the density of hollow-bearing trees at a site, while extinction was positively associated with the extent of high severity wildfire at a site. Despite wide confidence intervals, the long-term occupancy trend showed a stable to slight increase between 1995 and 2019, but a ~26% reduction following wildfire. The increasing trend occurred despite a long-term rainfall deficit that was punctuated by occasional above average years during the survey period. There was no evidence that timber harvesting influenced occupancy by the gliders, although harvesting is predominantly focused within stands containing Alpine Ash Eucalyptus delegatensis, with monospecific stands generally avoided by the glider.","PeriodicalId":35849,"journal":{"name":"Australian Zoologist","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44347465","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}