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The Original Non-Volant Land Mammal Fauna of Faure Island, Shark Bay, Western Australia Download 1.41

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The Original Non-Volant Land Mammal Fauna of Faure Island, Shark Bay, Western Australia Download 1.41 DOI: 10.18195/issn.0313-122x.75.2008.025-031 Records of the Western Australian Museum Supplement No. 75: 25-31 (2008). The original non-volant land mammal fauna of Faure Island, Shark Bay, Western Australia Alexander Baynes Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Western Australian Museum, Locked Bag 49, Welshpool DC, WA 6986 Australia; E-mail: [email protected] Abstract - Remains of four species of non-volant native mammals have been found on Faure Island: Perameles bougainvi1le (Western Barred Bandicoot), Bettongia penicillata (Woylie or Brush-tailed Bettong), Pseudomys fieldi (Shark Bay Mouse) and Rattus tunneyi (Pale Field-rat). Three of these species, Pe. bougainville, B. penicillata and Ps. fieldi, are abundant and their remains are recorded from several or most dune 'blowout' sites and all are recorded from a substantial cave deposit. These three were members of the original (i.e. immediately pre-European) fauna of Faure Island. Rattus tunneyi, in contrast, is known from a single specimen from a dune blowout, but is not recorded from the cave deposit. It appears unlikely to have been a member of the original fauna, but rather the specimen may be a relict from an earlier fauna, or may have been carried to the island from the mainland by a predator. Comparison with other islands in Shark Bay suggests that, at some 5800 ha in area, Faure Island should have carried more than three mammal species. There is no evidence that the island has been significantly smaller at any time since it was formed by rising sea level about 7000 years ago. A lack of habitat diversity or extremes of temperature or drought may have reduced the number of mammal species over the millenia, or it is just possible that the original fauna may have included other small species with restricted habitat requirements whose remains have not been detected. It is, however, very unlikely that any other medium-sized mammal originally occurred on the Island. Key words: relict, cave deposit, island, Shark Bay INTRODUCTION - there is anecdotal evidence that under suitable Faure Island is one of many continental shelf conditions of water depth, which is mainly islands along the Western Australian coast cut off controlled by tidal and seasonal effects, emus can from the mainland by glacio-eustatic sea level rise wade across it (R. E. Johnstone personal in the most recent glacial-interglacial cycle (Main communication March 2000; J.N.S. Williams 1961; Wilson 2008). Geomorphologically, it is part personal communication October 2006), and it is of the eastern prong of Peron Peninsula, which is a shown on some maps as all tidal flats. But there ridge that lies above present sea level probably has been uplift of the land of about 2 m compared because it is underlain by an anticline (Hocking et to mean sea level in Shark Bay during the a1. 1987; Playford 1990). The Peninsula and Faure Holocene (Thorn and Chappell 1975), presumably Island are composed mainly of Peron Sandstone, decreasing the water depth since 7000 years ago. overlain by red aeolian Nilemah Sands (Hocking et The Faure Sill, that runs from the east of Faure a1. 1987; Playford 1990). Minor marine units and Island to the mainland, formed about 4200 years 'white' Holocene aeolian dunes occur around the ago (Playford 1990), subsequent to island coasts. The latter, are particularly prevalent in areas formation and sea level stabilization, and is a new of coast where the southerly summer sea 'breezes' structure rather than the remains of the last land blow onshore. connection to the Island. Therefore the last Although there are no data bearing directly on connection was to Peron Peninsula, and the the question of the exact timing of the separation mammal fauna on the diminishing land mass that of Faure Island from Peron Peninsula, this is likely would become Faure Island would have been a to have occurred about 7000 calendar years ago, subset of that then occurring on Peron Peninsula, when present sea level was first reached (Thorn which would itself have been a subset of the and Chappell 1975: radiocarbon dates recal- regional fauna, due to the peninsula effect. The ibrated). The water gap between Petit Point (on original (i.e., immediately pre-European) land Peron Peninsula) and Faure Island is very shallow mammal fauna of Peron Peninsula has been 26 A. Baynes investigated by Baynes (1990, 2000, 2007) using necessary, comparative material from the vertebrate remains from the surfaces of small cave deposits. palaeontological collection of the Western No specimens of living native non-volant Australian Museum. mammals are known to have been obtained from Faure Island, and nothing was known about its RESULTS original mammal fauna until 1972, when the skull of a Woylie (or Brush-tailed Bettong, Bettongia Sites penicillata), picked up on the island by Dick Hoult, I failed to find a single bone of a native mammal wp's donated to the Western Australian Museum. in any of the caves during the 2000 field work. I That specimen wap placed in the modern mammal found that surprising, as such remains can usually collection, wiLl,. the catalogue number M9544. Greg be found in coastal caves around most of Shark Bay Harold and Angela Sanders visited Faure Island in and its other islands (Baynes 1990, 2000). It is not November 1989 in the course of a survey of the clear why the only owl pellet deposit should occur Shark Bay region undertaken as a contract for the in the cliff at the northern end of the east coast, then Department of Conservation and Land when many of the caves in the other cliffed areas Management (G.R. Harold personal communication appear to be suitable as owl roosts. There may be a April 2000). They set out several trap lines and ran subtle difference in the geology of the rock in which them for several nights, and caught House Mice the caves have developed, perhaps being slightly (Mus musculus) but no native mammals. During a more alkaline, contributing to the preservation of visit to the Island by Martin Copley and Tim bone; or the explanation may lie in the former Flannery in December 1999 further skeletal material presence on the Island of goats which had used the was obtained from dune blowouts on the west larger caves as shelters, kicking the contents out coast, near where the original skull had been found. onto the talus slopes below, where bones rapidly The bones included more jaw specimens of Woylie, deteriorate in the sun, as is still happening on Dirk three jaws of Shark Bay Mouse (Pseudomys fieldl) Hartog Island (Baynes 2006). The Faure Island dune and three damaged limb bones consistent with blowouts, on the other hand, were almost all Western Barred Bandicoot (Perameles productive in 2000. bougainville). In April 2000 Martin Copley and The sites (Figure 1) are described below and are Barry Wilson found more Woylie remains in a dune numbered around the island in a clockwise blowout at the southwestern corner of the Island. direction beginning with the large blowout behind the main mangrove at the southern end of the west coast. MATERIALS AND METHODS Bl. Big blowout in 'white' dunes stretching for I joined the Faure Island biological survey about 1 km along the curved north-east coast expedition for one week, 23-29 May 2000, to search of the main mangrove. Centre of site GPS for further mammal skeletal remains, and try to (WGS 84): 25°52'24"S, 113°52'39"E. discover the full original non-volant mammal B2. Blowout in 'white' dunes on the northern coast fauna. Reports from Martin Copley, and results of the next bay to the north-west of B1; dunes obtained on earlier visits by others (above), not so high or extending so far inland as Bl. suggested that such remains might be found in two No GPS co-ordinates recorded. types of situations: the dune blowouts and in small B3. Blowout in a high red dune at the western end caves in the cliffs along some parts of the Island of the main east-west fence. This is where the coast. I therefore concentrated on such areas, original Woylie specimen was found (D. Hoult searching caves in cliffs along the southern east personal communication May 2000). No GPS coast and northern west coast, and sand dune co-ordinates recorded. blowouts along the south and west coasts. I did not B4. Blowout in a 'white' dune at the western end visit the north coast, the northern east coast, or the of the main east-west fence, just to the north of spit on the southern side of the main mangrove. In B3. No GPS co-ordinates recorded. July 2006 Jiri and Marie Lochman discovered an B5. Big blowout in a large red dune on the owl pellet deposit in a small cave in a cliff at the northern west coast of the island. Centre of northern end of the east coast of the Island. I visited site GPS (standard not recorded): 25°49'49"S., the Island again 20-22 October 2006, and located 113°51'14"E. two caves in that area that contained native B6. Blowout in small pinkish 'white' dune, near mammal bones. I made a large collection from one the old pearlers' camp on the north-west point of them, which subsequent discussion with Jiri of the Island. GPS (standard not recorded): Lochman has confirmed was the cave that he found 25°49'01"S, 113°51'13"E. (J. Lochman personal communication July 2007). Cl. Small cave in low cliff about 5 m above sea The bone material obtained during both periods level at the northern end of the east coast, of field work was identified, using, where found by A.
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