National Recovery Plan for the Southern Bent-Wing Bat Miniopterus Orianae Bassanii
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National Recovery Plan for the Southern Bent-wing Bat Miniopterus orianae bassanii Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning The ‘National Recovery Plan for the Southern Bent-wing Bat Miniopterus orianae bassanii’ was prepared by the Victorian Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning and adopted under the Commonwealth Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999. © The State of Victoria Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning 2020 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence. You are free to re-use the work under that licence, on the condition that you credit the State of Victoria as author. The licence does not apply to any images, photographs or branding, including the Victorian Coat of Arms, the Victorian Government logo and the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning logo. For licence conditions see: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ ISBN 1 74152 339 7 This Recovery Plan was prepared by the Department of the Environment, Land, Water and Planning with the assistance of funding provided by the Australian Government and with Linda F. Lumsden and Micaela L. Jemison (Arthur Rylah Institute for Environmental Research, DELWP) as lead contributors. This Recovery Plan has been developed with the involvement and cooperation of a range of stakeholders, but individual stakeholders have not necessarily committed to undertaking specific actions. The attainment of objectives and the provision of funds may be subject to budgetary and other constraints affecting the parties involved. Proposed actions may be subject to modification over the life of the plan due to changes in knowledge. Disclaimer This publication may be of assistance to you but the State of Victoria and its employees do not guarantee that the publication is without flaw of any kind or is wholly appropriate for your particular purposes and therefore disclaims all liability for any error, loss or other consequence that may arise from you relying on any information in this publication. An electronic version of this document is available on the Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment website www.environment.gov.au For more information contact the Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment General Enquiries 1800 803 772. Citation: Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning. 2020. National Recovery Plan for the Southern Bent-wing Bat Miniopterus orianae bassanii. Victorian Government, Melbourne. Cover photograph: Southern Bent-wing Bat Miniopterus orianae bassanii. Photo: Terry Reardon and Steve Bourne. Table of Contents Summary ............................................................................................................... 1 Species Information .............................................................................................. 2 Description and Biology ................................................................................................................... 2 Distribution ....................................................................................................................................... 3 Habitat .............................................................................................................................................. 5 Important Populations ...................................................................................................................... 7 Decline and Threats .............................................................................................. 8 Declines ........................................................................................................................................... 8 Threats ............................................................................................................................................. 9 Populations Under Threat .............................................................................................................. 13 Recovery Information ......................................................................................... 14 Existing Conservation Measures ................................................................................................... 14 Recovery Objectives ...................................................................................................................... 15 Program Implementation and Evaluation....................................................................................... 16 Recovery Objectives and Actions – Detail ..................................................................................... 16 Management Practices .................................................................................................................. 28 Affected Interests ........................................................................................................................... 30 Biodiversity Benefits ....................................................................................................................... 31 Role and Interests of Indigenous People ....................................................................................... 31 Social and Economic Impacts ........................................................................................................ 32 Acknowledgements ............................................................................................ 34 Estimated Costs and Priority of Recovery Actions ......................................... 35 References .......................................................................................................... 41 List of Figures Figure 1 Records of the Southern Bent-wing Bat (Miniopterus orianae bassanii) in south-eastern Australia. ........................................................................................................................................... 4 Abbreviations ARI Arthur Rylah Institute for Environmental Research (DELWP, Victoria) ASF Australian Speleological Federation CEGSA Cave Exploration Group of South Australia CMA Catchment Management Authority (Victoria) DEDJTR Department of Economic Development, Jobs, Transport and Resources (Victoria) DEW Department for Environment and Water (South Australia) DELWP Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (Victoria) ENGO Environmental Non-Government Organisations EPBC Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 FNCG Friends of Naracoorte Caves Group FSA Forestry South Australia IUCN International Union for the Conservation of Nature NCNP Naracoorte Caves National Park NRM Natural Resources Management Boards (SA) PIRSA Department of Primary Industries and Regions South Australia PV Parks Victoria SA South Australia SAM South Australian Museum VIC Victoria VSA Victorian Speleological Association Summary The Southern Bent-wing Bat (Miniopterus orianae bassanii) is one of only nine Australian mammals that is federally listed as Critically Endangered, i.e. it is “facing an extremely high risk of extinction”. Implementing the actions in this Recovery Plan is essential to prevent this subspecies declining further in the near future, possibly to extinction. The Southern Bent-wing Bat was described as a distinct subspecies in 2000, based on genetic and morphological differences, with more recent genetic studies suggesting it may warrant full species status. It is an obligate cave-dwelling bat with a restricted distribution, occurring only in south-east South Australia and south-west Victoria. During the non- breeding season individuals are distributed throughout this region roosting in a large number of caves and rock crevices. During the breeding season, however, the majority of the population congregates in just two regularly-used breeding caves, located at Naracoorte in South Australia and Warrnambool in Victoria. The population size of the Southern Bent-wing Bat has declined dramatically in the last 60 years. In the 1950s and 1960s, there were an estimated 100,000 – 200,000 individuals at the Naracoorte maternity site. By 2001, numbers had declined to 35,000, and in 2009 the estimate was just 20,000 individuals. The numbers in the Warrnambool maternity site declined from approximately 15,000 to 10,000 individuals over the same time period. Due to the severity of this decline and the dependence on just two regularly-used breeding sites, the subspecies was listed as Critically Endangered under the EPBC Act in 2007. It is listed as Endangered in the ‘Action Plan for Australian Mammals 2012’. A range of threats have been suggested as potential factors in this decline, including loss and modification of roosting and foraging habitat, human disturbance, pesticides, disease, and drought and climate change affecting food availability. However, there is little empirical evidence to clearly identify the main cause/s of the current decline. Therefore, there is an urgent need to determine the factors contributing to this decline, so that the most effective and targeted management actions can be implemented. This national Recovery Plan and the Action Plan for Australian Mammals outline the distribution, biology, threats, recovery objectives and actions required to arrest the decline of the Southern Bent-wing Bat. The long-term recovery objective is to ensure that the Southern Bent-wing Bat can survive, flourish and retain its potential for evolutionary development in the wild. The specific objectives of this recovery plan are to: 1. Develop