EM323 Summary
Australasian Diversity ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………..………………….pg 1
Wildlife Management……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….………….pg 6
Case Study: Tree-Kangaroo ……………………………………………………………………………………………………..…………………….pg 8
Case Study: Wild Horses ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….pg 9
Human-Wildlife Conflict in Bhutan ……………………………………………………………………………………….………………………pg 10
Ecological Impacts of Roads ………………………………………………………………………………………………………….……………….pg 11
Managing Wildlife Collisions ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….pg 12
Disease in Wildlife Management ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………pg 12
Case Study: Devil Facial Tumour Disease ……………………………………………………………………………………………………….pg 13
Wildlife Hunting & Harvesting ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….……….pg 14
Case Study: Crocodile Industry ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….pg 15
Over-Abundant Native Wildlife ………………………………………………………………………………………………………..…………….pg 15
Case Study: Kangaroo Management ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….pg 16
Introduced Species of Conservation Significance …………………………………………………………………………………………….pg 17
Australasian Diversity Wildlife is any undomesticated organism – usually restricted to wild animals and excluding plants. Wildlife Management deals with introduced and native wildlife. Traditionally referred to the control of game but now includes conservation, ecology, environmental policy, human-wildlife interactions and sociology. Mammal Diversity - Prototherians (Monotremes): 5 species in Australia and New Guinea. Example: Short-Beaked Echidna (Tachyglossus aceulatus) Australia-wide. 2-7 kg, large brain, strong claws, myrmecophagous. Conservation secure. Some Indigenous hunting. Long-Beaked Echidna (Zaglossus spp.) New Guinea Islands. Long-lived, eat earthworms, similar reproductive characteristics to short-beaked. Endangered. Heavily hunted – in need of management intervention. - Metatherians (Marsupials): Example: 100 species in Americas – 1 in North America. All members are small/medium with ancestral possum-like body. Distinct marsupial pouch in Family Didelphidae. Pleistocene Giantism (Megafauna) declined from human hunting. Herbivores: Diprotodon optatum – lived 1.6M – 46,000 YA. Hippopotamus-sized, Australia-wide. Predators: Thylacoleo carnifex – 2M – 46,000 YA. Largest Aust. Marsupial predator (100-160 kg), Australia- wide. Most common in dry, open forests. - Eutherians (Placental) e.g. dingo. Australian Fauna Class Native Species % Endemic Mammals 349 71 Birds 850 71 Reptiles 860 88 Amphibians 230 93 Freshwater Fishes 249 95 More than 20% of the world’s mammal fauna occur in our region (Indonesia, Australia and Papua New Guinea) – 30- 70% endemism and many threatened species. Marsupial Diversity Australia 151 species, New Guinea 83 species. - Order Peremelemorphia (Bandicoot): o Family Peramelidae: 8 species (3 endangered, 2 extinct). Nocturnal omnivores adapted for digging for fungi, insects, tubers and roots. Backward-opening pouch. High reproductive rate, short gestation. ▪ Subfamily Thylacomyinae (Bilbies): 2 species Aust. (1 extinct). Desert-dwelling, arid- adapted, burrowers. Threatened by foxes, rabbits, fire and stock. o Family Peroyctidae (Spiny Bandicoots): 1 species Aust. 9 species New Guinea. Rainforest-dwelling. - Order Notoryctidae: Notoryctes spp. (Marsupial Mole). 2 species Aust. N. typhlops central desert and N. caurinus northwest Australia. Discovered in 1888. Sandy inland regions, eats invertebrates and small vertebrates. Convergent with golden mole of Africa. Endangered. - Order Dasyuromorphia o Family Dasyuridae ▪ Small Dasyurids e.g. long-tailed Dunnart (Sminthopsis longicaudata) and Little Red Kaluta (Dasykaluta rosamondae). ▪ Medium Dasyurids e.g. Kowari (Dasyroides byrnei) and Brush-Tailed Phascogale (Phascogale tapoatafa). ▪ Larger Dasyurids e.g. Eastern Quoll (Dasyurus viverrinus), Tasmania Devil (Sarcophilus harrisii) ▪ Carnivores: thylacine, devils, quolls. - Order Diprotodontia: Potoroids – some extinct, others on the brink. Critical weight range mammals suffering from fox predation. o Family Hypsiprymnodontidae: Musky Rat-Kangaroo (Hypsiprymnodon moschatus) o Family Potoroidae: Bettongs, potoroos and rat-kangaroo. 11 species.