Wildlife Matters Wildlife Conservancy

australian wildlife matters wildlife conservancy Spring 2013 Is this the world’s rarest python? 2 Wildlife Matters: Spring 2013 australian Saving Australia’s threatened wildlife wildlife conservancy Welcome to the Spring 2013 edition of Wildlife Matters. The AWC mission The mission of Australian Wildlife In August 2013, a Federal Senate Committee handed down its report on a major inquiry Conservancy (AWC) is the effective into the Effectiveness of threatened species and ecological communities’ protection in conservation of all Australian animal Australia. The Committee comprised Senators from the Liberal and National parties, species and the habitats in which they live. the Labor party and the Greens. The Committee report and many submissions to the To achieve this mission, our actions are Committee highlight the overall failure of Government programs and strategies over focused on: the last 20 years to reverse the tide of extinctions in Australia. As one submission from • Establishing a network of sanctuaries the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists states ‘[we] have had 20 or 30 years which protect threatened wildlife of strategy-writing and weasel words…To have 1,790 listed species in Australia in and ecosystems: AWC now manages 2013, which is about the same number as we had 20 years ago, suggests it has been a 23 sanctuaries covering over 3 million complete failure’. hectares (7.4 million acres). However, the Committee did find some cause for optimism, particularly in relation to • Implementing practical, on-ground the on-ground actions of private (non-profit) conservation and community groups. conservation programs to protect The Committee report states: the wildlife at our sanctuaries: these programs include feral animal control, ‘One of the most heartening success stories received by the committee was fire management and the translocation from the Australian Wildlife Conservancy…’ of endangered species. ‘The committee particularly commends the work of the Australian Wildlife • Conducting (either alone or in Conservancy and its impressive record of successful management of areas collaboration with other organisations) protecting a large number of threatened species, as well as its success scientific research that will help address in achieving substantial increases in the numbers of several nationally the key threats to our native wildlife. threatened species.’ • Hosting visitor programs at our This is important recognition from a cross-party Federal Senate Committee that sanctuaries for the purpose of AWC has, over the last decade, succeeded in developing an effective new model for education and promoting awareness of conservation. Some of the key elements of our model are outlined on page 15 of this the plight of Australia’s wildlife. edition of Wildlife Matters.They include: • Almost 80% of our staff are based in the field, delivering fire management, feral About AWC animal control and other practical, on-ground measures. • AWC is an independent, non-profit • In 2012/13, only 17% of our operating expenditure was incurred on fundraising and organisation based in Perth, Western administration combined (this is less than half of the proportion spent on fundraising Australia. Donations to AWC are tax and administration by most comparable organisations in Australia). deductible. • Our focus is on delivering measurable outcomes – e.g. increases in the population of Bilbies, Banded Hare-wallabies and other priority species; improvements in science- • Over the last ten years, around 88% of based metrics related to fire management, feral animal control, etc. AWC’s total expenditure was incurred on conservation programs, including As you will read in this edition of Wildlife Matters, we are demonstrating practical land acquisition, while only 12% was leadership in relation to feral animal control (establishing the three largest feral herbivore- allocated to development (fundraising) free areas on the mainland – see pages 9-11); fire management (read about our and administration. regional fire management program in Queensland on page 12); and in the conservation of endangered species (see pages 6-7). I hope all of our supporters feel a sense of ownership of AWC’s achievements and their recognition by the Senate Committee. However, there is still a great deal to be done if we are to reverse the decline in Australia’s natural capital. Your continued support is important in helping AWC maintain Australian Wildlife Conservancy and build on our record of delivering an exceptional ecological return across Australia. PO Box 8070 Subiaco East WA 6008 Thank you for your support. Ph: +61 8 9380 9633 www.australianwildlife.org Atticus Fleming Chief Executive Cover image: Rough-scaled Python A. Hartshorne Wildlife Matters: Spring 2013 3 Biological discoveries Rough-scaled Python at Artesian Range A. Hartshorne Cape York Free-tailed Bat at Piccaninny Plains T. Reardon One of the distinguishing features of AWC’s approach to conservation is the role of science: approximately 25% of our staff are field ecologists who, along with a team of interns and volunteers, undertake a remarkable 100,000 trap nights every year around Australia. This science program is carefully designed to measure the ecological health of our properties over time. It also incorporates an inventory component, which is generating exciting biological discoveries across the AWC estate. Rough-scaled Pythons in the Artesian Range Undescribed bat species at Piccaninny Plains The elusive Rough-scaled Python vies with species such as the Cape York is a particularly exciting place for any scientist who Boelen’s Python in Papua New Guinea for the title of the world’s is passionate about bats… and that includes many AWC field rarest python. First discovered in 1973, the Rough-scaled Python ecologists! Our recent biological surveys at Piccaninny Plains, is so rarely seen in the wild that there are only ten records in the located in the heart of northern Cape York, have revealed several WA Museum database. It is confined to a remote and largely exciting discoveries: unexplored section of the north-west Kimberley. • Individuals of an undescribed bat species – the Cape York Free-tailed Bat – have been captured at a large lagoon on Since AWC established the Artesian Range Wildlife Sanctuary, the Archer River floodplain. Previously known from only our scientists have spent many nights exploring its escarpments 11 records, this species is so new to science that it is still in and rainforest gullies searching for this iconic snake. Growing the process of being formally described by one of Australia’s up to two metres long and preying on mammals and birds, leading bat experts, Dr Terry Reardon (South Australian the Rough-scaled Python was finally discovered by chance in Museum). mid-2013 by a team radio-tracking Scaly-tailed Possums. This • Gould’s Wattled Bats have been recorded on several discovery extends the known range of the species by almost occasions from near the homestead. These records are 100 kilometres and confirms the Artesian Range as a hotspot for significant because they represent the most northerly records Australia’s reptiles, as well as small mammals. in Australia for this species. • There have been several records of the Papuan Sheath-tailed Bat, which is very rarely recorded in Australia. A new gecko species at Wongalara? In August 2013, during our annual biological survey at Wongalara (on the edge of Arnhem Land), AWC ecologists discovered a gecko that does not match any known species, with different patterning and other qualitative differences such as the number of toe pads. DNA samples were sent to the Australian National University. While it is genetically different to any known species, further analysis is required before determining whether it is a new species or a different form of an existing species. Whatever the outcome of this analysis, the new gecko is an exciting addition to the Wongalara inventory. Gecko at Wongalara I. Bleach 4 Wildlife Matters: Spring 2013 Unlocking the secrets of the Artesian Range and its endangered wildlife A radio-collared Golden-backed Tree-rat A. Hartshorne Scaly-tailed Possum A. Hartshorne Located in the far north-west of the continent, adjacent Why have the endangered mammals of northern Australia to the Kimberly coast, the Artesian Range is a ‘lost world’ survived in the Artesian Range even when they have of rugged sandstone ranges dissected by deep rainforest- disappeared elsewhere? This vitally important question filled gorges. Bounded to the north by the Charnley River, is being addressed by Rosie Hohnen, as part of her PhD the Artesian Range features tall escarpments, tropical research in the Artesian Range. A year after commencing woodlands, palm forests and a network of spectacular her work, Rosie provides an insight into a typical day in one waterfalls and rocky pools. Largely inaccessible and of Australia’s most remote and challenging environments. extremely rugged, the Artesian Range is the only part of Australia’s tropical savannas that has suffered no We’ve just finished setting the last traps of the day and dusk has extinctions since European settlement. It now provides fallen. It’s been raining for about three days now, sometimes a last refuge for many of Australia’s rarest mammals steady, sometimes light, but a constant patter that’s causing little including the Golden-backed Tree-rat, which has rivulets of water to flow along the rock and into our precious dry disappeared from over 90% of its original range including space. We cook up some dinner and turn the stove off to hear Kakadu National Park. the sound of the river roaring. It’s risen over a metre and a half since we got back to camp and deep standing waves have formed in its centre, washing up drifts of thick debris onto the banks. We’re almost a week into our second two month field trip out in this remote pocket of the north-west Kimberley, trapping and tracking two poorly understood and declining species: the Scaly-tailed Possum and Golden-backed Tree-rat.

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