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Review of Wildlife Monitoring Priorities Review of Review Wildlife Monitoring Wildlife Priorities CONTACT DETAILS Michael Driessen and Gregory Hocking Resource Management & Conservation Division GPO Box 44 Hobart TAS 7001 Nature Conservation Report 08/02 Department of Primary Industries and Water Review of Wildlife Monitoring Priorities for the Department of Primary Industries and Water Michael Driessen and Gregory Hocking Nature Conservation Report 08/02 Review of Wildlife Monitoring Priorities Michael M Driessen and Gregory J Hocking Resource Management and Conservation Division Department of Primary Industries and Water Nature Conservation Report 08/02 ISSN 1441-0680 Copyright is assigned to the Crown. Apart from fair dealing for the purposes of private study, research, criticism or review, as permitted under the copyright Act, no part may be reproduced by any means without written permission. Published by: Biodiversity Conservation Branch Resource Management and Conservation Division Department of Primary Industries and Water PO Box 44 Hobart, Tasmania, 7001 Australia June 2008 Cover Design: Brett Littleton Cover images: Top - Melissa Giese, bottom (L to R) - Drew Lee, Michael Driessen, Chris Green, Steve Johnson Suggested citation: Driessen, M. M. and Hocking, G. J. (2008). Review of Wildlife Monitoring Priorities. Nature Conservation Report 08/02. Department of Primary Industries and Water, Tasmania SUMMARY The Department of Primary Industries and Water’s wildlife monitoring priorities were reviewed to develop strategies to improve the way the agency conducts its wildlife monitoring. We developed a decision key that sets monitoring priorities for the following groups of species: (1) species that are listed as threatened, (2) species subject to a potential threat, (3) species that are harvested/culled, and (4) introduced animal species. We compared priorities for wildlife monitoring as determined by the decision key with what is currently monitored by the department. Currently, staff within the Resource Management and Conservation Division monitors over 40 species of wildlife. Most of these species are either harvested species or threatened species. All harvested/culled species ranked as highest priority for monitoring, Priority 1 (seven species), and second highest priority for monitoring, Priority 2 (seven species), are subject to some level of monitoring. For species subject to a potential threat, over half of the Priority 1 species (four species out of seven) and only one out of six Priority 2 species are currently subject to some level of monitoring; however, monitoring programs are currently being developed for most of the remaining species. For introduced animal species, virtually all Priority 1 (five species out of six) and over half of Priority 2 (six out of ten) species are subject to some level of monitoring. Only 40% (18 species out of 49) of Priority 1 and 22% (6 species out of 27) of Priority 2 threatened species are currently subject to some level of monitoring. Factors contributing to the low proportion of threatened species that are monitored include; the large number of threatened species, practical difficulties associated with monitoring some species threatened species (eg invertebrates), limited resources and a reliance on external funding. A small number of threatened species are monitored by other organisations. We made a number of recommendations in this review to ensure that priority species of wildlife are being monitored using appropriate scientific methods and that the information gathered is appropriately stored, managed and disseminated. i ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This review was funded by the Tasmanian Government. We thank all staff in the Resource Management and Conservation Division of the Department of Primary Industries and Water who provided information on monitoring programs for which they are responsible. We also thank the following for comments and suggestions on draft versions of this review; Stewart Blackhall, Gary Davies, Rosemary Gales, Graham Hall, Michael Pemberton and John Whittington. ii CONTENTS SUMMARY ..................................................................................................................................... I ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ............................................................................................................... II 1.0 INTRODUCTION................................................................................................................ 1 1.1 Goal................................................................................................................................. 2 1.2 Requirement for the Review and Governance................................................................ 2 1.3 Scope .............................................................................................................................. 2 1.4 Types of Monitoring ........................................................................................................ 3 2.0 REVIEW OF EXISTING WILDLIFE MONITORING PROGRAMS ..................................... 3 2.1 Species that are listed as Threatened ............................................................................ 4 2.2 Species Subject to a Potential Threat............................................................................. 5 2.3 Species that are Harvested/Culled ................................................................................. 5 2.4 Introduced Animal Species ............................................................................................. 6 2.5 Species Monitored for Other Reasons............................................................................ 6 3.0 CRITERIA FOR DETERMINING PRIORITIES FOR WILDLIFE MONITORING ............... 7 3.1 Legal Requirement.......................................................................................................... 7 3.2 Extent of Occurrence and Abundance............................................................................ 7 3.3 Conservation Status........................................................................................................ 7 3.4 Occasional Visitors ......................................................................................................... 7 3.5 Level of Harvesting/Culling ............................................................................................. 8 3.6 Potential Threats............................................................................................................. 8 3.7 Negative Environmental Impact...................................................................................... 9 3.8 Other Criteria................................................................................................................... 9 4.0 DECISION KEY FOR DETERMINING PRIORITIES FOR MONITORING....................... 11 5.0 APPLICATION OF CRITERIA.......................................................................................... 14 5.1 Species that are Listed as Threatened ......................................................................... 14 5.2 Species Subject to a Potential Threat........................................................................... 15 5.3 Species that are Harvested/Culled ............................................................................... 15 5.4 Introduced Animal Species ........................................................................................... 16 6.0 COMPARISON BETWEEN CURRENT MONITORING AND PRIORITIES FOR MONITORING................................................................................................................... 16 6.1 Species that are Listed as Threatened ......................................................................... 16 6.2 Species Subject to a Potential Threat........................................................................... 16 6.3 Species that are Harvested/Culled ............................................................................... 16 6.4 Introduced Animal Species ........................................................................................... 16 7.0 CONCLUSIONS................................................................................................................ 30 8.0 STRATEGIC RECOMMENDATIONS............................................................................... 31 9.0 REFERENCES.................................................................................................................. 33 APPENDIX I CURRENT AND HISTORICAL WILDLIFE MONITORING PROGRAMS ............ 35 iii iv 1.0 INTRODUCTION Wildlife monitoring is an integral part of a wildlife management and conservation program that informs managers of the success or otherwise of their programs. According to Caughley and Sinclair (1994) there are only four ways a wildlife population may be managed: make it increase, make it decrease, harvest it for a continuing yield, and leave it alone but ‘keep an eye on it’. A recent assessment of conservation monitoring in Australia (Field et al . 2007) revealed a pervasive lack of rigour in analysing, reporting and responding to the results of data collected, and millions of dollars are currently being wasted on monitoring programs that have no realistic chance of detecting changes in the variables of interest. This assessment recognised three fundamental problems that have contributed to this situation: • Funding – in particular commitment needs to be sufficiently long-term to allow a change