Northern Hairy-Nosed Wombat)
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Consultation Document on Listing Eligibility and Conservation Actions Lasiorhinus krefftii (northern hairy-nosed wombat) You are invited to provide your views and supporting reasons related to: 1) the eligibility of Lasiorhinus krefftii (northern hairy-nosed wombat) for inclusion on the EPBC Act threatened species list in the Critically Endangered category; and 2) the necessary conservation actions for the above species. Evidence provided by experts, stakeholders and the general public are welcome. Responses can be provided by any interested person. Anyone may nominate a native species, ecological community or threatening process for listing under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act) or for a transfer of an item already on the list to a new listing category. The Threatened Species Scientific Committee (the Committee) undertakes the assessment of species to determine eligibility for inclusion in the list of threatened species and provides its recommendation to the Australian Government Minister for the Environment. Responses are to be provided in writing either by email to: [email protected] or by mail to: The Director Marine and Freshwater Species Conservation Section Wildlife, Heritage and Marine Division Department of the Environment PO Box 787 Canberra ACT 2601 Responses are required to be submitted by 15 March 2017. Contents of this information package Page General background information about listing threatened species 2 Information about this consultation process 2 Draft information about the species and its eligibility for listing 3 Conservation actions for the species 10 References cited 12 Consultation questions 14 Lasiorhinus krefftii (northern hairy-nosed wombat) consultation Page 1 of 14 General background information about listing threatened species The Australian Government helps protect species at risk of extinction by listing them as threatened under Part 13 of the EPBC Act. Once listed under the EPBC Act, the species becomes a Matter of National Environmental Significance (MNES) and must be protected from significant impacts through the assessment and approval provisions of the EPBC Act. More information about threatened species is available on the department’s website at: http://www.environment.gov.au/biodiversity/threatened/index.html. Public nominations to list threatened species under the EPBC Act are received annually by the department. In order to determine if a species is eligible for listing as threatened under the EPBC Act, the Threatened Species Scientific Committee (the Committee) undertakes a rigorous scientific assessment of its status to determine if the species is eligible for listing against a set of criteria. These criteria are available on the Department’s website at: http://www.environment.gov.au/biodiversity/threatened/pubs/guidelines-species.pdf. As part of the assessment process, the Committee consults with the public and stakeholders to obtain specific details about the species, as well as advice on what conservation actions might be appropriate. Information provided through the consultation process is considered by the Committee in its assessment. The Committee provides its advice on the assessment (together with comments received) to the Minister regarding the eligibility of the species for listing under a particular category and what conservation actions might be appropriate. The Minister decides to add, or not to add, the species to the list of threatened species under the EPBC Act. More detailed information about the listing process is at: http://www.environment.gov.au/biodiversity/threatened/nominations.html. To promote the recovery of listed threatened species and ecological communities, conservation advices and where required, recovery plans are made or adopted in accordance with Part 13 of the EPBC Act. Conservation advices provide guidance at the time of listing on known threats and priority recovery actions that can be undertaken at a local and regional level. Recovery plans describe key threats and identify specific recovery actions that can be undertaken to enable recovery activities to occur within a planned and logical national framework. Information about recovery plans is available on the department’s website at: http://www.environment.gov.au/biodiversity/threatened/recovery.html. Information about this consultation process Responses to this consultation can be provided electronically or in hard copy to the contact addresses provided on Page 1. All responses received will be provided in full to the Committee and then to the Australian Government Minister for the Environment. In providing comments, please provide references to published data where possible. Should the Committee use the information you provide in formulating its advice, the information will be attributed to you and referenced as a ‘personal communication’ unless you provide references or otherwise attribute this information (please specify if your organisation requires that this information is attributed to your organisation instead of yourself). The final advice by the Committee will be published on the department’s website following the listing decision by the Minister. Information provided through consultation may be subject to freedom of information legislation and court processes. It is also important to note that under the EPBC Act, the deliberations and recommendations of the Committee are confidential until the Minister has made a final decision on the nomination, unless otherwise determined by the Minister. Lasiorhinus krefftii (northern hairy-nosed wombat) consultation Page 2 of 14 Lasiorhinus krefftii northern hairy-nosed wombat Taxonomy Conventionally accepted as Lasiorhinus krefftii (Owen 1872). The taxonomic classification is not fully resolved (Jackson & Groves 2015). Lasiorhinus krefftii was originally described in 1872 as a fossil from deposits at Wellington Caves (as Phascolomys krefftii). A skin from Moonie Rover, south-eastern Queensland was described by De Vis as P. gillespiei in 1900, and the Epping Forest population was described as L. latifrons barnardi by Longman in 1939. Some subsequent treatments have treated barnardi and gillespiei as synonyms of krefftii; however Groves (2005) considered that they should be treated as subspecies or distinct species. Taylor et al. (1994) compared the genetic composition of samples from L. krefftii from Epping Forest, to museum specimens from Deniliquin, and to southern hairy-nosed wombats L. latifrons, and confirmed that the extinct Deniliquin population was closest genetically to that from Epping Forest. Woinarski et al. (2014) recognises the relatively conservative option of treating barnardi and gillespiei as subspecies of krefftii, and considers L. k. gillespiei to be Extinct and L. k. barnardi to be Critically Endangered. Species/Subspecies Information Description The northern hairy-nosed wombat is a ground-dwelling herbivorous marsupial. It has a broad nose, pointy ears and greyish fur. It is heavily built with a broad head, short legs, and strong claws for digging (DEHP 2016). It is the largest of the three extant wombat species, including Vombatus ursinus (the common, or bare-nosed wombat) and Lasiorhinus latifrons (the southern hairy-nosed wombat). The average adult weight is 32 kg, with adult females slightly heavier than males (Horsup 2004), and can grow to more than one metre in length (DEHP 2016). Compared with the common wombat, the northern hairy-nosed wombat has softer fur, longer and more pointed ears, and a broader muzzle fringed with fine whiskers. The southern hairy- nosed wombat is similar in appearance to the northern species, but often has a white patch on the nose and chest (DEHP 2016). Distribution Fossil records show that the northern hairy-nosed wombat was once widespread across Victoria, New South Wales (NSW) and Queensland (Qld). However, at the time of European settlement it was not common and had a fragmented distribution restricted to three locations: south-central NSW (Deniliquin), south-eastern Qld (St George to Moonie River) and central Qld. By 1908 the species was only found in the Epping Forest area of central Qld, where it is restricted to a 600 hectare area (Johnson 1991; Woinarski et al., 2014). The Epping Forest area was settled in 1860, and high numbers of cattle (Bos taurus) were recorded during the early 1900s (Horsup 2004). At the time of writing this Conservation Advice, the northern hairy-nosed wombat occurs at only two locations: Epping Forest National Park (EFNP) in central Qld; and a translocation- reintroduction site, the Richard Underwood Nature Refuge (RUNR), at Yarran Downs near St George in south-eastern Qld. This reintroduction site is within the species’ historic range. The EFNP comprises approximately 32 km2 of Acacia harpophylla (brigalow) and Acacia cambagei (gidgee) scrubs on heavy non-cracking clay soils. A gully runs north-south through the Lasiorhinus krefftii (northern hairy-nosed wombat) consultation Page 3 of 14 EFNP on deep alluvial sands that support trees (Lysiphyllum hookeri (bauhina), Corymbia clarksoniana (long-fruited bloodwood) and Corymbia tessellaris (Moreton Bay ash)) (Horsup, 2004). The species’ estimated range within the EFNP is 3−6 km2 (Johnson 1991; A. Horsup pers. comm., cited in Woinarski et al., 2014). Estimates of the number of individuals at the EFNP indicate that there has been an increase from 35 individuals in the 1980s, to 60 individuals in the period 1985−1993 (Horsup 2004), to 200 individuals