Research and management to reverse the decline of native mammal fauna - Final report

Summary of project and achievements This project sought to characterise the conservation status of the mammal fauna in northern Australia, investigate factors that may be implicated in the decline of this fauna, and identify effective management responses. Study components demonstrated that predation by feral cats caused extirpation of an experimentally reintroduced population of a native mammal species (Frank et al. 2014), and that feral cat impacts were much more severe in areas that had been extensively burnt (McGregor et al. 2014; Leahy et al. in review); but a cat exclosure fencing study in Kakadu (see photo below) failed to demonstrate beneficial response by native mammals, possibly because the study period was too brief and mammal populations in the area were too depleted. Mammal surveys across combinations of fire and grazing treatments in the Kimberley showed that the benefits of improving fire patterns to mammal richnessand abundance were significantly muted if introduced herbivores were present. The first substantial assessment of the incidence of disease in mammal assemblages of northern Australia indicates the presence of some pathogens that may have lethal or sub-lethal impacts on native mammals, but there is uncertainty around their role in the current decline.

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