Helminth communities in small mammals in southeastern new south wales

1987 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 197-202 ◽  
Author(s):  
D.M. Spratt
1987 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 163 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. Lunney ◽  
B. Cullis ◽  
P. Eby

This study of the effects of logging on small mammals in Mumbulla State Forest on the south coast of New South Wales included the effects of a fire in November 1980 and a drought throughout the study period from June 1980 to June 1983. Rattus fuscipes was sensitive to change: logging had a significant impact on its numbers, response to ground cover, and recapture rate; fire had a more severe effect, and drought retarded the post-fire recovery of the population. The three species of dasyurid marsupials differed markedly in their response to ground cover, canopy cover, logging and fire. Antechinus stuartii was distributed evenly through all habitats and was not affected by logging, but fire had an immediate and adverse effect which was sustained by the intense drought. A. swainsonii markedly preferred the regenerating forest, and was not seen again after the fire, the failure of the population being attributed to its dependence on dense ground cover. Sminthopsis leucopus was found in low numbers, appeared to prefer forest with sparse ground cover, and showed no immediate response to logging or fire; its disappearance by the third year post-fire suggests that regenerating forest is inimical to the survival of this species. Mus musculus showed no response to logging. In the first year following the fire its numbers were still very low, but in the next year there was a short-lived plague which coincided with the only respite in the 3-year drought and, importantly, occurred in the intensely burnt parts of the forest. The options for managing this forest for the conservation of small mammals include minimising fire, retaining unlogged forest, extending the time over which alternate coupes are logged and minimising disturbance from heavy machinery.


1996 ◽  
Vol 23 (5) ◽  
pp. 629 ◽  
Author(s):  
SV Biggs

Small mammals and reptiles were surveyed by trapping in uncropped and cropped parts of two dry lakebeds in semi-arid New South Wales, Australia, in spring 1992 and 1993. Four species of native small mammals (18 individuals) were captured in uncropped parts of the lakebeds, compared with two individuals of one species in cropped parts of the lakebeds. A total of 38 reptiles (seven species) was caught at the uncropped sites compared with 10 individuals (four species) at the cropped sites. Small mammals were absent where the soil was scarified and bare between crop cycles. The habitat requirements of small mammals (particularly Planigale gilesi) and reptiles need to be provided for when cropping lakebeds. The most effective way to do this is to leave wide strips of uncropped soil at the edges of lakebeds, and patches of uncropped country that are connected to the strips, on lakebeds.


2000 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 256 ◽  
Author(s):  
SV Briggs ◽  
JA Seddon ◽  
SA Thornton

Intermittently and occasionally flooded lakes are common in arid and semi-arid Australia. The wetldry nature of these lakes means that they provide habitat for terrestrial fauna when dry and aquatic fauna when flooded. The fauna of dry lakes in western New South Wales is largely unknown. This study reports on species of small mammals and reptiles trapped in a dry lake in south-western New South Wales, and contrasts them with species trapped in surrounding woodland and shrubland habitats. Information on bird species in these habitats was also drawn on. Small mammals, reptiles and birds showed considerable partitioning between the habitats in the study area. The dry lake provided the main habitat for the two small mammals Smznthopsis crassicaudata and Planlgale gdesi. Reptiles were most speciose and most abundant in the blue bush (Maireana spp.) shrubland, but some reptile species were mainly or entirely confined to the dry lake habitats, or to black box (Eucalyptus largzjlorens) woodland. Birds in the study region were most abundant and most speciose in the black box woodland, with some species confined to blue bush shrubland. The study showed that conservation of all the habitats investigated is necessary to retain the suite of vertebrate species that occupy these landscapes. Key words: small mammals, reptiles, birds, arid zone, dry lake, shrubland, woodland, biodiversity: Australia


2007 ◽  
Vol 55 (1) ◽  
pp. 63 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter J. Jarman ◽  
Lee R. Allen ◽  
Dennis J. Boschma ◽  
Stuart W. Green

In 1313 scats of the spotted-tailed quoll Dasyurus maculatus, collected over 5 years from the gorge country of north-eastern New South Wales, the most frequent and abundant items were derived from mammals and a restricted set of insect orders. These quolls also ate river-associated items: waterbirds, eels, crayfish, aquatic molluscs and even frogs. Macropods contributed most of the mammal items, with possums, gliders and rodents also being common. Some food, particularly from macropods and lagomorphs, had been scavenged (as shown by fly larvae). The most frequent invertebrates were three orders of generally large insects Coleoptera, Hemiptera and Orthoptera, which were most frequent in summer and almost absent in winter scats. Monthly mean numbers of rodent and small dasyurid items per scat were inversely related to these large insects in scats. The numbers of reptile items were inversely related to the numbers of mammal (especially arboreal and small terrestrial mammal) items per scat, thus types of items interacted in their occurrences in monthly scat samples. Frequencies of most vertebrate items showed no seasonal, but much year-to-year, variation. This quoll population ate four main types of items, each requiring different skills to obtain: they hunted arboreal marsupials (possibly up trees), terrestrial small mammals and reptiles (on the ground), and seasonally available large insects (on trees or the ground), and scavenged carcases, mostly of large mammals but also birds and fishes (wherever they could find them).


2000 ◽  
Vol 74 (4) ◽  
pp. 307-314 ◽  
Author(s):  
J.E. Griffith ◽  
I. Beveridge ◽  
N.B. Chilton ◽  
P.M. Johnson

AbstractGastrointestinal helminths were collected from pademelons of the genus Thylogale (Marsupialia: Macropodidae) in eastern Australia and Papua New Guinea. Examined were 12 Thylogale stigmatica stigmatica and 13 T. s. wilcoxi, the latter subdivided into eight specimens from the northern limit of their distribution and five from southern areas, all from eastern Queensland, Australia, one T. s. oriomo from Papua New Guinea and ten T. thetis from southeastern Queensland and northern New South Wales, Australia. Six species of cestodes and 40 species of nematodes were found. The helminth community of T. s. stigmatica was similar to that found in northern specimens of T. s. wilcoxi, while differences from the helminth community present in southern T. s. wilcoxi could be accounted for by parasites acquired from sympatric T. thetis. Thylogale thetis harboured a community of helminths distinct from but related to that in T. stigmatica. The evidence suggests that all subspecies of T. stigmatica examined share a common helminth community, but that in areas of sympatry, T. stigmatica and T. thetis share some of their parasites.


1998 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 321
Author(s):  
T.M. Bubela ◽  
C.R. Dickman ◽  
A.E. Newsome

Foxes were studied from January 1991 to January 1993 in 167 square kilometres of the alpine and subalpine areas of Kosciusko National Park, New South Wales, Australia (36 24' S, 148 26' E, 1260-2238 m altitude). The study area encompassed two ski resorts. This study confirmed the varied nature of the diet of the red fox. Foxes are mainly insectivorous during snow-free months, but also prey upon three small mammal species, Antechinus swainsonii, Mastacomys fuscus and Rattus fuscipes. Direct observations indicate that human refuse from ski resorts is food for foxes in winter. It is probable that this supplementary food source sup- ports a higher density fox population than would occur in its absence. The management implications for populations of native small mammals of predation and supplementary food for foxes are discussed. We recommend that the impact of red fox predation on small mammals, particularly M. fuscus be assessed and that action be taken to limit the availability of human refuse to foxes in winter.


2008 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 263 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Lunney ◽  
H. W. M. Lunney ◽  
H. F. Recher

Following an intense bushfire in December 1972, small mammals were sampled from November 1973 to June 1976 on a few hectares of unburnt, grassy river flat in the Nadgee Nature Reserve, New South Wales. Hindsight shows the importance of these small unburnt patches as refuges for small mammals. A surprising proportion of wildlife survives a large bushfire, but the post-fire population is in extremis, confronted by famine and exposed to increased predation. All small-mammal species on a forest plot burnt in the ?72 fire disappeared. On the unburnt flat, five species were encountered and continued to survive. There was a common theme to all five populations in the refuge; incessant flux, many births and disappearances, virtually static overall population. The oft-cited ideas of T. Robert Malthus, although seen by some as old-fashioned and wrong when applied to human populations, lend power to our understanding of population events in the small refuge surviving the ?72 fire. The theme is clear: the populations of small mammals on the flat survived, but barely, as the small numbers in each year?s winter show, and it is only by the operation of the ?Malthusian Guillotine? that they are able to do so. The guillotine is an apt metaphor for the survival process; its operation is stark, but it is efficient, and it is mercifully brief. The conservation implications from this study are striking. The most important being the vital role played by refuges following an extensive and intense fire. In an era of global warming and increasing predictions of the likelihood of bushfires rising, such matters will loom even larger.


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