THE yellow-footed Antechinus Antechinus flavipes
is distributed from South Australia, through central
Victoria, New South Wales and into Queensland as
well as in south-western Australia (Van Dyck 1998).
In south-eastern Australia, the conservation of A.
flavipes is not assured because its range largely
corresponds with the temperate woodlands that have
undergone extensive clearing and degradation
(Menkhorst 1995). Despite this, no studies on the
effects of the loss and fragmentation of habitat on A.
flavipes have been published in the scientific
literature. In contrast, numerous ecological studies
that investigate the consequences of anthropogenic
disturbance have been undertaken on its congeners,
the brown antechinus Antechinus stuartii and agile
antechinus Antechinus agilis (e.g., Bennett 1987;
Downes et al. 1997; Knight and Fox 2000). These
studies indicate that the abundance of these species
may be influenced by patch size (Bennett 1987;
Dunstan and Fox 1996), distance to large forest
blocks (Downes et al. 1997), habitat structure
(Knight and Fox 2000) and degree of tolerance to
modified habitats that surround the patch (Knight and
Fox 2000). Can the response of A. stuartii and A.
agilis be used to predict how the loss, fragmentation
and degradation of habitat may affect A. flavipes? In
this note, I provide preliminary information about a
population of A. flavipes occupying linear fragments
of woodland in an agricultural landscape in southeastern
Australia.