Loss and fragmentation of the native vegetation of the Central Western Plains of New South Wales was followed by declines of woodland-dependent species. Drought is likely to have further suppressed many animal populations. Here we report on changes in woodland bird reporting rates between surveys in 2005-2009 (drought declared period) and surveys in 2010-2013 following the drought-breaking rains of 2010. By 2013 the number of species detected per survey had just recovered to the level of surveys in 2005/6. The 2013 species composition of the region was similar to that recorded in the 2005-2009 drought surveys, with half of the small insectivorous and nectarivorous woodland birds remaining rare and restricted. Woodland remnants in the landscape continued to be dominated by the same, usually large, species of birds, but reporting rates of 13 of the 15 most common species declined. Conversely, several smaller, foliage gleaning passerines had higher reporting rates post-drought, with Striated Pardalote and Western Gerygone becoming two of the most frequently recorded species. Taxonomic and life history attributes usually did not predict population changes for species post-drought, with the only feeding guild showing a consistent trend being the mistletoe specialists, with only two species. Even after the drought-breaking rains of 2010, there appears to be a reduced vigour in these woodland landscapes.

The woodlands of southern Australia have been extensively cleared for agriculture. The loss and fragmentation of the native vegetation has been followed by dramatic declines in woodland-dependant species. Here we present data from the Central Western Plains of New South Wales on the occurrence of birds in woodlands that have been highly fragmented and structurally altered over the last 150 years. The species composition of the region is still very similar to that recorded 3 decades earlier but many small insectivorous and nectivorous woodland birds are rare and restricted, while the woodland patches and remnant tree groves in the landscape are now dominated by the Galah, Noisy Miner, Australian Magpie, Crested Pigeon, Apostlebird, Magpie-lark, Grey-crowned Babbler, Australian Raven, Eastern Rosella and Pied Butcherbird.

ABSTRACT The aim of this paper is to highlight long-term (four decades) research and monitoring the populations of the four species of large kangaroos in New South Wales (NSW). Kangaroos are counted by aerial surveys using two types of aircraft: fixed-wing and helicopters. The NSW Commercial Kangaroo Harvest Management Plan 2017–21 states that harvest quotas are set at between 15 and 17% of the estimated kangaroo populations. As an example of the scale and intensity of kangaroo distribution and harvesting in NSW, the total number of kangaroos estimated to be present in the 14 commercial zones in 2017 was 17,457,257. The number present in each commercial zone varies widely across the state, with the Narrabri zone leading the list with an estimated 2,215,589 kangaroos in 2017. More than half of the kangaroos in NSW were eastern grey kangaroos (9,298,261 in 2017). The zone with the highest number of red kangaroos (1,567,598 in 2017) was in the far west of the State, in the Tibooburra commercial zone. The total number in the commercial take in 2017 was 454,626, representing 16% of the quota allowed to be taken, and 2.6% of the total number of kangaroos in the commercial zone. The four decades of records of the population sizes show that the numbers vary between about 5 million and 18 million for the western plains, where the counting has been consistent over the same area since the beginning of the surveys in 1975. The periods of decline correspond with periods of drought, with the Millennium drought showing a considerable dip to a low point in kangaroo numbers in 2005. Initial assessments from data dominated by drought found recent rainfall was the best predictor of rate of increase in kangaroo numbers, but analyses of a longer time series found rainfall with a longer time-lag was most influential. In the Tibooburra commercial zone, there has been a 4-fold change, with the highest number (1,567,598) recorded in 1998, the lowest number in 2006 (361,506), and equally high numbers (1,567,589) again in 2016. The short answers to regular questions of kangaroo resilience in relation to commercial harvesting, or about allowing culling where rural landholders are adversely affected by kangaroo numbers, are that the data show the kangaroo populations of NSW to be large and widespread and not declining because of either the commercial harvest or culling. While harvesting and culling remain as political matters, our view is that the debate needs to be based on long-term datasets that are readily accessible and reliable. In our view, these datasets not only fulfil that requirement, but are textbook material; they can be summarised into one graph that covers decades, or expanded to show the fluctuations in the numbers of each species in each zone for each year.

A survey of the mammals of the coastal State Forests, adjacent farmlands and coastal national park near Bega, on the south coast of New South Wales, was undertaken between 1979 and 1984. A total of 39 native and 10 exotic species was found in the area surveyed. That 17 (44%) of the native species were bats demonstrates the importance of considering this order of mammals in both future surveys and forest management. The presence of species varied according to the land-use category of the area surveyed. State Forest was richest and contained 37 of the 39 native species found. Coastal national park supported 17 native species, while only 7 were found on farmland. Of the 39 species, 14 were considered rare in the survey area, 11 were uncommon and 14 common. Of the twelve methods of detection used, the most productive was predator scat analysis, which yielded 24 native species and 9 exotic species. The survey was conducted using a wide variety of detection methods in logged and unlogged, burnt and unburnt forest and through drought years. Observations were made about the impact of logging, fire and drought on native mammals and proposals made for their conservation and management.

ABSTRACT The population size of the southern bent-winged bat, a critically endangered bat subspecies, has significantly declined in the last 50 years. As part of a larger study to determine whether disease could be a contributing factor to this decline, morphometric data was gathered for southern bent-winged bats and compared with the more common eastern bent-winged bats. Southern bent-winged bats were heavier, but forearm length was not significantly different between the two subspecies. This suggests that southern bent-winged bats may require more energy to fly and forage than eastern bent-winged bats. Consequently, southern bent-winged bats may need to consume more food on a daily basis, potentially increasing their susceptibility to adverse conditions such as drought.

ABSTRACT A diverse range of corporations, businesses and organisations play an important role in threatened species conservation. During the unprecedented bushfire season in Australia in the 2019–20 summer, corporations, businesses and organisations contributed significant financial and in-kind support for the Saving our Species Program’s threatened species recovery efforts. On the eastern coast, a combination of food shortages and heat stress events resulted in large numbers of Grey-headed Flying-foxes Pteropus poliocephalus requiring rescue and rehabilitation. Prolonged drought and intense bushfires reduced available foraging resources for the Brush-tailed Rock-wallaby Petrogale penicillata and Mountain Pygmy-possum Burramys parvus. Corporations donated produce to feed flying-foxes in care and provide supplementary feeding for wild populations of rock-wallabies and pygmy-possums. Local businesses and organisations also supplied resources, funding and food storage capacity to support these conservation actions. The contributions from corporations, businesses and organisations in these case studies totalled more than $70,000.

ABSTRACT Millions of kangaroos are dying in 2018 but without good conservation outcomes. Populations are crashing in drought and contributing to land degradation. Non-commercial culling is increasing because landholders seek to stop kangaroos from competing with their conventional livestock. The kangaroo harvesting industry is declining and has been ineffective in reducing populations, partly due to animal rights campaigns. In recent years less than half the annual quota has been taken, and is currently only 20 %. Consequently, graziers are erecting kangaroo-proof fences around groups of properties and lowering numbers through various other means. Non-commercial kill leads to poor animal welfare outcomes and considerable wastage. Regulators cannot monitor the number of kangaroos killed by amateurs, nor ensure high standards of dispatch of animals. To improve kangaroo welfare, professional population control should increase not decrease. Landholders need to get involved in professional population control and regard kangaroos as assets not pests. If kangaroos were as valuable as wild goats or deer, landholders would have an incentive to co-produce kangaroos alongside conventional livestock and take advantage of kangaroo's adaptations. Doing so could help address the falling sustainability of many rangeland production systems. Governments currently set harvesting quotas as a proportion of existing (variable) populations. An alternative would be to set population targets based on total grazing pressure that takes account of densities of other herbivores. It would reverse the situation where landholders are expected to carry an unstated number of animals that has no relationship to the carrying capacity of their properties, seasonal conditions or competing land uses. Landholders should have a form of proprietorship over kangaroos on their properties. It could even lead to fewer methane producing livestock and more kangaroos producing low emission meat. Higher value kangaroos would enhance sustainability and bring other benefits to both Indigenous and other landholders on whose properties they occur. Such changes are paradigm shifting but necessary to improve kangaroo welfare and reduce current wastage. Conventional livestock agencies such as Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA) should support the kangaroo industry as part of co-production and diversification options and its strategy to be carbon neutral by 2030. In 2017 Australia's 40 million kangaroos were almost exclusively on the properties of MLA and wool industry ratepayers. This paper discusses the benefits of sustainable use of kangaroos and asserts a need for them to be realised. Changing the status of kangaroos is a complex undertaking that involves not only activities which farmers can control, but also product management, marketing and public attitudes. Transitioning to sustainable use begins with the importance of animal welfare and greater respect for kangaroos.

ABSTRACT The interaction between Eastern Grey Kangaroos ( Macropus giganteus ) and humans in peri-urban locations is one that excites great passion between conflicting views. Are the kangaroos a problem pest or a diminishing icon? And where conflicts occur between kangaroos, threatened species and ecological communities, and human activities, what is the most acceptable approach to management? A case study to examine this question has been provided by Bathurst Regional Council for the management of the population of Eastern Grey Kangaroos on Mount Panorama, on the doorstep of Bathurst, NSW. In this precinct there are concerns that there may be a collision between a kangaroo and a very fast racing car and that large numbers of kangaroos will have an impact on the survival of an Endangered Ecological Community and agricultural activities on the Mount. In the first instance Bathurst Council enabled the culling of 140 kangaroos and this brought international condemnation. Council then contracted for the development of a Fauna Management Strategy for the Mount but this has not been fully accepted by Council nor implemented. The most recent approach, when Council disturbed the resident kangaroos by clearing a senescent orchard for further development, was resolved by using a community group to relocate at least 300 kangaroos to a location some 100 km to the east. At the time of the relocation this location was in drought and disoriented kangaroos were killed on the road. No information is available for the survival rate of the relocated individuals nor their behaviour post-release. Neither the culling not the relocation of resident Eastern Grey Kangaroos has provided a long-term resolution to the peri-urban conflict between kangaroos and humans on Mount Panorama. Killing is not the answer, neither is relocation. The implementation of the Management Strategy has the potential to provide an intermediate approach.

ABSTRACT Impacts on the forested bioregions of south–western Australia have, since first European settlement in 1826, been extensive and dramatic. Large–scale land clearing removed over two–thirds of the vegetation for agriculture and urbanisation. Other significant threats to the biota include: changed fire regimes; exotic predators, diseases and herbivores; and drought and climate change. Conservation reserves in the region were originally chosen on aesthetic appeal, often aligning poorly to modern CAR (comprehensive, adequate and representative) criteria aspiring to conservation of at least 10% of each bioregion. The entire period of European occupation of the region has been characterised by the need to balance different land uses within a changing political context, broadening in recent years to incorporate indigenous culture and heritage. Thus much may be gained by a historical perspective grounding contemporary policy in an understanding of the successes and failures of the past. Here, we consider the historical development of the unique perspectives from forestry, agriculture and conservation through the late 19th and early 20th centuries, before assessing their interplay with newer concerns. This experience illustrates that society can design management systems to conserve biodiversity and ensure long–term sustainable use of renewable resources, but that the political will is often lacking.

Information relating to the early decline of native mammal species in the western third of Australia, before the establishment of rabbits and foxes, was sought from recollections of oldtimers, archival records, historical documents, and searches of museum collections. Based on the information discovered, the hypothesis is advanced that the early decline was caused by an exotic disease. The evidence available is suggestive of a first wave of mammal declines and extinctions in Western Australia (WA) commencing about 1875. From this single, contingent historical event, it is postulated that 33 species (about one third of the non-volant mammal fauna of WA) changed significantly in distribution and abundance. The pattern of the decline both geographically and over time is consistent with epizootic disease as the primary factor, but probably interacting with drought and predation by feral cats as secondary factors. Much of the decline occurred before food shortages or habitat destruction caused by sheep grazing, habitat destruction caused by wheat farming, and changes in Aboriginal fire regimes. Dated and localised records of disease affecting conspicuous (often pest) species, when integrated with other records of early declines, are suggestive of the epizootic spreading rapidly from the Shark Bay district in the 1880s. The lower south-west area was affected last, before 1920. Descriptions of clinical signs are imprecise but do refer to numerous dead or dying animals, mange, alopecia, eye disease, withered ears, and scabs on the nose. Plausible explanations of the source of the disease (south-east Asia), its transmission (mosquitoes), and the pattern and scale of its spread (exceptionally wet summers) are proposed. Other possible vectors are discussed but do not adequately explain the pattern and scale of the spread. Many other early declines of mammal species in WA that are difficult to explain convincingly may have been influenced by this epizootic. Disease as a primary factor is considered to provide a more satisfactory explanation of early declines in WA than predation by feral cats. Impacts of these declines on ecosystem processes were likely to have been profound. The applicability of the conceptual model developed is discussed in relation to the early decline of some mammal species in eastern Australia, The need for ongoing, vigilant quarantine to minimise the risk of animal diseases being introduced is emphasised.

Twenty-one surveys have been conducted using a Cessna 182 in the pastoral zone of South Australia, covering the twenty year period 1978 to 1998, flying the same transacts and using the same method. Considerable attention has been given to observer training and the turnover rate of observers has been low. The same pilot has flown all surveys. The pastoral zone is bounded in the north and west by a dingo-proof fence. Large lakes and areas of terrain above 2000 ft elevation (notably the Flinders Ranges) were excluded from the survey, leaving a surveyed area of approximately 207 000 km 2 . Surveys are conducted each year in July/August, with morning and afternoon survey sessions. Transects run east/west and are 15 nautical miles (28 km) apart. The method has followed what has become the standard for fixed-wing surveys: a height of 250 ft (76m) above ground (AGL), a ground speed of 100 knots (185 km h -1 ), 5 km unit lengths (97 sec.) with a 7 sec. pause between each and animals counted in 200 m wide strips each side of the aircraft, demarcated by streamers attached to the wing struts. A radar altimeter is used to maintain height above the terrain and, since 1989, a global positioning system has been used to ensure adherence to the transact and to maintain the required groundspeed. Red kangaroos, western grey kangaroos, common waflaroos, emus and goats are counted and other macro fauna noted (camels, horses, dingoes, ostriches, etc.). Standard correction factors have been applied throughout, except that, in the present paper, the data are recalculated to reflect the outcomes of this workshop concerning a move to modified correction factors. The results have highlighted the responsiveness of kangaroo populations to rainfall and pasture availability. There has been a statistically significant long-term trend towards higher numbers of western grey kangaroos in the study area, and a similar trend in reds since the end of the 198211983 drought. Over the 20 years, however, there has been no statistically significant trend to either higher or lower numbers of red kangaroos. Some analyses of the data obtained by aerial survey have already been presented and, in due course, further analyses will be presented elsewhere. Importantly, the results provide a useful demonstration that long-term harvesting can be carried out without detriment to the populations.

Frogs of the Litoria aurea complex were common and widespread in the Southern Tablelands of New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory before they apparently suffered a major decline in abundance at the end of the 1970s. The extent of population declines in the species complex has been assessed by examination of museum specimens and records, evaluation of reports by experienced herpetologists and by undertaking field surveys, particularly in the Canberra region. Examination of museum material confirmed that three taxa occurred in the Southern Tablelands; L. aurea, L. raniformis and L. flavipunctata. Litoria aurea occurred only in the northern half of the Southern Tablelands, extending as far south as Canberra and Braidwood; L. raniformis occurred throughout much of the region at altitudes up to about 1 300 metres, but may not have occurred east of Lake George; and L. flavipunctata apparently had a restricted distribution near Canberra, Bombala and Delegate. Opportunistic surveys conducted since 1985 indicate that all members of the complex have disappeared from an extensive area of the Southern Tablelands centred on Canberra. Surveys have not been conducted in the southern Monaro or along the eastern edge of the tablelands where remnant populations may still occur. Long-term records of precipitation indicate that a series of severe droughts correlates with the period when members of the L aurea complex disappeared from the Southern Tablelands. However, the frogs also vanished from well-watered sites such as rivers, urban lakes and pools located in botanic gardens. This indicates that other unknown factors are likely to have been involved in the declines. Surveys to locate any remnant populations should be given a high priority and further research is required to determine the extent to which disease, climate change, increasing ultraviolet radiation and spread of the fish Gambusia influenced the population declines.

The koala population in southwest Queensland is a large low-density population of important conservation value which is vulnerable to habitat loss, drought and climate change. The nutrient quality of Eucalyptus food trees favoured by koalas is an important factor influencing the survival of the koala on a low-nutrient-and-high-toxin diet. This study investigated the relationship between the diet of koalas, and food tree characteristics. Vegetation surveys, cuticle analysis and leaf chemical analysis were conducted in 14 study sites in southwest Queensland during the winter of 2010. Koala diet composition was different to eucalypt tree species availability, with Eucalyptus camaldulensis (56.5%) the most important tree species, E. coolabah (15.4%) and E. populnea (12.4%) of secondary preference. Leaf chemicals (moisture, total nitrogen, total phenolics, and a nutrition index = (moisture*nitrogen) / total phenolics) were significantly related to tree species, surface water availability, soil type and proximity to major creeks. Only leaf moisture was significantly correlated with koala food tree species preference. The presence of surface water appears to be a crucial characteristic of suitable koala habitat while riparian habitats dominant by E. camaldulensis are critical for conserving the koala populations in southwest Queensland.

We studied two groups of koalas during a drought in central Queensland to investigate potential impacts of climatic variability on the physiology and behaviour of this species. The tree use, water turnover, field metabolic rate and diet of koalas during autumn and spring were compared to a similar study of koalas in summer and winter, also in central Queensland, to generate a seasonal picture of the response of koalas to climatic variation. We also compared the microclimate temperature of a range of food and non-food tree species against daily ambient temperatures, to examine the benefit to koalas of using of non-food species. Field metabolic rate, adjusted for body mass, was significantly higher in spring than autumn and there was no difference between males and females. Neither females with pouch young nor those with back young had significantly different FMR to that of females without young, confirming that koalas may compartmentalize energy demands during lactation. Estimations of theoretical water influx, determined from FMR of koalas, were generally lower than water flux determined by tritiated water turnover. This mismatch could indicate that koalas are able to modify their assimilation of energy from browse in order to maximize water intake. Temperature was generally lower in non-food trees used by koalas in daytime than in the food trees, which were generally used at night. Leaf moisture may influence tree selection during periods of extremely high or low temperature, but the physical attributes of trees, such as their capacity to “buffer” koalas against extremes of ambient temperature, appear to be important to selection by koalas. We conclude that koalas adapt their behaviour, using shady trees during the day, but might also employ physiological adaptations, to access sufficient water for evaporative cooling during periods of hot, dry weather.

Trpor is the most effective means for energy conservation available to mammals and is characterized by substantial reductions in body temperature (T b ) and metabolic rate (MR). Most Australian terrestrial mammals are small with high mass-specific energy requirements and, although it is widely believed that torpor is not needed in a ‘warm’ country like Australia, a large number of species are heterothermic (i.e. capable of changing T b , in contrast to homeothermic mammals with a constant high T b ). These heterothermic species (estimated >43% of terrestrial Australian native mammals) employ periods of daily torpor or prolonged multi-day torpor (hibernation) to conserve energy. Daily torpor is used by dasyurids (e.g. dunnarts, antechinus, quolls), myrmecobiids (numbat), tarsipedids (honey-possum), petaurid possums (e.g. sugar glider), rodents (but only known in the introduced house mouse), and small megabats (blossom-bats). During daily torpor, T b is reduced from ~35°C during the active or normothermic phase to ~I0-25°C during torpor, and the torpor MR (TMR) is ~30% of the basal metabolic rate (BMR). Daily torpor is often, but not exclusively, used during the rest phase and, between bouts of torpor, animals usually forage and feed. Recent evidence shows that free-ranging arid zone dasyurids may employ daily torpor on every day in winter and that torpor may last twice as long as in captivity (often up to around 20 hours), which will reduce energy expenditure and thereby food requirements by up to 80%. Hibernation or prolonged torpor has been observed in the Monotremes (echidna), marsupials (pygmy-possums and feathertail glider) and insectivorous bats (e.g. long-eared bats). During prolonged torpor, which often, but not exclusively, is expressed in winter, T b is usually reduced to a minimum of ~0-10°C, and torpor bouts may last for several days or weeks, but in all species periodic arousals with brief normothermic periods (hours) between bouts of torpor have been observed. The TMR during hibernation is extremely low and can be as little as 1 -5% of the BMR; daily energy expenditure can be reduced to only 3% of that in active individuals permitting survival on stored body fat for months without the need to feed. Daily and prolonged torpor in many Australian mammals appear to be opportunistic and not only important for survival of adverse seasonal conditions, but apparently also for dealing with unpredictable events such as droughts and perhaps fires and floods. As torpor substantially reduces energy requirements its use will in turn reduce the need for foraging and consequently exposure to predators. Predator avoidance by employing torpor and minimising foraging may be one of the reasons why none of the known heterothermic Australian species has gone extinct. In contrast many of the similar-sized perceived homeothermic species, such as rodents and bandicoots, have suffered high rates of extinction possibly because they must forage long and frequently to meet large energetic demands and thus are more vulnerable to predation by introduced foxes and cats.

This paper traces the post World War II debate over kangaroo management, and how the various parties have managed the issue to arrive at the current levels of kangaroo harvest, with particular reference to NSW and the transition of policy from culling kangaroos as an agricultural pest to a commercial harvest as the principal driver. Kangaroos have been variously represented in the debate as pests, a commercial resource, an iconic Australian symbol, and endangered species. In 1958, kangaroos narrowly survived a pastoralists' vote to list them as noxious animals. If it had passed, and been agreed upon by State Cabinet, it would have made it compulsory for landowners to rid their land of these animals because they would then have been noxious species. Over 1964 and 1965, culled kangaroo populations crashed during drought. It showed that for kangaroo management to be effective in the long-term the original tenet in the Fauna Protection Act 1948 of kangaroos as pests had to be re-interpreted and, in Allen Strom's words: “kangaroos needed to be managed on a sustained yield basis.” Fifty years later the debate is better informed, with a sustainable population management approach, which includes commercial harvesting. In a statement on the subject in 1983, Neil Shepherd provided the certainty as to what was underpinning the kangaroo management program at that time: “Commercial harvesting is sanctioned by wildlife authorities to reduce the impact of kangaroos on agriculture. Management for conservation is the primary objective and the harvest industry has no right to exist independent of the conservation program.” He also concluded that farming kangaroos was not feasible, and pointed out that they have never been intensively farmed. What was needed by the late 1980s was an effective advocate who could put the material together into a persuasive argument to move the public sentiment from pest management to sustained yield. If it had been attempted 10-20 years earlier, Shepherd observed, it would have been unsuccessful because the science to support the proposition, the research driven by Graeme Caughley from the mid 1970s to 1987, had not been undertaken. An advocate of a change in policy was Gordon Grigg. His proposal, first published in 1987, was to substitute kangaroo harvesting for sheep farming on the sheep rangelands as an answer to both widespread land degradation and sustainable kangaroo management. Grigg later gave it the epigrammatic description of “sheep replacement therapy”.The modern debate now centres on matters of ethics and animal welfare on the one hand, and conservation management policies on the other. A report in 1998 into the Commercial Utilisation of Australia Native Wildlife concluded “that it is a legitimate activity of the Federal Government to support an export industry based on the commercial harvesting of kangaroos, which is being prejudiced overseas by public campaigns based on false information.” Peter Singer, in 2005, took the view that “Those who see kangaroos only as a resource, overlook the ethical aspects of how we are treating other sentient beings.” In their 2006 review of the NSW Kangaroo Management Program, Olsen and Low concluded that shooting remains the most economical, humane and cost-effective way to cull/harvest kangaroos; rainfall is the overriding driver of population density and that the current harvest strategy (15-17%) appears to be achieving its current twin goals of sustainable use of natural resources and the maintenance of viable populations of the four harvested species. Thus the debate continues. However, this history of the debate on the commercial harvesting of kangaroos has revealed that it has been long running, filled with strong arguments and strong players, and that science and policy have had a long struggle to assimilate the needs of the other. The 2007-2011 NSW kangaroo management plan is titled New South Wales Commercial Kangaroo Harvest Management Plan . This bold title acknowledges the change in management outlook from damage mitigation to sustainable use. The historical record also demonstrates that the current NSW management plan, which is underpinned by an objective to manage a sustainable kangaroo harvest, is the outcome of a long and public debate.