Andrew Burbidge

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Context Two Peoples Bay Nature Reserve (TPBNR) is well known for two iconic species; the noisy scrub-bird (Atrichornis clamosus) and Gilbert’s potoroo (Potorous gilbertii), both having been rediscovered there. Aims This paper covers the management of the Reserve since its declaration in 1967 until 1999 in the context of the two iconic species, othe...

This note updates the list of extinct Australian terrestrial mammal species and subspecies and, from published scientific literature, reports 40 species and six subspecies that are presumed to have become extinct since European settlement of Australia.

We update the list of indigenous mammals known from each of Western Australia’s mainland bioregions since European settlement, assess their regional status in terms of extent of occurrence, then compare these regional status lists and derived faunal attrition values with those published in 2006. Seven bioregions show substantially more faunal attri...

Understanding changes in species distributions is essential to disentangle the mechanisms that drive their responses to anthropogenic habitat modification. Here we analyse the past (1970s) and current (2017) distribution of 204 species of terrestrial non-volant mammals to identify drivers of recent contraction and expansion in their range. We find...

Here we provide geographic distribution ranges for 205 species of terrestrial non‐volant mammals in the 1970s. We selected terrestrial non‐volant mammals because they are among the most studied groups, have greater availability of historical distribution data for the 1970s decade, and also show the largest range contractions compared to other taxon...

Maintaining mammal populations on havens – whether they are naturally occurring or translocated – has helped to prevent further mammal extinctions, and consolidated protection for other species. These havens fall under the management of many organisations, ranging from local councils, community groups and small private organisations to large non-go...

Many Australian mammal species are highly susceptible to predation by introduced cats and foxes. At least 34 Australian endemic mammal species have been made extinct since 1788, about 10% of Australia's terrestrial fauna, and predation by cats and foxes was a major contribution to most of those extinctions. Maintaining mammal populations on havens...

In the last 30 years, islands and fenced exclosures free of introduced predators (collectively, havens) have become an increasingly used option for protecting Australian mammals imperiled by predation by introduced cats (Felis catus) and foxes (Vulpes vulpes). However, Australia's network of havens is not expanding in a manner that maximizes repres...

Although evidence‐based approaches have become commonplace for determining the success of conservation measures for the management of threatened taxa, there are no standard metrics for assessing progress in research or management. We developed 5 metrics to meet this need for threatened taxa and to quantify the need for further action and effective...

Context Many Australian mammal species are highly susceptible to predation by introduced domestic cats (Felis catus) and European red foxes (Vulpes vulpes). These predators have caused many extinctions and have driven large distributional and population declines for many more species. The serendipitous occurrence of, and deliberate translocations o...

Context Over the last 230 years, the Australian terrestrial mammal fauna has suffered a very high rate of decline and extinction relative to other continents. Predation by the introduced red fox (Vulpes vulpes) and feral cat (Felis catus) is implicated in many of these extinctions, and in the ongoing decline of many extant species. Aims To assess...

A 2012 paper reported the discovery of a specimen of Zaglossus bruijnii with a label attached that recorded that it had been collected at Mount Anderson, in the south-west Kimberley region of Western Australia, in 1901. Based on several lines of evidence, I argue that this distinctive long-beaked echidna is not, and has not been, part of the Kimber...

Barrow Island, north-west coast of Australia, is one of the world’s significant conservation areas, harboring marsupials that have become extinct or threatened on mainland Australia as well as a rich diversity of plants and animals, some endemic. Access to construct a Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) plant, Australia’s largest infrastructure development...

We present a database of indigenous and non-indigenous terrestrial mammal records on Western Australian (WA) islands, updated from a database we published more than 20 years ago. The database includes records of 88 indigenous species on 155 islands, compared with 54 indigenous species on 141 WA islands in the paper by Abbott and Burbidge in CALMSci...

Estimated numbers of breeding pairs of the Lesser Noddy (Houtman Abrolhos) Anous tenuirostris melanops are reported from 14 surveys made between 1986 and 2014. Numbers on the three breeding islands, Pelsaert, Wooded and Morley, have fluctuated between years and within colonies. Total estimated numbers of breeding pairs for the Houtman Abrolhos popu...

Burbidge, A.A. A taxonomic revision of Beaufortia (Myrtaceae: Melaleuceae). Nuytsia 27: 165–202 (2016). Beaufortia R.Br. (Myrtaceae) is endemic to the southwest of Western Australia and is almost confined to the SouthWest Botanical Province, with a few species extending a short distance into the Eremaean. Twenty-two species are recognised in this r...

More than US$21 billion is spent annually on biodiversity conservation. Despite their importance for preventing or slowing extinctions and preserving biodiversity, conservation interventions are rarely assessed systematically for their global impact. Islands house a disproportionately higher amount of biodiversity compared with mainlands, much of w...

Introduction: Recent studies at sites in northern Australia have reported severe and rapid decline of several native mammal species, notwithstanding an environmental context (small human population size, limited habitat loss, substantial reservation extent) that should provide relative conservation security. All of the more speciose taxonomic group...

Significance The island continent of Australia harbors much of the world’s most distinctive biodiversity, but this review describes an extent of recent and ongoing loss of its mammal fauna that is exceptionally high and appreciably greater than previously recognized. The causes of loss are dissimilar to those responsible for most biodiversity decli...

INTRODUCTION This paper provides a summary of results from a recent comprehensive review of the conservation status of all Australian land and marine mammal species and subspecies. Since the landmark date of European settlement of Australia (1788), at least 28 of the ca. 272 Australian endemic land mammal species have been rendered extinct. RESULT...

The Action Plan for Australian Mammals 2012 is the first review to assess the conservation status of all Australian mammals. It complements The Action Plan for Australian Birds 2010 (Garnett et al. 2011, CSIRO Publishing), and although the number of Australian mammal taxa is marginally fewer than for birds, the proportion of endemic, extinct and th...

Islands are important reservoirs of endemic and threatened species, but anthropogenic influences have impacted their biotas. Australia has over 8000 islands, both continental and oceanic, but because of considerably increased traffic, both tourist and commercial, many of these islands have been and are subject to increased threats from invasive spe...

The mammal fauna of the south-western Little Sandy Desert was systematically surveyed during three visits to each of five sites at three locations representing the array of surfaces in the biogeomorphic landscape of the study area. A fourth, less systematic, expedition revisited one location and sampled two new ones. Nineteen extant, native species...

The companion to The Mammals of Australia (third edition) is intended to be taken in the field.

To assess the current status of mammals in relation to mean annual rainfall and to improve knowledge of the original mammalian assemblages in tropical Western Australia, extant terrestrial mammals and subfossil mammalian remains were sought along a rainfall gradient in two parallel ranges in the Kimberley, Western Australia. As expected, extant mam...

Failure to act quickly on evidence of rapid population decline has led to the first mammal extinction in Australia in the last 50 years, the Christmas Island Pipistrelle (Pipistrellus murrayi). The fate of another iconic species, the migratory Orange-bellied Parrot (Neophema chrysogaster), monitored intensively for over 20 years, hangs in the balan...

Since 1953, it has been assumed that Rattus rattus occurred on Woody Island, Archipelago of the Recherche, Western Australia, and that R. fuscipes was locally extinct. Recent trapping and identification, including sequencing of mitochondrial DNA, has confirmed the persistence of R. fuscipes. The apparent misidentification of the 1950 specimen and f...

This chapter considers the roles of various stakeholder groups in conservation, eradication, restoration, and monitoring efforts of seabird island ecosystems. It describes the range of roles of groups from engagement through public education to direct participation in efforts on the islands. It explains the pivotal role of public involvement in a r...

This article provides a context to, attempts an explanation for, and proposes a response to the recent demonstration of rapid and severe decline of the native mammal fauna of Kakadu National Park. This decline is consistent with, but might be more accentuated than, declines reported elsewhere in northern Australia; however, such a comparison is con...

Assisted Colonization (AC) has been proposed as one method of aiding species to adapt to the impacts of climate change. AC is a form of translocation and translocation protocols for threatened species, mostly for reintroduction, are well established in Australia. We evaluate the information available from implementation of translocations to underst...

[Extract] Threats to island biotas from non-indigenous species have been extensively documented and remain among the most powerful drivers of biotic extinction. Despite this, Australia does not have a national, comprehensive plan of action for island biosecurity. Recent initiatives by Australian governments could provide the basis for the first sys...

As in all parts of the globe, rapid climate change in Australia will have significant negative impacts on biodiversity. It also will interact with pre-existing stressors such as native vegetation clearing, altered natural disturbance regimes and invasive species – all of which already have major negative effects on biota in Australia. Strategies to...

As in all parts of the globe, rapid climate change in Australia will have significant negative impacts on biodiversity. It also will interact with pre-existing stressors such as native vegetation clearing, altered natural disturbance regimes and invasive species-all of which already have major negative effects on biota in Australia. Strategies to r...

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Climate change acts as a new and complex stressor on all levels of biodiversity from genes to ecosystems, interacting with a large number of historical and existing stressors. We have conducted an assessment of the vulnerability of Australia’s biodiversity to climate change that includes current status and trends, as well as several adaptation tool...

This article was submitted without an abstract, please refer to the full-text PDF file.

This article was submitted without an abstract, please refer to the full-text PDF file.

The Black-flanked Rock-wallaby Petrogale lateralis lateralis is difficult to trap consistently on Barrow Island because of the prevalence of Common Brushtail Possums Trichosurus vulpecula and Golden Bandicoots Isoodon auratus in and near its shelter habitat. Three possible methods of monitoring were trialed: daytime searching, spotlighting and dusk...

This paper attempts to identify and explain patterns in the biogeography of Australia’s indigenous terrestrial mammals at the time of European settlement (before modern extinctions), and also compares species’ pre-European and current status by region. From subfossil, historical and contemporary sources, we compiled data on the past geographic rang...

The Boodie or Burrowing Bettong Bettongia lesueur became extinct on the Australian mainland by about 1960 but, in some areas, left evidence of its previous distribution in the form of relict landscape features, which remain widespread in arid areas with hard soils. We recorded the location of landscape features ('mounds'), which we attributed to B....

There is little information on the response of birds to rainfall in the Australian arid zone. Counts of birds between 1988 and 1992 on paired 1-km(2) quadrats representing major landform and vegetation types in the Gibson Desert revealed significant changes in species richness, community composition and abundance during increasing drought and follo...

Aim To assess whether eight factors thought to be involved in the extinction process can explain the pattern of recent decline in Australia's mammal fauna. Location Australia. Methods We compiled the first comprehensive lists of mammal species extant at the time of European settlement in each of Australia's 76 mainland regions, and assigned a curre...

The mammalian fauna of the North Kimberley bioregion has been cited as ?intact? because 1970s and 1980s surveys showed that all terrestrial mammal species known at European settlement were extant. This assumption was tested in 2003/4 by re-surveying 16 of the most diverse sites sampled in earlier surveys of three mainland areas and four islands. Mo...

The relatively recent exodus of Aboriginal people from parts of the Western Desert region of Australia has coincided with an alarming decline in native mammals and a contraction of some fire sensitive plant communities. Proposed causes of these changes, in what is an otherwise pristine environment, include an altered fire regime resulting from the...

Objectives 1. To rid the Montebello Islands Conservation Park of exotic black rats and feral cats. 2. To reintroduce locally extinct animals and, where justified, introduce mammals threatened on the mainland by predation by exotic carnivores. Achievements (against targets) 1. Feral cats eradicated. Black rats possibly eradicated (requires at least...

The relatively recent exodus of Aboriginal people from parts of the Western Desert region of Australia has coincided with an alarming decline in native mammals and a contraction of some fire sensitive plant communities. Proposed causes of these changes, in what is an otherwise pristine environment, include an altered fire regime resulting from the...

The relatively recent exodus of Aboriginal people from parts of the Western Desert region of Australia has coincided with an alarming decline in native mammals and a contraction of some fire sensitive plant communities. Proposed causes of these changes, in what is an otherwise pristine environment, include an altered fire regime resulting from the...

AimData on Australian landbridge islands were analysed to seek relationships between the extinction of mammals on islands and a number of variables related to the islands, the native mammal species that occur on them and the presence or absence of exotic mammalian predators. The data base included attributes of the mammals (mean adult body weight,...

In June 1998, 30 mala (Lagorchestes hirsutus undescribed central Australian subspecies) were translocated from a semi-captive colony in the Tanami Desert, Northern Territory to Trimouille Island, part of the Montebello Islands Conservation Park, off the Pilbara coast of Western Australia. Mala are ‘Extinct in the Wild’ according to IUCN (1994, 2000...

The indigenous terrestrial vertebrate fauna of the Montebello Islands consists of five mammal, 70 bird and 21 reptile species. Three species of exotic mammals occur: Feral Cats and Black Rats were introduced in the 19(th) Century and the House Mouse was first recorded in 1983. Black Rats have probably been eradicated. Extinctions of the Spectacled...

Surveys during May and September 1997 and collation of existing data reveal that 16 species of birds that depend on the ocean for food have been recorded breeding on 42 islands and islets in Shark Bay. Eleven of these are considered to be true seabirds: Wedge-tailed Shearwater, Australian Pelican, Pied Cormorant, Silver Gull, Pacific Gull, Caspian...

At least 16 species of Australian mammals have become extinct over the past 200 years. Without islands, however, this figure would be even worse as nine species that were formerly widespread on mainland Australia were or are restricted to land-bridge islands. In addition, 13 species and subspecies of endangered and vulnerable mainland mammals that...

A Recovery Team oversaw implementation of a Recovery Plan for the woylie (Bettongia penicillata ogilbyi (Waterhouse 1841) from 1990 to 1995, and then reviewed its conservation status. Using the 1994 IUCN Red List criteria, the team showed that the species had been recovered from Vulnerable to Lower Risk (Conservation Dependent). Furthermore, it no...

Distribution patterns of indigenous non-volant terrestrial mammals on 257 Australian islands were examined in relation to environmental parameters and the effects of human-induced disturbance during prehistoric and historic times on island species numbers. Species occurrence for individual species, for taxonomic and trophic groups, and for all spec...

Conserving threatened species and ecological communities is an integral and essential part of the conservation of biological diversity, and requires co-operation between government agencies and local communities. The authors review features likely to be present in successful co-operative arrangements and conclude that problems addressed should be c...

A total of 631 Cape Barren Geese Cereopsis novaehollandiae were counted during a survey in southwestern Australia in April 1993. The population was centred on the Archipelago of the Recherche, where 612 geese occurred on 79 of the 232 islands and rocks surveyed. Four geese were recorded on Red Island, west of the Recherche, seven birds were seen on...

If biodiversity conservation is to be achieved, it must be integrated with the everyday activities of individuals, businesses, industries and governments, as envisaged by the ecologically sustainable development process. The authors discuss practical methods for conserving biodiversity that can be implemented now under three broad groupings: social...