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Graeme Gillespie

Graeme Gillespie
Department of Planning and Environment New South Wales · Conservation and Restoration Science

BSc, PhD

About

175
Publications
75,304
Reads
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4,196
Citations
Additional affiliations
June 2012 - present
Department of Land Resource Management (DLRM)
Position
  • Director Terrestrial Biodiversity
January 2008 - December 2015
University of Melbourne
Position
  • Honorary senior research fellow

Publications

Publications (175)
Article
Full-text available
Pathogens that infect multiple host species have an increased capacity to cause extinctions through parasite‐mediated apparent competition. Given unprecedented and continuing losses of biodiversity due to Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd), the causative fungus of the amphibian skin disease chytridiomycosis, a robust understanding of the mechanism...
Article
Full-text available
It can be challenging to reliably detect rare or cryptic species. Environmental DNA (eDNA) is an emerging tool for detecting species and is increasingly being used to detect reptiles in terrestrial environments that are costly or difficult to survey or monitor using traditional methods. Here, we trialled eDNA metabarcoding to detect one of Australi...
Article
Full-text available
Camera traps are widely used in wildlife research and monitoring, so it is imperative to understand their strengths, limitations, and potential for increasing impact. We investigated a decade of use of wildlife cameras (2012–2022) with a case study on Australian terrestrial vertebrates using a multifaceted approach. We (i) synthesised information...
Article
Full-text available
Biodiversity loss is often attributable to multiple interacting pressures that are moderated across environmental gradients. These processes contribute to complex responses that are challenging to interpret and understand. Well‐designed and well‐implemented monitoring can play a vital role in this but is rarely undertaken. Mounting evidence suggest...
Article
Full-text available
Global change is causing an unprecedented restructuring of ecosystems, with the spread of invasive species being a key driver. While population declines of native species due to invasives are well documented, much less is known about whether new biotic interactions reshape niches of native species. Here we quantify geographic range and realized-nic...
Article
Catastrophic megafires can increase extinction risks; identifying species priorities for management and policy support is critical for preparing and responding to future fires. However, empirical data on population loss and recovery post-fire, especially megafire, are limited and taxonomically biased. These gaps could be bridged if species' morphol...
Article
Full-text available
Context Management actions that suppress introduced predator densities can benefit the population recovery of native species. Nevertheless, ensuring that predator management produces measurable population-level benefits can be influenced by multiple factors affecting species detection. Monitoring designs using multiple survey methods may perform be...
Article
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Comparative studies of mortality in the wild are necessary to understand the evolution of aging; yet, ectothermic tetrapods are underrepresented in this comparative landscape, despite their suitability for testing evolutionary hypotheses. We present a study of aging rates and longevity across wild tetrapod ectotherms, using data from 107 population...
Article
Full-text available
The likelihood of extinction within the next 20 years was determined for 47 Australian mammal, bird, reptile, frog and freshwater fish taxa previously identified as being highly imperilled. A 14-member expert elicitation panel, consisting of a mix of taxon experts and government managers of threatened species, estimated that there was a > 50% chanc...
Article
Full-text available
Aim After environmental disasters, species with large population losses may need urgent protection to prevent extinction and support recovery. Following the 2019–2020 Australian megafires, we estimated population losses and recovery in fire‐affected fauna, to inform conservation status assessments and management. Location Temperate and subtropical...
Article
Full-text available
Context Small and medium-sized native mammals have declined precipitously across northern Australia. Feral cats have been implicated in causing declines and ongoing suppression of populations. Aims The aim of the present study was to evaluate the response of small and medium-sized native mammal populations when cat predation was removed. Methods...
Technical Report
Full-text available
This project aimed to trial aterrestrial fauna monitoring design in Kakadu National Park. Specific objectives were to: • assess any logistical and technical issues of the monitoring framework • evaluate the effectiveness of the monitoring framework for detecting and reporting trends in a suite of terrestrial vertebrates, including threatened speci...
Article
Full-text available
More than a third of the world’s amphibian species are listed as Threatened or Extinct, with a recent assessment identifying 45 Australian frogs (18.4% of the currently recognised species) as ‘Threatened’ based on IUCN criteria. We applied structured expert elicitation to 26 frogs assessed as Critically Endangered and Endangered to estimate their p...
Article
Full-text available
Australia is in the midst of an extinction crisis, having already lost 10% of terrestrial mammal fauna since European settlement and with hundreds of other species at high risk of extinction. The decline of the nation's biota is a result of an array of threatening processes; however, a comprehensive taxon-specific understanding of threats and their...
Article
Full-text available
The arrival of novel predators can trigger trophic cascades driven by shifts in prey numbers. Predators also elicit behavioral change in prey populations, via phenotypic plasticity and/or rapid evolution, and such changes may also contribute to trophic cascades. Here, we document rapid demographic and behavioral changes in populations of a prey spe...
Article
Our knowledge of the conservation status of reptiles, the most diverse class of terrestrial vertebrates, has improved dramatically over the past decade, but still lags behind that of the other tetrapod groups. Here, we conduct the first comprehensive evaluation (~92% of the world's ~1714 described species) of the conservation 1 Joint senior authors...
Article
Full-text available
Despite contributing to the ongoing collapse of native mammal populations across northern Australian savannas, we have limited understanding of the ecological constraints of feral cat population density in this system. Addressing such knowledge gaps is a crucial step towards mitigating the impacts of feral cats, and is particularly important for th...
Article
Full-text available
The development of effective fire management for biodiversity conservation is a global challenge. The highly dynamic nature of fire, the difficulty in replicating ‘real‐world’ fire experiments and the need to understand population changes at large spatiotemporal scales make computer simulations particularly useful for identifying optimal fire manag...
Article
Full-text available
XENOCHROPHIS TRIANGULIGERUS (Triangle Keelback). DIET and FEEDING BEHAVIOR. The diet of Xenochrophis trianguligerus, a widespread aquatic natricine, has been reported to include frogs, including frogspawn and tadpoles (e.g., Stuebing and Inger 1999. A Field Guide to the Snakes of Borneo. Natural History Publications (Borneo), Kota Kinabalu, Malaysi...
Article
Full-text available
Australia hosts approximately 10% of the world’s reptile species, the largest number of any country. Despite this and evidence of widespread decline, the first comprehensive assessment of the conservation status of Australian terrestrial squamates (snakes and lizards) was undertaken only recently. Here we apply structured expert elicitation to the...
Article
Coherent, multi-species conservation strategies rely on up-to-date assessments of extinction risk, and prioritising and implementing well-founded management and research actions. Using IUCN criteria and methods, we reassessed the conservation status of all 243 Australian frog species. We also identified key threats and associated potential manageme...
Article
Full-text available
Attempts to reintroduce threatened species from ex situ populations (zoos or predator-free sanctuaries) regularly fail because of predation. When removed from their natural predators, animals may lose their ability to recognize predators and thus fail to adopt appropriate antipredator behaviors. Recently, northern quolls (Dasyurus hallucatus; Dasyu...
Article
In recent decades severe mammal declines have occurred in the vast and uncleared tropical savannas of northern Australia. Mounting evidence suggests that feral cats (Felis catus), large feral herbivores and increased frequency of high-severity fires, are all contributing to declines; however, the respective influence of each threat remains unclear....
Article
Full-text available
Over the last decade, the combination of biological surveys, genetic diversity assessments and systematic research has revealed a growing number of previously unrecognised vertebrate species endemic to the Australian Monsoonal Tropics. Here we describe a new species of saxicoline velvet gecko in the Oedura marmorata complex from Groote Eylandt, a l...
Article
Full-text available
Aim An interaction between reduced habitat structural complexity and predation by feral cats (Felis catus) has been hypothesized as the primary driver of mammal decline in northern Australia. However, we have a limited understanding of the drivers of the distribution and abundance of feral cats at a landscape scale, including whether the occurrence...
Article
Full-text available
Native mammals across northern Australia have suffered severe decline, with feral cats (Felis catus), introduced herbivores and changed fire regimes being implicated as drivers. However, uncertainty surrounding the relative contribution of each of these threats, and the interactions between them, is limiting the development of effective management...
Article
Full-text available
Context Species conservation assessments require information on distribution, habitat requirements and population demography and trends. Uncertain conservation assessments limit effective planning and may lead to poor management decisions. Top-order predators generally receive considerable attention from ecologists and conservation biologists, with...
Preprint
Full-text available
The arrival of novel predators can trigger trophic cascades driven by shifts in prey numbers. Predators also elicit behavioural change in prey populations, via plasticity and rapid evolution, and such behavioural responses by prey may also contribute to trophic cascades. Here we document the effects of a novel predator on the behaviour and demograp...
Article
Understanding why related species have differing population-level responses to threats can be key to identifying conservation options for declining populations. However, this is difficult when multiple threats are implicated. Chytrid fungus (Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis: Bd) is implicated in at least 500 amphibian population declines globally, al...
Article
Full-text available
Here we describe an interesting behaviour displayed by Maren's Bronzeback following being disturbed while capturing and consuming prey.
Article
Full-text available
If bold animals are more likely to be trapped than shy animals, we take a biased sample of personalities—a problem for behavioural research. Such a bias is problematic, also, for population estimation using mark-recapture models that assume homogeneity in detection probabilities. In this study, we investigated whether differences in boldness result...
Article
Full-text available
Assessing the statistical power to detect changes in wildlife populations is a crucial yet often overlooked step when designing and evaluating monitoring programs. Here, we developed a simulation framework to perform spatially explicit statistical power analysis of biological monitoring programs for detecting temporal trends in occupancy for multip...
Article
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Abstract Invertebrates are commonly ignored in conservation planning due to their vast diversity, difficulties with species identification, a poor understanding of their spatial patterns, and the impracticability of carrying out comprehensive sampling. Conservation planning for fauna is therefore often based on patterns of diversity and distributio...
Article
Full-text available
The amphibian chytrid fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (chytrid) has caused the most widespread, disease‐induced declines and extinctions in vertebrates recorded to date. The largest climatically suitable landmass that may still be free of this fungus is New Guinea. The island is home to a sizeable proportion of the world's known frog species...
Article
Monitoring threatened species is essential for quantifying population trends, understanding causes of species' declines, and guiding the development and assessment of effective recovery actions. Here, we provide a systematic , continental-scale evaluation of the extent and quality of monitoring for threatened species, focusing on terrestrial and fr...
Article
Since European settlement, many granivorous birds of northern Australia's savanna landscapes have declined. One such example, the partridge pigeon (Geophaps smithii), has suffered a significant range contraction, disappearing from at least half of its pre‐European range. Multiple factors have been implicated in this decline, including the loss of t...
Technical Report
Full-text available
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...
Technical Report
Full-text available
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...
Article
Full-text available
Context Australia harbours an immense diversity of reptiles, which are generally expected to have frequent and diverse trophic interactions with introduced mammalian carnivores. Nevertheless, the potential for predatory or competitive interactions is likely to be contingent on multiple processes, including the importance of reptiles in the diet of...
Article
Full-text available
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...
Article
Full-text available
In ecological monitoring, data on changes in biotic and environmental attributes over space and time are used to investigate the function and persistence of ecosystems, and how societal actions affect ecosystem attributes. Long-term monitoring is particularly important as it yields insights that are not possible from short-term investigations (e.g....
Article
Full-text available
Understanding where species occur and how difficult they are to detect during surveys is crucial for designing and evaluating monitoring programs, and has broader applications for conservation planning and management. In this study, we modelled occupancy and the effectiveness of six sampling methods at detecting vertebrates across the Top End of no...
Data
Mapped climatic, topographic and fire covariates used to model species occupancy and detectability. Covariates (scaled) at 1 km resolution used to model occupancy and detectability of 242 birds, mammals and reptiles recorded at 333 sites across the Top End of northern Australia. (TIF)
Data
Number of covariates included in occupancy and detectability models for 136 species. Proportion of models per animal group with 1–8 covariates included in the best model. Note, maximum covariate count for detectability models is 3, and method was included in detectability models for species with multiple methods of detection, but was not included i...
Data
Sampled environmental domains across the Top End of northern Australia. Frequency histograms of covariate values occurring within the truncated (i.e., not the full extent of the Top End) mapping region, showing the representativeness of sampling sites for birds (red), mammals (blue), and reptiles (orange) in comparison to the spectrum of environmen...
Data
Model coefficients for the occupancy component of the reptile models. Model coefficients for the occupancy component of the reptile models. Note, species containing only dashes were recorded during surveys but were unable to be modelled. (PDF)
Data
Model coefficients for the occupancy component of the mammal models. Note, species containing only dashes were recorded during surveys but were unable to be modelled. (PDF)
Data
Estimates of occupancy and detectability for each mammal species with alternative sampling methods. Occupancy and detectability for 20 mammals modelled using live trapping and spotlighting averaged across 326 sites, and camera trapping averaged across 168 sites in northern Australia. Detectability estimates for live trapping and spotlighting is ove...
Data
Reptile occupancy maps across the Top End of northern Australia. Occupancy maps for reptiles with covariates in the best model. Occupancy maps for reptiles with covariates in the best model. Light grey represents zero occupancy, while blue represents an occupancy probability of 1. (PDF)
Data
Bird occupancy maps across the Top End of northern Australia. Occupancy maps for birds with covariates in the best model. Occupancy maps for birds with covariates in the best model. Light grey represents zero occupancy, while blue represents an occupancy probability of 1. (PDF)
Data
Sampling methods applied at monitoring sites across the eight conservation reserves. Summary of the method of detection pooled to generate detection histories per animal group per location: Djelk Indigenous Protected Area (DIPA); Fish River Station (FRS); Garig Gunak Barlu National Park (GGBNP); Gregory National Park (GNP); Kakadu National Park (KN...
Data
Mammal occupancy maps across the Top End of northern Australia. Occupancy maps for mammals with covariates in the best model. Light grey represents zero occupancy, while blue represents an occupancy probability of 1. (TIFF)
Data
Estimates of occupancy and detectability for each bird species. Occupancy and detectability estimates (over one day/night) for 83 birds modelled using diurnal active searches and spotlighting averaged across monitoring sites. (PDF)
Data
Estimates of occupancy and detectability for each reptile species. Occupancy and detectability (over one day/night) estimates for 33 reptiles modelled using pitfall trapping and/or spotlighting data averaged across monitoring sites. (PDF)
Data
Pairwise correlation matrix for candidate predictor variable. Covariates with a Spearman’s correlation coefficient greater than 0.7 are shown in bold, with one of a pair excluded from the analysis. (PDF)
Data
Model coefficients for the occupancy component of the bird models. Note, species containing only dashes were recorded during surveys but were unable to be modelled. (PDF)
Data
Model coefficients for the detection component of the reptile models. Note, species containing only dashes were recorded during surveys but were unable to be modelled. (PDF)
Data
Model coefficients for the detectability component of the bird models. Note, species containing only dashes were recorded during surveys but were unable to be modelled. (PDF)
Data