Richard Southgate

University of Adelaide · Discipline of Environmental Biology

Monitoring trends in animal populations in arid regions is challenging due to remoteness and low population densities. However, detecting species' tracks or sign is an effective survey technique for monitoring population trends across large spatial and temporal scales. In this study, we developed a simulation framework to evaluate the performance o...

Aim: Comprehensive, global information on species' occurrences is an essential biodiversity variable and central to a range of applications in ecology, evolution, biogeography and conservation. Expert range maps often represent a species' only available distributional information and play an increasing role in conservation assessments and macroeco...

Ongoing support for an eradication program depends on clear information being provided to on-ground operational and managerial personnel and funding agencies about the performance of control effort. This paper describes the methods used to track the success of control activities during a goat eradication on Kangaroo Island, Australia from 2006 to 2...

An eradication program for fallow deer (Dama dama) and feral goats (Capra hircus) was initiated on Kangaroo Island in 2005 and is now close to completion. The program followed established principles for successful eradication which included effective planning, gaining support from stakeholders, developing and implementing effective control and moni...

The recognition of sign such as tracks, scats, diggings or burrows is widely used to detect rare or elusive species. We describe the type of sign that can be used to confirm the presence of the greater bilby (Macrotis lagotis) in comparison with sign that should be used only to flag potential presence. Clear track imprints of the front and hind fee...

Funding for species conservation is insufficient to meet the growing challenges facing global biodiversity, yet many programs focus on expensive single-species recovery actions with limited gains, while neglecting broader management that addresses threatening processes. In arid inland Australia the small mammalian fauna has suffered the world's wor...

Little is known of the area of occupancy, extent of occurrence, abundance, density or habitat use of the greater bilby (Macrotis lagotis) in the north of Western Australia. To seek broad collaborative agreement on a research agenda, the Western Australian Department of Parks and Wildlife hosted a workshop where research priorities were identified t...

The distribution of the bilby Macrotis lagotis was assessed in the Tanami Desert using stratified random plots, repetitively sampled transects, aerial survey transects, and ground truth plots. Compared to a previous assessment of distribution, the extent of occurrence has changed little in the last 20 yr. However, the area of occupancy is small rel...

This paper examines the pattern of introduced herbivore and predator distribution in the Tanami Desert and tests a series of propositions put forward by Stafford Smith and Morton [1990. A framework for the ecology of arid Australia. Journal of Arid Environments 18, 255–278]. regarding the functioning of arid Australian environments. These authors p...

Seed from post-fire ephemeral plants like Yakirra australiense can form an important component of the diet of the bilby, a threatened arid-dwelling bandicoot. An investigation was conducted to determine the factors affecting the production of Yakirra and fire reoccurrence in the Tanami Desert. A simple decision model was produced to assist managers...

The pattern of substrate, climatic, vegetation and. re features in the Tanami Desert were considered in relation to the ecological model for arid Australia proposed by Stafford Smith and Morton. The nature and accuracy of spatial data used to describe and quantify the pattern of the landscape features were also examined. Components of the ecologica...

This study uses analysis of faecal pellets to assess the diet of the bilby (Macrotis lagotis) in an area spanning over 230000 km2 in the Tanami Desert, Northern Territory. More specifically, we examine the link between diet composition, bilby prevalence and the landscape variables of fire, rainfall and substrate. Seed promoted by fire, particularly...

The gait length and width and faecal pellet diameter of bilbies were examined to determine whether these measures could be used to accurately identify different age classes of individuals in the field. There was a good relationship between gait width+length and animal size that allowed the identification of three age classes: immature-independent i...

We evaluated three monitoring techniques to determine the spatial pattern and relative abundance of the bilby (Macrotis lagotis) in the Tanami Desert, Northern Territory. All the methods examined relied on the identification of animal sign (foot imprints or diggings) to indicate the presence of a species. With fixed transects, a 10-km prepared trac...

Australian deserts are characterised by highly patterned plant productivity and an extremely unpredictable climate. The Tanami Desert in central Australia is dominated by vast sandplains interspersed with more productive habitats such as palaeodrainage lines. During 1996 and 1997 fauna surveys were conducted in two areas of the Tanami Desert to inv...

The breeding biology and growth of Macrotis lagotis was investigated using captive stock in Alice Springs and Dubbo and a reintroduced population at Watarrka National Park. Individuals of M. lagotis reached sexual maturity at about six months of age and continued growing until about 18 months old. Pouch life and weaning took approximately 90 days a...

Eighteen non-marine mammal species (including seven species of bats) were recorded from a total of 49 islands in the Wessel and English Company island chains off north-eastern Arnhem Land, Northern Territory. Most individual species were restricted to, or had higher incidence on, larger islands, and species richness as a whole increased as island s...

Parts of the Namib Desert receive 19 mm of rain and 35 mm of fog precipitation on average during a year in amounts insufficient for plant germination and establishment. Major rainfall events which permit plant germination occur so infrequently that comparatively little is known about the relationship between biomass production and precipitation and...

Fluctuations in the composition and abundance of a small-mammal assemblage were studied in a hummock grassland dominated by Plectrachne schinzii at Watarrka National Park from 1988 to 1993. During this period an experiment was conducted to examine the short-term effects of fire on the rodents. We caught three species of rodent (Pseudomys hermannsbu...

The presence of the golden bandicoot (Isoodon auratus) on Marchinbar Island off north-eastern Arhemland, Northern Territory, was confirmed by means of morphological features, hair characteristics and allozyme electrophoresis. Evidence of I. auratus was found at most points sampled along the 50-km length of Marchinbar Island. The species showed a st...

Population viability analysis of the greater bilby Macrotis lagotis was conducted using the metapopulation model ALEX. ALEX was used to examine the effect of reintroduction configurations and potential manipulations on the extinction risk of the metapopulation. More specifically, the impact of patch separation, sporadic big rains and fire on popula...

A strategy for the reintroduction of Macrotis lagotis stresses that an experimental approach should be taken whenever individuals are released; the characteristics of an organism's home range and generation time should be used to set the minimum duration and size of an experiment; and assessment of environmental conditions and population survival a...

The taxonomic status of and genetic diversity amongst extant populations of the greater bilby, Macrotis lagotis, were assessed using allozyme electrophoresis. A totai of 47 bilbies sampled from three geographic areas and two captive colonies were screened for 42 loci, six of which were polymorphic. The results are consistent with the view that all...

Greater bilby was once widely distributed throughout arid and semiarid Australia. It has suffered a rapid decline since European settlement and is now restricted to parts of the Tanami, Great Sandy and Gibson Deserts with outlying populations in SW Queensland and N of Alice Springs, Northern Territory. Its distribution is examined in relation to hi...

Greater bilby is still comparatively widespread in Australia although the species has undergone a massive reduction in range since European settlement. Colonies in the south of their range occupied relatively sparse, inhospitable habitats on ridges or rises and fed predominantly on insect material. In the north of their range colonies occupy a broa...

The existence of six species of bandicoots had been established by 1990. Each species appears to have occupied a broad range and most were apparently relatively common. A wave of extinction swept over the southern border in the first few decades of this century and by the early 1960s had rolled north to take Chaeropus ecaudatus, Perameles eremiana,...

More than one-third of the terrestrial mammal species of the central deserts of Australia have vanished in the past 50 years. Few of these have been the subject of even preliminary scientific study, and data as basic as geographic range and preferred habitat are lacking for many species. Aborigines, many of whom lived traditionally in the central d...