Suchergebnisse

Context
Prescribed burning is routinely performed within the Sydney Basin as a method of fire-hazard mitigation. Despite the widespread use of prescribed fire, knowledge of the impact of prescribed fire on most fauna species remains unclear. This is particularly the case for bandicoot species.

Aims
To determine the impact of a low-intensity prescribed fire on the survival of the long-nosed bandicoot, Perameles nasuta, and the southern brown bandicoot, Isoodon obesulus obesulus (hereafter abbreviated to I. obesulus), immediately after the fire and at 5 weeks, 5 months and 13 months following the fire. To document the spatial ecology and nesting requirements of I. obesulus and P. nasuta before and after fire.

Methods
One I. obesulus and seven P. nasuta (five female and two male) individuals were radio-tracked. Animals were tracked before, during and following a hazard-reduction burn to assess the impact of fire on home range, survival and nesting behaviour.

Key results
Post-fire survival of P. nasuta and I. obesulus was high and the population remained stable up to 5 months following the fire. All animals tracked within the burn area (three female P. nasuta) survived the passage of fire. The home range for one male I. obesulus was found to be 2.35 ha 50% kernel-density estimate (KDE) and 12.35 ha 95% KDE. Female P. nasuta (n = 5) had a home range of 1.3 ha ± 0.2 s.e. 50% KDE and 7.5 ha ± 1.7 s.e. 95% KDE. Male P. nasuta (n = 1) had a home range of 1.1 ha 50% KDE and 6.5ha 95% KDE. Nesting for both species tended to occur in dense vegetation, with a slight shift to non-combustible refuge sites post-fire. Animals tended to maintain exclusive and relatively stable core home ranges, although overlap of non-core home ranges was common.

Conclusions
The survival of bandicoots following a low-intensity hazard-reduction fire was high in the short term; however, further research is required to determine how the components of a fire regime affect native species, in particular peramelids.

Implications
Hazard-reduction fires should be used with caution to manage the isolated and endangered northern Sydney population of I. obesulus, so as to ensure the persistence of this species.

Scientists have traditionally collected data on whether a population is increasing, decreasing, or staying the same, but such studies are often limited by geographic scale and time frame. This means that for many species, understanding of trends comes from only part of their ranges at particular periods. Working with citizen scientists has the potential to overcome these limits. Citizen science has the added benefit of exposing citizens to the scientific process and engaging them in management outcomes. We examined a different way of using citizen scientists (instead of data collection). We asked community members to answer a question directly and thus examined whether community wisdom can inform conservation. We reviewed the results of 3 mail-in surveys that asked community members to say whether they thought koala populations were increasing, decreasing, or staying the same. We then compared the survey results with population trends derived from more traditional research. Population trends identified through community wisdom were similar to the trends identified by traditional research. The community wisdom surveys, however, allowed the question to be addressed at much broader geographical scales and time frames. Studies that apply community wisdom have the benefit of engaging a broad section of the community in conservation research and education and therefore in the political process of conserving species.