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https://hdl.handle.net/2440/135773
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Type: | Journal article |
Title: | Predators in a mining landscape: Threats to a behaviourally unique, endangered lizard |
Author: | Bradley, H.S. Craig, M.D. Tomlinson, S. Cross, A.T. Bamford, M.J. Bateman, P.W. |
Citation: | Austral Ecology: a journal of ecology in the Southern Hemisphere, 2022; 47(5):1077-1090 |
Publisher: | Wiley |
Issue Date: | 2022 |
ISSN: | 1442-9985 1442-9993 |
Statement of Responsibility: | Holly S. Bradley, Michael D. Craig, Sean Tomlinson, Adam T. Cross, Michael J. Bamford, Philip W. Bateman |
Abstract: | Patchy resource distribution can cluster predator activity around areas of the highest productivity in ecosystems. For the endangered Western Spiny-tailed Skink (Egernia stokesii badia) in Western Australia, the log piles that they permanently inhabit in an otherwise patchy, arid landscape, represent a potentially reliable, high abundance food source for predators. Not only are encounter rates by potential predators of E. s. badia likely to be influenced by vegetation structure at the micro habitat scale but also E. s. badia occurs in a region where minesites and associated infrastructure, such as landfill sites, likely concentrate generalist predators (e.g. Feral Cats and corvids). We assessed the influence of the presence of coarse woody debris (CWD) and distance to the land-fill on predator behaviour towards E. s. badia through plasticine model experiments, unbounded point count bird surveys and camera trapping. We found that CWD inhabited byE. s. badia attracted a greater relative activity of corvids compared with uninhabited CWD, or control sites without CWD. The relative activity of corvids and predatory birds combined increased with decreasing distance from the landfill. Preferential hunting by corvids at CWD inhabited byE. s. badia compared to both uninhabited CWD and open sites suggests that inhabited CWD may be targeted by generalist predators in the region, and that adaptive management may be required for species conservation around active mining areas. |
Keywords: | Egernia stokesii; mitigation translocation; optimal foraging; predation; threatened species management |
Description: | First published: 09 June 2022 |
Rights: | © 2022 The Authors. Austral Ecology published by John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd on behalf of Ecological Society of Australia. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License, which permits use,distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not used for commercial purposes. |
DOI: | 10.1111/aec.13195 |
Grant ID: | http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/ICI150100041 |
Published version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/aec.13195 |
Appears in Collections: | Ecology, Evolution and Landscape Science publications |
Files in This Item:
File | Description | Size | Format | |
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hdl_135773.pdf | Published version | 11.72 MB | Adobe PDF | View/Open |
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