birding-aus

Farm study suggests birds on a fast flight to oblivion

To:
Subject: Farm study suggests birds on a fast flight to oblivion
From: Andrew Taylor <>
Date: Tue, 20 Jul 2004 09:37:49 +1000
Farm study suggests birds on a fast flight to oblivion
By Greg Roberts July 19, 2004

ALMOST half the bird species on a central Queensland grazing property
have declined dramatically over the past 130 years, adding to fears that
many wildlife species across the nation are on the path to extinction.
....

The full piece is at:
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,10176588%255E2702,00.html

I've appended the abstract of the paper describing the research.

Andrew Taylor


Biological Conservation Volume 116, Issue 3 , April 2004, Pages 379-401

Historical changes in the bird fauna at Coomooboolaroo, northeastern Australia, 
from the early years of pastoral settlement (1873) to 1999

J.C.Z. Woinarski, and C.P. Catterall

Parks and Wildlife Commission of the Northern Territory, PO Box 496,
Palmerston, NT 0831, Australia
Environmental Sciences, Griffith University, Nathan, Queensland 4111,
Australia

Abstract

Across most of northern Australia, the historical record is generally
insufficient to serve as a baseline for interpreting the impacts of
European settlement on fauna. A notable exception is the pastoral
property Coomoobolaroo (454 km2) in central Queensland, where
the ornithologist Charles Barnard maintained a detailed record of
bird fauna from 1873 to 1933. We re-surveyed the property in 1999,
and collated other information on its current avifauna, giving 242
species in total recorded over the period 1873-1999 (of which we had
sufficient information to ascribe trends to 200 species). The bird
fauna of Coomooboolaroo has undergone substantial change, across
both of the periods 1873-1933 and 1934-1999. From 1873 to 1999, 45%
of species declined or were lost from the property, compared with 13%
of species that either colonised the property or increased. Most of the
latter are widespread species or those known to benefit from clearing
and land development. This extent of change appears at least as high
as that reported for most comparable studies elsewhere in Australia,
despite these being conducted at sites that have been subjected to
superficially greater environmental degradation. The greatest rates of
loss occurred among birds associated with softwood scrub (dry rainforest),
grasslands and swamps. Smaller species were more susceptible to decline,
but change in status was not significantly associated with foraging
style nor different between residents and migrants. Many of the species
that have declined at Coomooboolaroo have also declined in many other
geographic regions, habitats and land-uses. Change in status at this
property can be attributed to diverse factors, including changes in
predation pressures; environmental change due to altered fire regimes
and/or grazing by livestock; and vegetation clearance at both property
and regional scales. The multiplicity and complex interrelationships of
such factors renders it difficult to predict assemblage-level change.
--------------------------------------------
Birding-Aus is now on the Web at
www.birding-aus.org
--------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message 'unsubscribe
birding-aus' (no quotes, no Subject line)
to 


<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>
Admin

The University of NSW School of Computer and Engineering takes no responsibility for the contents of this archive. It is purely a compilation of material sent by many people to the birding-aus mailing list. It has not been checked for accuracy nor its content verified in any way. If you wish to get material removed from the archive or have other queries about the archive e-mail Andrew Taylor at this address: andrewt@cse.unsw.EDU.AU