The Vertebrate Fauna of Jenolan Karst Conservation Reserve: Final

1 INTRODUCTION
1.1 PROJECT RATIONALE
Biodiversity information is required by many arms of the Office of Environment and Heritage (OEH) for
regulation, conservation assessment and land management purposes. In the Sydney Basin Bioregion
over 60 per cent of extant native vegetation occurs in OEH reserves making it the largest custodian of
native flora and fauna. OEH is working to ensure that all reserves in Greater Sydney have adequate
flora and fauna information to underpin park management decision-making and to understand the
contribution reserves make to statewide conservation efforts. Since 2003, the former Central Branch
of the Parks and Wildlife Group has funded the Biodiversity Survey Priorities (BSP) program. This
program ranks all reserves on the quality of flora and vertebrate fauna data and sets out to address
the greatest information shortfalls first, ensuring that biodiversity data collection is approached in a
strategic and systematic way. From the Hunter to the Illawarra and across the Blue Mountains, survey
teams have been steadily working to provide quality baseline data and management advice on plants
and animals, including threatened species and endangered ecological communities. Thus far, 34
reserves in the Sydney Basin have been surveyed and now have adequate biodiversity data, with this
information entered into corporate databases and presented as stand-alone reports and maps, most of
which are available for download from:
http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/surveys/sydney/faunaSurveyReports.htm.
For the year 2010-11, the BSP program identified Jenolan Karst Conservation Reserve (JKCR) as a
high priority for new fauna survey and reporting. This reserve was identified as not having adequate
systematic fauna surveying effort and there was no existing comprehensive report on the vertebrate
fauna. In addition, the reserve is part of the Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area (GBMWHA)
– the survey of which is a priority of the program.
1.2 PROJECT AIMS
The primary objectives of the surveys were to:
undertake a review of previous fauna survey effort across JKCR and identify knowledge gaps for
particular fauna groups, habitats or areas
undertake systematic fauna surveys to fill in the gaps identified above
undertake targeted surveys of microbats and other cave-dwelling fauna to gain an understanding
of current usage patterns.
The specific objectives of this report are to:
document the methodology of the survey techniques applied
document, review and collate information on the terrestrial vertebrate fauna of JKCR, bringing
together results of the current survey with those of previous studies to provide an accurate
inventory of species that have been
recorded in the reserve
identify and profile threatened fauna
species and pest fauna species that
are known to occur or have occurred
in the past
identify threatening processes
impacting on native fauna at JKCR
identify priorities for conservation
management of vertebrate fauna and
propose strategies to maintain or
enhance current fauna values
summarise all information pertaining to
cave-dwelling fauna in a stand-alone
section for use in managing the karst
system.
Nettle Cave. Photo © N. Williams
The Vertebrate Fauna of Jenolan Karst Conservation Reserve 1