Appendix D Terrestrial and Aquatic Biodiversity - Environment ...

SZ247: Bat survey from the Western Desert Resources Towns River project area, NT
1.0 INTRODUCTION
Western Desert Resources Limited (WDRL) is seeking approval to mine iron ore reserves
within existing mining leases under application MLA 28264 and 28963 in the Roper Bar
Region of the Northern Territory. It is proposed that the mined product will be transported to
the existing port facility of Bing Bong via a 164 km long haul road to enable the transhipment
of product to markets in China. This proposal collectively is named the Roper Bar Iron Ore
(RBIO) Project.
As part of the development application, an environmental impact assessment has been
undertaken, part of which includes effort to document the bat assemblage in the RBIO Project
area. Some of this involves the deployment of electronic 'bat detectors' that make
recordings of the ultrasonic echolocation calls of bats, which can be used to identify species.
Particular attention was given to determining if bat species of conservation significance, as
listed by both the Northern Territory and Commonwealth Governments, were present. Initial
acoustic surveys (Specialised Zoological 2010, 2011) highlighted the possible presence of the
bare-rumped sheath-tailed bat Saccolaimus saccolaimus, which is listed as 'Critically
Endangered' under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 1 and
as 'Data Deficient' (subspecies not identified) under the Northern Territory Territory Parks and
Wildlife Conservation Act 2000 2 . The species is also listed as 'Least Concern' by the IUCN
because of its wide distribution from India to the Solomons and northern Australia (Csorba et
al. 2008 3 ). This report details a targeted field survey effort conducted specifically to
determine if S. saccolaimus occurs within the MLA – Towns River project area (plus the
identity of other bat species present), and includes acoustic surveys for all bat species from
other areas within the RBIO Project boundaries.
The current Australian distribution of S. saccolaimus in authoritative field guides and mammal
accounts (Churchill 2008; Hall et al. 2008; Csorba et al. 2008; SEWPaC 2012) includes the
eastern edge of the Cape York peninsula, and apparently isolated populations in the
north-west of the Northern Territory (including Kakadu National Park; McKean et al. 1981,
Thomson 1991), and the Roper Bar area of the Northern Territory. The Queensland
population is referred to S. saccolaimus nudicluniatus and it is this form that is specifically
listed as Critically Endangered under the Commonwealth EPBC Act 1999. The currently
accepted taxonomy allocates all Australian populations to S. s. nudicluniatus, but the validity
of this trinomial has been questioned, and the possibility that the Northern Territory
populations represent a different subspecies has also been mentioned (see taxonomic notes
in Duncan et al. 1999, Milne and Woinarski 2006; Schulz and Thomson 2007; Csorba et al.
2008, SEWPaC 2012).
The closest record of S. saccolaimus to the RBIO Project is a single occurrence at the Roper
River mouth on 25/09/2001 (E528572 N8366561 Z53 GDA94; NRETAS Reference NT Atlas
database 4 ). The lack of other records in this same area and further east towards the
Borroloola area may simply be a function of the lack of survey effort and the difficulty of
distinguishing it morphologically and acoustically from other bats (e.g. Milne et al. 2009). In
1 http://www.environment.gov.au/cgi-bin/sprat/public/publicspecies.pl?taxon_id=66889
2 http://www.nretas.nt.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0016/10843/barerumped_sheathtailbat_dd.pdf
3 http://www.iucnredlist.org/apps/redlist/details/19802/0
4 http://www.nretas.nt.gov.au/plants-and-animals/animals/requests
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