Kokerbin Nature Reserve Desktop Fauna ... - Wheatbelt NRM

Kokerbin Nature Reserve
Desktop Fauna Assessment
Beecham (2001) describes the Avon Wheatbelt as a gently undulating landscape of
low relief. Vegetation is dominated by:
- Proteaceous scrubheaths, rich in endemics, on residual lateritic uplands and
derived sandplains;
- mixed eucalypt, Allocasuarina huegeliana and Jam-York Gum woodlands on
Quaternary alluvials and eluvials.
The Ancient Drainage subregion is an ancient peneplain with low relief, gently
undulating and has no connected drainage. Salt lake chains occur as remnants of
ancient drainage systems that now only function in very wet years (Beecham, 2001).
Lateritic uplands are dominated by areas of yellow sandplain. The region has a
climate described as semi-arid (Dry) Warm Mediterranean with a total area of
6,566,022 ha.
The dominant land use in this subregion is cultivation (dryland agriculture) and
grazing (improved pastures and dryland), with smaller areas of Unallocated Crown
Land and Crown reserves, conservation areas, rural residential and mining.
A number of Critical Weight Range Mammals (35-7 000 g weight range mammals)
have declined in the Avon Wheatbelt region and are threatened by cat (both feral and
domestic) and fox predation. Two species are now considered nationally extinct (the
Pig-footed Bandicoot and Crescent Nailtail Wallaby). Several species are locally
extinct, while many others occur in small, isolated and fragmented distributions (see
Appendix 1). Beecham lists a number of conservation significant fauna species
recorded in the Ancient Drainage Subregion. These include(with DEC conservation
status categories):
• Red-tailed Phascogale (Phascogale calura), Endangered
• Black-flanked Rock Wallaby (Petrogale lateralis lateralis), Vulnerable
• Carnaby's cockatoo (Calyptorhynchus latirostris), Endangered
• Malleefowl (Leipoa ocellata), Vulnerable
• Western Spiny-tailed Skink (Egernia stokesii badia), Endangered
• Slender-billed Thornbill (Acanthiza iredalei), Vulnerable
• Shield-backed Trapdoor Spider (Idiosoma nigrum), Schedule 1
• Kwonkan eboracum (a trapdoor spider), Schedule 1
• Teyl sp. (BY Main 195312683, 1984/13) (a trapdoor spider), Schedule 1
• Peregrine Falcon (Falco peregrinus) , Schedule 4
• Carpet Python (Morelia spilota imbricata), Schedule 4
• Woma (Aspidites ramsayi, south west population), Schedule 4
• Western Rosella (Inland subspecies, Platycercus icterotis xanthogenys)
Priority 2
• Barking Owl (Southwest, Ninox connivens connivens), Priority 2
• Lerista viduata, Priority 1
• Daphnia jollyi, Priority 1
• Limnocythere porphyretica, Priority 1
Granite Outcrops are recognised as a significant fauna habitat in the region providing
seasonal resources and temporary refuge for local fauna. A number of conservation
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