Discussion Paper - Part A - Victorian Environmental Assessment ...

Table 5.3 The number of vertebrate animal species recorded in the River Red Gum Forests study area, by class.Vertebrate groupTotal no. of speciesNo. of introduced speciesMammalsBirdsAmphibiansReptilesFishTotalSource: DSE Atlas of Victorian Wildlife 200662326217633518131100832FaunaThere are over 150,000 records of 518 species ofvertebrate fauna (Appendix 5 and Table 5.3), including126 threatened taxa in the study area.The 62 mammal species recorded in the study area rangein size from the little forest bat (weighing less than 5 g)to the red kangaroo (with males weighing as much as85 kg). The mammals inhabit a wide range of habitatsbut are mostly rarely seen, being either cryptic or mostonly active at night (e.g. possums, platypus andphascogales).Bats are the largest group of native mammals in the studyarea, comprising nearly 40 percent of native mammalspecies—16 microbats and two species of megabats (orfruitbats, the grey-headed flying-fox and the little redflying-fox). Microbats use echolocation (emitting andreceiving high-frequency sounds) to detect prey, predatorsand obstacles. The white-striped freetail bat emits thesesounds within the range of human hearing and can oftenbe heard by riverside campers.The pig-footed bandicoot, eastern hare-wallaby, lesserstick-nest rat and an undescribed short-nosed bandicootwere once recorded in the study area but are now extinct.The eastern quoll, red-tailed phascogale, western barredbandicoot, brush-tailed bettong, rufous bettong andbridled nailtail wallaby were also recorded in the studyarea but are now extinct in Victoria. It is possible that thewestern quoll, kultarr, greater stick-nest rat, Bolam’smouse, desert mouse, and the now extinct white-footedrabbit-rat also occurred in the study area at the time ofEuropean settlement (Menkhorst 1995). A number ofother threatened mammal species occur in the study area,including the squirrel glider (see Figure 5.4).Birds are perhaps the most widely known of thevertebrate groups, probably because they are mostlyactive during the day, are relatively large-bodied and thereare many species. Three hundred and twenty-six speciesof birds have been recorded in the study area, nearlytwice the number of all other vertebrate species. Thestudy area provides habitat for raptors, woodland birds,wading birds, migratory birds, colonially-breeding speciesand rare and threatened species. These include thenationally-threatened plains-wanderer (see Figure 5.4),Australian painted snipe, superb parrot and regent parrot.It also supports important Victorian populations of thered-chested button-quail, inland dotterel, intermediateegret, little bittern, freckled duck, ground cuckoo-shrike,and grey-crowned babbler.Australia has bilateral agreements with Japan and Chinafor the protection of migratory birds common to bothcountries (the JAMBA and CAMBA agreements). Thestudy area includes 34 species listed in each or either ofthose agreements (Appendix 5). The agreements aim toprotect migratory birds from take or trade, protect andconserve habitat, exchange information and build cooperativerelationships between the countries and Australia.Twenty-one species of amphibians have been recorded inthe study area, including species with only a fewrecords—Lesueur’s frog, mallee spadefoot toad and giantbullfrog. Frog breeding is greatly influenced by waterregimes. For many species the seasonality, frequency,duration and water temperature of flooding areimportant. In Barmah forest, the highest frog activity isnot in the creek systems but in well-vegetated and activelyflooding wetlands. Ponded wetlands without fresh flowsshow relatively little frog activity (Ward 2004). Theimportance of water regimes for frogs, in combinationwith a general decline in worldwide frog populations,makes frog species especially vulnerable within the studyarea. Some species previously recorded in the study areamay no longer occur at those sites. For instance, thecommon spadefoot toad, Bibron’s toadlet, and growlinggrass frog have not been recorded in Barmah forest forseveral years despite intensive survey efforts (Ward 2004),and the growling grass frog has also not been recorded inGunbower forest for the last couple of years (Keith Wardpers. comm).Seventy-six species of reptiles have been recorded in thestudy area. Although many (38 percent) of these havebeen recorded fewer than ten times, many common speciesmay be under-reported, while there has been little surveyeffort for more cryptic species. For example, the commonblue-tongued lizard (Figure 5.5) is probably common inthe study area but has only been recorded 31 times. Over80 percent of the Victorian records of five threatenedreptiles are within the study area: curl snake, broadshelledtortoise, eastern water skink, tessellated geckoand red-naped snake—illustrating the importance of theregion for those species. Other threatened reptiles withpopulations in the study area include the hooded scalyfoot,Mueller’s skink and carpet python (see Figure 5.4).58 River Red Gum Forests Investigation 2006