242 Monitoring Threatened Species and Ecological Communities
Where the causes of decline are not well understood, or the outcomes of
particular management interventions are uncertain, AWC will conduct research to
obtain this information. For example, in northern Australia, AWC has conducted a
series of research projects aimed at understanding the causes of mammal decline,
including a study comparing the abundance of small mammals in grazed and
destocked sites (Legge et al. 2011), and detailed studies of the ecology of feral cats
and their interactions with other threats (e.g. McGregor et al. 2014, 2016).
Information from this research has assisted AWC to design management
prescriptions to conserve small mammals: AWC has destocked large areas of its
wildlife sanctuaries in northern Australia, and seeks to minimise the extent of
wildfire, because wildfire and grazing are known to adversely affect small
mammals, in part because both facilitate predation by feral cats.
Where possible, AWC’s monitoring and research are integrated – that is,
research projects use survey effort and/or data obtained from the status monitoring
program. For example, AWC is currently designing monitoring programs for
Mallee Cliffs National Park and a section of the Pilliga forest in New South Wales.
At both locations, vertebrates and plants will be monitored at 50 permanent plots.
AWC also plans to reintroduce threatened mammals to a large fenced feral
predator-free area at each location. In order to understand the impacts of
reintroductions on extant biota (a research question), the monitoring design
Fig. 18.1. AWC’s monitoring and research framework.