408 Monitoring Threatened Species and Ecological Communities
learning from management outcomes’ (see Chapter 32). This definition
incorporates the continuum of AM approaches, ranging from active AM, where
management is designed to purposely resolve uncertainty (e.g. through replicated
experiments), to passive AM, where managers learn as a by-product of doing what
they think is best for a target species at the time. Deciding whether active or
passive AM is appropriate is context specific, and depends on resource availability,
the value of targeted learning, the nature of the threat and the rarity of the target
species. In all cases, monitoring is a key component of the AM cycle because it is
central to evaluating the outcomes of management.
A key challenge when initiating management actions for declining species that
are highly threatened and occur at just a handful of locations is management
paralysis. Implementation of conservation actions can stall due to fear that
interventions may backfire, further contributing to the target species’ decline.
Chapter 30 provides a highly illustrative case study of the benefits of applying a
passive AM approach to overcome knowledge gaps by acting rapidly while
implementing an intensive, but unobtrusive, monitoring approach to prevent the
extinction of the red-finned blue-eye Scaturiginichthys vermeilipinnis, an
endangered fish species that inhabits springs in the Great Artesian Basin of
Queensland. When conservation actions were initiated in 2008, the species was
restricted to only four springs with a total area of less than 1 ha, and faced a high
risk of extinction. The main threat was, and remains, colonisation of red-finned
blue-eye habitat by gambusia Gambusia holbrooki: a major pest species in Australia.
The arrival of gambusia spelt the end for resident red-finned blue-eye. The need for
urgent action was clear. However, it was unclear which management responses
would be most effective. Due to the species’ rarity, replicated management
experiments were not an option. Instead, a passive AM approach was implemented
with a strong focus on learning by doing, with the effectiveness of management
actions informed by intense monitoring of all populations every 2–3 months.
Through tightly linking management with monitoring, the effectiveness of barrier
fencing at preventing gambusia colonising new springs was demonstrated, and the
success of red-finned blue-eye translocations into gambusia-free springs was
established. Crucially, monitoring demonstrated that these actions were effective at
arresting ongoing declines and initiating species recovery.
Although passive AM is often appropriate for very rare threatened species,
active AM is useful in situations where species remain common enough to allow
large-scale experimentation and replication. Chapter 31 explores the development
of a major active AM experiment for the malleefowl Leipoa ocellata – an iconic
Australian bird that was once widespread across much of southern Australia.
Malleefowl have been impacted by habitat loss and fragmentation, and ongoing
declines are thought to be driven by fox predation, with management focused on
predator baiting. However, recent investigations have called into question the
benefit of predator control for malleefowl. Given predator control is a common and