Monitoring Threatened Species and Ecological Communities

262 Monitoring Threatened Species and Ecological Communities

necessary for management, and/or the threatening processes affecting the species.
Some examples of single-species monitoring programs can be seen in Table 19.2
and the example of the great desert skink Liopholis kintorei at Uluru-Kata Tjuta
National Park is provided as a case study in Box 19.1.

Challenges

Natural resource management staff on Commonwealth reserves have undertaken
practical and technically sound monitoring for many years, driven by capable staff
and research partners. This monitoring has uncovered information critical to the
management of many species. Green parrot monitoring on Norfolk Island,
indicating the species was in decline, recently led to an intensive management
program of cat and rat control, predator-proofing of nesting hollows and other
nesting sites and an imminent translocation of an insurance population to nearby
Phillip Island. At Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park a decline in the population of
desert quandongs Santalum acuminatum, important to the local Traditional
Owners, led to studies of germination techniques. Monitoring of the effects of fire
on fauna in Kakadu National Park has led to changes in fire management
including an increase in early dry season burning. Surveys of threatened plants on
Norfolk Island triggered a program of seed collecting and subsequent seed banking
at the Australian National Botanic Gardens.
Nevertheless, there are some challenges associated with Parks Australia’s
management, monitoring and research on threatened species, including:

Table 19.2. Examples of Parks Australia single-species monitoring programs.

Species

Commonwealth

reserve Frequency Method

Great desert skink

Liopholis kintorei

Uluru-Kata Tjuta Annually Burrow surveys

Rufous hare-wallaby

Lagorchestes hirsutus

Uluru-Kata Tjuta Annually Cage trapping

Flatback turtle

Natator depressus

Kakadu Annually Counts of nesting individuals

Norfolk Island green

parrot

Cyanoramphus cookii

Norfolk Island Annually Counts of nesting pairs and

chick numbers

Christmas Island flying

fox

Pteropus natalis

Christmas Island Annually Presence/absence at sites

across the island and exit

counts at known camps

Grey nurse shark

Carcharias taurus

Cod Grounds and

Solitary Islands

Commonwealth

Marine Reserve

Initial survey in

2016–2017

Baited remote underwater

video and acoustic tagging