Responses of Five Arboreal Marsupials to Recent Selective Logging in Tropical Australia

Abstract

We assessed effects of selective logging of rain forest upon a diverse assemblage of folivorous (leaf-eating) marsupials in tropical Queensland, Australia. Spotlighting censuses of mammal populations were conducted for 1-yr periods before logging (1986/87) and 3 yr after logging (1993/94), on a 150-ha site in which an average of 8-10 trees/ ha (50-55 m3/ha) were extracted. Two formerly logged reference sites were censused concurrently to assess effe&s of sampling variation and between-year population fluctuations on census results. Lemuroid ringtail possums (Hemibelideus lemuroides) declined markedly in logged forest, while three other possums (Pseudocheirops archeri, Trichosurus vulpecula, Pseudocheirus herbertensis) and a tree-kangaroo (Dendrolagus lumholtzi) did not differ significantly between preand post-logging censuses. Folivores that are highly dependent upon primary forest dearly are most vulnerable to logging. The magnitude and duration of logging impacts on arboreal mammal populations is probably strongly affected by the level of forest structural damage incurred during logging operations. We suggest that ecological and behavioral traits such as the degree of arboreality, diet, denning requirements and territorial behavior influenced the responses of these marsupials to logging.