Long-nosed Bandicoot Perameles Nasuta Research Articles

Selection, characteristics, and frequency of use of shelter sites by the Southern Brown Bandicoot Isoodon obesulus obesulus and the Southern Long-nosed Bandicoot Perameles nasuta in a post-fire landscape

ABSTRACT Dense ground cover and understory can be important as diurnal shelter for terrestrial mammals. Fire can lead to the short-term removal of much of this shelter. Here, we report on the shelter site selection of the Southern Brown Bandicoot Isoodon obesulus obesulus and Long-nosed Bandicoot Perameles nasuta eight months after a wildfire. We analysed the number of shelters, frequency of shelter use, nest size, and shelter site microhabitat. Southern Brown Bandicoots used significantly more shelters than Long-nosed Bandicoots. Both species preferred to use shelters with significantly lower levels of transmitted light than matched control areas. Within the burnt landscape, Southern Brown Bandicoots located their refuges under regrowth eucalypts, whereas Long-nosed Bandicoots showed no preference for any microhabitat. Southern Brown Bandicoots built nests significantly higher above ground than Long-nosed Bandicoots. Nests built in more dense and darker microhabitats were significantly taller than those built in more open habitats. Following fire, the Southern Brown Bandicoot required a more dense groundcover to conceal its taller nests and was able to take advantage of regenerating mallee eucalypts for shelter. Land managers need to be aware that hazard reduction burning in coastal woodland and heath will temporarily deprive Southern Brown Bandicoots of diurnal shelter sites and should, therefore, where practicable, retain patches of unburnt dense undergrowth to ensure a mosaic of different aged habitat and habitat structure.

Elucidating Patterns in the Occurrence of Threatened Ground-Dwelling Marsupials Using Camera-Traps.

Simple SummaryBeing able to effectively monitor the continued plight of highly vulnerable animals against management efforts over time is critical for their conservation. In south-eastern New South Wales, Australia, we used a camera trapping array to collect baseline information about patterns of occurrence of three threatened native ground-dwelling marsupials of conservation interest: the long-nosed bandicoot (Perameles nasuta), long-nosed potoroo (Potorous tridactylus) and southern brown bandicoot (Isoodon obesulus). Over a four-year period, detections of the two bandicoots were more erratic and less predictable than that of the potoroo, resulting in higher uncertainty about occupancy estimates and adequacy of sampling effort. The detection probability of each bandicoot species and that of the potoroo differed variously with structural complexity of vegetation. Detection probability of the southern brown bandicoot was highest where ground cover was most dense and shrub cover most open. The reverse pattern was found for the long-nosed bandicoot. Finally, the detection probability of the long-nosed potoroo was highest where ground and shrub cover was densest. Future camera trapping monitoring efforts need to take better account of these nuances and be flexible to including additional sampling for at least the two bandicoots. In short, when it comes to monitoring approach, one size doesn’t fit all.Establishing trends in endangered fauna against management efforts is a key but often challenging enterprise. Camera-traps offer a new and literal window into monitoring many different mammalian species. Getting it right demands seeking baseline information about how often target species interact with these devices, prior to setting a long-term monitoring strategy. We used a camera-trap array to collect detection data on three species of threatened ground-dwelling marsupials in south-eastern mainland Australia. Over a four-year period, occupancy estimates for two species of bandicoot (southern brown bandicoot Isoodon obesulus and long-nosed bandicoot Perameles nasuta) and a single species of rat-kangaroo (long-nosed potoroo Potorous tridatylus) were generated. These estimates were variously robust depending on visitation history, but nevertheless indicated persistence of these rare and otherwise under threat species. Detection probability for each species differed between study areas, type of management and with complexity of ground and shrub vegetation cover. The relationship between detection and vegetation structure dictated that survey effort was only robust where conditions were optimal for a given species. Outside of that further survey effort would be required to have confidence in survey outcome. In the future this would demand a different sampling strategy, be that through lengthening survey time or adding additional camera units at sites.

Habitat-dependent population regulation in an irrupting population of long-nosed bandicoots (Perameles nasuta)

We used isodars to analyse habitat-dependent population regulation by long-nosed bandicoots Perameles nasuta during an irruption and subsequent population crash in three habitats (heath, woodland and forest) at Booderee National Park, south-eastern Australia. Specifically, we aimed to see whether patterns of habitat-dependent population regulation matched a priori estimates of quantitative and qualitative differences between habitats. We also tested if habitat preference changed between the increasing and decreasing phase of the irruption as predicted by the reciprocating dispersal theory. Quantitative differences in habitat quality were indexed by the relative abundance of the main food of long-nosed bandicoots (terrestrial invertebrates), while qualitative differences were indexed by the availability of refuge from predation (vegetation understorey density). One index of fitness, body weight, was highest in forest, and lowest in heath, suggesting an ideal despotic model of habitat selection. Over the entire course of the irruption, there was density-dependent habitat selection with forest and woodland both quantitatively superior to heath. This reflected the overall abundance of invertebrates with highest abundance in woodland and forest and less in heath. Isodar analysis also revealed that although forest was quantitatively better than heath and equivalent to woodland it was qualitatively poorer than either habitat. Heath had a higher density of understorey than woodland and woodland having a higher density of understorey than forest giving crossover population regulation. When the increasing and declining phase of the irruption were analysed separately, no habitat was quantitatively superior to any other during either phase. The lack of switching in preference between habitats from the increasing to the declining phase of the irruption and the virtual absence of any dispersal by adults, does not support the reciprocating dispersal hypothesis.

Population responses of small and medium sized mammals to fox control at Jervis Bay, southeastern Australia

At Jervis Bay, strategic pest programmes to control the Red Fox Vulpes vulpes have been in place on the Beecroft Weapons Range (BWR) Beecroft Peninsula, New South Wales since 1995 and Booderee National Park (BNP) Bherwerre Peninsula, Jervis Bay Territory since 1999. As an integral component of the BWR plan, monitoring terrestrial and arboreal mammals has been carried out and demonstrated a significant increase in the abundance of Common Ringtail Possum Pseudochelrus peregrinus, Long-nosed Bandicoot Perameles nasuta, and Bush Rat Rattus fuscipes. There was no significant change in the abundance of Brown Antechinus Antechinus stuartii, Sugar Glider Petaurus breviceps or Black Rat (R. raltus). At BNP changes in population abundance of mammals were not monitored, but a comparison of the abundance of terrestrial mammals between the fox baited BNP and the adjacent un-baited Jervis Bay National Park (JBNP) showed Long-nosed Bandicoots, Bush Rat and Brown Antechinus to be in higher abundance in BNP than JBNP. Scat analysis further supported this finding (Roberts et aI, 2006), We assert that these combined findings are evidence that terrestrial native fauna have responded positively to continued fox control on both peninsulas, thus proving that measuring prey responses are a positive measure of success for strategic pest control programmes.

Responses of four Critical Weight Range (CWR) marsupials to the odours of native and introduced predators

In Australia many critical weight range (CWR) species are threatened by predation from the introduced Red Fox Vulpes vulpes. Understanding how these prey species respond to native predators such as the Tiger Quoll Dasyurus maculatus, and comparing their responses to foxes is important in understanding why fox predation is such a problem. Many northern hemisphere mammalian species have developed responses to the odours of the main species which prey upon them. The situation in Australia remains unclear. We looked at the effect of scenting traps with the faeces of the Tiger Quoll and the Red Fox on the capture rates of four species of CWR marsupials, the Long-nosed Bandicoot Perameles nasuta, the Southern Brown Bandicoot Isoodon obesulus, the Northern Brown Bandicoot I. macrourus and the Common Brushtail Possum Trichosurus vulpecula. None of these species responded to fox odour. However despite low capture rates, Northern Brown Bandicoots and Common Brushtail Possums were captured significantly more often i...

Role of the Corpus Luteum in Marsupial Reproduction

IN marsupials the histological changes which occur in the ovaries and uteri of unmated females after ovulation appear to be very similar both in degree and duration to those occurring during pregnancy1. The gestation period is shorter than the length of an œstrous cycle in all the polyœstrous marsupial species so far investigated, and some workers consider that this can be accounted for by a similarity between the duration of the functional life of the corpus luteum in pregnant and non-pregnant females, and of the gestation period2. Thus, Sharman3 and Amoroso4 postulate that the hormonal control both of the œstrous cycle and of pregnancy may be identical and that the simple yolk-sac placenta characteristic of most marsupials probably has little or no endocrine function comparable to that of the true allantoic placenta of eutherian mammals. One of the implications of this hypothesis is that pregnancy in marsupials would be largely maintained by the progesterone produced by the corpus luteum. However, a few marsupials, including the long-nosed bandicoot Perameles nasuta Geoffroy, have true allantoic placentae5,6 and therefore the reproductive physiology of such species is of considerable interest.