Identifying and creating safer situations for wildlife within large, unfenced landscapes

Project start date: 01/09/2023
Project end date: 31/12/2027
NESP funding: $210,000 (GST exclusive)

Conservation of Australia’s native mammals has often focused on islands and fenced sanctuaries where threats such as invasive predators can be removed. While these safe havens are important, long-term wildlife recovery also depends on creating landscapes where threatened species can persist beyond fences, islands and temporary refuges.

This project is investigating how to identify and create safer situations for wildlife within large, unfenced landscapes. It aims to better understand the ecological processes, habitat features and species interactions that allow threatened mammals and other native wildlife to survive alongside threats such as feral cats, introduced herbivores, climate pressures and changing land use.

The project includes 3 connected activities:

• identifying the environmental and ecological factors that make some large, unfenced landscapes safer or riskier for wildlife
• using experimental translocations of eastern quolls in Tasmania to understand the factors linked to survival and decline
• testing whether removing rabbit warrens in the South Australian Flinders Ranges can reduce rabbit and cat activity, restore vegetation and soils, and improve habitat connectivity for wildlife, including western quolls.

In Tasmania, researchers are using experimental translocations of eastern quolls to test how factors such as habitat, climate, predators, competitors, prey availability and release strategies influence survival, body condition and breeding success. This work will help develop practical approaches for using translocations as an early-intervention tool for species that are declining but not yet critically small.

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In the South Australian Flinders Ranges, the project is testing rabbit warren removal as a landscape-scale restoration tool. Reducing rabbit populations may help reduce cat activity and predation risk, while allowing vegetation, soils, invertebrates and small vertebrates to recover. This work will inform how patch-scale habitat restoration can help connect habitat and support wildlife recovery across large landscapes.

The project will produce practical frameworks, guidelines and decision-support resources to help Traditional Owners, conservation managers, private land managers and other research users diagnose local threats and design ecologically based solutions for creating safer situations for wildlife in unfenced landscapes.

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Key research areas

To support threatened species recovery in large, unfenced landscapes, this project is:

• identifying the conditions that make landscapes safer or riskier for wildlife
• developing a diagnostic framework to help land managers design local management responses
• using experimental eastern quoll translocations to understand drivers of survival and decline
• testing rabbit warren removal as a tool to reduce grazing pressure, cat activity and predation risk
• developing guidance for restoring and connecting habitat across large landscapes.

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Pathway to impact

This project will support threatened species recovery in unfenced landscapes by:

• developing practical frameworks to identify and create safer areas for wildlife
• improving early-intervention approaches for declining species
• informing the use of experimental translocations as a conservation tool.

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  Box of eastern quolls (Photo: David Hamilton)
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  A released female quoll, and in her pouch were 6 healthy pink joeys. At around 5 weeks old, they’re only just starting to get their spots, and are still a few weeks away from being too big for mum to carry them all around with her. (Photo: David Hamilton)
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  Eastern Quoll being released. Photo: Matt Newton
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  Light morph eastern quoll on Bruny Island, Tasmania (Jan 2019). Photo: David Hamilton.
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  Dark morph eastern quoll at Five Rivers reserve (Jan 2023). Photo: David Hamilton.
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  Juvenile eastern quoll released at Silver Plains conservation area. Photo David Hamilton
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  Eastern quoll on the move at Silver Plains conservation area (Dec 2020). Photo David Hamilton
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  Eastern quoll on the forest floor. Bruny Island, Tasmania (Jan 2019). Photo: David Hamilton.
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  Eastern quoll at Silver Plains conservation area (Dec 2021). Photo David Hamilton.
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  Eastern quoll in devil trap at West Pencil Pine, Tasmania (Aug 2019). Photo: David Hamilton.
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  Research is taking place in Tasmania, with most fieldwork centred on the Tasmanian Midlands and east coast regions. Image: Resilient Landscapes Hub.