A list of reptiles and amphibians from Box Gum Grassy Woodlands in south-eastern Australia

Abstract

A large-scale biodiversity monitoring program examining the response of herpetofauna to the Australian Government’s Environmental Stewardship Program is taking place in south-eastern Australia within the critically endangered Box Gum Grassy Woodland vegetation community. Field surveys involve counting reptiles in areas under Environmental Stewardship management. These “Stewardship” areas have been matched with areas managed for primary production (domestic livestock grazing). We list reptiles recorded during surveys conducted between 2010 and 2012. We recorded sixty-nine species from ten families. The list will be useful for workers interested in the zoogeographical distribution of reptiles and amphibians in fragmented agricultural woodland ecosystems.

Ecological niche breadth and microhabitat guild structure in temperate Australian reptiles: Implications for natural resource management in endangered grassy woodland ecosystems

“…Furthermore, the region is rich in reptile diversity (Kay et al . ) and contains several threatened species, including the nationally vulnerable pink‐tailed worm lizard Aprasia parapulchella (Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999) and the endangered northern velvet gecko Amalosia rombifer (Threatened Species Conservation Act 1995). However, reptiles in the temperate woodlands of south‐eastern Australia have been poorly studied, especially within the box gum grassy woodland, and little natural history information is available for the vast majority of species in the ecoregion.…”

Incorporating regional‐scale ecological knowledge to improve the effectiveness of large‐scale conservation programmes

“…The southern extent is particularly threatened by intensive agriculture (Hoekstra et al ., ) and now occurs as small and isolated remnants of varying condition (Commonwealth of Australia, ). The community also supports a rich woodland‐dependent reptile fauna (Kay et al ., ), with over 120 species of reptiles recorded across the extent of the study area (Wilson & Swan, ).…”

“…To answer this question, we examined different aspects of the reptile assemblages, including total abundance and species richness, as well as richness of rare species and relative abundance (evenness) of the assemblage. Because reptiles exhibit strong associations with climate and geography (McCain, ; Kay et al ., ), we predicted that the relationships between environmental variables and measures of reptile diversity would vary across the regions observed, providing opportunity for improving design of land‐stewardship programmes. Our results identify four key conservation implications for decision makers, underscoring opportunities to advance conservation programmes in the future.…”

Barking up the right tree: comparative use of arboreal and terrestrial artificial refuges to survey reptiles in temperate eucalypt woodlands

“…During 20 th -24 th May 2013, we selected thirteen sites from a subset of pre-existing monitoring sites located within the Lachlan-Murrumbidgee catchment where arboreal lizard species (e.g. southern marbled gecko Christinus marmoratus) had been previously detected through either active searches or artificial terrestrial refuges (Kay et al 2013). We then installed arboreal artificial bark refuges (N = 84 bark refuges) in a 1 ha area adjacent to our existing monitoring sites.…”