Survey of the reptiles and amphibians of the montane forests near Tenterfield on the north coast of New South Wales

Abstract

Surveys were conducted in the area that formally encompassed the forests managed by the New South Wales Forestry Commission (Tenterfield Management Area). Surveys consisted of searches for reptiles along 35 transects, roadside searches, pitfall trapping and targeted surveys. Targeted searches were conducted for amphibians beside creeks, fire dams and swamps. A total of 33 species of reptile and 16 species of amphibian were detected. The highest species richness and density of reptiles occurred in eucalypt forests that contained rock outcrops. Closed forest had the lowest reptile species richness and density. Analysis of the abundance of two species of skink (accounting for 73% of observations) recorded during transect searches found that the Grass Skink Lampropholis delicata had greater abundances on logged plots than on unlogged plots whereas Calyptotis scutirostrum did not differ in its abundance across treatments. The Glandular Frog Litoria subglandulosa and Pugh's Frog Philoria pughi, species currently listed on the Threatened Species Conservation Act (1995), were detected during the surveys. The Masters Snake Drysdalia rhodogaster was detected and represents a 350 kilometre northern range extension of this species.

The impact of invasive cane toads on native wildlife in southern Australia

“…Many native taxa (both ectotherms and endotherms) of this region are most active in the warmer, wetter months (September to February: Shine ; York et al. ; Christian and Weavers ; Kavanagh and Stanton ; Daly and Lemckert ), so we confined our surveys to the spring and summer months of 2013–2014.…”

Survey of the reptiles of the montane forests near Dorrigo on the north coast of New South Wales

“…This survey recorded 48 species of reptiles within the former Dorrigo FMA. This represents a higher tally of species than that recorded during surveys for other parts of the north-eastern NSW such as the adjacent Gibraltar Range National Park (NP) where 32 species of reptiles were recorded (Barker 1981) or further north in the Tenterfield FMA where 33 species of reptiles were detected (Daly and Lemckert 2011). The Dorrigo plateau is clearly a species rich region for reptiles.…”

“…The impacts of logging on reptiles was examined through an analysis of the survey transect data also used in the Dorrigo EIS (Countrywide Ecological Services1995). However, some of the conclusions drawn from the previous analysis may have been confounded by factors such as grazing and associated burning (Drielsma 1995) and also because pooled abundance data (total number of reptiles observed), as used in much of the Dorrigo EIS, are typically dominated by a small number of common species (Goldingay et al 1996Newell and Goldingay 2004, Daly and Lemckert 2011.…”

“…The increase in densities of some skink species following logging has been attributed to increased solar radiation and the abundance of logging slash (logs/branches/stumps) and litter following logging (Daly and Lemckert 2011, Goldingay et al 1996, Lunney et al 1991. In this survey, the impact from disturbance from reptile searches also appeared to have led to an increase in detectability of the Grass Skink, because greater densities were found in the second survey (Appendix 1).…”

“…These surveys were intended to assess the impacts of logging activities through Environmental Impact Statements (EISs). While the ability of these surveys to accurately assess such impacts has been questioned (Resource Assessment Commission 1993, Milledge 1993, Newell and Goldingay 2004, Daly and Lemckert 2011, they did provide regional surveys of the fauna and flora and valuable quantitative baseline data. One of the areas of forest surveyed was located in the Dorrigo area (Dorrigo Forest Management Area (FMA)) of the northeastern escarpment of New South Wales (Countrywide Ecological Service 1995).…”