Ecological attributes of the threatened fauna of New South Wales (original) (raw)

The aims of this study were to identify common ecological patterns among threatened fauna in New South Wales, and to identify priority areas for research and management by determining which regions and habitats contain high numbers of threatened fauna. Threatened and non-threatened fauna were taken from the listings of Lunney et al. (1996, 1997). Species were categorized into weight classes, diet groups, habitats and regions and by level of knowledge available about them. All regions and habitats of the State contain threatened species. The northeastern region of New South Wales contains the greatest number of threatened species but the western region has suffered the most extinctions, especially of mammals. Species that historically inhabited a greater number of regions are less likely to be currently threatened or to be extinct than those with restricted distributions, and large species are more likely to be threatened than smaller species. The best predictors of a threatened mamm...