Bio Leadbeaters Possum - for exam PDF

Preview

Summary

Helpful notes on the Leadbeaters Possum for the BIO103 exam...

Description

About  Small 120g marsupial restricted to small areas of mountain ash forests in Victorian Central Highlands, Australia  Use much energy searching for insects and plant exudates and also shelter and nest in hollow trees, which are removed during logging and vulnerable to bushfire  Population predicted to decline before increasing even with conservation measures  Shows the critical importance of understanding the biology of an endangered species in order to introduce appropriate and effective conservation measures What factors are responsible for the endangered status  Clearing and fragmentation of habitat  Loss of hollow trees during forestry operations such as salvage logging  Bushfire (primary form of natural disturbance)  Small trees do not remain standing long after they are burned and do not have adequate room to house animals Measures recommended for conservation  Increase logging rotation (to allow trees to mature to an age when hollows form)  Increase reserves of old-growth mountain ash forests, as they contain the greatest density of tree hollows for shelter  Reducing fire risk in all reserved areas and disallowing salvage logging after fires (to allow damaged trees to develop hollows)  Create a patchwork of maturing habitat trees during logging to avoid fragmentation of the landscape and so possums can colonise logged coupes and feed on young wattles • Leave corridors between logging coupes and unlogged forest to encourage possums to colonise logged coupes • Leave unlogged buffers between logging coupes...