Ants as indicators for vertebrate fauna at a local scale: an assessment of cross-taxa surrogacy in a disturbed matrix

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Funding Acknowledgements

Alan Andersen and Tony Hertog from CSIRO Tropical Ecosystems Research Centre in Darwin assisted with ant identifications and training of author JMB. Eric Vanderduys, Adam Tassicker and Ashley Pearcy from the CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems provided field work assistance and contributed to the collection of the unpublished bird, reptile and habitat data. Funding for the research was provided by the Australian Government National Heritage Trust, CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems and School of Marine and Tropical Biology, James Cook University, and this is gratefully acknowledged. JMB thanks Janette Bennett for monetary support, and Tamsyn Garby and Faith Penny (JCU) for volunteering in the lab and data entry. Dr Bronwyn Price (University of Queensland) provided Fig. 1. All authors thank Ian Hoch and Carl Rudd from Glenn Innes for permission to undertake this study on their property to their land and use of their facilities. The manuscript was much improved by comments of an anonymous reviewer.