Journal article
Is fire a threatening process for Liopholis kintorei, a nationally listed threatened skink?
Danae Moore, Michael Ray Kearney, Rachel Paltridge, Steve McAlpin, Adam Stow
WILDLIFE RESEARCH | CSIRO PUBLISHING | Published : 2015
DOI: 10.1071/WR14227
Abstract
Context Prescribed burning is widely adopted as a conservation-management tool, with priorities largely being the protection of fire-sensitive plant communities, threatened fauna habitat and minimising the risk and impacts of broad-scale wildfire. However, an improved understanding of the ecological mechanisms that underpin species responses to fire will assist the development and refinement of prescribed-burning practice. Aims To examine the effect of fire on burrow-system occupancy and breeding success at different spatial and temporal scales for a threatened skink, Liopholis kintorei. Methods Experimental burns simulating different fire types (clean burn, patchy burn and no burn) were con..
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Funding Acknowledgements
This project was funded by the Australia and Pacific Science Foundation, Trish Macdonald, Joss Haiblen and Australian Wildlife Conservancy. The research was carried out under the Macquarie University Animal Ethics Committee permit ARA 2013/020. We thank volunteers Arlo Stewart, Elia Pirtle, James Maino, Julia Wyllie and Shari May for their valuable assistance with fieldwork and Georgina Spinaze and Margaret Henley for their generous care given at the perfect times. Special thanks go to Josef Schofield, Sanctuary Manager at Newhaven Wildlife Sanctuary, who conducted the prescribed burns. Thank you also to the two anonymous reviewers who provided valuable comments on an earlier version of this manuscript.