Rosslyn Beeby The Canberra Times 6 Jul 10;
Australia's national parks are failing to save native wildlife, with mammal extinction rates of almost 50 per cent occurring in some NSW protected areas, a CSIRO scientist says.
Speaking at a national wildlife conference in Canberra yesterday, CSIRO zoologist Fred Ford said Australia's south-eastern forests had suffered one of the worst mammal declines, with up to 11 regional extinctions recorded in recent years.
"We have this great gleaming reserve system, but it's not protecting mammals as much as we'd like it to," Dr Ford told the Australian Mammal Society Science Symposium.
In some areas, such as the Liverpool Plains in the north-west region of NSW, so much smaller fauna particularly native mice species had disappeared in recent years that it was like "a modern mammal black hole". Dr Ford said many national reserves were designed to protect "the visual appeal" of ecosystems rather than securing critical habitat for threatened species such as small mammals.
"The focus is mainly on plants. It's as if mammals especially the smaller species are a conservation after-thought."
Dr Ford said there had been "a long decline and degradation of ecosystems" in many protected areas, including problems with invasive weeds and feral animals.
"It's not just a question of needing more funding. We also need a better baseline understanding of what's needed to reinvigorate Australia's reserve system," he said.
One of Australia's leading taxonomists, Australian National Wildlife Collection research scientist Ken Aplin, told the conference there had been a historical "lack of national effort" to study and formally describe native fauna specimens.
"Our fauna is very poorly documented," Dr Aplin said.
Despite public perception that Australia's wildlife "was done and discovered a long time ago", around 65 per cent of native reptiles and frogs were discovered in the past 35 years.
