Managing the impacts of feral herbivores on threatened species and ecological communities: Charting risk and opportunity following regional-scale wildfire

Date: 16, Nov, 2020
Author(s):   David Duncan
Publisher: TSR Hub

In the wake of the 2019–20 bushfires, conservation managers in south-eastern Australia are concerned about the implications that interacting fire and herbivore threats may have for recovery of threatened species and ecological communities. Feral herbivores may take refuge in unburnt areas, and then exploit recovering growth in burnt areas, greatly inhibiting ecosystem recovery, if not catalysing irreversible shifts. This calls for urgent action and clear analytical approaches that will be available for rapid deployment in future. This project will review the exposure of threatened species and ecological communities to wildfire and herbivore impacts in wooded ecosystems of south eastern Australia. It will also develop case studies to explore risk and management opportunities.