Leadbeater's possum

Leadbeater's possum[1]
Taxidermy specimen
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Infraclass: Marsupialia
Order: Diprotodontia
Family: Petauridae
Genus: Gymnobelideus
Species: G. leadbeateri
Binomial name
Gymnobelideus leadbeateri
McCoy, 1867
Leadbeater's possum range

Leadbeater's possum (Gymnobelideus leadbeateri) is a critically endangered possum largely restricted to small pockets of alpine ash, mountain ash and snow gum forests in the Central Highlands of Victoria, Australia, north-east of Melbourne.[3] It is primitive, relict, and non-gliding, and, as the only species in the petaurid genus Gymnobelideus, represents an ancestral form. Formerly, Leadbeater's possums were moderately common within the very small areas they inhabited; their requirement for year-round food supplies and tree-holes to take refuge in during the day restricts them to mixed-age wet sclerophyll forest with a dense mid-story of Acacia. The species was named after John Leadbeater, the then taxidermist at the Museum Victoria.[4] They also go by the common name of fairy possum.[5] On 2 March 1971,[6] the State of Victoria made the Leadbeater's possum its faunal emblem.[7]

History

Leadbeater's possum is thought to have evolved about 20 million years ago.[8] It was not discovered until 1867 and was originally known only through five specimens, the last one collected in 1909.[9] From that time on, the fear that it might be extinct gradually grew into near-certainty after the swamps and wetlands in Australia around Bass River in south-west Gippsland were drained for farming in the early 1900s.[10]

By the time of the 1939 Black Friday fires, the species was thought to have been extinct.[7] Then, on 3 April 1961, a member of the species was rediscovered by naturalist Eric Wilkinson in the forests near Cambarville, and the first specimen in more than 50 years was captured later in the month.[11]

In 1961, a colony was discovered near Marysville.[12] Extensive searches since then have found the existing population in the highlands. However, the availability of suitable habitat is critical: forest must be neither too old nor too young, with conservation efforts for Leadbeater’s possum involving protection of remaining old-growth stands, and maintenance of younger stands that are allowed to attain hollow-bearing age.[13]

The combination of 40-year-old regrowth (for food) and large dead trees left still standing after the fires (for shelter and nesting) allowed the Leadbeater's possum population to expand to an estimated peak of about 7500 in the early 1980s.[14] From its peak in the 1980s, the Leadbeater's possum population was expected to further decline rapidly, by as much as 90%,[2] due to a habitat bottleneck. The population has dropped sharply since 1996.[10] Particularly, the February 2009 Black Saturday bushfires destroyed 43% of Leadbeater's possums habitat in the Central Highlands, halving the wild population to 1,500.[7] A study in 2014 concluded there is a 92% chance the Leadbeater's ecosystem in the Victoria central highlands will collapse within 50 years.[15]

Habits

Leadbeater's possums are rarely seen as they are nocturnal, fast-moving, and occupy the upper story of some of the tallest forest trees in the world.[2] They have an average body length of 33 cm (13 inches) with the tail included.[16] They live in small family colonies of up to 12 individuals,[9] including one monogamous breeding pair. Mating occurs only once a year, with a maximum of two joeys being born to each pair.[16] All members sleep together in a nest made out of shredded bark in a tree hollow, anywhere from 6 to 30 metres above ground level and roughly in the centre of a territory of 3 hectares, which they defend actively. The society of Leadbeater's possums is matriarchal: each group is dominated by only one female Leadbeater's possum that is active in expelling outsiders.[9] Other juvenile females are weaned off before they reach sexual maturity.[17] In addition, female Leadbeater's possums are more aggressive in nature, often engaging in frequent fights with other females, including their own daughters. Due to the constant attacks, young females are forced to leave much earlier than their male brothers, which results in the extremely high male to female ratio of 3:1.[17]

Solitary Leadbeater's possums have difficulty surviving: when young males disperse at about 15 months of age, they tend either to join another colony as a supernumerary member, or to gather together into bachelor groups while they wait to find a mate.

At dusk, Leadbeater's possums emerge from the nest and spread out to forage in the sub-canopy, often making substantial leaps from tree to tree (they require continuous understory to travel). Their diet is omnivorous: feeding on a range of wattle saps and exudates, lerps, and a high proportion of arthropods which they find under the loose bark of eucalypts, including spiders, crickets, termites and beetles. Plant exudates make up 80% of their energy intake, but the protein provided by the arthropods is essential for successful breeding.[14]

Births are usually timed for the beginning of winter (May and June) or late spring (October and November). Most litters are of one or two young, which stay in the pouch for 80 to 90 days, and first emerge from the nest following this. Young, newly independent Leadbeater's possums are very vulnerable to owls.

Leadbeater's possums are presently (2013) found in three habitat types: lowland swamp gum, of Yellingbo Nature Conservation Reserve; montane ash forest, wet sclerophyll forest dominated by mountain ash, shining gum and alpine ash with a dense mid-story of acacia species; sub-alpine woodlands of Mt Baw Baw, Lake Mountain and Mt Bullfight.

Threats

George, a taxidermied male Leadbeater's possum (Gymnobelideus leadbeateri), that Friends of Leadbeater's Possum uses for its educational work concerning this threatened species.

Leadbeater's possums and their forest habitat have been the subject of the largest longitudinal study of any species in the world—conducted by Professor David Lindenmayer of Australian National University and his research assistants since 1983. Hundreds of peer reviewed scientific papers, journal articles and books have resulted from the years of data collection by the ANU team. Their findings show that the availability of suitable habitat is critical: forest must be neither too old nor too young, with conservation efforts for Leadbeater’s possum involving protection of remaining old-growth stands, and maintenance of younger stands that are allowed to attain hollow-bearing age.[13] Clearfell logging and salvage logging (after bushfires) have been proven by the researchers to have been the greatest threat to their conservation in the wild over the past 30 years.

Habitat loss

George was found dead but intact on the side of a logging road about 2011 in the Victorian Central Highlands. It is assumed that George's home in the mountain ash (Eucalyptus regnans) forests was a victim of logging, and as his home was being carted away he fell off the logging truck.

The entire Central Highlands population distribution is confined to a 70 by 80 kilometre area. With 43% of its known Central Highlands habitat[18] destroyed in the bushfires of February 2009 - large areas of forest around Toolangi, Marysville, Narbethong, Cambarville and Healesville - the species' status is currently in doubt.[19] Consequently, in December 2012, Professor David Lindenmayer and Zoos Victoria's Threatened Species Biologist, Dr Dan Harley, submitted an application to the Federal Government for a revision of the species status, providing evidence that it should be relisted as critically endangered. The then Minister for the Environment, the Hon. Tony Burke, agreed with the nomination and forwarded the application to the Scientific Committee of the EPBC Act requesting urgent consideration. On 22 April 2015 it was decided to relist the species as critically endangered.[20]

The only remaining population outside the Central Highlands is located at Yellingbo Nature Conservation Reserve. Dr Harley has estimated this population to be fewer than 50.[21]

Logging

As the species is endangered and occupies a restricted range,[22] logging continues to pose a critical threat to Leadbeater's possum. The logging in 1993 of "much of the possum's habitat, known as zone one" a five hectare reserve east of Powelltown, followed a "mapping error."[23] Author Peter Preuss stated that the possum's population faltered in 1997 with current habitat (limited to a 50-square-kilometre area) under threat from logging. He emphasised the need to relaunch a breeding program.[24]

Despite a joint Federal and State government plan to save it, since the 1980s, the Leadbeater's possum population halved to around 2000 even before the Black Saturday fires. Many more were killed early in 2007 when Government Backed Enterprise company, VicForests bulldozed large firebreaks through Leadbeater's monitoring stations following the Christmas fires - firebreaks and clear-felling also prevent breeding with nearby colonies.[10]

David Lindenmayer talking about the preservation of Leadbeater's possum in Melbourne

Dr. David Lindenmayer (Australian National University) has argued that the need for nest boxes indicates that logging practices are not ecologically sustainable for conserving hollow-dependent species like the Leadbeater's possum.[25] Studies have shown that clear-felling operations, such as the logging run in state forest between the Yarra Ranges National Park and Mount Bullfight Conservation Reserve in February 2006, lead to the deaths of most possums in the area—"Adult animals have a strong affinity with their home range and are reluctant to move".[26]

Salvage logging since the fires has posed a further risk to this extremely diminished population[27] with clear-felling also approved by VicForests in the few remaining unburnt areas, such as the Kalatha Creek area of Toolangi State Forest in 2010, a move opposed by the Yarra Ranges Shire Council.[28][29]

In 2012 MyEnvironment challenged VicForests' operations in three planned coupes in the Toolangi forest in the Supreme Court. The basis of their claim being that "VicForests did not undertake adequate pre-logging surveys prior to logging in an area that we claim meets Leadbeater’s habitat and therefore should not have been logged."[30] The proposed logging is to supply (taxpayer subsidised) pulp to manufacture 'Reflex' copy paper a product of Australian Paper owned by the Japanese company, the Nippon Paper Group.[31] During the case, film was recorded of a Leadbeater's possum in the contested coupe area. The case was lost by MyEnvironment due to inconsistencies in the wording of the Leadbeater's Possum Action Statement (10 years out of date) and the Forestry Prescriptions adhered to by VicForests. The group immediately appealed the decision by the presiding judge Justice Osborne, and the Supreme Court accepted there was a sound basis for an appeal to the original determination. The Supreme Court Appeal was heard on 24 June 2013 before three judges and MyEnvironment was represented in court by Julian Burnside QC. The appeal was lost.

Legislation

On 27 June 2013 the Napthine State government passed legislative changes to allow VicForests access to Victoria's forests for the next 25 years and to be self monitoring (this follows the success of other recent cases preventing logging of remaining possum habitat). According to The Wilderness Society, "the Victorian government ... [is] virtually signing the death warrant of the remaining 500 or so Leadbeater's possums."[32] These changes to the Sustainable Forests (Timber) Act 2004 will have implications not only for the Leadbeater's possum but to the biodiversity, carbon storage and water catchments of the forests.[33][34]

Conservation

On 22 April 2015, Greg Hunt, the Minister for the Environment, announced that the Leadbeater's possum would be listed as a critically endangered species under the EPBC Act.[35] Of its ash forest habitat about 30% is protected, while the rest is allocated to logging. The habitat of a small isolated, genetically distinct, population is protected within the Yellingbo Nature Conservation Reserve.[2] In 2013 it was proposed to create the "Great Forest National Park" to protect the mountain ash forest habitat.[36] The park would protect the area between Kinglake, Baw Baw and Eildon national parks, which is also important for Melbourne's drinking water and as a carbon sink.[37]

Since 2004, the Friends of Leadbeater's Possum community group has been active in raising the animal's profile and lobbying for its conservation.

Through a joint community/government program, "Project Possum" has installed approximately 200 plastic nest boxes in the wild. Many of these nest boxes were paid for by a community fundraising campaign. The nest boxes are primarily used to assist with ongoing population monitoring and supplement the declining forest habitat. Project Possum has targeted two forest types: montane ash forest (i.e. Mt Ritchie, Dowey Spur, Ben Cairn) and sub-alpine woodland (i.e. Mt Baw Baw, Lake Mountain & Mount Bullfight). The nest boxes are routinely checked for habitation every one or two years. Nest boxes located in the sub-alpine woodland tend to have a high uptake, while those located in montane ash forest have very limited uptake. An additional 50 nest boxes are due for installation in 2015-16.

Captive breeding

Des Hackett is credited as the first person to successfully breed the Leadbeater's possum in captivity. In May 2006, the last Australian specimen at the time, held at Healesville Sanctuary, died. In January 2010, Kasia, at the time the last captive Leadbeater's possum worldwide, died at Toronto Zoo.[38] The predation in early 2012 by a feral cat of the few Lake Mountain Leadbeater's possums remaining after the 2009 bushfire led to three remaining individuals being taken into captivity for their own protection. One animal has since died.[39] There are no plans to release the remaining two animals despite a further two colonies of Leadbeater's possums having recently been located at Lake Mountain in remnant gully vegetation. These two Lake Mountain animals are now on public display in the Nocturnal House as ambassadors for the species. Healesville Sanctuary's captive breeding program for Leadbeater's possums recommenced in May 2012 and now comprises 6 individuals from the genetically distinct Yellingbo population. They are housed as pairs in large enclosures off display, but are yet to breed (May 2015).

See also

References

  1. ↑ Groves, C.P. (2005). "Order Diprotodontia". In Wilson, D.E.; Reeder, D.M. Mammal Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3rd ed.). Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 54. ISBN 978-0-8018-8221-0. OCLC 62265494.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Menkhorst, P. (2008). "Gymnobelideus leadbeateri". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2013.2. International Union for Conservation of Nature. Retrieved 3 April 2014. Database entry includes justification for why this species is listed as endangered
  3. ↑ Leadbeater's Possum Recovey Plan, 1997
  4. ↑ Hackett, Des (2006). Peter Preuss, ed. Leadbeater's Possum: Bred To Be Wild. Trafford Publishing. p. 203. ISBN 1-4120-8382-6.
  5. ↑ Tyndale-Biscoe, Hugh (2004). Life of marsupials. CSIRO publishing. p. 203. ISBN 0-643-06257-2.
  6. ↑ gazette.slv.vic.gov.au/images/1971/V/general/20.pdf
  7. 1 2 3 Milman, Oliver: "Government-backed logging 'pushing rare possum towards extinction" in The Guardian 27 May 2013
  8. ↑ "How to save a forest fairy from extinction". The Wilderness Society. 27 May 2014. Retrieved 22 November 2014.
  9. 1 2 3 "Facts about Leadbeater's Possum". Help save Leadbearer's Possum. Friends of Leadbeater’s Possum Inc. Retrieved 26 September 2013.
  10. 1 2 3 Weekes, Peter (5 August 2007). "State's emblem nearly extinct". The Sunday Age (Melbourne). p. 1.
  11. ↑ Lindenmayer, David: Wildlife + Woodchips: Leadbeater's Possum— A Test Case for Sustainable Forestry, University of New South Wales Press, 1996, p28
  12. ↑ Anonymous, Anonymous (20 September 2011). "Leadbeater's Possum". Herald Sun.
  13. 1 2 Macfarlane MA, Smith J, Lowe K (1998). Leadbeater’s Possum Recovery Plan, 1998–2002. Melbourne: Department of Natural Resources and Environment.
  14. 1 2 Australian Government, Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities: "Leadbeater's Possum", retrieved 30 August 2013
  15. ↑ "Leadbeater's possum habitat 'almost certain to collapse' due to logging, fires". Guardian. 7 November 2014. Retrieved 7 November 2014.
  16. 1 2 "Leadbeater's Possum". Leadbeater's Possum. Friends of the Helmeted Honeyeater inc. Retrieved 25 September 2013.
  17. 1 2 "Leadbeater's Possum". Animal Diversity Web. University of Michigan. Retrieved 25 September 2013.
  18. ↑ Last captive Leadbeater's possum dies. ninemsn.com.au. 15 April 2006.
  19. ↑ aap (11 February 2009). "A million native animals may have died in Victorian bushfires". The Australian. Retrieved 12 February 2009.
  20. ↑ Greg Hunt MP (22 April 2015). "Government moves to save Victoria's iconic Leadbeater's possum". Minister for the Environment. Retrieved 23 April 2015.
  21. ↑ Morton, Adam: "Hello possum, you're an emblem of extinction", in The Age 2 October 2010
  22. ↑ "A survey of the distribution of Leadbeater's possum, Gymnobelideus leadbeateri McCoy in the Central Highlands of Victoria". Victorian Naturalist. 106: 174–178. 1989.
  23. ↑ O'Neill, Graeme (12 May 1993). "Rare possum's habitat destroyed by mistake". The Age (Melbourne). p. 5.
  24. ↑ Elder, John (16 April 2006). "Death puts spotlight on Leadbeater plight". The Sunday Age (Melbourne). p. 5.
  25. ↑ Lindenmayer, D.B.; MacGregor, C.; Gibbons, P. (December 2002). "Comment - Economics of a nest-box program for the conservation of an endangered species: a re-appraisal". Canadian Journal of Forest Research. 32 (12): 2244–2247. doi:10.1139/x02-142.
  26. ↑ Hutchison, Tracee: "A possum stares extinction in the face", in The Age, 18 February 2006
  27. ↑ Lindenmayer D; Banks S; McBurney L; Blair, D (2010). "After the fire: Leadbeater's long journey". Ecos. 157: 1–5.
  28. ↑ Call to stop logging Toolangi
  29. ↑ ABC TV Broadcast: 22/05/2009 Reporter: Kate Arnott
  30. ↑ MyEnvironment: "Leadbeater's Possum", retrieved 30 August 2013
  31. ↑ Farnsworth, Sarah (6 February 2012). "Toolangi logging threatens rare possum, court told". ABC News. Retrieved 16 February 2012.
  32. ↑ Warrick Jordan: "Native woodchipping sector in rapid decline", in The Age, 29 December 2011
  33. ↑ Sustainable Forests (Timber) Amendment Bill 2013, retrieved 20 July 2013
  34. ↑ Milman, Oliver (27 June 2013). "Conservationists fear Victoria's cuts to logging green tape". Guardian UK. Retrieved 30 July 2013.
  35. ↑ http://environment.gov.au/minister/hunt/2015/pubs/mr20150422.pdf
  36. ↑ Arup, Tom: "Push for national park to save possum", in The Age, 29 August 2013
  37. ↑ Great Forest National Park website, retrieved 31 August 2013
  38. ↑ "Leadbeater's Possum". Zoos Victoria. Retrieved 18 September 2011.
  39. ↑ "Endangered possums taken to wildlife sanctuary". ABC News. 13 February 2012. Retrieved 14 February 2012.
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