Ranging Behavior of an Arboreal Marsupial in a Plantation Landscape

Forests are becoming increasingly fragmented, primarily because of their conversion to production landscapes. Animals occupying modified landscapes may need to expand their ranges and move longer distances between remnant forest patches to find resources. The establishment of plantations in fragment...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Journal of wildlife management 2020-08, Vol.84 (6), p.1091-1099
Main Authors: ASHMAN, KITA R., PAGE, NINA R., WHISSON, DESLEY A.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Collars
Global positioning systems
GPS
Habitat fragmentation
Habitat utilization
Home range
land use change
Landscape
Phascolarctos cinereus
Plantations
Population Ecology
Ranging behavior
Roadsides
Vegetation
Very high frequencies
Wildlife habitats
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Forests are becoming increasingly fragmented, primarily because of their conversion to production landscapes. Animals occupying modified landscapes may need to expand their ranges and move longer distances between remnant forest patches to find resources. The establishment of plantations in fragmented landscapes, however, may provide complementary habitat for wildlife and improve connectivity, reducing the amount of movement required. Our objective was to determine the influence of plantations on koala (Phascolarctos cinereus) habitat use and test 2 competing hypotheses on the relationship between plantations and range size. We deployed global positioning system and very high frequency collars on 40 koalas in 2 landscapes (plantation and non-plantation) in Victoria, Australia. From 68,216 tracking points collected over an 8-month period, we calculated and compared seasonal home range size and habitat use between landscapes. There was no difference in range size, the size and number of core use areas, or the distance between core use areas between plantation and non-plantation landscapes. Plantations extend existing koala habitat and facilitate koala movement through a landscape; however, remnant native vegetation is still more frequently used. Consequently, native vegetation (even fragmented, linear roadside vegetation) is of high conservation importance for the persistence of koalas in modified landscapes.
ISSN:0022-541X
1937-2817
DOI:10.1002/jwmg.21885