Effects of Different Habitats on the Abundance of Wildlife

 

 

 

 

 

 

Effects of Different Habitats on the Abundance of Wildlife

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Abstract

This report will analyse the two National game parks in Australia, which are the Richmond Range and Tooloom National park. These game park act as the home of different species like the endangered species.  But still, the number of the species in these game park habitats to the species will depend on several factors. Factors like pollution, wildfire and emission of greenhouse gases result in climate change and can eventually lead to the migration of animals. The higher number of species in these game parks helps in the attraction of tourist; thus it is so significant if the number of these species are kept higher.  In these game park spotlighting and the use of installed cameras are very significant in collecting the data on the number of species which helps in determining the species population growth.

 

 

Effect of Different Habitats on the Abundance of Wildlife

 

Introduction

National parks, game reserves, and protected areas play a crucial role in protecting wildlife. In this case, national parks and protected regions help preserve the endangered species of wildlife such as Rhinos, Elephants, Lions, and Leopards. This study will only be limited to two known national parks in Australia: Richmond Range and Tooloom National park (McHugh et al., 2020). Richmond Range National park, provides services such as World Heritage rainforest walks, viewing of scenic objects, and horse riding activities. Richmond Range National park has several waterfalls where the wildlife can drink water for survival. Some of the exciting species of wildlife found in this park are Virginia’s native organisms (McHugh et al., 2020). Examples of the mammals that dwell in this park include the raccoons, park hosts deer, and rabbits. The stream areas within the park serve as the breeding grounds for various fish species. Tooloom National Park is another protected region located in the Northern Rivers areas of New South Wales in Australia.

Just like the Richmond Range, Tooloom National park offers services such as scenic views since the region is surrounded by a small clearing cover of lush Tooloom scrub that attracts several tourists (Opit, 2017). Tooloom National Park is of is of great value since it records high levels of an array of fauna species except for birds and macropods (Opit, 2017). Some of the animals that are likely to be found in this park include the snakes, birds, and macropod species, among other mammals. These parks should be made free from environmental pollution, including limiting greenhouse gas emissions, which causes climate change. The survey was done on these two National parks in Australia to determine the threatened species’ existence and whether the various habitats affect the wildlife abundance.

 

Methods

The transect method of data collection

Taking an example of the Richmond Range National Park, the number of birds, owls, arboreal organisms, and small mammals were sampled using line transects. In this case, the Elliot traps were used to sample the organisms in the rainforest habitat and eucalyptus forests (Derhé et al., 2018). The Elliot traps were placed at 50 meters apart for accurate data acquisition. The active reptiles were searched by setting the traps 10 meters away from each other. These reptiles’ habitats included the bushes and areas around the rocks (Derhé et al., 2018).

Another method applied to sample the owls, and arboreal mammals was the use of spotlighting, which was carried out for two consecutive nights or a period of 30 minutes per transect (Einoder et al., 2018). Again, birds were also surveyed by using the trapping transects for a maximum period of 3o minutes on two consecutive mornings with an extension of 20 meters transect on any side of the transect by identifying and counting the number of birds. The installation of two harp traps did the microbat sampling.

In Tooloom National Park, there was the use of wildlife cameras installed in 40 diverse habitats in January to investigate the impacts of bushfires on wildlife and the habitats (McHugh et al., 2020). Following the half-burnt area, 30 sites were chosen, while the remaining ten areas were chosen at random from the area, which was burnt. The chosen areas were then separated at a distance of 500 meters. The cameras were then left for two months, whereby the required data for the medium-sized mammals were observed and collected. The collected data was finally tested to determine the significance of the diverse habitats in influencing the wildlife species’ abundance.

 

 

References

Derhé, M. A., Murphy, H. T., Preece, N. D., Lawes, M. J., & Menéndez, R. (2018). Recovery       of mammal diversity in tropical forests: a functional approach to measuring       restoration. Restoration Ecology, 26(4), 778-786.

Einoder, L. D., Southwell, D. M., Lahoz-Monfort, J. J., Gillespie, G. R., Fisher, A., & Wintle,      B. A. (2018). Occupancy and detectability modelling of vertebrates in northern    Australia using multiple sampling methods. PloS one, 13(9), e0203304.

McHugh, D., Goldingay, R. L., Parkyn, J., Goodwin, A., & Letnic, M. (2020). Short‐term          response of threatened small macropods and their predators to prescribed burns in         subtropical Australia. Ecological Management & Restoration.

Opit, G. (2017). Citizen Science and Cryptozoology, data received from listeners during 18          years of wildlife talkback on ABC North Coast New South Wales Local      Radio. Australian Zoologist, 38(3), 430-456.