Rebuttal

Abstract

Mr. Macfarlane and Mr. Loyn have failed to recognize the main thrust of the recent article comparing the development of management strategies for the conservation of the Northern Spotted Owl in the Pacific Northwest of the USA and Leadbeater's Possum in Central Victoria (Lindenmayer and Norton 1993). The key issue was not to compare the biology of the respective taxa; that would be nonsensical. Rather, it was to highlight that, unlike the management of Leadbeater's Possum (Macfarlane and Seebeck 1991), conservation strategies for the Northern Spotted Owl have now been developed that are ecologically defensible and scientifically valid (Murphy and Noon 1992).