Urban wildlife: more than meets the eye

Abstract

Ever since European settlement of Australia, there have been countless species of fauna which have dramatically declined in distribution and abundance. In the past 200 years, at least 21 species of birds and 19 species of mammals have become extinct (Burgman and Lindenmayer 1998). This pattern of extinction is evident throughout the mainland and islands of Australia, although the local extinction of fauna in urban areas is often overlooked. How and Dell (2000) present alarming data on the plight of urban fauna in Perth, where over half of the native mammal species have become locally extinct.