Short-Term Effects of Fuel Reduction Burning on Populations of Small Terrestrial Mammals

Abstract

Small mammals (Rattus fuscipes, Mus musculus, Antechinus flavipes, Isoodon obesulus) were livetrapped for 18 months prior to fuel reduction burning (FRB) in dry sclerophyll forest dominated by Eucalyptus obliqua south of Adelaide. Although the fire prescription was hotter than that normally conducted for a FRB in this habitat, the fire was of low intensity, removing most of the litter and understorey but only singeing the canopy in a few places. Trapping continued for 16 months after the burn, when the study site was destroyed by a wildfire (Ash Wednesday, 16 February 1983). No animals were known to have died as a direct result of the FRB and little effect was observed on the population dynamics of A. flavipes. However, numbers of R. fuscipes declined precipitously in the 3 months following the FRB and remained at low levels with no summer recruitment of juveniles over the following 16 months (2 summers) as there had been in the summer prior to the FRB. No movements to unburned areas were recorded in either species after the FRB. There was no influx of M, musculus after the fire and there was no marked affect on the population of I. obesulus.