Evaluation of conservation corridors created in the wet tropics world heritage area by assessing small mammal assemblages
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01/03/2009
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Journal of Environmental Information Science
The relationship among mammal assemblages, site age and vegetation structure was assessed along three conservation corridors that were created to link national parks to the wet tropics World Heritage Area of North Queensland, Australia. Seventeen restored rainforest sites were classified into six site types according to their planting age, which ranged from 0 to 12 years, and 14 sites of native tropical forests were selected as reference sites. A total of 774 individuals and 11 species of rodents and marsupials were recorded at 31 study sites through the use of live-traps. The species composition of the mammals at sites had been restored for at least seven years similar to that of the reference sites of native forests. This finding indicates that conservation corridors facilitate the persistence of small mammal populations and their migration among isolated and fragmented forests.