Journal
BIOLOGICAL CONSERVATION
Volume 232, Issue -, Pages 187-193Publisher
ELSEVIER SCI LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.biocon.2019.02.002
Keywords
Australia; Invasive predator; Fossil record; Feral cat; Fox; Tasmanian devil; Sarcophilus
Funding
- Office of Environment and Heritage [APP-0000644159]
- Griffith University-Simon Fraser University Collaborative Grant
- British Columbia Knowledge Development Fund
- Canada Research Chairs Program
- Canada Foundation for Innovation, Griffith University
- Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada
- Australian Research Council
- NSW National Parks and Wildlife
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The diversity of Australia's mammalian fauna has decreased markedly since European colonisation. Species in the small-to-medium body size range have been particularly badly affected. Feral cats and foxes have played a central role in this decline and consequently strategies for reducing their numbers are being evaluated. One such strategy is the reintroduction to the mainland of the Tasmanian devil, Sarcophilus harrisll. Here, we provide a palaeontological perspective on this proposal. We begin by collating published records of devil remains in Quaternary deposits. These data show that the range of devils once spanned all the main ecological zones in Australia. This indicates that they are capable of coping with a wide range of climatic and environmental conditions, and suggests that they could conceivably be reintroduced much more widely than has been thought possible hitherto. Subsequently, we examine fossils and coprolites from two sites in the Willandra Lakes Region World Heritage Area. These specimens not only support the suggestion that devils have wide ecological tolerances, but also suggest that devils can coexist with native small-to-medium species over long periods of time, which addresses one of the major concerns about the proposed reintroduction. We believe these two sets of palaeontological observations add substantial weight to the idea of reintroducing devils to the mainland as a way of suppressing cat and fox numbers.
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