CSIRO List of Australian Vertebrates: A Reference with Conservation Status

CSIRO LIST OF

AUSTRALIAN

VERTEBRATES

A REFERENCE WITH CONSERVATION STATUS

CSIRO LIST OF

AUSTRALIAN

VERTEBRATES

A REFERENCE WITH CONSERVATION STATUS

SECOND EDITION

Mark Clayton | John C. Wombey | Ian J. Mason | R. Terry Chesser | Alice Wells

© CSIRO 2006

All rights reserved. Except under the conditions described in the Australian Copyright Act 1968 and subsequent amendments, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, duplicating or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. Contact CSIRO PUBLISHING for all permission requests.

National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry

CSIRO list of Australian vertebrates: a reference with conservation status.

2nd ed.

Bibliography.

Includes index.

ISBN 0 643 09075 4.

1. Vertebrates – Australia. I. Clayton, Mark.

596.0994

Available from

CSIRO PUBLISHING

150 Oxford Street (PO Box 1139)

Collingwood VIC 3066

Australia

Front cover

Main image: Western Grey Kangaroo (photo by Tadao Shimba). Other images clockwise from left: Freshwater Crocodile, White-lipped Tree Frog (photos by Rosemary McArthur), Dolphin (photo by Robert Kerton), Galah (photo by Rosemary McArthur).

Back cover (from left): Kookaburra, Tasmanian Devil, Sulphur-crested Cockatoo, (photos by istockphoto), Striated Pardalote (photo by John Manger), Bearded Dragon (photo by istockphoto).

Set in Adobe Minion

Cover and text design by James Kelly

Typeset by Desktop Concepts Pty Ltd, Melbourne

Printed in Australia by BPA Print Group

CONTENTS

General information

Rationale

How to use this list

Taxonomy and nomenclature

Distribution

Conservation status

ABRS numbers

Limitations and their criteria

Acknowledgements

Closing date

Sources of information

Census of Australian vertebrate species numbers

Legislation and conservation status

Amphibians

Regular components of Australia’s fauna

Introductions of native species in Australia and its territories

Reptiles

Regular components of Australia’s fauna

Birds

Regular components of Australia’s fauna

Vagrants and accidental visitors that have been recorded in Australia, its territories and territorial waters

Introductions of native species in Australia and its territories

Introductions of foreign species once established but now extinct in Australia and its territories

Mammals

Regular components of Australia’s fauna

Vagrants and accidental visitors that have been recorded in Australia, its territories and territorial waters

Introductions of native species in Australia and its territories

Introductions of foreign species once established but now extinct in Australia and its territories

Appendix: Newly described and accepted taxa

Amphibians

Reptiles

Birds

Mammals

Index to common names

Amphibians

Reptiles

Birds

Mammals

Index to scientific names

Amphibians

Reptiles

Birds

Mammals

GENERAL INFORMATION

RATIONALE

The primary goals of the first edition of the CSIRO List of Australian Vertebrates were to provide standardised taxonomy and nomenclature for Australian amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals, and to provide current distributional and conservation information for each vertebrate species in each Australian State and Territory. Seven years have passed since publication of the first edition, and while it has set a standard for use by government agencies, NGOs, scientists, private corporations and other interested parties, numerous changes in intervening years suggest that a new edition is in order.

To this end, we offer this second edition, which provides updated information on taxonomy, nomenclature, distribution and protection status, and incorporates several features not present in the previous edition. First, whereas the first edition was primarily a species list, incorporating only subspecies that were conservation listed, all currently recognised and named subspecies of amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals are covered in this edition. Second, distributional information is now provided for commonwealth territories, with individual territories distinguished by numbers. Third, distributional information is now included in the supplementary tables listing vagrant and accidental bird records. Fourth, a supplementary table of vagrant and accidental mammal records has been included, as well as supplementary tables listing native vertebrate species introduced to parts of Australia and its territories in which they do not naturally occur, and supplementary tables listing introduced foreign species once established but now extinct in Australia and its territories. Fifth, we have included a second, lighter shading to indicate species or subspecies that occur or have occurred in a State or Territory but are not considered a regular component of the fauna of that State or Territory. Sixth, we have added date of description to the nomenclatural authority for each species and subspecies. Finally, we have included a list of taxa new to this edition as an appendix.

Although vertebrates are generally considered the most well-known faunal group, their taxonomy is constantly evolving, and much remains to be learned about systematics of Australian vertebrates. New species continue to be described and species and genus level revisions continue to add to our understanding of vertebrate diversity in Australia, especially that of reptiles and mammals. Higher level systematics are also in a state of flux. This new edition reflects many recent modifications to systematics and taxonomy of Australian vertebrates, although not all higher level changes have been incorporated. Continued publication of studies of poorly known groups (e.g. bats, dasyurid marsupials and bandicoots) and resolution of the taxonomy of contentious groups (e.g. albatrosses) will undoubtedly occasion additional refinements in subsequent editions of this list.

HOW TO USE THIS LIST

This list is intended as a unifying reference tool and guide for all persons working with and publishing on Australia’s vertebrate fauna, particularly those dealing in legal matters and environmental inventory and management programs.

TAXONOMY AND NOMENCLATURE

Sources used for taxonomy and nomenclature are current authoritative checklists and handbooks covering amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals, respectively. Sequences of families, genera and species follow those typically used in their respective class. Sequences of families for all classes follow generally accepted classifications, as do sequences of genera and species within birds. Within families of reptiles and amphibians, genera and species are arranged in alphabetical order. Within mammals, genera are arranged in alphabetical order within families and subfamilies, and species are arranged in alphabetical order within genera. In all classes, subspecies are arranged in clockwise geographical sequence beginning in Queensland.

The taxonomy, nomenclature and sequences of families, genera, species and subspecies are based primarily on the following sources, as amended by subsequent references listed below under Sources of Information:

Amphibia (frogs) – Cogger (2000);

Reptilia (reptiles) –Wilson and Swan (2003);

Aves (birds) – Dickinson (2003) for non-passerines and Schodde and Mason (1999) for passerines;

Mammalia (mammals) – Rice (1998) for marine mammals and Strahan (1995) for all other mammals.

DISTRIBUTION

Columns headed CT through NT denote Australian States and Territories, under which species and subspecies present from the time of European settlement are shaded. Full shading indicates that a species or subspecies is considered a regular component of the fauna of that jurisdiction, whereas light shading indicates that the taxon is considered accidental or vagrant (see below for criteria). An asterisk (*) indicates an exotic (human-assisted) introduction, and a hash sign (#) indicates that the subspecies is not known.

Up to three supplementary distributional tables follow the regular listings of each vertebrate class. These indicate: (1) vagrants and accidental visitors to Australia, (2) introductions of native species to parts of Australia and its territories in which they do not naturally occur, and (3) introductions of foreign species once established but now extinct in Australia and its territories.

The States and Territories, by acronym, are:

CT = Commonwealth Territories, coded as:

1 = Norfolk Island

2 = Jervis Bay Territory

3 = Heard and McDonald Islands and Australian Antarctic Territory

4 = Christmas Island, Cocos (Keeling) Island, and Ashmore Reef (the Australian Coral Sea Islands Territory has not been considered for this edition)

Q = Queensland, including Torres Strait islands

N = New South Wales, including Lord Howe Island

A = Australian Capital Territory

V = Victoria

T = Tasmania, including Bass Strait islands and Macquarie Island

S = South Australia, including Kangaroo Island

W = Western Australia, including all off-shore archipelagoes

NT = Northern Territory, including Tiwi islands (Bathurst & Melville) and Groote Eylandt

CONSERVATION STATUS

The column headed CL indicates protection status under Commonwealth Legislation, coded as follows:

X = extinct

Ec = critically endangered

E = endangered

V = vulnerable

Cd = conservation dependent

Note: those species listed under the Act solely as migratory and marine have not been coded.

Within the columns denoting distribution, letters indicate gazetted protection status in the relevant State or Territory. Conservation status in Queensland, New South Wales, the Australian Capital Territory, Tasmania, and South Australia consists of from 2–4 of the following standard categories:

X = extinct or presumed extinct

R = rare

E = endangered

V = vulnerable

The Northern Territory uses the following additional categories:

Xr = regionally extinct in the NT

Xw = extinct in the wild

Ec = critically endangered

N = near threatened

and listings of specially protected fauna in Western Australia use only the following categories:

R = rare or likely to become extinct

X = presumed extinct

I = protected under an international agreement between Australia and Japan (birds only)

O = fauna in need of special protection for reasons other than those listed above.

Victoria uses only a single category of protection status:

T = threatened.

The column headed I denotes status in the 2004 IUCN Red List of Threatened Animals, produced by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources. The following acronyms under this column correspond to the category of threat for taxa listed in the IUCN Red List, as follows:

EX = extinct and extinct in the wild

CR = critically endangered

EN = endangered

NT = lower risk/near threatened

CD = lower risk/conservation dependent

VU = vulnerable

DD = data deficient

Note that the IUCN category lower risk/least concern has not been included.

ABRS NUMBERS

The last column, ABRS, lists the code number of each species and subspecies in the Census of Australian Vertebrate Species produced by the Australian Biological Resources Study (ABRS). We have included ABRS numbers for all recognised species and subspecies, including many new numbers, and have addressed numerous problems associated with previous numbers, in accordance with the following guidelines:

common usage has been