Much of the state forests south of Eden were affected by the Black Summer bushfires, fires that burnt hotter and more ferociously than many people had ever seen, but Forestry Corporation of NSW senior field ecologist Rohan Bilney said remarkably some small native animals weren't just surviving, they were thriving.
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Mr Bilney said Forestry had been monitoring wildlife at 40 sites in state forests south of Eden since 2007 as part of the Southern Brown Bandicoot Species Management Plan, and every monitoring site was impacted by fires in 2019-20.
The area covered is over 100,000 square hectares and includes Nagee, Yambulla, East Boyd and Timbillica, areas that were hit hard by the Border Fire approaching from the south and leaving little unburnt under-storey.
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"The Black Summer fire and the severe drought that preceded it caused numerous small mammal species to decline, with some showing a greater than 50 per cent decline, but within two years of the fire we're delighted to see most species bouncing back, some rather dramatically," Dr Bilney said.
He said the recovery was comparable to pre-drought times and showed the highest numbers of small natives for five years.
"Species started decling in 2016-17 but the rapid recovery has been remarkable," he said.
He points to multiple factors playing into the recovery.
"For the last two years we have had 400-500mm more than our average annual rainfall and this year have had the average annual rainfall and it's only April."
The rainfall has brought about a return of the under-storey vegetation, some of it now 2m high, Mr Bilney said.
"Grasses have been dominant and have provided seeds for those smaller species; increased rainfall and prolific vegetation regrowth providing ideal conditions for breeding and recovery for a range of animal species including Southern Brown Bandicoots, Long-nosed Bandicoots, Bush Rats and Agile Antechinus.
"In particular, populations of Southern Brown Bandicoots and Bush Rats have exploded, with our cameras recording the highest occupancy rates we've seen in five to six years, and approaching our highest ever detections," Mr Bilney said.
But the most remarkable change in occupancy has been with the Painted Button quail, a small bird species rarely detected pre-fire, being detected at over two-thirds of the monitoring sites last year.
- Rohan Bilney, senior field ecologist, Forestry
"The Southern Brown Bandicoot can breed as fast as a rabbit and multiple times a year and so you can see an explosion in numbers pretty quickly while the Long-nosed Potoroos only have one at a time," he said.
Mr Bilney also said that when the fires went through, they also took out a lot of feral cats and foxes.
"We saw their occupancy to be halved after the fires although foxes tend to be low in numbers in the forest environments," he said.
"But the most remarkable change in occupancy has been with the Painted Button quail, a small bird species rarely detected pre-fire, being detected at over two-thirds of the monitoring sites last year. That equates to greater than a 10-fold increase in occupancy rate within a 12-month period.
"I'm blown away with how well they have responded.
"While the recovery of smaller native mammals has been most pronounced, larger and more common species including Common Wombats, brush-tailed possums, Swamp Wallabies, Lace Monitors, Short-beaked Echidnas and Superb Lyrebirds have continued to be recorded at rates similar to those recorded before the fires and drought.
"While this is preliminary monitoring data, our cameras have been monitoring the same 40 locations in state forests south of Eden for more than a decade and this latest data is a really promising sign that many native species have not only survived the Black Summer fires quite well, but are currently thriving."
Mr Bilney said they were keen to keep monitoring and understand how species change over time.
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