DOI: 10.5061/dryad.bzkh189hx
title: Rare but not lost: Endemic mountain lizard occupancy following mega-fire and grazing disturbances

description: Wildfires and grazing by invasive herbivores can influence habitat
 suitability for ground‐dwelling fauna, such as reptiles. Australia has a
 large and diverse reptile fauna, with the Australian Alps bioregion in the
 southeast of the continent supporting a disproportionately high number of
 threatened species. In this bioregion, many species are threatened by
 fire, habitat loss or modification, and invasive species. The range of one
 such threatened endemic lizard, Cyclodomorphus praealtus (family
 Scincidae), was impacted by the 2019–20 mega-fires and is also subject to
 widespread grazing by invasive species. We investigated the relationship
 between C. praealtus site occupancy and fire and grazing. We completed
 2045 surveys across 120 sites over 4 years, detecting the species at 43%
 of sites and increasing the species' known geographic range. Using
 single-season detection occupancy models, we found C. praealtus occupancy
 was not associated with elevation, vegetation height, or whether the site
 was burnt, but was positively associated with grazing activity. Our
 results indicate that C. praealtus can persist following a single fire in
 some cases and that habitats with high occupancy probabilities are subject
 to high grazing pressure. However, our results do not rule out more
 nuanced impacts associated with these disturbances, which affect a large
 proportion of C. praealtus' habitat. Our cumulative detection
 probability calculations revealed that considerable survey effort is often
 required to determine C. praealtus site occupancy. We therefore recommend
 that impact assessments assume species presence within areas of suitable
 habitat within the species' range. Our study improves our
 understanding of disturbance impacts on C. praealtus' occupancy while
 demonstrating the need for sufficiently resourced impact assessments for
 cryptic and threatened species.
description: # Rare but not lost: Endemic mountain lizard occupancy following mega-fire
 and grazing disturbances Field, Description * UID = unique identifier for
 the record * siteID = site code * date = date of the record * time = time
 of the record * air_temp = air temperature (degrees Celcius) at the start
 of the site survey * season = categorical variable relating to the annual
 snow-free period during which the data were collected * No.AvailTls =
 Number of tiles in transect that had &lt;1/3 surface area occupied by
 ants, and were not displaced from transect, shattered, or underwater *
 tile_temp_av = The mean temperature under tiles in the transect *
 C_praealtus = Whether *C. praealtus* was detected (1) or not (0) * day =
 Day of the year, centred on summer snow-free period (0 = 1 October, range:
 149-282) * elev.1sDEM = Metres above sea level calculated from the digital
 elevation model * fire = A binary variable where burnt = 1 and unburnt = 0
 * tgp = Index of grazing activity that quantifies signs of all herbivorous
 mammal species and accounts for varying levels of grazing intensity *
 temp_diff = The interaction of the temperature differential and the mean
 under-tile temperature * ObsNo = the survey number (repeat) for the season