Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2024L01095:body:0:p13
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2024L01095
Segment Type: other
Provision Reference: 
Character Range: 33477–36280

see Kimber 1985; Copley & Williams 1995; Richards & Short 1996; Copley et al. 2003). This Traditional Knowledge includes accounts of the bird's range, habits and habitat requirements, and is fast disappearing. A list of some Indigenous names for Malleefowl is presented in Appendix I, and it is hoped that this recovery plan may encourage further work in this field.
Within the past century, the range of Malleefowl has contracted, particularly in arid areas and at the periphery of its former range. For example, an assessment of records of the species up to 2005 (Benshemesh 2007b) found that, of the 194 one-degree grid cells across Australia in which the species has been recorded at some time in the past, only 70% had Malleefowl records after 1981, and 53% after 1992. Declines were particularly apparent in arid areas and the species may be extinct in the NT where it was last recorded in 1965. Further, from 1981 to 2005 the species' range appears to have contracted by 22% in eastern Australia (NSW and Vic), 26% in SA and 28% in WA (Benshemesh 2007b). In WA, Parsons et al. (2008) examined a larger dataset and provided similar estimates (30%) for the contraction of the species' range since 1981.  Parsons et al. (2008) cautioned, however, that estimates of range contraction using presence-only data may be unreliable in remote areas as there is a high likelihood of the species being present but undetected. In the past decade there have been efforts in both SA and WA to collate records in the Great Victoria Desert (Benshemesh 2007a; Department of Parks and Wildlife 2016) and to undertake surveys on Indigenous lands (Bellchambers 2007; Benshemesh et al. 2014; Pennington et al. 2014; Benshemesh 2017). These efforts have greatly increased knowledge of the current distribution of Malleefowl in these areas.
Malleefowl crossing a sandy wheel track, ©Michael Gooch, NMRG

In the semi-arid zone, where Malleefowl densities are highest, the clearing of habitat has been the major cause of the marked decline in the distribution of the species. Apart from removing much of the habitat supporting high densities of the species, this clearing has fragmented the distribution of Malleefowl. Over much of its range the species now persists in small patches of habitat that are inadequate for its long-term conservation without careful planning and management.
Figure 1 – Indicative current distribution of Malleefowl (Leipoa ocellata)

3.3 Population trends

The most comprehensive analysis of Malleefowl population trends across Australia was undertaken from monitoring data collected from 1989–2017 across 127 sites (Benshemesh et al. 2020). The average monitoring period of these sites was 14.4 years. Analysis of these data showed a decline in Malleefowl breeding numbers of 4.8% per year in