Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2006L03939:body:0:p4
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2006L03939
Segment Type: other
Provision Reference: 
Character Range: 9610–12527

to survival. Given the absence of recent sightings of either species, any habitat in which one or other species is found in future should be regarded as habitat critical to the species' survival and the discovered population treated as an important population.

Figure 1: All records with specified provenance of Lister's Gecko from Christmas Island (from Cogger & Sadlier, 2000); grid at 30" intervals.

Figure 2: The only provenanced record of the Christmas Island Blind Snake is from near Stewart Hill, in primary rainforest near the centre of the Christmas Island central plateau.

Threats

Various threatening processes that are likely to impact on Lister's Gecko and the Christmas Island Blind Snake are listed below and may vary in their impacts according to the different ecologies of these two reptiles. However, because no ecological studies of the reptile species have been conducted, all are potential threats and the magnitude of impact, if any, is unquantifiable.

Predators
Other than native species which were sympatric with the Lister's Gecko before their declines, known or probable predators on Lister's Gecko and/or its eggs include the Black Rat (Rattus rattus), domestic and feral cats (Felis cattus), the Asian Wolf Snake (Lycodon capucinus), the Yellow Crazy Ant, and the giant centipede. There is a high probability that the Wolf Snake is a major threat to all endemic reptiles of Christmas Island (Fritts, 1993). There are many examples of both cats and black rats having dramatic impacts on the native fauna, including lizards, of oceanic islands. While their impacts on the native reptiles of Christmas Island are unresearched and unknown, available data would caution against underestimating their potential impacts. There are also few data available on known or potential native predators and their current impacts on either of the two threatened reptiles.

Habitat loss, fragmentation and degradation
Before 1989 Christmas Island was subjected to more or less continuous loss and degradation of its native vegetation through clearing (for buildings, phosphate mining, airport construction, road infrastructure, etc.) and the impacts of exotic plants and animals. Christmas Island National Park was gazetted in 1980 (and extensions in 1986 and 1989), setting aside of more than 60% of the island, together with the resources and personnel to manage it. Outside the National Park the EPBC Act provisions provide for regulation of actions which may have significant impacts on threatened species.

However, past and ongoing fragmentation of native habitat, either through excision of forests for other purposes or the construction of roads and tracks, may also have had impacts on Lister's Gecko and the blind snake. The impacts of such intrusions into forests are usually greater than the actual areas excised, due to degraded edges being used by introduced species that