What kind of dominant wildlife can be found in the Great Victoria Desert in Australia?

Much of the Great Victoria Desert is vegetated by open woodlands, typically eucalypts (Eucalyptus gongylocarpa, E. pyriformis, and E. socialis) with a hummock grass understorey (Triodia spp., largely T. basedownii), mulga (Acacia aneura) with other grasses (Aristida spp. and Plectrachne spp.), or belah (Casuarina cristata) with shrubs (Maireana sedifolia, Dodenaea attenuata) (Boomsma and Lewis 1980, Greenslade et al. 1986, Specht 1972). The 鈥楪iles Corridor鈥?is a narrow strip of Acacia vegetation and the only continuous shrubland to completely traverse the Great Victoria Desert. This corridor links the Pilbara region in Western Australia to the Central Ranges by going though the Lake Carnegie region in the Great Victoria Desert and the southern part of the Gibson Desert (Van Oosterzee 1991).





One of the strategies that allows animals to persist in such extreme environments is to be highly mobile and follow favorable conditions across great distances. Consequently endemism is low, especially among birds and larger mammals. Nevertheless, the endangered chestnut-breasted whiteface (Aphelocephala pectoralis) has a relatively restricted range, spanning the eastern parts of this region and the western parts of the adjoining Tirari-Sturt stony desert region (Blakers et al. 1984, Brouwer and Garnett 1990, Hilton-Taylor 2000). The vulnerable malleefowl (Leipoa ocellata) occurs within the Unnamed Conservation, and, although not reported from the region in recent decades, it is conceivable that the enigmatic and critically endangered night parrot (Geopsittacus occidentalis) is still present (Blakers et al. 1984, Brouwer and Garnett 1990).





The Great Victoria Desert also has an exceptionally high diversity of reptiles (Pianka 1984), including the vulnerable great desert skink (Egernia kintorei) (Cogger 2000) which had been considered extinct in South Australia until its rediscovery by Aboriginal landholders in 1998. More than 100 species of reptile have been recorded, with Gekkonidae (e.g. Diplodactylus), Agamidae (e.g. Ctenophorus), Scincidae (e.g. Ctenotus, Egernia, Lerista and Morethia), and Elapidae (e.g. Simoselaps and Suta) being particularly diverse (Cogger 2000). Extensive lizard radiations and speciation occurred all over the arid interior of Australia, largely in response to climatic changes in the late Pleistocene and the associated shifting and isolation of vegetation pockets. An example of this isolation can be seen in the Great Victoria Desert, where a population of Ctentus brooksi is isolated from populations in the Simpson Desert by a narrow strip of scrub vegetation in south-central Northern Territory. Although the barrier is only several thousand years old, distinct subspecies have evolved, with C. b. brooksi found in the Great Victoria Desert (Cogger 2000, Van Oosterzee 1991). Diversification in habitat results in high lizard density: in a portion of the Great Victoria Desert in Western Australia up to 9 different species of geckos may overlap, with species utilizing a wide variety of food and habitats (sandridges, rocky breakaways, and salt lakes) (Van Oosterzee 1991).





Several threatened mammals, the endangered sandhill dunnart (Sminthopsis psammophila), the endangered marsupial mole (Notoryctes typhlops), and the vulnerable mulgara (Dasycercus cristicauda) still occur within the region (Strahan 1995). Australia has experienced nearly half of the world鈥檚 mammal extinctions within the past 200 years, with most of the extinctions concentrated in drier interior regions of the continent (Short and Smith 1994). These extinctions include a number of species which once utilized the Great Victoria Desert: the pig-footed bandicoot (Chaeropus ecaudatus), short-tailed hopping mouse (Notomys amplus), long-tailed hopping mouse (N. longicaudatus), and lesser stick-nest rat (Leporillus apicalis). The greater stick-nest rat (L. conditor) has been extirpated from the region and survives only on offshore islands (Strahan 1995). There are no known extinction among the flora, and just one endangered species, the recently described Stemodia haegii (Briggs and Leigh 1996).





Although the low level of threatened species may be an artifact of low collecting efforts, it is also indicative of the relatively low levels of disturbance since European settlement, which is also evidenced by the low incidence of exotic species (Greenslade et al. 1986). The plant associations identified by Davies (1982) as being inadequately conserved in the South Australian part of the region are now effectively conserved in the Pitjantjatjara Lands.





Located north of the dog fence, Australia鈥檚 largest mammalian predator, the dingo (Canis lupus dingo), occurs throughout the region. The other notable predators found here are the perentie (Varanus giganteus) and Gould鈥檚 goanna (Varanus gouldii) which can both exceed 1.6 m in length (Cogger 2000). Feral foxes (Vulpes vulpes) and cats (Felis catus) also occur (Strahan 1995), and have been implicated in the decline of a number of vertebrate species.What kind of dominant wildlife can be found in the Great Victoria Desert in Australia?
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