Dr Daniel Ramp

Lee, E., Croft, D.B. & Ramp, D. 2010, 'Flight response as a causative factor in kangaroo-vehicle collisions' in Graeme Coulson, Mark Eldridge (eds), Macropods: The Biology of Kangaroos, Wallabies and Rat-kangaroos, CSIRO Publishing, Collingwood, Australia, pp. 301-311.
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The reactions of large animals to vehicles approaching along roads and the role these reactions play in the likelihood of collisions with vehicles are not well understood. This study examined the flight responses of kangaroos (Macropus spp.) to an approa

Ramp, D. 2010, 'Roads as drivers of change for macropodids' in Graeme Coulson, Mark Eldridge (eds), Macropods: The Biology of Kangaroos, Wallabies and Rat-kangaroos, CSIRO Publishing, Collingwood, Australia, pp. 279-291.
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As an iconic and predominantly endemic Australian family of mammals, the Macropodidae are synonymous with Australia's faunal identity. Of the 53 species known prior to European settlement, six have since gone extinct and many more have suffered significa

Laffan, S.W., Ramp, D. & Roger, E. 2013, 'Using endemism to assess representation of protected areas - the family Myrtaceae in the Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area', Journal of Biogeography, vol. 40, pp. 570-578.
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Aim We assess how much of species' ranges are present within protected areas and how different land units within protected areas contribute to overall protection, both within their region and at continental scales. We do this using the plant family Myrtaceae in relation to the globally important Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area (GBMWHA) in New South Wales, Australia. Location South-eastern Australia. Methods Compiling data throughout the region and nationally, we considered two spatially based quantitative measures of endemism (relative range restriction): weighted endemism (WE) and corrected weighted endemism (CWE). In both measures, species are weighted by the proportion of their ranges found within the analysis window, with the ranges calculated as the total number of cells in which they occur (10 km ´+¢ 10 km in this research). We also derived a novel expectation for the contribution of each species to the endemism scores at each taxonomic level based on the additive properties of the metrics and their relationship to species richness. We used this expectation to assess the proportional contribution of each genus to the endemism scores. Results The degree to which Myrtaceae species within the GBMWHA are endemic to the GBMWHA area is 16%, meaning that an average of 16% of the ranges of species found in the GBMWHA are restricted to that area. The figure for those species with ranges less than or equal to the median (80 cells) is 33%. The genus Eucalyptus contributes the most to the endemism scores obtained, but no more than would be expected given its number of species. The genus Leptospermum is 3.7% less restricted to the GBMWHA than would be expected, while the genus Melaleuca is 5% more restricted than expected.

Ashcroft, M.B., Gollan, J.R., Warton, D.I. & Ramp, D. 2012, 'A novel approach to quantify and locate potential microrefugia using topoclimate, climate stability, and isolation from the matrix', Global Change Biology, vol. 18, no. 6, pp. 1866-1879.
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Ecologists are increasingly recognizing the conservation significance of microrefugia, but it is inherently difficult to locate these small patches with unusual climates, and hence they are also referred to as cryptic refugia. Here we introduce a new methodology to quantify and locate potential microrefugia using fine-scale topoclimatic grids that capture extreme conditions, stable climates, and distinct differences from the surrounding matrix. We collected hourly temperature data from 150 sites in a large (200 km by 300 km) and diverse region of New South Wales, Australia, for a total of 671 days over 2 years. Sites spanned a range of habitats including coastal dune shrublands, eucalypt forests, exposed woodland ridges, sheltered rainforest gullies, upland swamps, and lowland pastures. Climate grids were interpolated using a regional regression approach based on elevation, distance to coast, canopy cover, latitude, cold-air drainage, and topographical exposure to winds and radiation. We identified extreme temperatures on two separate climatic gradients: the 5th percentile of minimum temperatures and the 95th percentile of maximum temperatures. For each gradient, climatic stability was assessed on three different time scales (intra-seasonal, intra-annual and inter-annual). Differences from the matrix were assessed using a moving window with a 5 km radius. We averaged the Z-scores for these extreme, stable and isolated climates to identify potential locations of microrefugia. We found that our method successfully predicted the location of communities that were considered to occupy refugia, such as rainforests that have progressively contracted in distribution over the last 2.5 million years, and alpine grasslands that have contracted over the last 15 thousand years. However, the method was inherently sensitive to the gradient selected and other aspects of the modelling process.

Boom, K., Ben-Ami, D., Croft, D.B., Cushing, N., Ramp, D. & Boronyak, L.J. 2012, ''Pest' and resource: A legal history of Australia's kangaroos', Animal Studies Journal, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 17-40.
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This paper presents an investigation into the legal history of Australia+s kangaroos. It aims to provide a detailed analysis of how the law and policy governing the killing of kangaroos has evolved over time in response to changing public perceptions. This history begins with the pre-European period and traces the impact of European colonisation, early growth of the commercial kangaroo industry, and the increased role of science and regulation upon kangaroos. The paper critiques the historical designation of kangaroos as `pests+ that need to be `managed+ and argues that such an approach is inconsistent with current scientific understanding. As this `pest+ status has fallen in importance there has been a shift in regulatory goals from damage mitigation to resource utilisation, although government planning and policy continue to cite damage mitigation alongside objectives to maintain viable populations and a sustainable and commercially viable industry. While the kangaroo industry+s current focus is upon the `sustainable use of wildlife+, the history of attitudes towards kangaroos as `pests+ is so deeply and widely entrenched that it is impossible for the industry to meet welfare standards. The article concludes that the commercial kangaroo industry does not have any clearly defined policy benefit and should be reassessed to take greater account of the impact it has on ecosystems and kangaroo welfare

Roger, E., Bino, G. & Ramp, D. 2012, 'Linking habitat suitability and road mortalities across geographic ranges', Landscape Ecology, vol. 27, no. 8, pp. 1167-1181.
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Protected areas are established to conserve biodiversity and facilitate resilience to threatening processes. Yet protected areas are not isolated environmental compounds. Many threats breach their borders, including transportation infrastructure. Despite an abundance of roads in many protected areas, the impact of roads on biota within these protected areas is usually unaccounted for in threat mitigation efforts. As landscapes become further developed and the importance of protected areas increases, knowledge of how roads impact on the persistence of species at large scales and whether protected areas provide relief from this process is vital. We took a two-staged approach to analysing landscape-scale habitat use and road-kill impacts of the common wombat (Vombatus ursinus), a large, widely distributed herbivore, within New South Wales (NSW), Australia. Firstly, we modelled their state-wide distribution from atlas records and evaluated the relationship between habitat suitability and wombat road fatalities at that scale. Secondly, we used local-scale fatality data to derive an annual estimate of wombats killed within an optimal habitat area. We then combined these two approaches to derive a measure of total wombats killed on roads within the protected area network. Our results showed that common wombats have a broad distribution (290,981 km2), one quarter (24.9 %) of their distribution lies within protected areas, and the percentage of optimal habitat contained within protected areas is 35.6 %, far greater than the COP10 guidelines of 17 %.

Brandis, K.J., Kingsford, R.T., Ren, S. & Ramp, D. 2011, 'Crisis water management and ibis breeding at Narran Lakes in arid Australia', Environmental Management, vol. 48, no. 3, pp. 489-498.
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Narran Lakes is a Ramsar site recognised for its importance for colonial waterbird breeding, which only occurs after large highly variable flooding events. In 2008, 74,095 pairs of ibis bred for the first time in seven years, establishing two contiguous colonies, a month apart. Most (97%) of the colony consisted of the straw-necked ibis (Threskiornis spinicollis) with the remainder consisting of glossy ibis (2%, Plegadis falcinellus) and Australian white ibis (1%, T. molucca). Following cessation of river flows, water levels fell rapidly in the colony site, resulting in a crisis management decision by governments to purchase and deliver water (10,423 Ml) to avert mass desertion of the colonies. There were significant differences in the reproductive success of each colony. In colony 1 60% of eggs hatched and 94% of chicks fledged, while in colony 2 40% of eggs hatched with only 17% of chicks fledging. Statistical analyses found that water depth was a significant variable in determining reproductive success. Rapid falls in water level during the chick stage in colony 2 resulted in decreased chick and overall offspring success. The results of this study identify the impact of upstream water resource development on colonial waterbird breeding and have implications for water management policies.

Chapple, R., Ramp, D., Bradstock, R., Kingsford, R., Merson, J., Auld, T.D., Fleming, P. & Mulley, R.C. 2011, 'Integrating science into management of ecosystems in the Greater Blue Mountains', Environmental Management, vol. 48, no. 4, pp. 659-674.
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Effective management of large protected conservation areas is challenged by political, institutional and environmental complexity and inconsistency. Knowledge generation and its uptake into management are crucial to address these challenges. We reflect o

Gold, D., Ramp, D. & Laffan, S. 2011, 'Potential lantana invasion of the Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area under climate change', Pacific Conservation Biology, vol. 17, no. 1-2, pp. 54-67.
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Invasive weeds represent one of the greatest threats to ecosystem integrity worldwide, with climate change predicted to allow expansion of weed ranges in coming decades. One of Australia+s worst weeds is lantana (Lantana camara) which, given the potential for climatic change, is of increasing concern to those managing the mountainous regions in the country+s southeast. In order to identify potential additional threats lantana may pose for Australia+s valued biodiversity, this research develops a habitat suitability model for lantana in a portion of the Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area under current and simulated warmer conditions. Minimum temperature was found to be the most important predictor correlated with potential lantana establishment, explaining over 88% of the variation in lantana presence predicted by the model. Currently, 8% of the study area was found to be suitable for lantana, with this figure reaching 94% after a simulated 2¦C rise in temperature anticipated by 2050.

Ramp, D., Gates Foale, C., Roger, E. & Croft, D.B. 2011, 'Suitability of acoustics as non-lethal deterrents for macropodids: the influence of origin, delivery, and anti-predator behaviour', Wildlife Research, vol. 38, no. 5, pp. 408-418.
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Context. Auditory devices used to deter wildlife are a potentially humane and effective way of minimising deleterious interactions with humans and their livelihoods and have been used successfully for many species around the world. Acoustic cues can be used to manipulate anti-predator behaviour, encouraging animals to forage elsewhere. Employing acoustics derived from natural sources to make use of innate behavioural responses has been suggested to outperform novel or artificial sounds; however, anti-predator strategies vary among sympatric species and will influence the utility of acoustic stimuli for deterring wildlife. Aims. We aimed to test the interaction between the source of origin (natural or novel) and species traits (anti-predator strategy - grouping behaviour) on the efficacy of using acoustic stimuli to elicit alarm responses for two species in the family Macropodidae commonly associated with browsing on forest plantation seedlings; the red-necked pademelon (Thylogale thetis) and the red-necked wallaby (Macropus rufogriseus banksianus). Methods. We tested these factors in captivity using playback experiments of acoustic stimuli and monitored the behavioural responses of subjects. Results. Red-necked pademelons exhibited strong responses to bioacoustic and novel stimuli but did not greatly differentiate among them. Short-term habituation to predator calls was detected whereas responsiveness to novel sounds increased. Red-necked wallabies most strongly responded to conspecific distress calls, showing no sign of short-term habituation. Conclusions. Results from the present and other studies suggest that bioacoustic deterrents, particularly those utilising natural conspecific sounds, aimed at communicating danger, have the potential to play an important role in non-lethal wildlife management, although that responsiveness varies with the form of anti-predator strategies employed. Implications. If alarm responses translate into subjects vacating targeted areas then there is some potential to implement non-lethal acoustic deterrents for macropodids alongside other management measures aimed at preventing impacts on primary production. Problematically, our experiments showed that without accurate acoustic delivery, particularly of sounds with infrasonic components, the development of effective bioacoustic deterrents may remain stymied.

Roger, E., Laffan, S.W. & Ramp, D. 2011, 'Road impacts a tipping point for wildlife populations in threatened landscapes', Population Ecology, vol. 53, no. 1, pp. 215-227.
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The conservation of wildlife populations living adjacent to roads is gaining international recognition as a worldwide concern. Populations living in road-impacted environments are influenced by spatial parameters including the amount and arrangement of suitable habitat. Similarly, heterogeneity in threatening processes can act at a variety of spatial scales and be crucial in affecting population persistence. Common wombats (Vombatus ursinus) are considered both widespread and abundant throughout their eastern Australian continental distribution. They nevertheless face many threats, primarily human induced. As well as impacts from disease and predation by introduced species, high roadside fatality rates on many rural roads are frequently reported. We parameterized a model for common wombat population viability analysis within a 750-km(2) area of the northwestern corner of Kosciuszko National Park in New South Wales, Australia, and tested its sensitivity to changes in the values of basic parameters. We then assessed the relative efficiency of various mitigation measures by examining the combined impact from roads, disease and predation on wombat subpopulation persistence in the area. We constructed a stage-structured and spatially explicit model incorporating estimates of survival and fecundity parameters for each of the identified subpopulations using RAMAS GIS. Estimates of current threatening processes suggest mitigating road-kill is the most effective management solution. Results highlight the importance of recognizing the interplay between various threats and how their combination has the capacity to drive local depletion events.

Zhang, K., Laffan, S.W., Ramp, D. & Webster, E. 2011, 'Incorporating a distance cost in systematic reserve design', International Journal of Geographical Information Science, vol. 25, no. 3, pp. 393-404.
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The selection of parcels of land to incorporate into reserve systems necessitates trade-offs among biodiversity targets, costs such as land area and spatial compactness. There are well-established systematic reserve design algorithms that incorporate these trade-offs to assist decision-makers in this process. One cost that has received little attention is the proximity of new land parcels to the existing reserve network: the ability of environmental managers to effectively maintain and protect additional land units is often constrained by their proximity to existing reserve networks. The selection of parcels of land close to existing reserves makes them logistically easier to deploy infrastructure to and can also improve the spatial contiguity of the existing reserve network. Previous research has been limited to using distance from the centroids of existing reserves, which significantly biases algorithms when reserves are irregularly shaped. Here we describe a new approach that overcomes this limitation by using the existing reserve boundary to determine proximity. We provide an example of this approach by implementing it as an additional constraint in an analysis of biodiversity targets within the Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area, Australia, via the Marxan reserve design software. The incorporation of the distance cost in the analysis was effective in selecting parcels near to the existing reserve system and can be combined with other variables in the algorithm to improve spatial compactness while meeting biodiversity and other targets. It provides alternative solutions for use by reserve planners when extending reserve systems.

Garvey, N., Ben-Ami, D., Ramp, D. & Croft, D.B. 2010, 'Survival behaviour of swamp wallabies during prescribed burning and wildfire', Wildlife Research, vol. 37, no. 1, pp. 1-12.
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Context. Prescribed (or controlled) burning is frequently advocated as a means of reducing fuel loads in peri-urban forests to minimise the risk of high-intensity wildfires. An important consideration in prescribed burns is the impact on native wildlife.

Thomson, F.J., Moles, A., Auld, T.D., Ramp, D., Ren, S. & Kingsford, R. 2010, 'Chasing the unknown: predicting seed dispersal mechanisms from plant traits', Journal Of Ecology, vol. 98, no. 6, pp. 1310-1318.
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1. The dispersal capabilities of most plant species remain unknown. However, gaining basic dispersal information is a critical step for understanding species' geographical distributions and for predicting the likely impacts of future climate change. Disp

Roger, E. & Ramp, D. 2009, 'Incorporating habitat use in models of fauna fatalities on roads', Diversity And Distributions, vol. 15, no. 2, pp. 222-231.
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To highlight the benefit of using habitat use to improve the accuracy of predictive road fatality models. The Snowy Mountains Highway in southern New South Wales, Australia. A binary logistic regression model was constructed using wombat fatality presenc

Roger, E., Laffan, S. & Ramp, D. 2007, 'Habitat selection by the common wombat (Vombatus ursinus) in disturbed environments: Implications for the conservation of a 'common' species', Biological Conservation, vol. 137, no. 3, pp. 437-449.
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The construction of habitat models is a repeatable technique for describing and mapping species distributions, the utility of which lies in enabling management to predict where a species is likely to occur within a landscape. Typically, habitat models ha

Klocker, U., Croft, D.B. & Ramp, D. 2006, 'Frequency and causes of kangaroo-vehicle collisions on an Australian outback highway', Wildlife Research, vol. 33, no. 1, pp. 5-15.
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Kangaroo-vehicle collisions are frequent on Australian highways. Despite high economic costs, detrimental effects on animal welfare, and potential impacts on population viability, little research has been done to investigate the impact of road mortality

Maguire, G., Ramp, D. & Coulson, G. 2006, 'Foraging behaviour and dispersion of eastern grey kangaroos (Macropus giganteus) in an ideal free framework', Journal Of Zoology, vol. 268, no. 3, pp. 261-269.
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Ideal free distribution (IFD) theory predicts that animals in competitive situations should distribute themselves among available habitat patches according to the density of conspecifics and its regulatory effect on resources. To investigate the applicab

Ramp, D., Wilson, V. & Croft, D.B. 2006, 'Assessing the impacts of roads in peri-urban reserves: Road-based fatalities and road usage by wildlife in the Royal National Park, New South Wales, Australia', Biological Conservation, vol. 129, no. 3, pp. 348-359.
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For protected reserves set aside for conservation, the impact of roads and traffic on wildlife can be severe, particularly for those in the peri-urban environment. Often reserves possess many sealed roads that have regular traffic from tourists and local

Ramp, D. & Croft, D.B. 2006, 'Do wildlife warning reflectors elicit aversion in captive macropods?', Wildlife Research, vol. 33, no. 7, pp. 583-590.
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A goal to reduce the frequency of animal - vehicle collisions is motivating extensive research on this topic world-wide. Over the last 30 years, one popular mechanism to warn wildlife of approaching vehicles has been the wildlife warning reflector, manuf

Ramp, D. & Ben-Ami, D. 2006, 'The effect of road-based fatalities on the viability of a peri-urban swamp wallaby population', Journal of Wildlife Management, vol. 70, no. 6, pp. 1615-1624.
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Roads and traffic have a multitude of impacts on wildlife populations. Wildlife existing within the confines of fragmented reserves are particularly susceptible to fatalities on roads, especially those situated within urban and semirural matrices. The su

Rose, T., Munn, A., Ramp, D. & Banks, P. 2006, 'Foot-thumping as an alarm signal in macropodoid marsupials: prevalence and hypotheses of function', Mammal Review, vol. 36, no. 4, pp. 281-298.
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1. Alarm signalling as a means to reduce predation risk is an important component of the behavioural repertoire of many species. It has previously been noted that many of the macropodoid marsupials (kangaroos, wallabies and rat-kangaroos) produce a foot-

Ramp, D., Caldwell, J., Edwards, K., Warton, D. & Croft, D.B. 2005, 'Modelling of wildlife fatality hotspots along the snowy mountain highway in New South Wales, Australia', Biological Conservation, vol. 126, no. 4, pp. 474-490.
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The effects of roads on the natural environment is of growing concern world-wide and foremost amongst these effects are the fatalities of wildlife killed in collisions with vehicles. Aside from animal welfare and human safety considerations, fatalities m

Ramp, D., Russell, B. & Croft, D.B. 2005, 'Predator scent induces differing responses in two sympatric macropodids', Australian Journal of Zoology, vol. 53, no. 2, pp. 73-78.
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When prey species encounter the scent of a predator they must make a decision on how to respond. This may be either to ignore, flee, hide or alarm call. While many species are able to derive detailed information from the chemical cues associated with pre

Lee, E., Klocker, U., Croft, D.B. & Ramp, D. 2004, 'Kangaroo-vehicle collisions in Australia's sheep rangelands, during and following drought periods', Australian Mammalogy, vol. 26, pp. 215-226.

Ramp, D. & Coulson, G. 2004, 'Small-scale patch selection and consumer-resource dynamics of eastern grey kangaroos', Journal of Mammalogy, vol. 85, no. 6, pp. 1053-1059.
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Models of kangaroo populations have primarily focused on the prediction of population growth and distribution in relation to environmental variation at broad geographic scales. Current understanding of small-scale patterns in distribution, habitat breadth, and niche occupation is less complete. A powerful model of dispersion is ideal free distribution (IFD) theory. In plant-herbivore grazing systems, the most appropriate IFD models are those that allow for the incorporation of a standing crop of resources. Using eastern grey kangaroos (Macropus giganteus), we test the predictions of a previously described standing-crop IFD model where the number of consumers on a patch is proportional to the resource input rate, the standing crop of resources on all patches at equilibrium are equal (in the absence of interference), and the resource mortality rate is directly equivalent to the resource input rate, and is independent of the resource density (in the absence of interference). We make these comparisons at both the habitat and patch scale. At the habitat scale, we observed significant departures from these predictions that are consistent with the commonly reported occurrence of undermatching, whereas at the patch scale, little concordance with the predictions was observed. These results suggest that eastern grey kangaroos select for resources at the habitat scale but not at the level of the patch.

Ramp, D., Coulson, G. 2002, 'Density dependence in foraging habitat preference of eastern grey kangaroos', OIKOS, vol. 98, no. 3, pp. 393-402.
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For a free-ranging forager, the suitability of a patch is dependent on population density, resource supply, resource quality, and the costs of foraging or dispersal. We quantified differences among three foraging habitats and compared this variation to temporal patterns of habitat preference by free-ranging eastern grey kangaroos, Macropus giganteus. We investigated selection on a fine-grained spatial scale, and asked whether habitat preference is constrained by density-dependent mechanisms. Variation in the quantity and quality of resources among habitats was greatest during spring, when biomass and quality were highest, and differences among habitats were most pronounced. However, consistent and discernable differences among habitats were not obtained, indicating that the system fluctuated around an equilibrium state. Using isodar regressions to examine the consumer-density relationships among habitats, open-woodland habitat was favoured over the two open-forest habitats for foraging. Seasonal isodars indicated that density dependence regulated preference between the three foraging habitats during autumn, spring and summer, but not during winter, when variability in resources among habitats was lowest.