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Tree hollows and wildlife conservation in Australia

Around 300 vertebrate species use tree hollows in Australia, as shown by the table below. For many species, the shelter provided by hollows is essential for survival.

Australian vertebrates that use tree hollows
Type of animal	Number of known terrestrial species of this type in Australia	Number of these species that use tree hollows	Percentage of these species that use tree hollows
Amphibians	203	29	14%
Reptiles	770	78	10%
Birds	777	111	14%
Mammals	268	86	32%
Total	2018	304	15%

We have researched:

• Australian animals that use tree hollows (an inventory of these animals has been produced)
• the development of hollows in eucalypts
• the number of hollow-bearing trees in Australia's forests and woodlands
• guidelines on the types of trees that are used by hollow-dependent fauna
• rates of mortality and collapse of trees that are left standing after an area has been logged
• the types of trees that should be retained, to maintain populations of hollow-dependent animals
• the long-term impacts of forestry and agriculture on numbers of tree hollows (this research is in progress).

This work has been compiled in the following book:

Gibbons, P. and Lindenmayer, D.B. (2002) Tree hollows and wildlife conservation in Australia. CSIRO Publishing. Buy this book and find out more on the CSIRO website.

Other references

• Gibbons, P. and Lindenmayer, D.B. (1996) Issues associated with the retention of hollow-bearing trees within eucalypt forests managed for wood production. Forest Ecology and Management, 83: 245-279.
• Gibbons, P. and Lindenmayer, D. B. (1997) Conserving Hollow-dependent Fauna in Timber Production Forests. Environmental Heritage Monograph Series No. 3. New South Wales NPWS, Sydney.
• Gibbons, P. and Lindenmayer, D. B. (1997) Developing tree retention strategies for hollow-dependent arboreal marsupials in the wood production eucalypt forests of eastern Australia. Australian Forestry, 60: 29-45.
• Gibbons, P. and Lindenmayer, D. B. (1997) The performance of prescriptions employed for the conservation of hollow-dependent fauna: implications for the Comprehensive Regional Assessment Process. Working Paper 1997/2. Centre for Resource and Environmental Studies, The Australian National University.
• Gibbons, P. and Lindenmayer, D. B. (1997) A review of prescriptions employed for the conservation of hollow-dependent fauna in wood production forests of eastern Australia. In Conservation Outside Nature Reserves. P. Hale and D. Lamb, Eds. Centre for Conservation Biology, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, pp. 497-505.
• Gibbons, P., Lindenmayer, D. B., Barry, S. C., Mackowski, C. M. and Tanton, M. T. (2000) The formation of hollows in eucalypts from temperate forests. Pacific Conservation Biology, 6: 218-228.
• Gibbons, P., Lindenmayer, D. B., Barry, S. C. and Tanton, M. T. (2000) The effects of slash burning on the mortality and collapse of trees retained on logged sites in south-eastern Australia. Forest Ecology and Management, 139: 51-61.
• Gibbons, P., Lindenmayer, D. B., Barry, S. C. and Tanton, M. T. (2002) Hollow selection by vertebrate fauna in forests of south-eastern Australia and implications for forest management. Biological Conservation, 103: 1-12.
• Lindenmayer, D.B., MacGregor, C. and Gibbons, P. (2002) Comment - Economics of a nest-box program for the conservation of an endangered species: a re-appraisal. Canadian Journal of Forest Research, 32: 2244-2247.
• Gibbons, P. and Lindenmayer, D.B. (2003). Respecting our forest veterans. Nature Australia.
• Lindenmayer, D.B. and Gibbons, P. (2004) On charcoal, the increased intensity of logging and a flawed Envionmental Assessment process. In Conservation of Australia's Forest Fauna (Second Edition) Edited by D. Lunney. Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales, Sydney, pp. 56-62.