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Diversity
Special Issues
Ecology, Evolution and Conservation of Marsupials
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Ecology, Evolution and Conservation of Marsupials

A special issue of Diversity (ISSN 1424-2818). This special issue belongs to the section "Animal Diversity".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 1 December 2025 | Viewed by 617

Special Issue Editor

Dr. David B. Croft

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Honorary Associate, Centre for Compassionate Conservation, University of Technology Sydney, Ultimo, NSW 2007, Australia
Interests: animal behaviour; animal ecology; wildlife management; wildlife tourism; road ecology; marsupials; kangaroos; rangelands; aridlands; wet/dry tropics
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The world’s climate has become more variable and extreme. The current trajectory is a continuation of this ecologically challenging trend. Consequently, biodiversity is contracting, but some species may have resilience through their evolutionary and life histories. On a geological scale, the current marsupial faunas of Australia and New Guinea and South and Central America have evolved under substantial climate change with the breakup of Gondwana and continental drift to higher latitudes. They have more recently faced anthropogenic impacts on a millennial scale with the immigration of a single hominin, Homo sapiens, into their continents and on a centennial scale with a further European colonisation and rapid expansion of livestock grazing and agriculture. Species extinction has occurred with the demise of both the very large (megafauna) and many small species in the Anthropocene. Even so, many species have shown resilience. Do marsupial life histories, such as a lower basal metabolic rate and a small maternal investment at parturition, or live fast die young, advantage them under a highly variable climate with rapid cycles of droughts, floods and wildfire? We invite contributions of original research or reviews on marsupial ecology and evolution to tease out strategies that may conserve species under contemporary and future land use and climate impacts. Comparative studies between marsupial faunas or with placental mammal counterparts are welcome.

Dr. David B. Croft
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Diversity is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2100 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • marsupials
  • ecological resilience
  • climate change
  • life histories

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

65 pages, 5560 KiB  
Article
Mobility Confers Resilience in Red Kangaroos (Osphranter rufus) to a Variable Climate and Coexisting Herbivores (Sheep, Goats, Rabbits and Three Sympatric Kangaroo Species) in an Arid Australian Rangeland
by David B. Croft and Ingrid Witte
Diversity 2025, 17(6), 389; https://doi.org/10.3390/d17060389 - 30 May 2025
Viewed by 293
Abstract
In a 1975 review, red kangaroos in the arid rangelands of Australia were said to be favoured with an anomalous prosperity following the introduction of ruminant livestock. In the western and central locations reviewed, this was not sustained, but in the sheep rangelands [...] Read more.
In a 1975 review, red kangaroos in the arid rangelands of Australia were said to be favoured with an anomalous prosperity following the introduction of ruminant livestock. In the western and central locations reviewed, this was not sustained, but in the sheep rangelands of Southern Australia, it is often claimed that such prosperity continues. Here, as elsewhere, the marsupial herbivore guild (kangaroos, wallabies, bettongs and bandicoots) has been simplified by the extinction of the smaller species (the anomaly), while large kangaroos remain abundant. However, the mammalian herbivore guild has gained complexity with not only the introduction of managed ruminant livestock, some of which run wild, but also game like rabbits. We studied the population dynamics, habitat selection and individual mobility of red, western and eastern grey kangaroos, common wallaroos, Merino sheep, feral goats and European rabbits at Fowlers Gap Station in far northwestern New South Wales, Australia. This site is representative of the arid chenopod (Family: Chenopodiaceae) shrublands stocked with sheep, where sheep and red kangaroos dominate the mammalian herbivores by biomass. The study site comprised two contiguous pairs of stocked and unstocked paddocks: a sloping run-off zone and a flat run-on zone, covering a total area of 2158 ha. This three-year study included initial rain-deficient (drought) months followed by more regular rainfall. Red kangaroos showed avoidance of sheep when given the opportunity and heightened mobility in response to localized drought-breaking storms and dispersion of the sheep flock at lambing. Western grey kangaroos were sedentary and did not dissociate from sheep. These effects were demonstrated at the population level and the individual level through radio-tracking a small cohort of females. The other kangaroo species and goats were transient and preferred other habitats. Rabbits were persistent and localized without strong interactions with other species. The results are discussed with a focus on the red kangaroo and some causes for its resilience in the sheep rangelands. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ecology, Evolution and Conservation of Marsupials)
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