FACTORS AFFECTING THE DISTRIBUTION AND ABUNDANCE OF WESTERN GREY KANGAROOS (MACROPUS-FULIGINOSUS) AND EUROS (M-ROBUSTUS) IN A FRAGMENTED LANDSCAPE

All the remnants of native vegetation in a 1680 km(2) area of the cent ral wheatbelt of Western Australia were assessed for use by two specie s of kangaroo (Western grey kangaroo Macropus fuliginosus and euro M. robustus). Use was determined from faecal pellet density. Densities ov er large areas (100 km(2)) varied with the amount of residual native v egetation in the area. The less the vegetation the lower was the faeca l density, indicating that increased separation between remnants has l ed, over the 50-70 years since fragmentation, to lower kangaroo densit ies. The densities of kangaroos in 152 individual remnants of > 2 ha w ere examined in relation to their physical attributes (e.g. area, edge length, distance to nearest remnant, presence of linkages and the veg etation types present), and to an index of isolation from human distur bance. Few remnants < 2 ha were used by kangaroos. Canonical discrimin ant analysis showed that separation of remnants without kangaroos from those with kangaroos was associated with many of the attributes. Of t hese, the numbers of vegetation types and their proportions and the de gree of isolation from human disturbance were of greatest importance. Regression analyses were done to obtain predictors of densities within remnants grouped according to the kangaroo species using the remnants . These showed that the importance of attributes differed for differen t groupings. Isolation from human disturbance was the most important f actor for remnants that had either species, but not for the larger one s that had both species. For euros, density increased with the rank of the linkage to other remnants and decreased with the percentage of th e remnant in open woodland. For Western grey kangaroos, rank for dista nce to nearest remnant was significant. Since the study area is repres entative of a much larger area, the findings should have wide applicab ility.