National context for the conservation fate of Victoria’s mammal fauna

This paper provides a broad international and national context for the symposium's focus on the conservation of the Victorian mammal fauna. As with Australia generally, the Victorian mammal fauna has suffered rates of extinction that are unusually high by global standards. The main factors that have caused loss of Australia's land mammals are predation (by the introduced feral Cat and Red Fox) and changed fire regimes, although other factors are also implicated in declines for some species. There are reasonable grounds for hope that the ongoing decline in Victoria's mammal fauna can be stemmed and reversed, especially because it is plausible to return, with intensive management, many of the 14 mammal species that have been extirpated from Victoria but have persisted elsewhere.