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happyslug

(14,779 posts)
11. It appears there was never more then 100 at any time on that island. but may exist elsewhere.
Wed Jun 15, 2016, 01:20 PM
Jun 2016
1998 estimated the cay’s population size was 93, based on the capture of 42 individuals. Surveys conducted for the species in 2002 and 2004 detected only 10 and 12 individuals, respectively. These results suggested there had been an ongoing decline in the abundance of the Bramble Cay melomys. A survey in 2011 and two surveys in 2014 failed to locate the species at all. The most recent of these assessments, conducted in August–September 2014, confirmed that the Bramble Cay melomys has been extirpated from Bramble Cay.

https://www.ehp.qld.gov.au/wildlife/threatened-species/endangered/endangered-animals/bramble_cay_melomys.html


This species was only found on Bramble Cay, a small vegetated coral cay (a reef island composed of coral rubble and sand) roughly 340 m long by 150 m wide, but subject to seasonal changes in both shape and size, located at the northern tip of the Great Barrier Reef. This made it Australia's most isolated species of mammal. There has been speculation that the species may also occur on other islands in the Torres Strait or in Papua New Guinea (PNG), given the close proximity of the cay to the mouth of the Fly River, which regularly deposits large amounts of debris (e.g., logs and assorted driftwood, whole palm trees and other vegetation) on Bramble Cay. Further survey work on these islands and PNG, along with clarification of the taxonomic status of the Bramble Cay melomys in relation to PNG species, is required (Latch 2008).


Another report on them:

https://www.environment.gov.au/resource/recovery-plan-bramble-cay-melomys-melomys-rubicola

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