by Judy Smith and Peter Smith
The Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area comprises eight reserves. In 1998, when the nomination was prepared it was well known that the area provided habitat for a wide variety of mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians.
The nomination indicated that about 400 native terrestrial vertebrate fauna species had been recorded in the area, including 52 mammal, 265 bird, 63 reptile and more than 30 frog species. However, details of the vertebrate fauna were sketchy.
In an attempt to gain a clearer understanding of the vertebrate fauna, Judy and Peter Smith have prepared four annotated checklists, one each for the native mammals, birds, reptiles and frogs in the Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area. The checklists indicate that at least 423 native terrestrial vertebrate fauna species have been recorded in the GBMWHA.
The four checklists indicate the species we consider to have been reliably recorded in each of the eight constituent reserves since the time of European settlement. Details of the conservation status at national and state level, and habitat, distribution and relative abundance in the World Heritage Area are provided for each species.
These documents are a work in progress and the authors welcome any additional records, corrections, comments, etc that people care to send.