The threatened Flinders Ranges purple-spotted gudgeon – Mogurnda clivicola – has been restricted in South Australia to two main isolated subpopulations in the semi-arid creeks in the Vulkathunha-Gammon Ranges National Park, and nearby on Wooltana Station. They are maintained by freshwater springs that discharge through fractured rock formations, thus providing permanent water during dry periods.
Statistically downscaled climate model predictions of the Flinders Ranges indicate that these habitats are at risk of being lost due to an increase in the frequency of drought events. The objective of the project was to double the number of subpopulations by establishing self-sustaining populations of M. clivicola at two new sites in the central Flinders Ranges on the Ikara-Flinders Ranges National Park and the Yappala Indigenous Protected area (IPA), ~100 km south of the abovementioned sites, where it is thought there is more stable climate conditions and greater water security.
The translocation was undertaken as part of the Bounceback and Beyond Project, which has goals of targeting species listed as threatened under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act).
Ecologists from the SA Arid Lands Landscape Board, DEW, Ecoknowledge and NGOs, with Friends of Parks volunteers and the Adnyamathanha people, successfully caught and translocated 600 fish from these source populations to two new sites by helicopter, in the Ikara Flinders Ranges National Park, and Yappala IPA.
Ongoing monitoring of the stability of the source populations and the success of the translocations sites will assist with formulating future management strategies.
The benefits of building long-term relationships and collaboration with government and non-government agencies in achieving conservation outcomes is discussed. A short-film about the project captured these collaborations faithfully (see https://vimeo.com/657705311).