Worm-lizards, ants, and bricks: A low-impact monitoring method for the threatened Pink-tailed Worm-lizard Aprasia parapulchella

Monitoring is critical for detecting population trends, determining efficacy of management intervention, assessing species or community responses to ecological threats and informing conservation policies. While the intention of threatened species monitoring programmes is generally in the best interest of the target species, the sampling techniques used can often have negative impacts on individuals, populations, species or even the ecosystem. The Pink-tailed Worm-lizard Aprasia parapulchella, a threatened species, is a small fossorial, legless lizard found along the western slopes of the Great Dividing Range in south-eastern Australia. The most commonly used survey method for the species is searching beneath shallowly embedded rocks. Like other active hand search methods, rock-turning can have a detrimental effect on the target species and microhabitat. The aim of this study was to develop a low-impact monitoring method for A. parapulchella, using artificial shelters (bricks), that would reduce monitoring impacts and allow monitoring to be undertaken more frequently. We found that annual artificial shelter surveys for A. parapulchella achieved similar detection rates to rock-turning surveys. We also found that artificial shelters provided similar habitat attributes as natural habitat rocks and importantly, we showed that artificial shelter surveys did not negatively affect either A. parapulchella or habitat condition. The novel, low-impact monitoring method allows monitoring for the species to be undertaken more frequently and thereby allows land managers and conservation practitioners an opportunity to respond faster to population change.