THE SIMPSON DESERT

KEY FOOD CHAIN

THE INTERRELATIONS OF THE SPINIFEX HOPPING MOUSE AND GRASSLANDS

• The spinifex mouse lives and habitats in the spinifex grasslands.
• The most important connection between these two is their importance to the food web of the Simpson desert.
• The Spinifix grassland is a key producer and the Spinifix hopping mouse is a primary consumer.
• If this relationship was to be broken the desert food web would easily fall apart.

CHANGES TO THE ECOSYSTEM AND THIER IMPACTS

• Introduced species such as foxes, hares, feral cats and feral camels are a very big problem in the ecosystem
• They can prey on and compete with natural fauna practically destroying the food chain.
• Their is also a minimal impact of human settlement as now small towns range over the desert

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THE FUTURE

• A strategy for the introduced predators problem could be allowances for the public to cull the animals.
• A bounty could possible intrigue the public more.
• This will decrease the predator population and eventually end the problem of hurting the food chain.
• After the previous strategy is put in play ban any imported species into the Simpson desert for good.
• As for human settlement, it should stay minimal and not be disregarded anymore.