This study examined the effects of each fire regime on amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals. Data were gathered over 8 years during dry-wet and wet-dry transitional seasons from three standard sites (each 500 x 25 m) representing the high (crest), low (soak) and wet (creek) extremes of two catchment replicates. Almost 20,000 individuals comprising 139 species were recorded in pit-traps, and by calls, sightings, tracks, faeces and other signs during diurnal and nocturnal sampling. Vertebrates were categorised into one of 14 functional groups because the different fire treatments were likely to impact on the vertical and horizontal components of their living areas in different ways. Significant (p<0.05) responses are shown in the Table.

All fire regimes caused both significant increases and decreases in vertebrate richness and abundance, indicating that no particular fire regime is universally good or bad for terrestrial vertebrates considered as functional groups. The Progressive regime caused the greatest combination of significant increases and decreases, and therefore is the single regime with the greatest potential to manipulate habitats and vertebrate diversity. The Late and Unburnt regimes caused relatively more decreases than increases, so they are more likely to be detrimental than beneficial to functional group diversity. Early fires had the least impact on vertebrates, which supports its widespread use as a landscape management tool. Future research should focus on developing a strategy involving a mix of fire regimes in frequency and extent that will maximise vertebrate diversity, as well as optimal fire regimes for threatened species.