Astrebla Downs National Park
Template:Use Australian English Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox Australian place Astrebla Downs is a national park in Shire of Diamantina, Queensland, Australia.<ref>Template:Cite QPN</ref>
Geography
[edit]Astrebla Downs is located in the Channel Country of outback Queensland, 1298 km west of Brisbane. The landscape is flat and barren with few trees.<ref name="mhe">Template:Cite web</ref> The average elevation of the terrain is 108 metres.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Animals
[edit]The park received an award in March 2007 by the WWF for being among the top 10 reserves of the decade. Recognition was given for the successful efforts to protect the bilby, an endangered mammal native to Australia.<ref>Queensland parks recognised as among best in Australia Template:Webarchive. 28 March 2007. Retrieved 31 March 2007.</ref> By 2008 it was estimated the park contained a bilby population of around 300.<ref name="pob">Template:Cite news</ref> In 2009, a plague of long-haired rats descended on the park.<ref name="rph">Template:Cite news</ref> The large numbers of rats attract feral cats to the area, which pose a threat to the bilby. Between 2011 and 2021, control measures have got rid of more than 3,000 cats, and 471 bilbies were spotted on a survey in June 2021.<ref name="Grounds 2021"/>
The park is home to the kowari, a tiny carnivorous marsupial which is a vulnerable species in Queensland, also threatened by feral cats. The animal had not been photographed anywhere in around ten years before June 2021, when photographs were taken during a survey covering nearly Template:Cvt of tracks, in which a record number – 14 – were spotted in the park. None have been spotted at the nearby Diamantina National Park since 2012.<ref name="Grounds 2021">Template:Cite web</ref>
Astrebla Downs is also home to the stripe-faced dunnart.<ref name="mhe"/>
Birds
[edit]With Diamantina National Park, Astrebla Downs National Park forms part of the 7,627 km2 Diamantina and Astrebla Grasslands Important Bird Area, identified by BirdLife International as such because it is one of few sites known for the critically endangered night parrot. It also supports globally important populations of the plains-wanderer, Australian bustard, straw-necked ibis, white-necked heron, inland dotterel, Bourke's parrot, black and pied honeyeaters, gibberbird, Hall's babbler, chestnut-breasted quail-thrush, cinnamon quail-thrush and spinifexbird.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>