Rusa timorensis de Blainville, 1822

Extensive reconnaissance was undertaken throughout the native vegetation and the suburban area to observe deer behaviour and movement, record plant species consumed or damaged by deer and effects of deer on the structure of vegetation and soils. Observations were made opportunistically between 1999 and 2003. [...] Of 78 native plant species examined during the survey, only nine showed no evidence of vertebrate herbivory or physical damage and the majority of these plants were ferns and sedges. The other 69 species showed eBects that included defoliation (young and/or old leaves), removal of shoots, bark-stripping, stem breakages and destruction or consumption of reproductive material. Cese eBects varied in severity between species and from place to place, and were inferred to have been caused by deer based on the local abundance of deer droppings, footprints and the scarcity of other vertebrate herbivores in the area.

The extensive grassland and niaouli savannas, which today seem so typical of the nature of New Caledonia, have replaced much of the original sclerophyll forest. This is the result of a combination of two factors: (i) fire; and (ii) agricultural activities (clearing and grazing by introduced hoofed mammals). [...] In addition, the Indonesian deer Cervus timorensis was introduced in the 1880s and has adapted extremely well to the conditions of New Caledonia. Grazing and tramping by cattle and deer prevent regeneration of the selerophyll forests, whose remnants now consist of old trees without any understorey. In conjunction with heavy grazing by rusa deer, burning has eliminated dense Phragmites reedbeds, setting in train a number of major ecological changes which lead to the widespread encroachment of seasonal swamp grassland by melaleuca woodland and forest. [...] Fire is also implicated in changes in grassland, notably in conjunction with grazing by rusa deer. The people of the coastal plains indicate that in living memory, and coinciding with the establishment of the rusa deer, there have been major changes in the swamps and grasslands. Robust swamp grasses, notably Phragmites karka, have declined. Seasonal inundation has been neither so deep nor so long. Large areas of grassland and seasonal swamp have been encroached mostly by Melaleucaspp. (Stronach 1995; Kitchener 1997).

In this paper we highlight the problems of the sclerophyll forests, the most threatened of terrestrial biomes in New Caledonia, and document the extinction of a species of Pittosporum in a protected area. […] The sclerophyll forest patch on Lepredour Island where the extinct Pittosporum tanianum occurred. The absence of regeneration because of grazing by introduced deer and rabbits is evident from the ground bare on most of the island, a 'protected' area [...] When Pittosporum tanianum was discovered on Lepr6dour in July 1988, only two specimens were found. No other specimens have been found on the island or other localities despite intensive searches. Their botanical interest was immediately noticed, and propagation was attempted by cuttings, but this failed. During a later visit to Lepr6dour in 1992, it was found that one plant had died as soil had eroded away around the tree. The second plant died between June 1992 and July 1993 from unknown causes. [...] As a database we have used the 19 published volumes of Flore de Nouvelle-Calddonie et Ddpendances, covering critically approximately 55% of the 3000 native phanerogam species.

The detected local extinction(s) might be irreversible, but the reversibility of the changes has not been tested (the possibility of native individuals recolonizing the area is not addressed).