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Abstract
Vertebrate wildlife use of a peripheral discharge hypersaline tailings system in the Eastern Goldfields of Western Australia was documented between 26 October 2005 and 17 November 2006. Wildlife species ecology, visitation patterns and drinking and foraging behaviour are described. A range of birds (waterbirds, waders and passerines) inhabit, and to varying degrees interact with, mine waste solids and solutions. Insectivorous bat abundance and composition is significantly lower over this tailings storage facility (TSF) compared with the Kalgoorlie – Boulder sewerage works. Macro-invertebrate sampling has found that the solutions and slurry are essentially abiotic, containing no in-situ aquatic macro-invertebrates. Airborne macro-invertebrates are trapped in solutions and wet tailings and are measured. Macro-invertebrates strongly influence vertebrate wildlife presence, behaviour and consequent exposure to mine waste solutions. Wildlife inadvertently ingest solution and slurries on insects picked from the surface of solutions and wet tails and this is the primary ingestion pathway of contaminants in solution. This behaviour was exhibited primarily amongst waders of the family Charadriidae, Scolopacidae and opportunistically by Hirundinidae and Corvidae. No wildlife was observed to drink hypersaline mine waste solutions. Wildlife can differentiate between the tailings system in question and other water bodies and this is reflected in visitation rates, abundance and species composition. This study provides a detailed ecological study of wildlife interaction with this hypersaline TSF. Additional material will be published subsequently to further examine the mechanisms by which mine waste solutions in this tailings system pose a risk to wildlife. Limited literature exists on protocols for monitoring wildlife that interact with mine waste solutions within tailings systems. Knowledge of tailings dam ecology is required to develop site-specific monitoring protocols that adequately document the risks these facilities pose to wildlife.