The Ranking of Wildlife Habitats

Forested wildlife habitats identified in a broad field survey of Northland, New Zealand, have been ranked to determine their relative importance for indigenous wildlife. A numerical scoring system was devised after consideration of schemes used by other authors and after a preliminary examination of the survey data by step-wise multiple regression analysis. Twenty-five habitats were ranked according to the criteria of four authors, and significant agreement was found between the four sets of rankings. It is concluded that all habitat ranking systems employing sound ecological criteria would produce rankings which differ only slightly.