Knowledge of where a threatened species occurs in a landscape is crucial for determining its habitat requirements and informing its conservation planning and management. We conducted the first broad-scale survey of the Endangered Alligator Rivers Yellow Chat Epthianura crocea tunneyi across much of its known range on drying coastal floodplains in northern Australia. Presence-absence records from 257 sites surveyed in the late dry season (August–December) of 2018 and 2019 were modelled using occupancy/detectability models. Occupancy was estimated to be 0.10 ± 0.04 with a high detection probability (0.89 ± 0.07). Modelling of 13 site-level environmental covariates found that chats were more likely to be detected at sites where the native shrub Sesbania sesban was present, were close to hydrogeological features such as depressions or channels, were long unburnt (5+ years) and/or with topsoil damage caused by feral pigs. Our estimates of chat occupancy, detectability, and the covariates that influence their occupancy, have improved our understanding of the role that fire and feral animals have on chat distribution and habitat selection, and can be used as a baseline for future monitoring. We also provide recommendations on how to design and implement future monitoring of this subspecies.

了解受威胁物种在景观中的位置对于确定其栖息地要求和为其保护规划和管理提供信息至关重要。我们在澳大利亚北部干燥的沿海洪泛区的大部分已知范围内对濒临灭绝的鳄鱼河 Yellow Chat Epthianura crocea tunneyi进行了首次大规模调查。使用占用率/可检测性模型对 2018 年和 2019 年旱季末期（8 月至 12 月）调查的 257 个地点的存在-不存在记录进行了建模。占用率估计为 0.10 ± 0.04，检测概率高 (0.89 ± 0.07)。对 13 个站点级环境协变量的建模发现，聊天更有可能在原生灌木Sesbania sesban的站点被检测到存在，接近水文地质特征，例如洼地或河道，长期未燃烧（5年以上）和/或野猪造成的表土破坏。我们对聊天占用率、可检测性和影响其占用率的协变量的估计，提高了我们对火和野生动物在聊天分布和栖息地选择中的作用的理解，并可用作未来监测的基线。我们还就如何设计和实施对该亚种的未来监测提供建议。