Badjaling Nature Reserve is a nature reserve

Nature reserve

A nature reserve is a protected area of importance for wildlife, flora, fauna or features of geological or other special interest, which is reserved and managed for conservation and to provide special opportunities for study or research...

 located at Badjaling

Badjaling, Western Australia

Badjaling is a small town in the Wheatbelt region of Western Australia located close to the Salt River.The townsite was originally declared as Yuruga in 1914 but the name was changed to Badjaling later the same year....

 in the Wheatbelt region of Western Australia

Western Australia

Western Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Great Australian Bight and Indian Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east and South Australia to the south-east...

. Nominally located at 31°59′21"S 117°29′56"E, it is a 272 hectare reserve of native bushland, surrounded by land long since cleared for agriculture

Agriculture

Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...

.

Vegetation consists of shrubland

Shrubland

Shrubland, scrubland, scrub or brush is a plant community characterized by vegetation dominated by shrubs, often also including grasses, herbs, and geophytes. Shrubland may either occur naturally or be the result of human activity...

 (54%), woodland

Woodland

Ecologically, a woodland is a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunlight and limited shade. Woodlands may support an understory of shrubs and herbaceous plants including grasses. Woodland may form a transition to shrubland under drier conditions or during early stages of...

 (32%), a complex of halophytes occurring in a saline watercourse (11%), and a small amount of heath

Heath (habitat)

A heath or heathland is a dwarf-shrub habitat found on mainly low quality acidic soils, characterised by open, low growing woody vegetation, often dominated by plants of the Ericaceae. There are some clear differences between heath and moorland...

 (3%). The woodland is mostly composed of low, shrublike trees of Banksia

Banksia

Banksia is a genus of around 170 species in the plant family Proteaceae. These Australian wildflowers and popular garden plants are easily recognised by their characteristic flower spikes and fruiting "cones" and heads. When it comes to size, banksias range from prostrate woody shrubs to trees up...

and Xylomelum

Xylomelum

Xylomelum is a genus of six species in the plant family Proteaceae. They are native to Australia, growing in the form of tall shrubs and trees...

, so it might be argued that a strong majority of reserve's vegetation is shrubby in nature. A 1980 survey recorded 111 plant species in the reserve, but this did not include the endangered

Endangered species

An endangered species is a population of organisms which is at risk of becoming extinct because it is either few in numbers, or threatened by changing environmental or predation parameters...

 Banksia cuneata

Banksia cuneata

Banksia cuneata, commonly known as Matchstick Banksia or Quairading Banksia, is an endangered species of flowering plants in the Proteaceae family. Endemic to southwest Western Australia, it belongs to Banksia subg...

(Quairading Banksia), which was discovered there in 1971 but not published until 1981.

The mammal

Mammal

Mammals are members of a class of air-breathing vertebrate animals characterised by the possession of endothermy, hair, three middle ear bones, and mammary glands functional in mothers with young...

 fauna of the reserve is impoverished. The only native species recorded there are the Common Dunnart and Gould's Wattled Bat

Gould's Wattled Bat

Gould's Wattled Bat is a species of Australian wattled bat named after the English naturalist John Gould.-Range:C. gouldii is known throughout mainland Australia as well as Tasmania, New Caledonia, and Norfolk Island.-Appearance:C...

. The introduced House Mouse

House mouse

The house mouse is a small rodent, a mouse, one of the most numerous species of the genus Mus.As a wild animal the house mouse mainly lives associated with humans, causing damage to crops and stored food....

, Black Rat

Black Rat

The black rat is a common long-tailed rodent of the genus Rattus in the subfamily Murinae . The species originated in tropical Asia and spread through the Near East in Roman times before reaching Europe by the 1st century and spreading with Europeans across the world.-Taxonomy:The black rat was...

, European Rabbit

European Rabbit

The European Rabbit or Common Rabbit is a species of rabbit native to south west Europe and north west Africa . It has been widely introduced elsewhere often with devastating effects on local biodiversity...

 and Fox

Fox

Fox is a common name for many species of omnivorous mammals belonging to the Canidae family. Foxes are small to medium-sized canids , characterized by possessing a long narrow snout, and a bushy tail .Members of about 37 species are referred to as foxes, of which only 12 species actually belong to...

 have also been recorded. 64 bird species have been recorded, comprising 37 passerine

Passerine

A passerine is a bird of the order Passeriformes, which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds or, less accurately, as songbirds, the passerines form one of the most diverse terrestrial vertebrate orders: with over 5,000 identified species, it has roughly...

s and 27 non-passerines. 5 frogs species are known, and 17 reptiles.