The south-western face of Mount Maxwell was grazed heavily by 2001 when more of the mountainside and shore was acquired for protected area status. Two important understory plants, blackcap raspberry, Rubus leucodermis, and Trailing Blackberry,  Rubus ursinus, were ravaged by feral sheep and native deer (without its historic predators such as  wolf). But some Rubus leucodermis and  R. ursinus survived amongst rocky ledges that these ungulates could not often reach — sites sometimes favoured by aged cougar for leaping on to prey.