Week 3 of Arid Recovery

So unfortunately, despite my optimism last week I did not see a mulga snake (Pseudechis australis) this week… But I did see a lot of other wildlife including a sand goanna (Varanus gouldii), one of Australia’s species of monitor lizard. In fact I saw 2 in one day! I also came across a pair of sleepy lizards (Tiliqua rugosa), a regular sighting here, but this couple seemed to be the most aggressive I’ve seen, and not at all living up to their name. However, considering that sleepy’s mate for life you can understand why a sleepy lizard might get angry when a potential predator picks up your partner!

This week also seemed to be a good week for birds on the reserve. My first spot of the week was a red-backed kingfisher (Todiramphus pyrrhopygius), which despite its name does not eat fish (I think they are rather hard to come by in the desert). Other sightings included cinnamon quail thrush (which scuttle across the ground like a slightly hunched back granny), fork tailed kites, brown falcon, butcher birds, nankeen kestrel and a barn owl which I unintentionally scared from its roost, only to watch it be harassed by a couple of crows. 

One of the many sleepy lizards I moved from the road.

Male sleepy lizard getting rather angry after moving his mate off the road! As well as being called sleepy lizards, shingle backs and stumpy tails they also are called blue tongue lizards.

Red-backed kingfisher. Unfortunately I couldn't get a good photo of the one I saw on the reserve so I thought I'd put in this one which I took at Adelaide zoo.

Sand goanna which I quickly managed to take a pic of before it ran off! I love the pattern they have on their skin.

Anyway before I get side-tracked further on the cool things I’ve seen I’ll return to the task in hand- informing you of what I’ve been up to this week... 

The week started with some digging. Digging bowls into the ground. I shall explain… As part of the “tackling prey naivety” project bettongs were translocated from an area where there were no introduced predators (the main expansion), to an area with introduced feral cat predators (Red Lake Expansion). The purpose of this was to examine whether the bettongs have learned some predator avoidance behaviour since translocation…which is why we were digging bowls into the ground. By filling bowls with oats and sand and setting up a camera facing the food to film the activity during the night you can see how much time the animal spends looking around for predators (vigilance behaviour). In total we set up 24 of these food bowl experiments next to warrens of the collared bettongs - no need to go to the gym after that day!

In the morning we collected the SD cards from the cameras where I was greeted by a lovely surprise.  At the very first site the camera had been knocked over, opened, had the cable chewed and the SD card stolen! Not a great start and slightly concerning seeing as we had the other 23 left to collect. In the end 2 out of the 24 had been destroyed, not a huge number but it meant we had to redo the experiment on those sites. Oh well you have to expect these things when working with destructive animals! I’ll let you know when we come to analyse the data whether the bettongs have become wise to the cats. Lets hope so, as if the bettongs are more vigilant they may be able to better survive feral encounters if released into the wild.

 

Bec setting up the camera to catch the footage at the feeding bowl for the vigilance behaviour experiment.

This week, like last, we had a couple of nights bilby catching for Lisa’s PhD project. Ideally by the end of the week Lisa needs 10 bilbies with a transmitter attached in Red Lake (feral cat expansion) to compare with the bilbies iIn the main (control expansion).  Our first night was unsuccessful and only when we went out the next night that we realised why… On the second night after driving around for 3 hours motivation was at a low and we were just about to give up and head home when out came a bilby, or as I was convinced at first 2 rabbits. I blame the tiredness and lack of seeing any bilbies in such a long time that I must have gone into a hallucinogenic state! Thankfully Bec was on the ball and her shouts of encouragement motivated the team out of their trance, and the team successfully caught a bilby which was named Bruce. This night we also caught another bilby which we called bumble bee because he was so incredibly small and cute and really no bigger than a bumble bee. Maybe a slight over- exaggeration but you get the gist. He unfortunately was too little to fit a transmitter to. So it seemed that the trick to catching bilbies in Red Lake which has a smaller density of bilbies than the main expansion, might be to come out later. But it could have been to do with the moon or the wind that night. Next week we’ll head out later and see if it brings us more bilbies! 

The pattern of late nights was disrupted by a 4am start on Friday morning to check rat traps, which we had set up at 5 known stick nest rat nests to try and check the collars on the individuals which we failed to catch last time and to collar a new female. We failed to catch any of the collared rats but successfully caught a large female (in our last trap) which Bec named Nessie in commemoration of my Scottish roots!

 

Bec preparing the collar ready to fit to the new stick nest rat.

Fitting the collar to Nessie!

Nessie, with her newly fitted collar, being released.

My Friday afternoon ended rather interestingly…watching the dissection of some feral cats by the work experience students. These cats had been trapped at some point from the traps surrounding the outer perimeter of the reserve, put there to prevent feral predators that are roaming the fenceline from getting into the reserve). The feral cats caught are then dissected to remove the stomach contents to see what they have been eating. One cat had clearly been feasting on rabbits and plains rats, evident from the mass of fur and a tail that was found inside!
  

One of the feral cats caught on the perimeter fence of AR being prepared for dissection. 

My fun for the week did not end on Friday. On Saturday morning was Roxby market day, quite an event for a town where not much happens! And I volunteered to assist on the Arid Recovery stall which was running an arts and crafts stall to get kids (and through the kids the parents) involved in Arid Recovery. Macca the bilby made an appearance, all be it a quick one as poor Alice was melting under the costume! 

Macca the bilby at the Roxby Down's market day. (Named so because the latin genus name for bilbies is Macrotis).

It definitely seemed that this week was bird week…During our camping trip at the weekend we decided to camp in a lovely creek bed under some eucalyptus trees- perfect. Hmm or not so…come late afternoon we met our neighbours, little corellas (Caca sanguina). It seemed that our ‘perfect’ camping spot was right under their roost! These birds are not usually quiet neighbours, and certainly were not when they all flew in but didn’t actually disturb us (apart from Bec) too much during the night. In fact I would say that it added to the fantastic experience of camping in the Australian outback. Bec and Reece (Bec’s partner) took us right into the Aussie outback, where few people will have been before and the scenery was absolutely spectacular (or ‘speccy’ as they kept saying!) We saw emus, kangaroos, and gibber earless dragon (Tympanocryptis intima), which was worth getting prickles in my hand to catch. We also had the true outback camping experience of sleeping in swags (not tents) meaning that when I awoke at 4am I could look up at the stars in my cosy cocoon! 

Stunning views of breakaway country during our camping trip.

An emu which finally got of the road after running in front of the car for a good couple of kilometers! Photo credit: Toby West 

Gibber grasshopper. Adapted for life on the gibber stones so most do not fly.

Gibber dragon roughly 10cm long. As you can see from the bottom photo they are extremely well camouflaged against the gibber rock!

Just to top off the week (I hope I’m not bragging too much) I was also informed that I would be able to help Bec out on the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (or APY for short) Lands, traditionally owned and managed land which require permits to enter. Bec is heading up to help with trapping reintroduced black-footed rock wallaby (Petrogale lateralis MacDonnell Ranges Race) or warru (Pitjantjatjara for rock-wallaby) as they are knownon the Lands. A true privilege and a trip I am so excited about. Maybe I’ll get to try a witchetty grub too.  I doubt next week will beat this week but we’ll see!