Australian Wildlife Services undertook bird and vegetation surveys on Toogimbie Indigenous Protected Area (IPA) in April. Toogimbie are using their cultural access licence (water) as well as revegetation and pest management strategies to rehabilitate their wetlands. The wetlands have cultural and environmental significance in the region. Surveys focused on birds and wetland vegetation,
Category: Ecological Monitoring and Surveys
AWS staff member, Jenny Smits, has been running around Canberra undertaking various volunteer surveys for the Canberra Ornithological Group and the CSIRO. Surveys include targeted surveys for superb parrots within areas touted to become new suburbs in Canberra’s north, and landscape connectivity surveys where the role of paddock trees are being assessed in the movement of birds across the landscape. Jenny Smits was also able to help Chris Davey assess the breeding Silver Gull population on Spiniker Island, Lake Burley Griffin, on 14 December.
Australian Wildlife Services and the Angas Downs IPA Rangers battled the 41 – 45 degree heat this November 2012 to undertake the annual reptile and small mammal surveys. Pitfall and funnel traps were used along 25 m fence lines, as well as active searches.
Annual aerial survey monitoring was conducted on Angas Downs IPA in July 2012. These surveys complement surveys also conducted in 2010 & 2011. IPA Rangers and Jennifer Smits (AWS) counted animals seen at low level and 200 m on either side of the aircraft. Species targeted /observed included camels, kangaroos, horses and cattle.
These studies are vital to understanding populations of kangaroos and pressures from camel
…Australian Wildlife Services’ George Wilson and Jen Smits joined 200 camera trap researchers from all over the world at Taronga Zoo last week at the world’s first camera trapping colloquium. The event was co-hosted by the Australasian Wildlife Management Society, Royal Zoological Society of NSW, the Invasive Animals CRC and sponsor WWF-Australia. Camera trapping is rapidly being adopted for diverse monitoring purposes, from wildlife research and management to asset protection. They are a useful tool for both species detection and
…Canberra Institute of Technology (CIT) student volunteers visited Angas Downs Indigenous Protected Area in Sept 2012 to help undertake reptile, bird, track and mammal surveys. The students were helped by Australian Wildlife Services’ Jenny Smits to learn the various survey techniques. The field trip was part of CIT Diploma in Ecology course ‘Field Studies’. Well done to all, a hugely successful trip for us. See the facebook page for more info and photos.
AWS staff and Angas Downs rangers have installed some remote infrared cameras across Angas Downs to capture native and pest animal movements to watering points. The cameras, 12 MP Acorn LT1 Night Vision cameras, have a blue flash that is invisible to animals. It records photos and videos in both day and night mode.
Captures include kangaroos, birds, horses, cattle, camels, emus, dingos, cats and foxes. Foxes hadn’t previously been identified as occurring in the area until these remote cameras were put
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Local NT ABC Radio reporter Caddie Brain interviews Dr George Wilson, Australian Wildlife Services about kangaroos on Angas Downs IPA… Click here for the transcript and to listen to the story.
” The team from Angas Downs Station are working hard to increase red kangaroo numbers on the former pastoral property. Rangers are reinstalling
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Buffel grass presence / absence surveys began in June 2012 on Angas Downs IPA. The survey can be redone next year to show how buffel is expanding or not. It will be interesting to see how quickly it takes to increase from a few plants to a dense patch. If a fast increase in plant density is
…Reptile and Birding checklists for Angas Downs IPA current to March 2012 are now available through the AWS website. The tally to date is 99 bird species observed (includes vagrant species) and 51 reptiles species. Angas Downs is an excellent diverse landscape and we are slowly learning its potential as a sustainable use conservation area.
Also see Angas Downs Reptile Surveys
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