SETTING THE TRAPS

The team I was working with: Anna, Tony and Flic.

Day 1:  We worked in small teams of about four people. During the morning each team set up three pit fall sites. A site is a ha in area. Within this area traps are laid out in a pattern. We dig a shallow trench 25m long and then lay plumber's plastic along this, buried in the ground and rising to about 300cm above the ground. At each end there is a plastic bucket buried with the lid left off. The theory is that small animals, reptiles and insects will hit the plastic and then walk along it and fall in the buckets. In this way we can do a survey of animals in the area. In  the middle of each 25 metre length there are also two funnel traps. These are like a long skinny yabbie trap and are able to trap snakes, larger lizards and small mammals. Eleven traps are laid in the 1 ha, laid out in a pattern of five groups.

Flic laying funnel traps.

Anna laying the centre plastic.

The organisation I am working for is called The Australian Wildlife Conservancy or AWC for short. They own and run the Scotia property which is 65,000 ha in size, and on the border of South Australia.  It was once two separate grazing properties, Ennisvale and Tararra. These had very short histories as grazing properties, probably because of the harsh landscape and the lack of water.

The feral-free fence.

Scotia has the largest fenced feral free area on the mainland of Australia. Two areas are now fenced, known as Stage 1 and Stage 2, each of 4,000 ha. Both areas have populations of Bridled Nailtail Wallabies, Burrowing Bettongs, Brushtailed Bettongs, Bilbies, Numbats and Greater Stick-nest Rats.