A TYPICAL DAY

A numbat I was monitoring takes refuge in the base of a tree.

Over the past week I have been monitoring the newly arrived numbats. A typical day involves leaving camp between 7 and 7.30 in the morning. I drive to stage 2 and once there program into the telemetry box the frequencies of the numbats I am looking to find. Then I follow a map around the area I expect those animals to be in. The telemetry box is connected to an aerial on top of the car and it is continually scanning to locate the animals. I drive at about 10 kilometres an hour to be able to pick up the signals.

One of many insects in the area.

When I hear a signal I switch the box to a portable aerial. With the smaller aerial I am also able to find which direction the animal is in by pointing the aerial where the signal is strongest. Loaded up with a back-pack containing; water, satellite phone, snake bandage, radio, GPS and camera I then head off towards the signal trying to find the numbat. Often the signal is very feint and not consistent so it is a matter of trial and error (and luck) and a lot of walking to find the numbat. If I don't discover a signal then I may walk over a particular area in transects, back and forth about 80 metres distance from where I last walked.

Southern Boobook Owl

I continue this routine until about 1.30 in the afternoon when I head back to camp for lunch and to map the numbats I have located. The afternoon session begins about 4 and goes until after dark, about 9, though lately it has had to stop early as they are doing a cull in the area and its not safe to be out after dark.

Originally 12 numbats were to have collars. One of these showed signs of rubbing the animal's neck and so it was taken off and only 11 numbats were released with collars. Over the week each one is located a couple of times. At first this was one or two a session but this grew to about 5 or 6 as I started to recognise the signals and knew where the numbats were foraging and resting. Two collars continued to elude me. Eventually I found one numbat some 500 metres into the scrub. The other collar was located when it gave off a weak mortality signal. The worst was feared but the collar was located and it was found to have simply slipped off the animal's neck. So now there are 10 numbats with collars. Each will move about until they establish an area they consider their home range. This will make it a lot easier to track them.

The survey team: Sharon, Megan and Louise.

While patrolling the area in stage 2 I have had a few opportunities to take photographs of other animals in the area. The days are extremely hot and this results in not many animals being seen. Now and then I see a sand goanna or a few small birds. The other evening I was fortunate to see a southern boobook owl. The other three volunteers here at present continue to do the driving surveys. They are in stage 1. They drive around the roads at a slow speed and record any animals seen. They have seen a number of numbats.

A great photograph of a young numbat. Taken by Louise Purcell.