Environment and Resource Management

Reintroduction Blog - "The Move"

Monday 13 July 2009

At Epping Forest National Park

Two of our officers, Andrew and Allan H, arrive at Epping after travelling from Rockhampton. Travelling with them is Todd Woody, an American journalist whose article in the Times attracted considerable attention. He will travel in one (but not the first) of the flights from Epping to Yarran Downs with wombats to be able to describe the historic event.

At Richard Underwood Nature Refuge (Yarran Downs)

The team will be staying at the original homestead on the neighbouring property “Strathmere” thanks to the manager Hamish McIntyre. It is a beautiful old building on the banks of the Balonne River. This property was once owned by the Underwood family and Ed’s uncle left his signature on the floorboards probably when recovering the floor with linoleum and uncovered in the last few years.

 

Strathmere. Photo: DERM
Strathmere. Photo: DERM.

Think flying wombats. Forty years ago this week, three men Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins were preparing to leave earth and travel to the moon. They weren’t planning to stay and be colonists, getting there and getting back was the aim. In a strange way, when I was looking at the moon last night I was thinking that this was both analogical and at the same time different with the re-introduction of the northern hairy-nosed wombats to the St George area. The first and most obvious similarity is that neither species (us or the wombats) is designed for flight yet both missions involve unprecedented flights. Our wombats will be landing in a foreign environment, where no other wombats are living. Unlike the moon, our expectation (after lots of research) is that this will be an environment where the travellers will be able to survive without ongoing support. Also unlike the moon, wombats have lived here before and rather than being the first of their species to arrive they will be returning after an absence of probably close to one hundred years. The second is the technology involved in trapping and flying our prospective colonists from Epping to Yarran has benefited from the work that went on to take those three aforementioned souls to the moon even if Collins didn’t get to walk upon the surface.

Think flying wombats because this mission also comes with a real risk of failure to the individuals even though what we learn and what we gain by trying will be significant and real for conservation. Also think flying wombats because it isn’t going to be easy to ‘persuade’ our colonists to have their passports stamped and try and new climes of St. George.


 

Yarran downs. Photo: DERM.

 

Tuesday 14 July 2009

At Epping Forest National Park

The remainder of the trapping crew arrive at Epping: Tim H, the Project Manager, Peter (Manager, Threatened Species), Heather, Hilary, Andrea, Sonja and Deb.

Team wombats 

The team at Epping Forest national Park. Photo DERM

Today, Allan tracked the radio collared animals and located them all, other than the sub-adult male whose collar we believe has failed. Reviewing the footage from the cameras reveals that he (the wombat) is well and has remained in the area that he was originally trapped in. 

At Richard Underwood Nature Refuge (Yarran Downs)

Richard came down from Roma and started getting ready for the influx of officers and (hopefully) northern hairy-nosed wombats. Peter Mc from Charleville is installing the final last minute elements of the monitoring system.

Think flying wombats.

 

Wednesday 15th July 2009

At Epping Forest National Park

The team headed out early to set the traps after confirming the location of the radio collared animals. As it happened, two of the animals had moved overnight to unfenced burrows. The team erected fencing around these burrows and we were ready for the night. The team has taken extra care to remain as quiet as possible whilst setting up to try and minimise the impact of the additional human activity.

Our plane chartered to transport our colonists left the Sunshine Coast as planned but experienced significant headwinds. Our pilot, Joe decided to land and stay at Emerald for the night but would be available for flying at first light if required (which we are hoping for given tonight will be the first night of trapping!).

At Richard Underwood Nature Refuge (Yarran Downs)

The Channel 10 documentary team interviewed Peter Mc regarding how the monitoring equipment works and the basis of triangulation as a way of determining where the animals are.

The receiving team is gathering. Allan M and Leanne arrive in St George. I (Beck) drove down from Brisbane and Steve will join us tomorrow. We wait. I was asked how I feel and the closest thing which portrays the feelings of anxiety, excitement and feeling excluded from the current phase but knowing there was a big role about to come our way unless something goes horribly wrong is a man in a 1950’s movie waiting and pacing outside a labour ward.

Think flying wombats.

 

Thursday 16 July 2009

At Epping Forest National Park

Night 1: No wombats trapped last night. This was not terribly surprising as it is reasonably common not to trap any animal on the first trapping night.

The 6 am call between Epping and Yarran still held some hope as an alarm had been just triggered and a team was out checking. It was one of our old friends, a swamp wallaby.

As a further indication of the extent of the wariness or “trap shyness” of the wombats, we could tell by the prints and the subsequent breach of the trap fence, one of our seven radio collared animals (M115. a sub-adult male, Z on his collar) walked up to the trap and then turned around went along the fence for a short distance and then dug out and moved burrow without having his passport to St George stamped. The team did see two wombats on the road when out checking so there has not been a wombat diaspora since our last trapping trip.

The day was spent re-tracking the collared animals to check that they were still in the same burrows and preparing for the night ahead. Joe, our pilot and the plane arrived at Walthum Station owned by the Dennis family.

At Richard Underwood Nature Refuge (Yarran Downs)

The assembled groups (DERM staff, Underwood family and Channel 10 documentary makers) spent a cold morning pre-dawn waiting for the call from Epping.

During the day, the documentary makers from Channel 10 conducted interviews with the Underwood family and filmed the infrastructure such as the fence and the burrows.

Richard and Steve worked on the plumbing for the feed and water stations; as the tank was delivered earlier this week, as well as assisting the documentary makers.

 


Photo: DERM.

Today was a cold and mostly overcast day at St. George that turned into a very cold night. Imagine the three of us with our beanies on, huddled around a transistor radio listening to the first day of the second test between Australia and England and deciding by 9 pm the only sensible place to be was in a swag or a couple of sleeping bags.

Think flying wombats.

 

Friday 17 July 2009

At Epping Forest National Park

Night 2: No wombats trapped last night

There were 3 swamp wallabies trapped during the night which got down to about 3-4 degrees. The team spent the day confirming the location of the radio collared wombats and collecting wombat dung.

At Richard Underwood Nature Refuge (Yarran Downs)

The most exciting news of the day from my perspective was that we asked Allan M, our vet who was in St George to buy a heater and to bring it out with him. Leanne from our media unit has also joined us staying at Strathmere.

The Channel 10 documentary team continued to film in preparation for the arrival of the northern hairy-nosed wombats. Channel 10 has been following the story of the northern hairy-nosed wombat recovery for many years. They have footage of the soil testing and our staff explaining what the attributes we were looking for that would provide good wombat habitat. It will be interesting to see the progression through film of the search for the site and our partners the Underwood family and Xstrata.

Geoff Clare, the Assistant Director General (my direct supervisor) and Terry Wall, Associate Director General (his direct supervisor) arrived at Richard Underwood Nature Refuge today. They inspected the fence, food and water stations and the starter burrows. We could feel the temperature drop as the sun set and knew we were in for another cold night. (Postscript: the heater was fabulous; it was enough to take the bite out the chill and as the wind had dropped meant that it was a pleasant 2 jumper evening.)

 


The team at Yarran Downs. Photo: DERM.

Think flying wombats.

 

Saturday 18 July 2009

At Epping Forest National Park

Night 3: No wombats trapped last night.

It was very cold last night with no call outs between 9 pm and 4.30 am and only 3 swamp wallabies all night. We also didn’t see any wombats whilst travelling through the Park to those calls. We do not have any other traps set as our priority is to recapture the 7 radio collared animals.

The day was spent collecting northern hairy-nosed wombat dung. The team did a complete mock trial of transporting the crates from a trap (not near the burrows with our prospective travellers) to the airstrip and on to the plane.

Collecting wombat dung 

DERM staff collecting dung. Photo DERM

At Richard Underwood Nature Refuge (Yarran Downs)

This morning was another cold pre-dawn waiting for the call from Epping with news of flying northern hairy-nosed wombats heading our way. A pattern is emerging in how we prepare ourselves for the call; the kettle is put on first up to provide the first cup of tea for the day and we hover by the phone still on the charger, ready to take it out side as the best reception is about 4 metres from the house. The Epping crew knows that we must be outside before reception is good enough for us to be heard. The cold and the poor reception at odds with each other as it is hard to keep still when you are shivering but necessary to keep still once you have found where the reception is to be had (just turning your head can lead to the line dropping out). This morning I included a happy birthday pre-dawn call to my daughter, Nellie who is 12 today.

After ringing both the documentary crew and the Underwood family with the disappointing news, we went with Geoff and Terry to the Nature Refuge. Today the tractor was used to mount the header tank. We will fill the tank tomorrow however in future the water will come from collecting water from the shed and house.

Think flying wombats.

 

Sunday 19 July 2009

At Epping Forest National Park

Night 4: Saturday night 9.10 pm and Tim and Peter head out to respond to an alarm. Not good news, prints indicate a wombat has entered the trap but had second thoughts in time to back out before the gate closed. A wombat perhaps worried about swine flu on the flight? Or perhaps as Leanne said they are teasing us/messing with our heads. Other than this it was a very quiet night with only 2 call outs.

Tracking the wombats showed that 2 had moved burrows during the night with out going through the trap or digging under the fence. It seems that the burrow network may be more extensive in those places than we thought and an extra 6 traps were set around those burrow complexes whilst leaving the original traps in place. The team is feeling confident about tonight.

At Richard Underwood Nature Refuge (Yarran Downs)

It was another cold night at Yarran Downs. The day was spent shovelling and I am not sure I will be able to walk tomorrow.

Think flying wombats: I came across a quote from Apollo 8 astronaut William Anders on the weekend:  “We came all this way to explore the moon and the most important thing we discovered is the Earth”.  It would have been a fitting tribute to bring the wombats home last night but tonight will do.

 

Monday 20 July 2009

At Epping National Park

Night 5: No wombats trapped last night. The same wombat (female adult F116) that backed out of a trap on Saturday night dug her way out last night. Interestingly we have had an un-collared animal dig its way into one of our trapping burrows. However, more “normal” numbers of other species were caught. We are hopeful that this is an indication that animals are starting to move again after the cold snap we have had.

At Richard Underwood Nature Refuge (Yarran Downs)

We had a variety of odd jobs to do today including digging a trench and laying the poly-pipe from the header tanker and attaching it to the reticulated system within the nature reserve.

Tuesday 21 July 2009

At Epping Forest National Park

Night 6: A much milder night at Epping Forest National Park (Scientific) and the first of our nominated colonists was trapped about 8pm last night. He is sub-adult male M115. As fate would have it, I was present when he was first trapped and collared back in March and remember him as a very healthy animal (see trapping session 1, March 19 ).

He had lost over a kilogram since then but is still in very good condition. A second northern hairy-nosed wombat is caught but he is un-collared, very young and in poor condition (2/5 in the body condition scale) so he is processed but returned to his burrow.

6 am and the pilot and Tim have gone to Walthum for the pre-flight checks and procedures before loading the wombat. He has spent the night in the crate and had some attempts at burrowing in the crate. The first flying northern hairy-nosed wombat left from Walthum Station after 7 am headed for St George. It is fitting that he left from a Dennis family property (the previous owners of the area which is now Epping Forest National Park). They landed in Emerald and then headed down to St George. Also poetically they flew from overcast weather to a clear blue sky and a crisp winter day.

Loading a wombat 

Early morning at Walthum Station. Photo DERM

During the day, the team tracked our remaining collared animals and set up some additional traps.

At Richard Underwood Nature Refuge (Yarran Downs)

It was an excited group that waited for the plane to land at St George. See the footage. Allan, our veterinarian, Leanne and I were joined by some of the local community and the local newspaper journalist, Raelene as we were somehow recognised in an otherwise deserted airport. Good news travels quickly. The plane touched down about 11 am and after a vet check, the wombat (and Tim) was loaded into the vehicle and transported to Yarran.

 


DERM vet checking the wombat. Photo: DERM.

At Yarran, Richard, Peter and Steve had done the last minute preparations (plugs for the burrow at hand). Also present were Lisa, Kathryn J as well as Hamish (the manager of Strathmere) and his son. There would have been 10 minutes from the time we arrived to the time of release and it was enough for me to find myself standing alone watching the crate and feeling goose bumps, thinking about all the people that have worked to get us here over the last 35 years as well as the serendipity that we would have a wombat walk in St George within 20 minutes of the 40th anniversary of the first moon walk (about 12.50 pm 21 July eastern standard time in Australia): footprints in the moon and footprints in the red dirt of Yarran Downs. It was one of those times when anxiety, hope and release combine so you couldn’t say what you are feeling other than it is intense. Luckily before I embarrassed my self by crying, Peter Mc put his arm around me and said “we will have no sooking today”.

At burrow number 3, we opened the crate door and the northern hairy nosed wombat gave us a look as if to say “what is going on here”. Peter and Tim lent in and brought him forward. Once his front paws were on the ground, he walked calmly and fairly quickly (but without undue haste) down the burrow, turned the corner and disappeared from sight. Leanne trusted me with her camera and some of the results are here. We quickly plugged the burrow with a plastic container that looks remarkably like a keg (complete with infra camera so we can see but not record what is going on) and walked quietly and jubilantly away!

 

M115 being released. Photo: DERM.

 

M115 being released. Photo: DERM.

 

M115 being released. Photo: DERM.

Tea, fruit cake and chocolate to celebrate and then back to work. I ended up driving back to St George to send photos for media use.

When the sun was setting, red hues were splashed across the sky and Tim went and opened the burrow. First shift went into our 3 tin sheds to spend the first half of the night listening to the beeps from the radio collar and recording the degrees from the hut. Using triangulation we will be able to plot the movement of the animals. I was on the second shift but didn’t get much sleep before we headed out between further news from Epping that the Buzz Aldrin of the northern hairy-nosed wombats had been trapped and would be on his way in the morning.


Photo: DERM

View videos
1.50am 22 July 2009 (a)
1.50am 22 July 2009 (b) 

The wind came up about 3.30 am and the shed was cold enough for me though the temperature remained fairly steady.

We have flying wombat, lets think more flying wombats

 

Wednesday 22nd July 2009

At Epping Forest National Park

Night 7: M119 has nominated himself to be our second colonist at about 9 pm. We have vision of M119 scratching himself on a regular basis at feed station 13 and he is also not averse to spending time eating the supplementary feed. Another sub-adult male was also trapped but he was assessed to be too small to be a colonist though he was in good condition. Consequently, after processing back to his burrow he went.

At Richard Underwood Nature Refuge (Yarran Downs)

This morning M115 decided to go to the northwest corner of the nature refuge and spend some time there. Tim H and I walked in through the gate with the intention of walking quietly near burrow 03. Our hope was to see wombat prints in the red sand of Yarran Downs after an absence of up to 100 years. We were quiet and Tim got out the mobile antennae and receiver as we left the road and I think both of us got a complete surprise when the initial signal was strong and clear meaning that he was very close. Two officers went into super quiet mode as Tim tried to determine where M115 was. Unfortunately he heard us and moved away at a steady but not galloping pace. We didn’t pursue him and his location will be checked at dusk and through the night.

Leanne and Alan went to meet the plane and were helped lifting out the precious cargo by two Jones Air officers who also recognised what was going on and came to assist. At Yarran, Ed and Gab Underwood with their son Bronco, his friend Charlie and Charlie’s father John and grandfather Henry, who are also from a neighbouring property, were on hand to welcome the wombat to their property.

We went to burrow 10 and prepared for the release. The two boys were at the edge of the starter burrow holding hands as only 4 year old best friends can and I hope they remember this when they are both old men. The crate was opened and this northern hairy-nosed wombat sat at the back of the crate, still but for his eyes which looked and focused on the array of people in front of him. He saw Tim on his right and staying still he just followed him with his eyes, looking wary and bewildered (anthropomorphic I know but that is how he seemed to me). Again, once the front paws reached the soil the wombat walked down the burrow calmly, turned the corner and went out of sight.

 

M119 looking wary and bewildered. Photo: DERM.

Plugging the burrow we left and probably felt more pure joy this time as relief was not such a major factor. We still have a long way to go before we can say this has achieved the goal but at least this phase is now well on its way.

 

 

Plugging the burrow. Photo: DERM.

The joys of field biology include the use, installation and maintenance of equipment that sometimes does inexplicable things. One of the antennae at Station 3 had decided not to co-operate as fully as it could have last night so Peter Mc and Steven John Joseph (Wetherby George) spent the day dissembling and reassembling it.

Think more flying wombats

View video - appreciation of teh wombat team 

Thursday 23 July 2009

At Epping Forest National Park

Night 8: 2 am and the alarm goes off and the team heads to the burrow to see if it is another swamp wallaby or echidna. The hope it is our collared adult female as she is known to be in that burrow complex. However this time, it is an un-collared male adult. He has not been previously caught and is now M125. He is the 13th male to be caught in a row. Even when we did major “whole of population” trapping in 1993 and 1999 did we have such a sequence. There could be a number of reasons why the females are avoiding the traps but I won’t give rise to idle speculation (though it could be fun). M125 will be on the plane heading south this morning.

5.15 am and my third conversation for the early hours of today with Epping is a result of their ringing with further good news. A trap has gone off in burrow 63 where we believe one of our collared males has been staying. If he is caught it will mean a delay to the flight.

7 am I have had a quick chat with Allan H at Epping and the expected time of departure is now not till 9 am meaning an arrival time at St George between 12 noon and 1pm. Joining the flight as a late arrival at the airstrip is M108, an adult male. At just over 35kgs, M108 has gone against the trend and gained weight since we caught him earlier this year.

Flying wombats 

Flying wombats. Photo DERM

The daily routine of checking the location of the remaining collared animals, moving traps if need be and trying to get some sleep continued. Given how hard people have worked, not surprisingly the team is looking forward to the end of this trapping session. They are all still anxious to catch a female.  Sonja (our cameraperson), and Peter Y left today. Sonja went out to all the call outs and captured a huge amount on film as well as an interview with David Dennis.

At Richard Underwood Nature Refuge (Yarran Downs)

We have much to be thankful for a very mild night at Yarran last night. M115 appears to have spent most of the night above ground and it will be very interesting to plot his movements later this morning. On the other hand M119 appears to have made some forays outside of the starter burrow but from angle of the triangulation spent most of the evening on the same or similar bearing. Again, his movements will be more apparent once we do the analysis. A beautiful night with stars you could touch and a glorious dawn, and as much as I enjoyed it I don’t think I am converting to a morning person.

It was “a big day” today. After a shower and breakfast, I headed in to St George with Leanne who was travelling back to Brisbane on a bus. She has done a fabulous job as our cameraperson and also did shifts of the night time monitoring and other duties. Into the DERM St George office to email these wombat diary updates and then out to the airport to await our newest colonists. Given there were two crates, some of the local staff came to assist. It was also good for them to be able to see first hand what we are doing as living locally they are bound to be asked what we are doing and have been very helpful throughout.


Photo: DERM

It was getting late in the day when we finally unloaded the two northern hairy nosed wombats. Once on the ground at St. George at about 1.30, the Royal Flying Doctor landed and as they take precedence, we delayed about another 30 minutes.

Cargo aboard we head north and about 14 kilometres on the highway, I am signaled to pull over by the police for a random breath test. Anywhere, Anytime. Tim and Alan smiled and waved as they passed me in the second vehicle. The formalities over, the police man remarked that he had seen our pictures in the local paper this morning but didn’t ask to see a wombat.

Today we learnt that not only can northern hairy-nosed wombats fly but they can also jump or perhaps more accurately leap. The crate containing M125 was placed in front of the burrow entrance as per our procedure and Tim and Peter began to coax him out. He at first seemed very docile and looked at us with the now familiar query of “what is going on here and what are you doing to me?” At this point all those things my mother told me should have kicked in but didn’t. Words of wisdom like “how looks deceive” and “don’t judge a book by its cover”. At the entrance of the crate, M125 looked around, looked Tim in the face and took a sharp right and made a dash. Tim put his arms around him but M125 did a leap through them and we saw proof that wombats are great sprinters. Tim turned took a similar leap but missed. M125 went for about 40 metres, then turned around and when he saw we had given up the chase, put his nose to the ground and started looking for sent trails. The road had been used the night before by the two residents and he may have picked up their scent trails. We watched him as he now nonchalantly sniffed around the food and water station and came back towards us. He knew we were there and as he walked back towards us, paused and raised his front paw much like a German short haired pointer dog (you can see how they do this on the video link to the front page of the northern hairy nosed wombat page). After a while, he moved to the side and headed into the bush as it happened towards where M115 was. To see this animal actively exploring its environment and undertaking deliberate behaviour was both a very positive portend for its future and reassuring that he was not panicking (I on the other hand had my heart in my mouth). Peter Mc commented that this animal was not displaying any sign of stress and that this had been a very successful release in the late afternoon.

 

 
We had got over the shock and were just watching. Photo: DERM.

 


M125 hitting the road. Photo: DERM.

 

We still had M108 to take to a burrow so we backtracked and travelled to where we planned to release him. We were beaten there by none other than M125 who was ambling down the road apparently following a scent trail. Again we had a period where both parties look at each other across an invisible divide before he gave us a look which conveyed very clearly he no longer considered us interesting and turned and ambled away.

 


108 waiting for release. Photo: DERM

We removed the collar of M108 because it had become too tight and loss of fur and a sore was developing. He went down the burrow calmly and on his own and we (quickly) plugged it. The team decided to wait till it was time to release the plug. As soon as Tim un-plugged the burrow, he quickly came back to the 3 of us waiting by the vehicle and said, that M108 was at the entrance and had been pushing and digging around the plug. We went into to “pause and silent” mode as we saw M108’s nose emerge from the burrow into the dappled late afternoon sunshine. He paused at the entrance, looked/sniffed about and then fully emerged. He went about 2 body lengths up the runway and flicked his head to shake off some of the red dust. Another 4 paces and he did a full body shake, sending out a cloud of flying dust. Another small shake of his head and his nose to the ground he did a semi-orbit of the burrow before he spun off to the south. He seemed unaware or unperturbed by our presence and we took photos and a video on our cameras. This was an incredibly uplifting sight and a fitting end to the day as the sun was now well on its way down.

Emerging from burrow. Photo: DERM.

Back to camp, my dilemma of how to explain what had happened to my boss Geoff; was solved by his ringing and me beginning by saying that M125 had successfully avoided any comparisons with Collins of Apollo 11 by making sure that he had the most memorable landing.

Think more flying wombats.

 

Friday 24 July 2009

At Epping Forest National Park

Night 9: A slightly cooler night and though 2 male wombats were caught neither were suitable and there is no new colonists arriving today. The team at Epping was none the less kept busy. One of the males was 26 years old and I need to check if he is the same individual who nominated himself as a colonist in the third trapping session but was rejected because of his age. A move to Yarran would only be a lifestyle decision and we feared that the move may be too much for him at this time of his life. The other animal was another very small sub-adult male, probably too young to move into a new estate lacking the large number of established burrows to use before making their own. Though we have provided starter burrows, the expectation is that the animals will excavate their own.

At Richard Underwood Nature Refuge (Yarran Downs)

Tim, here, just returned from tracking our new recruits. I found M115, our pioneer wombat, 650 metres from where I found him yesterday morning. He is in a similar situation under logs and branches but he has excavated a burrow. I did not want to get too close for fear of disturbing him. The good news is that he is mobile and able to seek out temporary shelter.

 

Burrow excavated by M115, Photo: DERM



Burrow excavated by M115, Photo: DERM

M119 was also located and he is in the burrow in which he was released. There are lots of prints all around this burrow and also up and down the adjacent track.

I visited the nearby starter burrows and some simple burrows we dug (without the bend) and found wombat tracks in and out of them. This indicates there is a lot of exploring going on.

Beck again: As Peter Mc said yesterday, in the next few weeks the colonists will be making this into wombat territory, exploring the area and leaving their scent calling cards.

Think more flying wombats

 

Saturday 25 July 2009

At Epping Forest National Park

As it was the last planned night of trapping at Epping and the weather had changed and become cooler again, the team was anxious about the likelihood of capturing any more suitable northern hairy nosed wombat colonists.

2 am: Success, the adult female has been trapped! Alan H is on the checking team and said “I can’t tell you how happy I was to look down and see a collared wombat in the trap”. She is in fabulous condition. Though there is still evidence of a cloacal discharge, it is less than when she was previously caught. Her fertility may be compromised however she will none the less go to Yarran Downs and will be an important part of establishing a social structure there. She is still in good condition, weighing over 34kgs. 

Most of the team packed their goods and chattels and left Epping this morning. Andrew and Alan H remain to do the final tidy ups.

At Richard Underwood Nature Refuge (Yarran Downs)

A very cold overnight, Steve measured minus 3 degrees outside the tin shed and the wombats responded accordingly by mostly staying stationary in the burrows/shelter that they have dug. They did however make forays out and about for about an hour in the early evening and the morning.

Given that we knew the female had a discharge, we visited the local veterinarian, Chris Goodwin to obtain some antibiotics (a 5 day acting dose). Chris was very helpful and expressed his willingness to be involved in the future. As it was the Cotton Cup Race Day, he had official duties there to perform and left. The female arrived at St George at about 11 am. She had been unsettled prior to the flight but had settled down and was likely to be tired. Unlike M125, she went down burrow 7 in an orderly and decorous fashion.



Photo:DERM

We have placed three additional food and water stations along the tracks (the others are about 10-20 m off the tracks) as a temporary measure to increase the probability of the northern hairy-nosed wombats coming across them. We also have a number of the infra red cameras out along the road. Interestingly, the prints at the moment suggest that the wombats are actively avoiding both the stations and the cameras.


Infra red cameras along the road. Photo: DERM.

Sunday 26 July 2009

At Epping Forest National Park

Andrew and Allan H left to return to Rockhampton.

At Richard Underwood Nature Refuge (Yarran Downs

It was another cold night at Yarran Downs.

M115, our only sub-adult continued to use the burrow that he has been digging. He is leaving the burrow each evening and it is likely that he is foraging as there is fresh dung around his burrow. Tim cautiously ventured near the burrow, being careful not to disturb him and looking down the burrow could not see any sign of the wombat. From this we can infer that the burrow is at least a metre long. As an aside, I looked at the diary for trapping session one, and M115 was the wombat collared so it was fitting he was also the first colonist.

The female wombat travelled from burrow 7 during the night and decided to spend the day in burrow 2. It is satisfying that the other collared wombats are using the starter burrows that we dug. It has got to the stage where it is hard to tell if they are undertaking interior design work as the burrows now just look like the standard wombat burrow at Epping with prints and dung at their entrance.


Footprints in the red sand. Photo: DERM.

 

Monday 27 July 2009

At Richard Underwood Nature Refuge (Yarran Downs)

Having a chat to Peter Mc, we talked about M115 spurning our starter burrows and building his own. Peter, a long term Western Queensland zoologist, indicated that he was not concerned as burrowing is natural for a wombat and the other wombats had done the equivalent of booking into a motel room.  Which, from my point of view, when your travelling is not such a bad option.

We have a change over of staff, with Richard (returning) Ranger Tim, and Ian G arriving today and Steve and Tim taking a well earned break.

Communications has been an issue for us and to overcome that, antenna for the radios has been installed on top of each of the sheds and a base station installed at the homestead. Phone coverage is still at whim of the gods but there is nothing we can do about that.

 

Tuesday 28 July 2009

At Richard Underwood Nature Refuge (Yarran Downs)

Lets face facts: it was COLD last night at Yarran Downs.

There was also movement at the station. M115, the Armstrong of this expedition decided it was time to change abode and book into a motel. He went to burrow 8 which up until yesterday had been occupied by M119.  We don’t know if M119 had moved on or was evicted but he went to burrow 3. We also don’t know if M119 has acted like a rock star or a presenter from a home improvements show in the starter burrow though my money is on the latter.

Our female remains in burrow 3.

During the day, water is arriving to fill the header tank. This means we will prime the reticulation system and have the water on.

As part of ensuring consistency Peter Mc will run through the process at each of the stations.

We are doing a daily “day light” check of the location of the collared animals and an examination of the food and water stations and all the burrows for signs of activity.  Interestingly our first two arrivals (M115 and M119) are camping within 5 metres of each other at the burrow 8 complex. M119 is at least 2 metres from the burrow entrance and based on the amount of freshly excavated soil has been very busy with interior improvements.

There are wombat prints throughout the Nature Refuge. They seem to have not only circumnavigated the area but spend time crisscrossing the reserve. It is quicker to type that there is no fresh activity at burrow complexes 1, 5, 7, 9 and 11 than detail the fresh digging, bung and residences in the other burrows.

Sunset, tonight’s sunset is a dark golden ball emitting a ‘stillness’, not really disturbed by the sounds of the birds. I am on the front veranda of “Strathmere”, now one of my favourite places. The rest of the team is still out and I will need to turn on the lights soon.


Front veranda of “Strathmere”, a wonderful place to be. Photo: DERM.

Richard and I are on early shift, so we head back to our tin sheds.

8 pm and it is time to put on my gloves as the metals are now cold to touch. There is not much movement from M115 or M119 they seem to be essentially staying put for this part of the evening. Our female has left and come back to where she was and from the signal increasing and then fading, maybe going in and out of the burrow.

11.30 pm I went outside to take the temperature but thought better of it and went straight back in. The cold has seeped through my boots and two pair of socks, the rest of me is fine. The shed starts to creak as it gets cold and there is the odd thump as macropods pass by.

12.30 am and M119 has gone for a wander. 

1.15 am and the second shift called to say they were on there way. YEAH!

Ranger Tim and Ian arrive bright eye and bushy tailed with the news they had stopped on the way to check out an Australian owlet nightjar. Ian had managed to scoop it up with his hands to show Tim its sugar glider like face and gentle manner before it fluttered silently on to the dash board and out the window.

3.15 am Ranger Tim called in to celebrate having a southern boobook calling at his back; however he was not celebrating the -4 degrees temperature. He and Ian being keen birdos, they also heard a tawny frogmouth and another owlet nightjar.

Wednesday 29 July 2009

At Richard Underwood Nature Refuge (Yarran Downs)

Ranger Tim, Ian and I did the checking for activity at the food and water stations and the burrows this afternoon.  Of note, it appears that one of the smaller wombats (possibly M115, the first arrival sub-adult) is dragging his right rear paw rather than lifting it cleanly. There were some prints like this noted early last week but they have been absent since. We will be having a closer look at the images on the infra-red cameras to see if we can pick up if there is an issue other than tiredness. Giving us some comfort, the dragging of the leg does not seem to be hindering the animal from moving around.

There were tracks leading right up to the water stations but no conclusive proof that they had been used rather than just explored. No activity at burrows 1, 6, 7 and 9 evident, and it appears as if a wallaby is using burrow 5 for shelter. At burrow 2, the receiver confirmed that a female was there about 3 metres from the entrance and there is fresh dung at the entrance.

A wombat has been having a dig on the side of the track between burrows 2 and 3. Burrow 3 has fresh dung from last night but does not look like there has been much work going on regarding its internal structure.

Burrow 4 has all the hallmarks of being occupied by a northern hairy-nosed wombat which may be M108 or M125. There is fresh excavated soil and dung at the entrance.


Photo: DERM

There seems to be something special about burrow 8. At least that’s what the Neil and Buzz of the Yarran Downs northern hairy-nosed wombats think. They are in the rill which was dug off the road, apparently lying side by side about two and a half metres from the entrance. We can infer this, from the signals given from their collars when we pass the receiver over the ground. They have done excavations and there is plenty of dung to mark their presence.

A wombat may also be habiting burrow 9 given the signs of excavation, dung and paw prints going in and out of the burrow. There was no signal received so it is possible that this is the current abode of M108 or our leaping wombat M125.

Walking along the track past burrow 11, eagle eye Ranger Tim noted what looked like a fox scat. Using a stick, he split it into 2, exposing a fluorescent blue interior. Hmmm. The colour was distinctive but as sometimes happens we didn’t have a camera with us. It is possible that it is dye put into the bait we laid for foxes prior to the re-introduction. Checking with Richard later, we discover that this doesn’t correlate so at this point, we can’t explain the colour.

A few metres on, Tim spotted another scat, this time more typical of a fox scat. We have bagged it and it will be sent away for confirmation of what species it is from and what the animal was eating. Insert your own version of a rude word! We’ve baited and been monitoring for fox tracks and believed we had eliminated them from the site!

Consequently, we will be baiting next week for foxes. We baited at Epping Forest National Parks for decades prior to the building of the predator proof fence without any known affects on the northern hairy-nosed wombats. The risk is very low; we will be using buried meat baits with a scent lure on top. Not appealing at all to a grazing herbivore. The risk from foxes is from mange rather than predation.

We wanted to check if the wombats were eating grass or the supplementary feed (pellet), so we broke open fresh dung at the burrows 3 and 5. Good news it appears to be all grass.

Thursday 30 July 2009

At Richard Underwood Nature Refuge (Yarran Downs)

Both tracking crews were keen to commence the ‘night shift’ after spending the afternoon ‘ground truthing’ last night’s data. It is so pleasing to see so many tiny wombat footprints and fresh dung in the red soil and sand pads we clear daily around the burrows.

Another cold night with temperatures dropping to just below zero at all tracking stations – woollen beanies, two pairs of socks, and long johns a must! Southern boobook owls, tawny frogmouths and owlet nightjars called throughout the night to keep us company.


Ranger Tim at dawn in front of shed 1. Photo: DERM.

The female wombat, the latest addition to the Yarran Downs population, was active all night covering a fair range of ground during our 11 hours of tracking. She finally put herself to sleep around 5.30am.

The sub-adult male hardly strayed far from the home burrow – only venturing out for about an hour and a quarter between 10.30pm and 5.00am before staying inside the burrow from 5.30am. The other male being tracked stayed inside its burrow most of the night and early morning, only poking its head out to test the temperature - maybe just too cold to venture outside tonight! At the end of the evening, from the co-ordinates it appeared as if these three wombats were at the same burrow complex.

Let me describe the radio tracking process. Imagine a single torch light, there is a disk (with degrees marked on it) from which a metal pole emerges (this is the pole that the antennae sit on). The pole, just like a periscope, has two handles on it that allows you to swivel it. The receiver is tuned to the different radio collar frequencies and makes the classic “ping” sound. The process involves: closing your eyes, listening to the peak of the “ping”, then listening as it slides or plummets into silence then back to a peak, all the while you move the periscope around. The direction of the animal is at the lowest

sound. When working in the text book fashion the sound is like a valley between two mountains. You almost feel like you are in a scene from the movie “Hunt for Red October”.

   
Radio tracking in progress. Note no gloves: Ian is tougher than I am.

Just in case you are ever involved in a telemetry study, let me share my top tips, most of them relate to the use of the headphones:

Today, Richard checked for leaks in the reticulated water system.

Today's checking of the activity around the burrows and food and water stations confirm there seems to be something special about burrow 8. Our female has spent the day in the starter burrow with M115 (our sub-adult male). He was about 3.5metres and she was about 3metres from the entrance. This is consistent with last night's tracking indicating the female arrived and settled in the burrow last. M119 returned to the rill/burrow where he spent last night. He was about 3 metres from that burrow's entrance. This burrow is less than 5 metres from where the other 2 camped. It is really satisfying when the radio tracking results are confirmed like this.

Consistent with yesterday, there was no activity present at burrows 1, 5, 6 or 7. There was no new dung or activity at burrow 3 or 9.

Burrow 2 where the female had previously stayed has had lots of excavations and a prolific amount of dung within 5 metres of the entrance. It appears that chunks of timber had been moved from the burrow entrance. Not surprisingly, there were numerous tracks in the area.  Ian couldn't help himself and spent some time turning over the timber. He did find a Lerista spp., which he will key out later.

The southeast entrance at burrow 4 has fresh excavation and fresh dung. It may not be occupied now even though there are fresh signs of activity, as other starter burrows had larger amounts of dung on their runaways. A fox scat was collected from the track between burrow 3 and 4.

Burrow 10 there was scattered fresh dung and fresh soil spread out from the northern eastern entrance. We broke the dung open and it smelt strongly and was moist, obviously grass. Again, like yesterday dung was tested at all the sites to check for freshness, moisture and content. As the dung becomes older and drier, it becomes lighter and less odorous.


Northern hairy-nosed wombat dung: fresh and moist. Photo: DERM

Burrow 10 is a contender as a possibility as a home for our leaping wombat M125. There was a fox scat which looked fairly fresh on the spoil pile; another reason to bait next week.

Burrow 11 and 2 had piles of fresh dung on the runway to the entrance and one to the side. Along with burrow 10 and 12 it is a contender for having a resident un-collared wombat. There was some fresh excavation evident.

Burrow 12 had 3 had piles of fresh dung on the runway and a fourth pile on the spoil to the side. No excavation evident.

Photos of 2, 3, 8, 10, 11and 12 were taken by Ian and we will load onto the site when Ian returns.

As an aside, Ian and Tim came across an echidna with "blonde" streaks.

Friday 31 July 2009

At Richard Underwood Nature Refuge (Yarran Downs)

Last night, the sky according to Tim was like a Christmas tree in December with the clouds like some silver tinsel. For the first time, we had some cloud cover and the effect on the temperature was obvious and welcome.


Photo: DERM

Like the cricket, it seemed that the wombats were not going to play last night. There was no movement prior to midnight. I should point out that it is coincidental that the 3rd test started (or was meant to start) last night.

The signals were not as clear as usual and at one stage Ian thought M115 (our sub-adult male) had jumped the fence! Extra concentration was required all night and the team was happy when the shifts were over.

Ranger Tim, Ian and I did the activity checking today and consistent with the radio tracking there have been changes to the camp arrangements. M115 has moved over to burrow 4. He did not appear to have done much in the way of digging but there is plenty of evidence in the form of dung on the runway to suggest he is eating. Throughout our walk this morning we did not see any evidence of a wombat dragging a paw, which is really good.


Checking wombat activity. Photo: DERM.

M119, the Buzz of the team is now in burrow 12. The dung on the runway was so fresh; it was still “steaming”.

Burrow 8 is still the home of the female. The amount of soil that has been moved is phenomenal, with the soil now spilling over almost 1/3 of the way across the track.

A northern hairy nosed wombat ate some supplement food at the station between burrows 1 and 2 last night. My money is on M108, who was known to be partial to it when he was at Epping. Interestingly, for the first time both burrows 1 and 2 appear to be occupied by wombats. Both burrows had very fresh dung on the runway and excavations had been carried out over night.


Wombat prints at supplement food station. Photo: DERM.

There was no activity on burrow 3, 9, 10 or 11 or any of the other food and water stations. Burrow 7 had some minor fresh activity.

Saturday 1 August 2009

At Richard Underwood Nature Refuge (Yarran Downs) 

Ranger Tim reporting as our usual diarist has gone home for the weekend. It’s cold tonight. Trig Station 2 where Ian is positioned is reading minus 4. My thermometer at Trig Station 1 is telling me it’s minus 1. I don’t intend to venture outside too frequently to check just how low it may drop!

I’ve just changed batteries in my scanner but can’t get any power to the unit. So frustrating. I’ve switched to a backup scanner and have readjusted frequencies for tonight’s recordings. Have had to radio Ian to ensure the times of our next readings synchronise.

Southern boobooks, tawny frogmouths and owlet nightjars are all calling tonight as if to wish us a good evening.

The aluminum table placed in our Trig Stations to hold our recording equipment and data sheets seems to radiate the cold. A small blanket placed across the lap becomes the best defence to allow a long shift in the morning darkness. More chocolate needed.

Signals from two controls or check points beep loudly when checked on my scanner. Both bearings are consistent with what I have been recording all week giving me faith that my recordings do in fact provide accurate data.

Wombats continue to sleep deep in their burrows. Initial signals are very weak. I’ve had to switch to headphones to get a better ‘fix’ on their location.

Burrows need to be checked early in the morning. One reason is to track any wombat paw prints before birds, kangaroos, and reptiles walk all over them during the day. Another reason is to determine just how fresh the wombat poo from the previous shift is!

Red winged and red rumped parrots are in good numbers this morning. Honey eaters, thornbills and babblers also calling to welcome the warmth of the sun’s rays.

Burrows 2 and 4 this morning had fresh dung piles but no obvious signs of further excavation to the burrow openings.

The north most water and food station along Fence Road has fresh dung at the food bowl, paw prints and evidence of eating.

Wombats M119 and our female are both in burrow 8. There is lots of fresh dung in runways and around burrow entrances and there is a large amount of fresh excavation to eastern entrance of the burrow system – fresh dirt thrown out onto service road.

Burrow 12 has fresh dung in runway and on the spoil pile near burrow. But on checking all burrows, we had come up short one wombat!

Wombat M115, our Neil Armstrong, was not in any of the artificial burrows we have dug for the animals. So where was he? We had to find his location to make sure he was sheltered from the sun and able to sleep.

Ian and I grabbed the tracking gear, portable scanner and foldout receiving antennae, to track down M115. I plugged in, listened for the faint ‘ping’ signal being transmitted from M115’s collar, and we were off! Sweeping the antennae in wide arcs above my head, the signal became soft or loud depending on the direction I was walking to find M115. We followed the direction toward the louder beeps for approximately 15 minutes, stopping every now and again to ensure the beeps were loud enough in a particular direction to set course for our elusive northern hairy-nosed wombat. 20 minutes later and about 600 metres from burrow 8 where we had expected him to have ‘overnighted’, we came across a deep, freshly dug burrow covered with fallen timber and twigs.

This is the burrow M115 had dug and he had preferred it to sleep in last night! There was fresh dung and red soil flung in all directions from the opening.

M115 self-excavated burrow. Photo: DERM 
M115 self-excavated burrow. Photo: DERM

We were so glad to have found him because we were unaware of any other freshly made burrows and feared that he may have fallen asleep under a pile of branches in the sun.

Sunday 2 August 2009

At Richard Underwood Nature Refuge (Yarran Downs) 

A milder night last night (temperature down to minus one) with a clear night sky, no cloud cover, three quarter moon and no wind. Oh so quiet. The calls of tawny frogmouths and owlet nightjars were the only sounds to break the silence.

The body is getting used to broken sleep – fresh brewed coffee poured from a steaming thermos and a collection of muesli bars and chocolate rivalling any tri-athlete seems to help.

The wombats seem to be outsmarting us. Or maybe they are just more sensible staying deep in their burrows sleeping long into the early hours. Our bearings taken from the three trig stations strategically placed at the Richard Underwood Nature Refuge seem to indicate wombats browsing and visiting burrows occurs very early in the morning – little activity takes place in the early evening up to midnight.

Woolen gloves have become a must for observers on the late shift. Touching the icy cold periscope-like steel handles of the tracking aerial pole with bare hands is akin to sticking your tongue on an icy pole straight from the freezer!

Readings are taken every five minutes from the three radio collared wombats. This means an individual wombat’s movement is recorded every 15 minutes giving a good indication of distance travelled and number of burrows, food and water stations visited.

A weak signal usually indicates a sleeping wombat deep in a burrow.

‘Ground truthing’ in the morning, usually from 7-9 am, reveals what we couldn’t see last night. So many wombat footprints everywhere this morning. More than we have recorded before. The cleared access tracks for water lines and food and water stations seem to have provided a network of ‘highways’ for the wombats to travel down.

Fence Road traverses the nature refuge from north to south. Several burrows are located along here and are checked daily. Using the scanner we detected the signal from male wombat M119 at burrow 12. Although there were no new signs of dung or excavation, the close-by southern boundary fence road was littered with wombat tracks. Easy to track in the talc-like red dust. Ian and I agreed that wombat M119 probably ducked into this burrow just on sunrise. We found fresh fox tracks. Baiting will commence early this week.

Burrow 9 had very fresh dung on the spoil pile outside the burrow. Smelling, squeezing and breaking open fresh wombat poo is not one of the jobs I ever thought I’d be doing at the age of 48 - but Ian tells me it’s all a part of establishing how the wombats are adapting to their new home.

It is warm today – up to 25. Reptiles are starting to emerge after the last few days of cold weather. Ian spots a goanna, Varanus tristis, sunning itself up a dead tree. Two brolgas dancing amongst sedges are seen as we returned to base camp.

Our scanner started beeping loudly as we approached burrow 8 – the most used burrow to date. Sure enough wombat M115, and female wombat were present sleeping approximately 3 metres from burrow entrances – M115 in the western burrow and the female northern hairy nosed wombat in the eastern facing burrow. Lots of piles of fresh dung present here.

We next examined the northern most water and food station along Fence Road and discovered for the first time fresh wombat dung around the food bowl and diggings and wombat claw marks under the water trough. Food pellets had also been taken.

Food and water station. Photo: DERM.
Food and water station. Photo: DERM.

We walked to the next food and water station and found the plastic food tub had been disturbed and was now tilted off level. Fresh tracks around the waster tub but no signs that the food pellets had been eaten.

For the first time burrow 6 had fresh piles of dung in burrow entrance and on spoil pile next to burrow. No new excavation signs.

Burrow 4 had the freshest piles of dung, very moist and soft. This burrow is probably being used by one of the un-collared male wombats.

Burrows 2 and 1 also had fresh piles of dung scattered around the openings but no signs of excavation.

The food and water station between burrows 1 and 2 had fresh dung and paw prints and signs of feeding at the food bowl. 50% of the bottom of the food bowl can be seen indicating a large amount of food had been eaten. The food at all the stations may also be being eaten by the macropods or birds.

A pair of wedge tailed eagles continued to watch us from the top of a poplar box.

Monday 3 August 2009

At Richard Underwood Nature Refuge (Yarran Downs)

With Ranger Tim and Ian departing on the weekend, Allan H, Andrew, Tim H and Richard arrived to take over the next tour of duty. Richard and Tim had brought with them the Kybota, a quad like vehicle with storage on the back. It will be used within the predator proof fence when we need to take equipment rather than a normal 4WD, having a smaller ‘footprint”. Richard also brought with him the bait for the fox.

A patch of tiger pear was found and removed. We continue to look for it every time we walk through the area and occasionally find some despite the emu parades and other searches that have been done. Better us than the wombats.
The problems with the receivers continue but we are working on it.

Tuesday 4 August 2009

At Richard Underwood Nature Refuge (Yarran Downs)

A cool morning is turning into an absolutely beautiful day. The problems with the receivers meant the tin sheds were empty last night.

The activity checking was done this morning by Tim, Allan H and Andrew. There is definitely something special about burrow 8 complex. All three of our radio collared wombats are there this morning. We couldn’t tell who was in which burrow and it would be interesting to know if the internal design work included joining up the “rill” with the starter burrow.  Burrow 11 has fresh wombat tracks entering and exiting it along with fresh dung outside the burrow. Burrow 12 is in a similar condition but with several piles of dung on the runway. There is fresh dung at burrow 6.

Burrow 10 has had some interesting renovations. To make the a bend in the starter burrow, we drilled two shafts that intersected at about 90 degrees to each other and 3 metres underground. We then used a hessian sack to act as a wall and backfilled one of the shafts. It appears one of the wombats thought that two entrances is necessary and has completely dug out the backfilling and exposed the hessian sack.

Water and food station 4 has wombat tracks and dung and it appears that food has been taken. Similarly there are tracks and food taken from the temporary station the north of telegraph track.

Wednesday 5 August 2009

At Richard Underwood Nature Refuge (Yarran Downs)

The weather was initially milder although by dawn it was close to freezing again. Wombat activity based on the radio-racking was fairly quiet. However, the daily inspection first thing this morning indicated activity similar to previous days. The three wombats with radio-collars were located together at burrow 8 and the nearby burrow by the road. At the entrance to Burrow 2 there was fresh excavated soil covering wombat tracks suggesting that it is being used by one of the two un-collared animals. There were also fresh tracks at the entrance to burrow 10. Some of the feed stations needed replenishing and a wombat had tried digging under one of the water troughs.

There were both macropod and wombat tracks near the food station and dung near the water trough at station 4. There was wombat dung at water and food station 2.

Thursday 6 August 2009

At Richard Underwood Nature Refuge (Yarran Downs)

Wombat activity based on the radio-tracking was fairly quiet. However, the daily inspection first thing this morning indicated activity similar to previous days. The three wombats with radio-collars were located together at burrow 8 and the nearby burrow by the road. The two non-collared animals appear to be at burrows 2 and 10.

Friday 7 August 2009

At Richard Underwood Nature Refuge (Yarran Downs)

Examining the footage from the infra-red cameras revealed some good news. We have an image of a northern hairy-nosed wombat grazing. There is also footage of three wombats using the water station. The footage also revealed that we have a black cat within the reserve. View a northern hairy-nosed wombat grazing.

The radio-collared animals are still using burrow 8.

Burrow 2 had fresh digging this morning and is likely to be occupied by one of the un-collared animals. From activity levels it appears as if the other un-collared animal is in burrow 10.

Saturday 8 August 2009

At Richard Underwood Nature Refuge (Yarran Downs)

Today’s news is not as positive.

M115 had spent the majority of the last 18 days sheltering in one of our starter burrows, but he had not bunkered down there at the end of last night. At 9.45 am, as part of the daily activity checking, Tim went to radio track his location. We can’t be sure where M115 had been but our movement through the habitat was enough to disturb him. M115 initially moved and then froze. Tim realized he was very close and proceeded cautiously and then spotted M115 through his binoculars. M115 appears to have lost fur from his forehead there is thankfully no obvious blood. This loss of hair is something Allan H has seen at Epping Forest National Park and may be a sign of dominance of one animal over another. Rather than disturb him further, the team backs away.

The non-radio collared animals appear to be still using starter burrows based on the level of activity.

Looking at the video camera footage from 11pm last night we can see M115 with a large bald patch on his rump as well. View video of M115 eating from trough.

Sunday 9 August 2009

At Richard Underwood Nature Refuge (Yarran Downs)

We were very interested to know what M115 was going to do last night. And the answer was that he did a lot of moving about the reserve but went back to burrow 8 before dawn. The other 2 radio collared animals are also in burrow 8. There are prints near burrow 9 and on the track near that burrow.

A cold night with ice still in the water stations when we came to do the activity check this morning. Tim H is returning to Brisbane and Andrew and Allan H to Rockhampton today.

The camera next to the food and water station opposite burrow 8 (station 4) provides clear vision of M115 reacting to us driving past in the distance at 8.18 pm. He freezes, listens to the vehicle and then returns to grazing. His bald patch is very obvious. Not surprisingly, there are wombat prints around the station when we do the activity monitoring.

Monday 10 August 2009

At Richard Underwood Nature Refuge (Yarran Downs)

It is a quiet day today at Yarran. The day was spent by the people doing the inevitable paperwork and by the northern hairy-nosed wombats sleeping in their burrows.

We have been watched by a pair of wedge tailed eagles as we walk and do the activity monitoring over the last three weeks but in the last few days, one of the birds has been absent. This morning, Richard spied one of them sitting on a nest in one of the tallest trees on the reserve, a pink bloodwood.

Tuesday 11 August 2009

At Richard Underwood Nature Refuge (Yarran Downs)

A warm and blowy day. The radio collared wombats are in burrow 8 and burrow 3 appears to be the most likely abode of the un-collared wombats

 

Wednesday 12 August 2009

At Richard Underwood Nature Refuge (Yarran Downs)

There was a huge amount of northern hairy-nosed wombat activity last night; with Richard commenting that everywhere he went there was fresh wombat tracks. The activity check revealed that all the starter burrows and even most of the ‘drills’ had been visited if not entered by a northern hairy-nosed wombat. The radio collared wombats are in burrow 8. Though it probable that burrow 3 is being used by a wombat, there appeared to have been some visitation of that burrow by a swamp wallaby. View northern hairy-nosed wombat video.

It has been a warm and humid day, which partly explains why Richard saw at least four different goannas patrolling the fence. Two of these animals were on the outside of the fence and the other two on the inside. It is probable that we have disturbed home ranges and movement of these animals by constructing the fence.

Last night was a very mild evening and for the first time this season there was a lot of insect activity.

Thursday 13 August 2009

At Richard Underwood Nature Refuge (Yarran Downs)

8.15 am and it is a very pleasant temperature to be walking through the nature refuge doing the activity checking. Burrow 8 remains home to the three radio collared animals. Both burrows 3 and 7 have fresh northern hairy-nosed wombat activity from last night and could be the abodes of the two un-collared northern hairy-nosed wombats.

Friday 14 August 2009

At Richard Underwood Nature Refuge (Yarran Downs)

Today was Richard’s last day on the project. He is going back to his substantive position after a short very well earned rest. It is an appropriate time to acknowledge the fabulous work that he had done and hope that he can be convinced to “lend a hand” occasionally in the future.

Richard’s last activity check revealed that all three collared animals are in burrow 8. There was a lot of activity over night at burrows 4, 5 and 11 so it is difficult to say exactly where the two un-collared animals are. Richard also noted two pardalotes flying out of different burrows.

Sunday 16 August 2009

At Richard Underwood Nature Refuge (Yarran Downs)

Peter M undertook the activity monitory and found the sub-adult male and adult male in burrow 8 but adult female in burrow 2.

It is interesting that the wombats at this stage are only using the starter burrows provided. This raises the question of “is this because what we provided is good enough that they don’t feel they need to OR are they digging burrows that we haven’t come across yet but not staying in them during the day yet?” The joy of field biology.

Monday 17 August 2009

At Richard Underwood Nature Refuge (Yarran Downs)

An overcast day, almost threatening rain.

Tuesday 18 August 2009

At Richard Underwood Nature Refuge (Yarran Downs)

The light shower that stopped by 6pm last night had the benefit that it provided a light crust on the soil which made it very clear which were the fresh activity and tracks from overnight.

There was a lot of activity around burrows 6, 7, 10, 11 and it was hard to determine which of these is the home of the un-collared animals.

The radio collared animals moved around last night, the adult male went to burrow 12 (unusual he usually is in burrow 8). The adult female is in burrow 8 and the sub-adult male in rill hole in the burrow 8 complex. It is good to see that M115 is out on his own as it may reduce the aggression that he is taking from the other wombats.

It is a bit fresher today with a light breeze blowing, but nothing like the cold of mid-July.

Wednesday 19 August 2009

At Richard Underwood Nature Refuge (Yarran Downs)

Well the adult male didn’t like the change of scenery and has gone back to burrow 8. M115, the sub-adult male has gone to the burrow he dug himself (wombat dug burrow 1). Perhaps he picked up on our question on Sunday. Regardless, it is encouraging to see that he continues to visit and improve that burrow. The adult female remains in burrow 8.

The active burrows overnight were 6, 7, 8, 10, 11 and 12. Animals may have visited these burrows but not actually down the burrow. There was fresh dung at burrow 11

A northern hairy-nosed wombat or more than one wombat has been walking around the perimeter fence for some distance and visited the rills near there.

View northern hairy-nosed wombat chasing another.

Friday 21 August 2009

At Richard Underwood Nature Refuge (Yarran Downs)

Conditions were warmer last night with fresh activity around burrows 4, 6, 7, 8, 10 and 12.

The sub-adult male finished the night in the burrow he has been digging, the other 2 collared male and female wombats shared burrow 8.

A striated pardalote was observed flying out of Burrow 7 – at Epping these birds dig “nests” in the walls of the burrow entrances so it is interesting to see them also taking advantage of the burrows at Yarran Downs.

The results of scat analysis are back from consultant Barbara Triggs. Of the seven scats collected from inside the wombat enclosure between 28 July and 1 August, only one contained grooming hairs and could be attributed positively to a fox. While the other scats are likely to be from foxes, there isn’t sufficient evidence to be definite. The prey items identified from the scats include:

The scats also included a few macropod hairs but the species could not be identified accurately.

Saturday 22 August 2009

At Richard Underwood Nature Refuge (Yarran Downs)

A warm night with less activity than the previous few nights.

Monday 24 August 2009

At Richard Underwood Nature Refuge (Yarran Downs)

Andrew left to begin his tenure as “monitorer, diarist and caretaker” of the translocated wombats at the Richard Underwood Nature Refuge for the next few months.

Today was a loooong day travelling. I caught the plane at Rockhampton at lunchtime and hopped off in Brisbane for a 4 hour wait until the connecting flight to Roma. Arrived in Roma at about 5.45 pm and by the time luggage was available and the taxi arrived it was after 6.00 pm. It was very hot in Brisbane and just as hot at Roma, even at sunset.

There are none of those fancy airport baggage carousels at Roma – they have a much better system where you wait out in the car park in front of the terminal and they turn up with everyone’s luggage on those little wagons that they use to take the bags from the terminal to the plane. Then it’s a free for all to find and grab your bag. Brilliant system – saves airport staff double handling and unloading the gear off the wagons AND the passengers have the luggage delivered to that car park so it’s not as far to lug your bag once you find it.

The taxi arrived at about 6:15 pm and took me to the DERM office where I picked up the vehicle I’ll be using during my stint here. I decided to overnight in Roma so I can do some shopping for provisions and buy various materials for odd jobs at Yarran Downs, when the shops open tomorrow. Also the likelihood of hitting a kangaroo on the road between Roma and Yarran Downs is considerably higher at night.

Tuesday 25 August 2009

At Richard Underwood Nature Refuge (Yarran Downs)

I went to the supermarket and bought provisions and various materials for tasks and odd jobs that Tim has suggested could be done over the next couple of weeks after I’ve finished the daily monitoring tasks. I was wearing my QPWS uniform and some of the places I visited I was asked how the wombats are going – it seems there is a lot of interest in the project. Left Roma after lunch and stopped at Surat to talk to the lady in the post office about getting my mail as well as items for work delivered to the Strathmere homestead. Once again the people in the post office were keen for an update on how the wombats are faring.

I arrived at Strathmere at about 5:30 pm. Strathmere is the neighbouring property to Ed and Gabi Underwood’s Yarran Downs property. The mangers of Strathmere have very generously allowed us to stay at the Strathmere homestead. Dusk was looming and I wanted to inspect the predator proof fence for any breaches in or out. I quickly unloaded my gear and put perishables and refreshments in the cold room.

I decided to do two laps of the fence just to make sure it was intact. The inspection revealed all is well, nothing has dug under the fence, Richard and his helpers have built a beauty.

Back to Strathmere to cook some dinner. Usually on wombat trapping and field trips the staff split into two groups – those that are vegetarians and those that are carnivores. I’m a carnivore. The members of the carnivore group take it in turns to cook. Seeing as how I’m on my own, I volunteered to cook the first night.

It’s great to have the opportunity to stay in the beautiful old Strathmere homestead again. This place has a rustic but majestic character and will be my base until the house and quarters are built at the nature refuge site. With the ABC radio for company I tucked into a feed of steak with stir fry vegetables. The temperature was cooling off.

Wednesday 26 August 2009

At Richard Underwood Nature Refuge (Yarran Downs)

This morning was cool - it would be nice to sleep in but there are wombats to check. Hopefully I should be able to do all the monitoring and be back at Strathmere before noon for lunch.

It’s about three weeks since Alan and I came down to help Tim with radio tracking and monitoring wombat activity around the human made burrows. That was my first trip to Yarran Downs since we put the wombats on the plane at Epping to send them down. When we arrived here three weeks ago (a week after we sent the wombats down) and opened the gate we saw a set of wombat footprints along the track. It was quite an emotional moment – there were northern hairy-nosed wombat footprints left in the sand after an absence of approximately100 years. The Yaminon has returned.

Today when I arrived at Yarran Downs I spent about five or so frustrating minutes trying to work out how to carry all the gear! I needed a broom to sweep around feed stations and burrows to be able to see fresh overnight wombat prints the next day, some memory cards for the monitoring cameras, a bag of supplementary food for the wombats, some muesli bars and an apple for myself, a bag for any tiger pear I might find and dig up, my water bottle, the radio tracking receiver and the aerial, and the clipboard with the data sheet. Phew!

After loading up, I opened the gate and walked around to start recording wombat activity and GOSH those wombats have been busy since my last visit. There are footprints all over the place, plenty of piles of wombat dung marking out the trails and they have been busy digging and modifying some of the burrows we constructed.

We thought the wombats would use the man-made burrows as temporary burrows until they settled in and dug their own, but it seems that the wombats have decided that the “temporary” burrows aren’t too bad after-all and rather than start digging new burrows from scratch they have set about modifying and further excavating our burrows to suit themselves.

We put in two types of burrows – ones with a bend which is where wombats from Epping were first released. We call these ‘starter burrows’ and for our records their numbers are preceded by an “R” e.g. the fourth release burrow is R04.

We also put in some straight burrows around the inside perimeter of the predator proof fence. These burrows are record with an “S” before their number e.g. S02.

Today I was pleasantly surprised at the amount of wombat activity. It’s as though wombats have been here forever rather than just for one month.

It seems ants at Yarran Downs have been thirsty and have decided to take advantage of most of the water stations we put in for the wombats. The problem is that ants don’t seem to be that flash at swimming and each trough had hundreds of drowned ants in the water – it was kinda like the theme to a Pink Panther movie at each trough – “dead ant…….dead ant…deadant deadant deadant…..dead ant ..dead aaaaaaaaaaant ..deadant”.

I figured that since ants produce formic acid, that with so many dead ants in the water it might be acidic and unpalatable to the wombats so I scooped out all the ants and filled the troughs with fresh water. The troughs are connected to a pipeline and have a mechanism with a float that enables them to automatically refill when water drops below a certain level. The worst bit about this was that I had to unload all of the gear I was carrying to fix the ant problem at a trough, then load it all up again, only to arrive at another trough and have to unload it all again. I need a trolley!

As you may know from earlier postings there are three wombats with radio collars. I tracked adult female 155 and adult male 119 to burrow 8. This is the same burrow they were using to sleep in during the day when Alan, Tim and I tracked them three weeks ago. The third wombat, a young male 115, sometimes stays in burrow 8 with the other two and at other times, camps on his own in a burrow he commenced digging soon after he arrived.

As described in an earlier posting the young bloke has picked up a few “battle scars” probably from encounters with other wombats so I don’t blame him for shooting through.

Today he wasn’t in burrow 8 with the other two wombats but I was picking up a distant, weak beep – beep – beep on the radio receiver from the direction of his own burrow so off I went across country. After a 20 or so minute hike following the direction of a signal, I arrived in the area where wombat 115 dug the burrow when he first arrived from Epping. Sure enough the signal indicated he was at residence.

I didn’t want to upset him by getting too close, but from a distance I could see that he has done a fair amount of work on his burrow since I was last here. To tell you the truth, when I saw it three weeks ago it wasn’t much of a burrow as far as wombat burrows go BUT it was a start. Now there is a good pile of sand which he has dug out and there is a lot of wombat dung in the vicinity. This is the FIRST BURROW, that we know of, that has been dug by a wombat in these parts in over 100 years! I now call it burrow 01 J

I finished checking all the feed and water stations and burrows, recording signs of wombat activity and replenishing feed at the stations that required it. I did a couple of odd jobs and returned to Strathmere at 2 pm for lunch. Who said lunch has to be eaten at noon anyway?

The rest of the afternoon was spent entering data into a spreadsheet to send to Tim. As well as the water troughs that are connected to the water system there are 3 stand alone plastic troughs. Two of these were low with water and the third had been tipped over and was empty. Late in the afternoon I took containers of water out to top these troughs up and returned to Strathmere just after dark.

Time for dinner. OK whose turn to cook? Well I guess it must be mine. So once again I cooked up a feed of steak and stir fry veges.

It got quite cold during the night and I woke up a couple of times freezing until I dug a quilt out of my bag and climbed into my swag with it.

Thursday 27 August 2009

At Richard Underwood Nature Refuge (Yarran Downs)

A cold morning. Don’t tell Tim but I slept in until 7: 30 am. So after scoffing a hurried breakfast I head to Yarran Downs. On the way, I sip my piping hot cuppa tea – thank heavens for those travelling mugs.

Once again there were ants in some of the water troughs, but not as many as yesterday. Wombat radio tracking indicated that the adult female 116 was in burrow 8 and the adult male 119 has decided to sleep in burrow 12. The young male 115 was at his own burrow again.

I checked the rest of the burrows and feed stations and recorded any signs of wombat activity. The two non-collard wombats are likely to be in any of the burrows that show signs of wombat activity over night.

After completing the monitoring I shoveled some sand into a water pipe trench which crosses the road inside the fence. I bought a length of steel channel in Roma and laid it over the pipe yesterday. Today I filled in that section of the trench. Grey clouds were building and it was getting cooler again so I returned to Strathmere at 2.00 pm – just before a mid afternoon shower of rain. The rest of the afternoon was spent with administration tasks.

Friday 28 August.2009

At Richard Underwood Nature Refuge (Yarran Downs)

It’s hot – blooming hot. There is a strong north-westerly blowing and it’s only early in the day. It gets hotter as I progress through the monitoring. I’m lugging half a bag of supplementary food which makes things worse.

The female northern hairy-nosed wombat is in her usual spot – burrow 8. I walked down the road checking burrows for signs of other wombat activity. Male 119 was camped in burrow 12 again. OK ready for the cross country trek in the direction of male 115’s burrow.

By this time the wind is a howler. Branches were breaking off trees. In the interests of safety – i.e. not wanting to be clobbered by a “widow maker” I took a zig zag course that avoided walking under large trees.

A lot of extra walking and to make matters worse I’m having trouble picking up the signal from male 115’s collar. I thought something silly like maybe the wind was blowing the signal away. I tuned the radio receiver to female 116’s collar to see how strong that was and to make sure the receiver was working properly. That signal also was a bit weak. Anyway I kept heading towards where I thought male 115’s burrow was.

A bit further along I turned the receiver on to get a fix – a faint beep but in a different direction to where I was heading. Gosh I thought – don’t tell me the young wombat is wandering around in the middle of the day in this heat. So I follow the signal and after continuing a zig zagging hike around any large trees I ended up back at burrow 08 again!

I had the wrong frequency set on the receiver. I forgot to change it back to male 115’s frequency when I was checking to make sure the receiver was working.

What a dill!

So I entered male 115’s frequency into the receiver and off I went zig zagging around big trees – again. Eventually I came to his burrow. It was hot – I was thirsty and had drunk almost all my water.

I have been worried about getting too close to male 115’s burrow and disturbing him when I check his where-a-outs each morning so today I brought some flagging tape out. I tied bits of pink tape to small trees in a pretty big arc with a radius of 30 to 40 metres around the burrow. That way when we’re tracking him in future we will know his burrow is nearby when we see the tape and won’t need to go any closer.

While putting the tape up, I noticed that a new burrow had been started the previous night. It was dug in and down about 40 to 50 cm up against a sapling. It wasn’t far from M115’s burrow and judging by the size of the wombat prints at the digging it’s likely that M115 has started another burrow.

By the time I finished flagging the “Warning – wombat burrow nearby” arc I was out of drinking water – and I still had to check the burrows and feed stations along Telegraph Road and get back to the car.

Burrow 2 had been visited during the night and burrows 6 and 7 both showed signs of activity with fresh footprints down the runway and also dung deposited at the top.

I returned to Strathmere feeling worse for wear – with all the back and forth and zig zagging I did I’ve walked quite a distance in hot weather.

The wind was getting even stronger as the afternoon went on with a dust storm building and it seemed to be getting hotter so I thought – no point in going back out this afternoon and so I had a bit of a rest in the afternoon to recover.

OK it’s Friday night – I feel refreshed but it’s still very hot. I have some data to enter, camera footage to review and Friday night footy to listen to on the wireless.

So who’s turn to cook?

OK let’s toss a coin. Heads I cook – tails someone else does.

The coin lands tails up – hmm I’m hungry so toss again.

Tails – ok try again – ah finally it comes up heads so I’ll cook.

Tonight I’ll cook sausages with mashed potato, pumpkin and some greens. Gee sausages in tomato and onion gravy would be nice – but I want to save the tomatoes for toasted sangas for lunch for the next few days.

Ah here’s an idea. I have some chunky tomato and onion pasta sauce in a jar. I won’t be having pasta this trip so when the sausages are almost cooked I’ll empty the jar of pasta sauce into the frying pan with the sausages.  Well I served it up when it’s cooked with the veges and - belissimo!! I think that’s Italian for good tucker?

It didn’t seem to cool down at all at night until about 2 am when a shower of rain passed overhead.

Saturday 29 August 2009

At Richard Underwood Nature Refuge (Yarran Downs)

Much cooler today – thank heavens. The wind has swung around to the south and thankfully is calmer and cooler than yesterday.

Half of the feed and water stations had been visited overnight. Maybe the hot weather yesterday made the wombats thirsty. Four other artificial burrows showed signs of activity.

Male 119 was back in burrow 8 with the female wombat. The young male 115 was in his burrow. From outside my flagging tape arc I was able to keep far enough away so as not to disturb him but still get a good enough signal to triangulate and pinpoint that he was inside his burrow.

Today much more pleasant and the monitoring was much quicker than yesterday. I managed to get back to Strathmere to have lunch at lunchtime for a change.

I had hoped to be able to go to Marlborough today to give a talk on the wombat reintroduction project to members of the central Queensland branches of the Wildlife Preservation Society of Queensland. But Marlborough is about a 10 hour drive from Yarran Downs so while eating lunch I put together a PowerPoint presentation with photos and the story of the preparations at Epping and Yarran Downs, the big wombat move down here, and how the wombats are going so far. I emailed the presentation off to Marlborough so that my talk could be presented in a “virtual form”.

Sunday 30 August 2009

At Richard Underwood Nature Refuge (Yarran Downs)

There were showers of rain overnight that were heavier than Friday night and it was a cold morning.

I had thought this would be good. After that rainfall last night all the foot prints from the past few weeks will be washed away and the roads will be smoothed out so that fresh prints will be easily seen.

Now for today’s monitoring report – What did I see today?

NOTHING.

Well not much. The female wombat was in burrow 8 as usual and male 119 was in burrow 12. Apart from using the radio tracker to find where wombats are camped we monitor burrow activity by footprints going down the burrow runway. Neither of those burrows had fresh prints in the runway – so the wombats must have bunkered down before the rain came and stayed down after it passed. Male 115 was in his burrow as usual but no signs of new foot prints in the vicinity.

In fact of the 20 artificial burrows there were only visible signs of wombat activity at two of them. Only one of the feed and water stations had been visited. There were no prints on the roads or around the fence line. .It was a very quiet night indeed. It’s like the wombats aren’t even here.

I’ll tell you what are active though. FLIES!

There have been lots of flies buzzing around when I’m doing the monitoring. There were a few flies around when I was here a month ago but the hot weather last week has brought them out in force. Sunglasses help keep them out of my eyes but I still manage to swallow the odd one during the rounds. I was going to do the old swagman’s trick of hanging corks on bits of string around the brim of my hat to scare the flies away from my face – but where do you get corks from these days?

Then I remembered something. I have an Aunt that obviously puts a lot of thought into gifts she buys for Christmas and birthdays. She always gives something practical. A couple Christmases ago she gave me a tiny little draw string bag – it looks a bit like a sleeping bag for a mouse – but inside is this mesh thingy that you drape over the crown and brim of your hat and down under your chin and draw a string tight so it stays in place and the mesh keeps the flies away from your face. I’ve had this little fly screen in my bag since that Christmas and today I dug it out and draped it over my hat – I’ll look like an apiarist but who cares when I walk around? Those flies can buzz me all they like but they are nowhere near as annoying now I have the you - beaut hat fly screen. Thanks Aunty Roz.

Monday 31 August 2009

At Richard Underwood Nature Refuge (Yarran Downs)

Showers overnight again and a cold morning.

Once again there is very little evident activity. Wombats have been walking around but not much wombat activity at the feed and water stations. There are nowhere near as many drowned ants in the water troughs as there was last week. I noticed some birds – yellow throated miners, using a water trough to have a bird bath. Birds have also been getting a free feed from many of the food troughs so I make a note to bring a bag of food tomorrow to replenish the feed in troughs that are running low.

The only burrow with visible signs of activity was burrow 6 where a wombat had visited. The wombats must have been out and about but back into a burrow before the rain came. The young male 115 is in his burrow.

The female wombat is still in burrow 08 and the smooth runway meant she hasn’t left it since the rain. Maybe she hasn’t come out for a few nights. It is a similar story for male 119. He is in burrow 12 and judging by the smooth runway he may have been there for a couple of nights. Previous work has indicated that northern hairy-nosed wombats may not come out of their burrows for 10 days.

The activity at burrow 6 is interesting considering the lack of activity anywhere else so I decided to put a monitoring camera in a tree near the burrow runway.

Concerned with the lack of visible activity in the burrows that the female wombat and male 119 are using I decide to go out tonight and sit in one of the radio tracking monitoring shed and take bearings of each of the radio collar signals for an hour or so.

I left Strathmere for the nature refuge at about 8:30 pm. I radio tracked from shed 2 from 9:00 pm until 10:30 pm. The various signals over the time showed that the three collared wombats where indeed moving around. A big relief! During that time the temperature was dropping and was about 8 degrees at 10:30 so I decided to return to Strathmere and head for bed.

The weather the past couple of days has been variable to say the least.

Last night was raining and cold. This morning started out cold then got quite hot during the day then cold then warm again then very cold at night. Four seasons in one day. It feels like I’m in Melbourne or maybe I’m in the middle of a Crowded House song.

Tuesday 1 September 2009

At Richard Underwood Nature Refuge (Yarran Downs)

Cold overnight and cold morning. Warmed up in the middle of the day.

Spring – The first of September is regarded by many as the first day of spring in Australia. No rain over night but still cold. I’d say down as low as at least 5 degrees during the early hours of the morning.

The radio tracking I did last night indicated that three collared wombats were moving about but I wonder how much activity there was, it is now spring after-all. Off I go to the nature refuge to do the usual activity monitoring.

Activity? There’s heaps – foot prints and fresh piles of wombat dung on the roadways, visits to many of burrows, and most of the feed and water stations. Those wombats made up for the previous couple of nights of staying put in burrows.

Male 119 is camped in burrow 8 with the female northern hairy-nosed wombat. The young bloke, male 115 is in his own burrow. There are a few trails of foot prints leading away from; and back to his burrow so he has been wandering around during the night – confirming last night’s radio tracking.

When checking burrow 12 – the burrow where male 119 camped the night before I could tell there had been a lot of activity – there were a lot of scrapes and marks in the sand and I found a chunk of fur – very much like wombat fur.

Hmm, looks like there could have been a bit of a “stoush” (fight) here last night.

Once again there was some activity at starter burrow 6 – hopefully it was captured on the camera I placed there yesterday afternoon.

After finishing the rounds at the nature refuge I returned to Strathmere for lunch and to check the memory cards from the camera. I was keen to check the footage from the camera at burrow 6.

Bingo – the first piece of footage shows dirt and clouds of dust being pushed out by something – obviously a wombat down in the burrow. The second bit of film has the wombat coming up out of the burrow to check on the work in progress. The third image reveals it’s a collared wombat. It looks like Male 119 – the big feller.

He’s had a busy night. It looks like he’s had a fight at burrow 12, wandered around and headed down to do some digging down at burrow 6 and ended up shacked up in burrow 8 with the female.

Nothing new age or sensitive about this bloke. If it was him that did the digging at burrow 6 the night before last, he’s either a Houdini wombat or good at predicting rain because he must have left burrow 12, went across and worked on burrow 6 and then got back to burrow 12 before the rain came and washed his prints in the entrance to burrow 12 away.

Footage from another camera shows one of the un-collared wombats very cautiously and tentatively approaching one of the temporary feed stations. Maybe this was his first experience with a feed station – or maybe he was wary of the light from the camera. Eventually he had a BIG drink – the camera recorded sounds of him gulping and slurping the water.

I’m off to Rockhampton tomorrow. I’ll take some wombat transport crates back with me so we can take them out to Epping. The ever helpful Dave Cox – Manager of Strathmere station helped me move an air-compressor off the Ute to make room for the crates and so I don’t have to cart it all.

Wednesday 2 September 2009

At Richard Underwood Nature Refuge (Yarran Downs)

Up early to check on the wombats, replenish the supplementary food troughs with enough food to last a few days and then shoot through to Rockhampton for rostered days off. The plan is to get all the wombat work done and be on the road by lunch time.

A lot of activity last night. Radio tracking indicates that the adult male is in burrow 8 with the female. I checked the remaining burrows along Fence Road for signs of activity and topped up the feed stations.

Ok now I’ll check on the young male. I had called in at monitoring shed 3 on the northern boundary earlier and used the big mounted “periscope spin around” aerial there to get a fix on the general direction of each of the three collared wombats. The signal from the young male’s collar came from the direction of his burrow. Good – he’ll be easy to find and I can head off. So off I went across country towards his burrow. The signal now seemed weaker than usual. I arrived at the burrow and no signal. I walked around and couldn’t pick up any beep beep beep on the receiver. Where is he??? I decided to return to the car and check the burrows along the eastern fence and then stop in at monitoring shed 2 to see if I could get a fix on the young bloke. Shed 2 is on the southern boundary. I couldn’t pick up a beep there either. I drove around the inside of the fence with the hand held aerial out the window and still no beeps. I kept going and ended up back at Shed 3. I got a signal there as I had done earlier. Yes still coming from the direction of his burrow. Off I went on foot following a very feint beep beep. I came to Telegraph Road and tracked the signal to Burrow 2. The soil must be denser in this area because the signal was still rather weak.

Anyway all collared wombats present and accounted for. But how did I end up on a wild goose – or wombat chase? Well I returned to Strathmere and had a look at a map. It turns out that burrow 2 is in a direct line between monitoring shed 3 and the burrow that male 115 has dug. So I was tricked!!! The signal was coming from the direction of the wombat dug burrow but the wombat was in another burrow in the same direction. Ah well I depart Strathmere at about 3 pm and head for Rockhampton and some days off.

The legendary Bilby Brother Peter McRae will come across from Charleville to keep an eye on things whilst I’m away.

Monday 7 September 2009

At Richard Underwood Nature Refuge (Yarran Downs)

Travel day from Rocky back to Strathmere.

Stop off at Roma for provisions and buy a few odds and ends for various chores at the Nature Refuge.

Good heavy rain falling between Roma and Strathmere.

I arrived at Strathmere after dark and do around the outside of the fence to check that nothing has dug in and no wombats have dug out.

All is well.

It was a very cold night with rain continuing through the night.

Tuesday 8 September 2009

At Richard Underwood Nature Refuge (Yarran Downs)

Cold morning.

Concreters arrive at Yarran Downs to commence work on laying the slab for our utility shed. Thankfully for them the rain has stopped.

I do the rounds, replenishing food at the feed stations. Not too much activity evident overnight – maybe due to the rain and cold night.

Female 166 is in burrow 8 as usual. So is the young male 115. I wonder what he’s doing back there?

Where is the big male 119?? The signal from his collar indicates he’s away to the south west.

Maybe he’s camped in a burrow on Telegraph Road.

Off I go across country following the beep beep beep. Hmm this is a familiar trek. Eventually I come across the perimeter of flagging tape I put around the burrow that male 115 has been digging and staying in.

Well this is a turn up for the books. The big bloke is camped in the young bloke’s burrow!

Wednesday 9 September 2009

At Richard Underwood Nature Refuge (Yarran Downs)

Concreters are finishing off the slab.

The young male 115 is in burrow 8 again with the female. The older male 119 is in burrow 12.

Plenty of activity last night with a lot of digging and excavation at a number of burrows. Lots of fresh wombat dung around.

I collected a number of pieces of wombat dung from various burrow entrances, feed stations and little dung heaps along roads. Each collection was placed into an individual plastic bag and sealed. The dung will be sent away for a dietary analysis to determine what grasses the wombats have been eating. Judging by the activity at the feed stations I suspect there could be traces of the supplementary food in the dung as well.

I collected nine bags and when writing the date each plastic bag I noted it was 09-09-09. Pretty cool hey?

My laptop carked it on Monday night and Rebecca was keen for an update to the “blog” so I rang colleagues at the DERM office in St George to see if I could go down and use a computer and email. They’re all very interested in how the wombats are going and I was more than happy to provide them with an update.

Great to see the staff have set up a display in the foyer of the reception area featuring the northern hairy-nosed wombat. If you’re passing through St George – take a moment to drop in and have a look at the display.

Last updated: 10 September 2009

Northern hairy-nosed wombat, Lasiorhinus krefftii

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