In Kangaroo Valley, New South Wales threatened species such as the Brush-tailed Rock-wallaby, the Long-nosed Potoroo and the Eastern Bristlebird are being significantly affected by fox predation. To help, the Foundation provided funds for the Friends of the Brush-tailed Rock-wallaby Inc. to hold a pest animal information morning in April 2011.
The information morning encouraged the local community to get involved in pest management. The National Parks & Wildlife Service (NPWS), the Cumberland Livestock Health and Pest Authority and the Shoalhaven City Council gave presentations on the vertebrate pest species in the area. Over 30 attendees learned the impacts feral species have, appropriate control methods and how landholders can get involved.
To date, six landholders have undertaken Foundation-funded training in the use of 1080 poison, so they can undertake fox control on their own lands.
The Brush-tailed Rock- wallaby (left) stands to benefit from a reduction of foxes. NPWS have been working with the Friends group to raise community awareness of the plight of the species and to encourage landholders to participate in landscape scale fox control.
The Foundation also helped NPWS to expand their fox control efforts on and off park (which first began in 1995) in the vicinity of local threatened species, and to undertake monitoring works to identify whether these threatened species are increasing.
The use of remote infra-red cameras has allowed identification of the number of individual Rock-wallabies within the local colonies, with results ranging from 3-11 individuals identified per colony.
Within the Cambewarra Range National Park the cameras have also been used to monitor the presence or absence of the threatened Long-nosed Potoroo.
The camera results indicated that 45% of the monitoring sites had potoroos present despite only a 5% live-trapping success rate for these sites.
Within this reserve, monitoring of the distribution of the threatened Eastern Bristlebird has also been undertaken using ‘Songbird’ recorders. The bird calls that have been recorded across a number of sites in the reserve are about to be identified using automated electronic acoustic monitoring devices (AEAMD), to allow identification of which sites had Bristlebirds calling during the survey period.
The development of the AEAMD technology is an additional project which the Foundation has previously funded.
Additional monitoring of these threatened species will be undertaken in 2012 to identify whether there have been any changes in their distribution and/or abundance following the expansion of local fox control efforts in Kangaroo Valley.
Find out more about the Friends of the Brush-tailed Rock-wallaby Inc. at www.rockwallaby.org.au.
December 2011 Update from the Friends of the Brush-tailed Rock-wallaby
From the Friends of the Brush-tailed Rock-wallaby Incorporated:
Brush-tailed Rock-wallaby News – December 2011
It’s been a busy and rewarding year for the Friends of the Brush-tailed Rock-wallaby as we continue to make progress in the protection of such an important and iconic local endangered species.
The local community fox baiting program has been going from strength to strength. To assist in the protection of the Brush-tailed Rock-wallabies and our local wildlife, landholders are being encouraged to undertake fox control on their own properties with the new 1080/pindone half day training course and 1080 baits paid for by the local Friends of the Brush-tailed Rock-wallaby Group. It’s a fantastic opportunity for local landholders to really make a positive contribution to the conservation and protection of local fauna.
The community baiting focuses on a coordinated baiting approach with landholders baiting for a period of four weeks in spring and autumn. So far we have a total of 15 participating landholders in the program with the first session this past October running smoothly. The next baiting session is scheduled for this March and we will send a mail out to all participants as this date approaches.
The opportunity to join the program and have your training and baits paid for by the Friends of the Brush-tailed Rock-wallaby group is still open to any interested local landholders- simply contact Melinda Norton on (02) 4887 8244. This landholder involvement is being supported by the Foundation for National Parks & Wildlife and the Shoalhaven City Council.
The spring fox shoot is also currently underway with the contract fox shooter Dean Bagnall continuing to undertake fox control on crown land and private properties in the Kangaroo Valley, Bugong and Illaroo areas over the next month.
In addition to the local community fox baiting program, the ongoing NSW National Parks & Wildlife fox baiting program is continuing to roll out the new 1080 ejector devices into their baiting efforts. Please be aware of all signage that indicates where these small bait heads are located.
The good news is the results of using this integrated approach to fox control is an increase in our local Brush-tailed Rock-wallaby numbers! This spring has seen a healthy flush of new pouched young across a number of our colonies with a few more expected to start to show over the coming months. With the recent good rainfall we are seeing plenty of fresh feed out there and with reduced pressure of fox predation we are expecting to see this generation of young make it through to the juvenile stage successfully.
Of course without the valuable support of our members none of this work would be possible so we would like to take this time to thank you for supporting the Friends of the Brush-tailed Rock-wallaby, your membership and donations really do make a difference. If you or anyone you know would like to become a member of the Friends and help us to continue this work visit www.rockwallaby.org.au.
Wishing you all a Merry Christmas and happy holidays.
Susan Robertson
President,
The Friends of the Brush-tailed Rock-wallaby, Inc.
