Australian Bush Life

Safe driving is not only important for human safety but also for wildlife safety. Wildlife injuries and deaths on our roads have a huge impact on maintaining our biodiversity. As most of us drive we all play an important role in trying to protect our wildlife whilst on the roads as unfortunately they don’t understand our human road rules and ettiquette!

Here are some tips we regularly use to reduce the chance of injuring wildlife whilst driving:

• Reduce speed so that you have time to stop.
• Drive carefully at night as many Australian wildlife species are nocturnal and very active at night.
• Drive particularly carefully at dawn, dusk and during rain.
• Or avoid driving at dawn and dusk as wildlife are most active then.
• Or avoid driving in the rain as it is more dangerous, but many of our frogs and water birds love the rain and are more likely to be out and moving about.
• Always keep an eye on the roadsides as wildlife often use these areas and can move out unexpectedly, particularly when there are habitat features such as indigenous vegetation or water pooling on roadsides.

We carry a pillow case and box in our car so that we can assist injured wildlife if we come across them. We are lucky to live near the Healesville Sanctuary which can quickly assist any wildlife with injuries, but many vets are also willing to help out.

We also have the RACV’s wildlife assist number, 13 11 11, plugged into our mobiles so even if we are travelling we can link to the nearest wildlife resuce centre using just this one phone number.

Lake Mountain Leadbeater's Possum nest box in snow. After 2009 bushfire.

The Leadbeater’s Possum is an endangered species found only in Victoria, Australia – no where else in the whole world. It lives in the forests near where we live and so we spend time volunteering with a local group of dedicated individuals who are all trying to ensure that this possum survives in the wild. The volunteer group are called Friends of Leadbeater’s Possum. Since the bushfires in February 2009 it is estimated that the Leadbeater’s Possum numbers declined from an estimated 3000 individuals to 1000 individuals so they really need our help.

Providing nectar feed to feeding station for Leadbeater's Possum.

Recently we went to nearby Lake Mountain an area that was hit really hard by the bushfire and assisted in a supplementary feeding program for the Leadbeater’s Possum. We had to walk a 10km circuit in snow shoes to deliver the food which was a great experience. There is a lack of available food on Lake Mountain as the alpine environment grows slowly and takes a long time to recover from bushfire. With only a few remaining Leadbeater’s Possums left in this area and with so many others lost in the bushfire the feeding program will ensure that any remaining possums have the best chance of survival during the harsh winter months.

The biggest threats to Leadbeater’s Possums ongoing survival in the wild are from logging practices and bushfire reduction methods. This includes “salvage” logging where trees are harvested from burnt forest trying to recover after a bushfire. Salvage logging is done under the guise of the word ”salvage”. Trying to make logging sound like a good and useful process avoiding waste, the dead and dying forest after bushfire. All of which is quite untrue as our natural bush recovers quite well from bushfire if it is left to regenerate without being bulldozed.

Also threatening the Leadbeater’s Possums survival in the wild is from bushfire prevention methods such as bulldozing new fire breaks which reduces the connection of trees within the forest which the possums rely on to move. A road may be an impassable barrier for such a small possum. Additionally excessive fuel reduction burning which may destroy critical habitat, such as mature or older trees particularly those with hollows which could provide homes from Leadbeater’s Possums.

Wilson's Promontory - Victoria. Beautiful Refuge Cove.

We recently went on a 3 night hike at Australia’s most southern tip on the mainland (not Tasmania). Wilson’s Promontory National Park is such a gem. You walk through a variety of habitats from coastal dunes & beaches to heathlands and the most southern rainforest on Australia’s mainland. We have done this hike a number of times as we just love it so much and love the feeling it gives us of getting back to nature. In fact Refuge Cove, one of the camp sites is definitely in our top 10 list of beautiful camp sites! And there are a lot of good camp sites out there.

When we hike we don’t go flat our but ensure that we have plenty of time to enjoy the hiking and scenery along the way and also the beautiful beaches that you arrive at to camp. Hence whenever we hike we tend to only walk between 3 – 5 hours a day to allow for this. If the weather is nice we will stop and snorkel at most beaches throughout the day.

Often the beautiful biodiversity that makes up this area is small and needs time to look up, down and around to appreciate it. Here are some images of the small parts of nature that we observed and were intrigued by; a crab hiding, barnacles at sunset and fungi in the rainforest.

Barnacles at sunset, crab in rockpool and fungi in the rainforest. Wilsons Promontory.

Bush Rat - Rattus fuscipes. Volunteering trap and release program.

We spent the last weekend doing some volunteer work around Lake Mountain near Marysville. The area was severely burnt during the February 2009 bushfires and we joined up with some local Parks Victoria staff to set and bait “Elliot” traps amongst new growth of ground cover plants. The aim was to trap and release to see if we could find some of the rarer small mammals that were previously recorded in these mountain areas and see what had survived the devastating bushfire. We were particularly looking for a threatened species the Broad-toothed Rat - Masacomys fuscus.

Unfortunately on the day we helped out we didn’t find any Broad-toothed Rats but that doesn’t mean they aren’t out there! We did find lots of our native rat more commonly known as the Bush Rat – Rattus fuscipes. This Bush Rat is pretty cute, more softer looking than the introduced Brown and Black rats and have quite a different diet of native vegetation, fungi and insects - whereas the introduced ones eat pretty much anything and everything which can be devastating on the environment.

The native Bush Rat can be easily identified from a Brown or Black rat by the length of their tail, which is shorter than their body length. Brown and Black rats have tails longer than their body length.

We chose to volunteer our time to understand more about the local indigenous plants and wildlife in our local forest. Trapping animals gives us the chance to see animals that we may otherwise never see, as they are generally shy and nocturnal. The Bush Rat habitat relies on having good ground cover vegetation, habitat logs and leaf litter to provide food and shelter. Maybe this is why we also don’t see them on our bush block as many of our neighbours have cleared away their ground cover vegetation, habitat logs and leaf litter reducing the quality of their bush habitat.

Bush Rat in Elliot trap - ready for release.

As we live quite close to this mountain area and being a National Park (state government land) we believe that the land, forest and all it’s animals are the responsibility of all Victorians. It is really up to us to get involved, to find out what is out there and learn how we can continue to look after what we find.

Today whilst driving home I drove past what looked like a turtle shell in the middle of the road. As I am always looking at what is on the road as some of our wildlife are small I was confused so turned back to check and see. It was a dodgy bit of road, with hills in front and behind, and I couldn’t pull over so I drove slowly past to see. It was right on the middle line and I could still only see the shell (as they can tuck their head and legs right in), but opened the door leaned out and grabbed it without even getting out of my seat.

I was immediately squirted and realised it was alive, but that was stinky! I pulled into the first driveway and was glad to see there was a large dam in the front – probably where it had come from. The tortoise didn’t look like it had suffered any damage quite amazingly as I had seen number of cars go very close to it. I popped him in the shallows of the water just deep enough to ensure he had to raise his head for a breathe. Which he did within seconds so he appeared all okay from his dangerous jaunt.

Within minutes his legs emerged, a couple of swift strokes, a glance back at me and he was off. It felt so good to see this wild animal back in a place that it felt so at home in.

More on the Common Long-necked Tortoise – Chelodina longicollis. Also commonly called the Eastern snake-necked Turtle.

More on local wildlife…

Flinders Ranges Yellow-footed Rock-wallabies at waterhole.

We recently visited both the southern and northern Flinders Ranges in South Australia. They are very beautiful, although a little weedy as they have had some serious disturbance through agriculture and feral animals like goats since european settlement in Australia. Having visited the southern Flinders Ranges about 15 years ago I was unable to spot a Yellow-footed Rock-wallaby – Petrogale xanthopus. We knew that the S.A. Parks system have done a lot of work since that time on removing feral animals like foxes and goats, which directly threaten the survival of Yellow-footed Rock-wallabies. So we hoped that this time around we might be lucky enough to see one (or more).

Classified as vulnerable to extinction by the Australian Government we really hoped that we could get a glimpse of one of the most beautiful mammals in Australia. The Yellow-footed Rock-wallaby – Petrogale xanthopus.

After 2 weeks we saw about 20 Yellow-footed Rock-wallabies at a number of locations in both the northern and southern Flinders Ranges. The first one was the most exciting, but the last ones were the most memorable. We were told that they regularly came down to drink at waterholes at dusk so we planted ourselves at a likely spot to sit quietly and wait. Down came Euros and other kangaroos but no Yellow-footed Rock-wallabies.

Flinders Ranges - Euro (kangaroo species) at waterhole.

Getting dark and starting to think we were out of luck we quietly packed away our things and started to get up off the rocks. As soon as we turned around we realised that there were 3 right behinds us. They are so quiet we hadn’t even heard them arrive. As we also had been so quiet and were moving so carefully we hadn’t startled them even though they were only a few metres away. We spent about 10 minutes staring at each other and then we moved off gently and quietly allowing them some time to get down to the waterhole and drink. It left both of us bush dudes feeling like we had shared something really special with this beautiful wild species.

The most important thing about enjoying an encounter like this is researching with locals to find the right place and then getting there early, being quiet, patient and willing to accept failure of not seeing what you are looking for.

Other biodiversity travel stories……

Wader (beach bird) ready for release after banding and data recorded.

When we go on holidays we try to get involved in volunteer activities wherever we go. We find that this is a good way to connect with local people and also generally like minded people so it is always fun and interesting. We have been WWOOFing many times around Australia. Generally with WWOOFing you tend to help out with people around their homes, lots of organic growing vegetables, permaculture techniques etc which is a really great way to learn about how other people grow food. But we also really like to work on specific biodiversity projects as this helps us get connected with nature and particularly wildlife.

Cannon netting wading birds near Broome - Western Australia.

We have enjoyed all the different volunteer experiences that we have had. Here is where we caught wading birds by cannon netting them in Broome Western Australia. Recording data about each bird we caught, banding them and then releasing them. All part of a ongoing program where they have been collecting data on migratory birds (waders) for years.