University study presents a challenge for snout poker habitat protectors
How do we transition from a degraded landscape to a more natural landscape more typical of the vegetation types originally found at Munibung Hill without displacing native wildlife in the process?
DIVERSITY IS THE KEY to ensuring that species can survive and thrive into the long term, mimicking the conditions that existed for millennia, within which they raised their babies and coexisted along with all the other mammals, birds and reptiles for example.
The study conducted by Christie Malyon: Bandicoot habitat usage on Munibung Hill, found that Bandicoots are living at a number of locations, mainly along the slopes. [Anecdotally we believe Bandicoots are living at other locations, but this scientific study confirms their presence across Munibung Hill].
In many cases the habitat is not ideal, but Bandicoots have adapted to the changed vegetation mix that includes some species we are trying to clear out e.g.lantana, to make way for more diversity that would provide greater protection for these eco-engineers that help reduce stormwater run-off and enrich the soil by turning it over not unlike a hoe in the garden.
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More research is needed to establish the health status of these Bandicoot populations.
– are they in decline?
– are they maintaining viable populations?
– what is the impact of predators such as cats and foxes, outside of the natural predation by owls, for example?
It is a similar story for other species. Research opportunities exist for the following:
Ringtail and Brushtail Possums, Squirrel and Sugar Gliders, Microbats, Powerful Owls, Glossy Blacktail Cockatoos, Frogs, Fungi, Native orchids, and many more.
These could start as citizen science projects calling on expertise when required. An example is the following story …
‘Cutest animal in Australia’: keeping watch over greater gliders in a forest targeted for logging, 20 Jul 2024 The Guardian, by Lisa Cox. Photography: Dean Sewell,
DEN TREES used by the endangered species are off-limits to loggers so campaigners – among them former Treasury head Ken Henry and MP Sophie Scamps – register them to save them.
Greater glider spotting is a meditative thing, says Bulga local Steve Fredericks. “A bad night of glider spotting is better than a good night of television. The excitement on people’s faces when they see one for the first time – it’s just priceless.”
It’s a Sunday in July, just after sunset. We’re sitting in the Bulga state forest, inland from Port Macquarie on the New South Wales mid-north coast, waiting for darkness to fall.
Lisa Cox writes: Six of us, including the independent MP for Mackellar, Sophie Scamps, are huddled, focused on a single tree. Read the full story HERE.
… From MMM Issue #46, Oct-Nov. 2024