Wedderburn has become a regular destination for TAFE students from Melbourne and Bendigo studying Conservation and Land Management. This March the Diploma students from North Melbourne TAFE (NMIT) camped out at one of the Greenhouse Balanced properties at Mt Korong to conduct their annual practical field work monitoring biodiversity. This is the second year running the NMIT has chosen Wedderburn for this exercise. At the same time the certificate IV students of Bendigo TAFE (BRIT) camped at the Greenhouse Balanced property near Skinners Flat to assist with Malleefowl and Macropod Grazing Surveys as well as other tasks. This is the first year BRIT has been out to Wedderburn for a camp, but they enthusiastically announced that they want to come back again next year to make it a regular event. BRIT staff mentioned that they were very impressed by the conservation efforts of the local community.
The NMIT students at Mt Korong conducted wildlife surveys using driftnets, harptraps, motion-sensor cameras and tunnel cameras as well as ordinary binoculars to spot numerous new reptile and mammal species for the Greenhouse Balanced property. The Yellow-footed Antechinus (Antechinus flavipes) was finally officially recorded there, as well as one of the Southern Freetail Bats (Mormopterus sp 1). These Bats are quite difficult to handle as they are the only bats found at this site that attack the other species of bat they are trapped with so they need to be kept separately to avoid damage and stress to the others. They also like to have a go at those large human hands when being held and their teeth are razorsharp. To further complicate things, these smallest of mammals can carry a virus that is very dangerous to humans and only the properly inoculated NMIT staff could handle them safely.
The Southern Freetail Bats come in two different versions, the long penis version (species one) and the short penis version (species two). In order to differentiate between the two to make a correct identification, the surveyor needs to measure said organ. This must be a daunting experience for the little animal, especially since the measuring equipment seems so large. Five of the individuals found were male and one female. All males were the same species one and it was therefore assumed the female was of the same species as well.
The amount of bats was very good. Two harptraps were active for one night and they caught over 50 bats of 5 different species. NMIT staff member Peter Holman said it was one of the best bat trapping nights he has been involved with for a long time. It was very interesting to see the number of bats increase compared to last year and that the new species popped up this year, while it was completely absent from the traps last year.
In the meantime, the BRIT students on the Western side of town mapped out Bridal Creeper infestations around the Skinners Flat area so these can be sprayed in the next few weeks. They also set out macropod dropping transect lines which will give the Wedderburn Conservation Management Network (WCMN) a reading on the numbers of kangaroos present this autumn in the district. On their final day the BRIT students did a Malleefowl (Leipoca ocelata) search in the Watson-Paterson block of the Wychitella Nature Conservation Reserve by walking together in a grid formation through the dense scrub that makes up this block, while looking for mounds. No new mounds were found on this occasion. That means that the WCMN and the Victorian Malleefowl Recovery Group (VMRG), who supervised the survey) can now concentrate on other areas around Wedderburn for further surveys. Many thanks to all NMIT and BRIT students that participated in a week of hard work.
Jeroen van Veen (Greenhouse Balanced)
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