Survey 2012 - Biodiversity on Land for Wildlife Properties

Hi there Land for Wildlifers.

Well, it's been a while since our last post, with a busy field season taking up most of coordinators' time over the past few months. LfW has been recording a few milestones in Alice Springs however, with a third coordinator, Matt Digby, taken on to help ease the work load and some prominent properties, including Ayers Rock Resort and the Alice Springs Golf Club, signing up to the program.

Before the hot summer weather really hits us however, we have one outstanding project to get done - our annual LfW biodiversity survey. Every year, properties are selected from amongst our growing membership base for a detailed four day flora, fauna and landscape survey. This project involves trapping and observing wildlife on properties, recording flora species present in remnant vegetation and mapping of landscapes and land units. This data is then collated and presented in a report which is accessible to LfW and GfW members and anyone else who may be interested.

The information we collect is a valuable tool in determining if management practices carried out by property owners are effective in encouraging the diversity of wildlife and vegetation on rural properties in Alice Springs.

The 2012 survey is scheduled to take place at Fenn Gap west of Simpson's Gap on Larapinta Drive. This year, the survey is happening in cooperation with the Arid Lands Environment Centre's Biodiversity Matters program of workshops (http://alec.org.au/programs-2/healthy-arid-lands/biodiversity-conservation.html).

On Saturday 13th October, LfW coordinators together with ALEC will hold the final workshop in the Biodiversity Matters program, centred around surveying techniques and data collection, giving you the opportunity to be involved in important biological field work.

For more information or to get involved with this year's survey, contact Chris, Jesse or Matt at LfW on 89 555 222 or email lfw@lowecol.com.au If you'd like to know more about the Arid Lands Environment Centre (ALEC) and Biodiversity Matters go to alec.org.au and follow the links.

At left are some images of the 2010 and 2011 surveys. Pictured from top are Golden Everlasting daisies (Bracteantha bracteata), Red-chested Button Quail (Turnix pyrrhothorax), Silky Glycine (Glycine canescens), Euro (Macropus robustus) and the blossom of a Bush Orange (Capparis mitchellii).

 

Publishing Opportunity: A call for contributions from the Northern Territory Naturalist

A request has come down from the Top End for a greater contribution of natural history literature from Central Australia. While Alice Springs probably punches well above its weight in publication in a variety of journals, apparently we are not well represented in Northern Territory Naturalist. We thought we should put out the call to all naturalists, professional and otherwise, in the Land for Wildlife network.

The following email, received from Chief Editor Dr. Michael Braby, provides the details;

The Northern Territory Naturalist is a registered, peer-reviewed journal (ISSN 0155-4093) for original research and publishes works concerning any aspect of the natural history and ecology of the Northern Territory or adjacent areas of northern Australia (e.g. Kimberley, western Queensland, Timor). Authors may submit material in the form of Reviews, Research Articles, Short Notes, Species Profiles or Book Reviews.

Contributors include a range of field naturalists and scientists who are not necessarily members of the NT Field Naturalist Club. There are no page charges, and inclusion of colour figures is also free of charge. This year we are moving towards making all articles accessible (open access) as PDF’s on the Clubs web site.

The journal is sent to Thomson's Zoological Record for abstracting, and electronic versions are indexed and distributed through the Informit platform. The journal is also currently listed by the Australian Research Council as a Category C publication, and all papers will soon be included in Scopus, Elsevier's bibliographic database containing abstracts and cited references of over 19,000 scientific titles from more than 5,000 publishers. Hence, academics and other researchers receive official recognition for publishing with us.

The success of the journal in recent years is reflected by the number of high quality refereed papers published (46 in the past 5 years), which span a broad range of topics in natural history and ecology. Since 2007, the journal has been produced on an annual basis.

  

For more information regarding author instructions please see our home page:

http://sites.google.com/site/ntfieldnaturalists/journal

Centralian Rainbow Spider?

Black House Spider Badumna insignis.

No not really. Local arachnid expert Robbie Henderson has been kind enough to identify this spider for us as the Black House Spider Badumna insignis. This is a common spider around Alice Springs.

It is a smallish spider which grows to a total legspan of about 3cms. I asked Robbie to identify this one for us due to its superficial similarity to a funnel-web spider. While the Black House Spider is venomous it is not considered dangerous, and is described as being generally timid and unlikely to bite.

They tend to stick to one little area and maintain a messy looking little web in a corner of a building or among rough tree bark. The entire spider is covered with hairs, and the rainbow colours visible on the lower half of the abdomen are just a trick of the light – the flash from the camera refracting through the hairs. In natural light the spider is a uniform dark grey or black.

Four-spotted Cup Moth

Larva of the Four-spotted Cup Moth Doratifera quadriguttata.

Land for Wildlife member Uwe Path has sent in another great photo from the ever-growing menagerie that can be found on his property. This caterpillar had us stumped initially but in the search for a positive identification, we found a very useful website.

The Coffs Harbour Butterfly House website has a resource for anyone trying to identify caterpillars, moths or butterflies. If you're ever trying to pin down the identity of a caterpillar in your yard try visiting http://lepidoptera.butterflyhouse.com.au/

The database here is by no means exhaustive but provides a fair cross-section of the more common species that you might come across.

Gardening may go to the very heart of what it means to be human.

The Radio National archives have served up the following morsel for all the gardeners out there. This interview with Robert Pogue Harrison on Late Night Live with Phillip Adams provides some interesting perspectives on gardens and gardening. The interview dates from 2009 and serves up some interesting food for thought.

Follow this link to download the entire interview.

Land for Wildlife Workshop: Rabbit Monitoring and Control - 10 am Saturday, 31st of March at Olive Pink Botanic Gardens

The infamous star of the show - Oryctolagus cuniculus. Pic. JJ Harrison

The 2012 series of Land for Wildlife workshops will commence on Saturday the 31st of March, with a workshop on rabbits and their control. The workshop will be held at Olive Pink Botanic Gardens in the meeting room beside the cafe. The information session will commence at 10am, and should run for about 20 minutes. The Land for Wildlife coordinators will be available after the information session for any questions relating to rabbits on your property.

Dr. Bill Low will be in attendance to provide an introduction to the history of rabbits and rabbit control measures in the NT.

Central Australian Bats with Dennis Matthews

Gould's Wattled Bat Chalinolobus gouldii. The prettiest of the bunch, and about the most widespread species in Australia.

Bats are one type of wildlife which we don't often get to have a close look at here in Alice Springs. They're certainly about and are actually quite common. This was conclusively shown by a recent workshop that we were able to hold at the Land for Wildlife offices. Renowned bat expert Dennis Matthews was in town and had just enough time to run an information session for members and interested locals.

Dennis Matthews explains the ingenious harp trap. The aluminium frame supports taut vertical filaments. The bats fly into these filaments and slide down to roost in the layers of canvas beneath.

After a very educational presentation indoors, Dennis led us into the garden to demonstrate some survey techniques. We had a look at some ANABAT recording devices in action and then a couple of harp traps were set up and left overnight to see what species we have fluttering around our office at night.

Lesser Long-eared Bat Nyctophilus geoffroyi.

In the morning we were rewarded with 9 bats from 4 different species. On the recorders the previous night we had identified a further two species in the area that we didn't manage to catch in the traps.

Inland Freetail Bat Mormopterus planiceps.

We mainly get insectivorous microbats here, with only occasional visits from the Little Red Flying Fox following particularly wet seasons in The Centre. Microbats mostly call well above the range of human hearing and can be difficult to track in a torch beam due to their fast flight and small size. So it was a genuine treat to get up so close and have a good look. Thanks Dennis!