Having lived within a wet sclerophyll / palm forest for 27 years, various events with native animals have been observed. Some seasonal patterns are quite obvious, such as the spring arrival and late-summer departure of birds from northern Australia, New Guinea and south east Asia.

 

 

 

 

 

 

However, there are many less obvious patterns underway, particularly those involving predominately ground-based animals such as wallabies, possums, koalas, bandicoots, dingos, foxes, brush turkeys and lyrebirds. These patterns are only distinguishable with large amounts of standardised observation effort, careful  data recording, collation and analysis. Of particular interest are predator-prey interactions, with the predominate predators being dingoes and foxes, and rarely seen Tiger quolls. Patterns associated with these interactions are particularly difficult to confidently discern.

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With a strong desire to more fully understand what is going on around us, and with the advent of reasonably- priced scouting camera technology, an opportunity arrived in Christmas 2011 to start accruing highly-standardised observational data on the dynamics of the fauna on our property  - a gift of a ScoutGaurd SG560P digital scouting camera. Since  February 2012 the camera has been recording near-continuously (movement-activated 1 minute videos) across a track leading up to the mountain behind our house site. Below are highlights of the key patterns that have been revealed so far.

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On January 1st 2020 a fire engulfed the area about the scouting camera and up onto the mountain behind.

A quirky media story about the fire is here.

 

As is the case with many longer-term investigations, notable events do occur during the extended surveying. Accordingly, if a sizeable amount of 'before' data is available. some understanding can be developed as to the impact of the event. In the case of this fire, eight years of 'before' data were available so we were well placed to develop an understanding of its impacts. These impacts will be highlighted as the resolution on them develops.