Nardoo Hills Camp Brief Report - November 2012

This weekend camp was on a reserve owned and managed by Bush Heritage Australia located 12 km north west of Wedderburn. Results were partially successful in so far that a single Southern Freetail Bat Mormopterus species 4 (undescribed) was captured, but otherwise disappointing regarding terrestrial and arboreal mammals. This bat was one of three mammal species Jeroen van Veen, Bush Heritage's Field Officer at Nardoo Hills Reserves, was hoping for us to find on the reserve; the other two not found being Fat-tailed Dunnart and Sugar Glider.

In addition to the Southern Freetail bat, 10 Little Forest Bats Vespadelus vulturnus and 5 Lesser Long-eared Bats Nyctophilus geoffroyi were captured after 10 Harp Trap nights over three nights, 16 bats in all.  No mammals or any other fauna were recorded by eleven MSGV remote sensing cameras deployed over three nights for a total of 24 camera nights. All 49 nest boxes installed by MSGV in 2006 were empty. No cage or Elliot traps were set.

Spotlighting revealed 6 Ringtail Possums, 15 Brushtail Possums and a single Eastern Grey Kangaroo on two surveys; one over a short distance near our camp site and the other along a two kilometre section of Mt Kerang road in Wychitella Nature Conservation Reserve immediately east of Nardoo Hills.  Of these, only 2 Brushtail Possums were spotted within Nardoo Hills Reserves, the remainder were in Wychitella NCR.  An interesting aspect to this, as explained by Jeroen has a lot to do with past land use.  In the case of the three blocks that make up Nardoo Hills, all were previously grazing properties resulting in significant loss of ground cover vegetation and shrub layer.  In the case of Wychitella NCR the area was selectively logged in the past without deliberate removal of shrubs and ground cover. It appears from this spotlight survey that past logging has had much less impact compared to grazing in this area regarding arboreal mammals.

Other mammals seen or heard over the long weekend include a small number of Eastern and Western Grey Kangaroos (about 10 of each) and 2 Black Wallabies. Of the 55 species of birds recorded White-browed and Masked Woodswallows were the highlight. All the other species recorded are what would be expected to occur in this reserve.  Reptiles seen include two skinks, Morethia boulengeri and a Jacky Lizard.

Article by Andrew McCutcheon – Mammal Survey Group of Victoria Inc.