Dr Mark Cowan from the Department of Parks and Wildlife will again be conducting fauna surveys in Trigg Bushland during the summer of 2015. He says:

'I would like to inform FoTB that I will again be doing reptile survey work in the Trigg Bushland area, so if people see me walking in and out of the bush early in the mornings (sometimes looking a bit suspicious when opening or closing traps with a shovel), this is just to check traps and release any reptiles captured, after taking weights and lengths, etc.

Unfortunately over the period since I trapped last summer someone has removed a number of fly wire fence lines associated with my traps. On the chance that it was a member of FoTB or other concerned person thinking they were doing the right thing, could I ask you to inform your members that there is an active survey program going on and that if they stumble across 30cm fly wire fences that these are part of my survey work and I'd be most grateful if they weren't disturbed."

So please, leave any 'fly wire fences' that you may run across in the bushland, and say hello to Mark if you see him coming out the bushland! In the past he has worked in the Duart Arnott section as well as near Elliott Road and also near the Trigg Beach carpark.

Short 'fences' cause small creatures to turn and walk along the fence where they will eventually fall into a bucket that is sunk into the earth.  The buckets are checked very early in the morning before it is hot and the animals are released immediately.  Only authorised scientists are allowed to conduct this type of research.

To see the results of Dr Cowan's fauna trapping in 1997 and 2013, go to our Wildlife page.

Photos: TAFE NSW

 

 

Website development funded by a Department of Conservation and Land Management Community Grant for Tuart Conservation and Management. Text and images copyright Friends of Trigg Bushland Inc except as otherwise noted. Website design by Nina McLaren and Peter Peacock 2008