APRIL Tuesday 10th: Jeff Weir, our Canadian Exchange Ranger talked to us on his time here over the past two summers, particularly on his work on macropod research. Mike Stevens also spoke on the results of the mammal trapping surveys in the Park. Jeff has been looking at the changes in numbers of grey kangaroos, black wallabies and redneck wallabies. There were no real surprises in his findings. Their value is that they are a structured quantified report and hopefully will lead to more research and action. To summarise briefly: numbers of kangaroos well inside the Park appear to be fairly static, numbers on the interface of Park and private property have increased dramatically, except where farmers are controlling numbers. Numbers of red neck wallabies are also fairly static, but numbers of black wallabies have absolutely exploded. The question is; why? And at whose expense? Will they oust the redneck wallabies? How will they affect the re introduction of brush tailed rock wallabies?
Mike presented the results of the spring mammal trapping in both burnt and unburnt areas of the Park. Annual counts have been undertaken in several plots for some years now, so there are good pre-Mt Lubra figures for comparison. As to be expected there has been a dramatic drop in numbers in the burnt areas, and the drought too has had an impact. However in a new monitoring plot in a place burnt three years ago, there are signs of potoroo and other small mammals. The monitoring team have been pleasantly surprised at the high number of lizards found in the burnt areas.