Tuesday 24 February
Up at 5:30 again then
out with Dave on mammal traps after breakfast.
Our morning proved to
be a long one as the first traps had a young, previously untrapped
Tasmanian Devil in it. We had to process the animal which included
microchipping, biopsies, blood samples, hair and whisker samples,
measurements like weight and size, collecting poo samples and also
choosing a name for the animal. This gave me the opportunity to name
something after Surrey to reciprocate the special honour of having a
grass named after me by him. There is now a microchipped wild
Tasmanian Devid in NW Tasmania called “Surrey”. I'll be
interested to follow his progress. He is less than a year old and
may even live until he is 4-5 years old.
We had another three
hours of checking many other traps and found two quolls, two swamp
rats, another Tassie Devil, “Eigg”, and a house mouse. None of
these needed microchipping or detailed data recorded so they did not
take as long to process.
Some of the traps in
the heath took a lot of bush bashing to get to with the shrubs at my
head height and very dense. This made for an exhausting transect so
by the end of four transects I was done in and glad to get home.
After lunch we went in
convoy to Preminghana, a parcel of land managed by indigenous people.
The manager, Jared, who could trace his family back to the area, sat
with us and talked about interactions between non-indigenous and
indigenous people both through history and in the present day.
Ginny had to retrun
back to camp to meet another scientist so I got a lift back with her
while the others walked along the beach for a while.
Back at base I met
Margo, an ABC reporter, who had also joined us for a few days and
would be sharing my room.
I then spent time
trying to sort out my data entry project and some washing before
dinner.
By now, day 4, our new
“family” is learning how to react with one another which makes
for rather lively dinner conversations and strange “in” jokes. Up
to my bed by about 9:30 for a relatively early night.
Wednesday 25 February
This morning's activity
for me was to join Menna on her bird and habitat surveying together
with Jenny who is also sharing my cabin. We did not record many birds
but I was able to clarify some of the plant identifications on the
habitat surveys. Of course there was lots of chat and I also found
the two orchids I had seen last year.
Menna had a call from Ginny asking for help with a possum she'd trapped but was not comfortable handling so we had a quick detour to sort that one out. It was a brush tailed possum and we were able to feel its tail - an amazingly soft tail but with a skin pad along the inside of the curl which felt like a hand and obviously helped with climbing. Devils usually remain calm when trapped, quolls are a bit distressed and bitey but possums are really viscious.
Back for a quick lunch
after which Ginny took me to visit the botanist ranger at the Parks
and Wildlife office in Arthur River – Brian French. This was a
fabulous opportunity to clear up some of the problems I was having
sorting out the many heath plants and some of the shrubs. At least
this year I knew the trees of the area.
I spent the rest of the afternoon on data entry and I think I've sorted out the table format for the data to go into.
Ginny and Dave, both PhD students working on devil projects, gave their talks tonight. All the talks have added just a few more pieces to the jig-saw puzzle of knowledge about the area and the top predators here.
Gail and Ian produced a delicious curry for dinner with papadams, pumpkin and a fine assortment of condiments, An amazing feast followed by home made biscuits.
I escaped to my room by about 8:30 pm to write up diary and have an early night ready for another early start tomorrow.
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