Australia’s extinction rate for mammals, is the highest in the world. The two major factors creating this extinction crisis are predation by foxes and feral cats, and habitat loss. Feral cats now occupy 99% of Australia.
Save the Bilby Fund (STBF) established a 25 sq km fenced predator exclusion enclosure in Currawinya National Park in 2003 and introduced bilbies there in 2005.
Researchers detected feral cats inside the fence in 2012 and by 2014 the breeding population of bilbies was wiped out.
STBF took over the formal management of the Currawinya bilby enclosure from National Parks in 2016 and commenced an intensive program that removed the feral cats, oversaw the upgrade of the perimeter fence and reintroduced bilbies there. The removal of cats took over 4 years of intense effort and involved several methods, some much more successful than others.
This presentation will outline the process we undertook to eradicate feral cats, leading up to the successful re-introduction of bilbies into the enclosure in April 2019. Through this process Paul has gained an appreciation of why conservation groups underestimate the resilience of feral cats and the difficulty in eradicating them.
Bilby Photo Wayne Lawler
Presenter
Dr Paul Campbell is a Director of Save the Bilby Fund. He has a PhD from the University of Queensland for his ecological modelling of the fauna and flora of Fraser Island.
Paul has been a director of Save the Bilby Fund since 2010 and helped implement their ‘Bilby Tracks’ citizen science trips to outback Queensland. He is an experienced guide and outback traveler into some of the most remote parts of Australia.
Lock in the date for the much loved Kids’ Day at The Cottage. This year we will again feature wildlife shows, arts & crafts activities and much, much more.
Members can pre-registration now by filling in this online form.
For more information about Kids’ Days go to the main Kids Day webpage.
Sunday June 13th ~ 10am – 1pm
In this month’s Wildlife Matters – Spiky Sightings, Rebecca Bain brings you in to the interesting world of the Echidna. Did you know about Echidna trains? Or what about EchidnaCSI the citizen science app?
To read the column click here
Short beaked echidna (Tachyglossus aculeatus) Photo by Rebecca Bain
Test your skills each month with MCCG’s Wildlife Identification Quiz!
You’ll find Know Your Wildlife towards the back of every month’s The Local Bulletin. Answers can be found by searching in the MCCG Catchment Field Guides.
Here is the June quiz:
Which of these is NOT a marsupial?
Yellow-footed Antechinus (Antechinus flavipes) – photo Rebecca Bain
Fawn-footed Antechinus (Antechinus bellus) – photo Ed Frazer
Fawn-footed Melomys (Melomys cervinipes) – photo Ed Frazer
Answer:
The Fawn-footed Melomys is a rodent, a placental mammal, whereas the Antechinus are marsupials and carry their young in a pouch.
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Test your skills each month with MCCG’s Wildlife Identification Quiz!
You’ll find Know Your Wildlife towards the back of every month’s The Local Bulletin. Answers can be found by searching in the MCCG Catchment Field Guides.
Here is the May quiz:
Which of these birds is a brood parasite?
Photos by Ed Frazer
Answer:
The Fan-tailed Cuckoo (Cacomantis flabelliformis) is a brood parasite – it lays its eggs in the nests of
flycatchers, fairy-wrens, scrubwrens and thornbills, particularly the Brown Thornbill, Acanthiza
pusilla.
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In this month’s Wildlife Matters, Bryan Hacker had the good fortune to witness a noisy interaction between a feisty Cockatoo and a Lace Monitor.
To read the column click here
Photo: Bryan Hacker
All Wildlife Matters columns can be found in the Media Centre
Published every month in
Moggill Creek Catchment Group has lost one of its longstanding
members who has worked tirelessly as part of this volunteer action
group with the aim to conserve and improve the natural environment of
its catchment on both private and public land.
Since 1999 Mike has led the Gap Creek Bushcare Group working
to transform weed-filled undergrowth, and grazed paddocks, into a
creekside rainforest filled with a wide variety of local native plants. It also
includes a large planting of Richmond Birdwing vines to contribute to a
western Brisbane corridor hoping to bring back the threatened Richmond
Birdwing Butterfly species.
Far more often than scheduled working bees, the presence of his old
station wagon regularly parked at the Brookfield Rd entrance was
evidence that Mike was quietly working, bushcaring, somewhere on site.
Mike put in an enormous effort to bring the local landholders together to
plant indigenous species and create a healthy riparian zone along Gap
Creek. A very visible outcome is the establishment of a beautiful walking
trail along one side of the creek from Brookfield Road near Deerhurst
Road to Kookaburra Street which allows the local community to
appreciate the site’s on-going transformation into wonderful habitat for
native fauna.
Mike was always a strong advocate for the environment and his
enthusiasm and knowledge will be greatly missed by the MCCG. His
family has requested that, in lieu of flowers, Mike’s friends make
a donation to MCCG, either directly or via this gofundme site:
www.gofundme.com/f/hk6c42-michael-s-humphreys-memorial-gifts-for-bushcare
Vale Mike Humphreys.
Our usual Wildlife Matters column in The Local Bulletin focuses on our incredibly diverse wildlife in the catchment but this month we have a slightly different focus. Wildlife thrives in a healthy habitat and we are very pleased to feature one of our catchment sites that is being restored and well looked after.
Here is the clickable link for the YouTube Video
All Wildlife Matters columns can be found in the Media Centre
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Test your skills each month with MCCG’s Wildlife Identification Quiz!
You’ll find Know Your Wildlife towards the back of every month’s The Local Bulletin. Answers can be found by searching in the MCCG Catchment Field Guides.
We will provide the answers to each quiz right here in the first week of every month!
Here is the April quiz:
Which of these butterflies is NOT classified as a swallowtail?
1.
2.
3.
Chequered
Answer:
The Tailed Emperor (Polyura sempronius) is classified as a Nymph, NOT a Swallowtail.
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