From skinks to stumpy tails and even legless lizards – the Coorong Lakes project is teaming with reptiles of all shapes and sizes.
During a recent visit to the project the Wilderlands team came across so many scaly friends whilst implementing the monitoring activities that are adding to our knowledge base and protecting this property and its precious biodiversity, forever.
The focus was around pitfall trapping, a simple method used in ecological studies to capture small ground-dwelling animals, including invertebrates, mammals, reptiles and amphibians.
Wilderlands Lead Ecologist Deanna Marshall has been working with Bill Harman and his students who have vast experience and expertise in this type of monitoring.
Harman, a lecturer and coordinator of the Conservation and Ecosystem Management course at TAFE SA Aboriginal Access Centre and his students, many of whom are Ngarrindjeri Lands & Progress Aboriginal Corporation Rangers, Raukkan Rangers and National Parks – Noonameena Rangers, assisted in installing and monitoring these traps.
The method involved placing several buckets at regular intervals that were buried up to their rims along a transect.
A drift net was installed along the same transect so that it would intercept animals moving across the ground, channelling them along the fence and into the pitfall traps.
The pitfall traps were checked three times a day and all animals were identified, measured, recorded and released.
The team also checked the Pygmy Possum nest boxes that had been installed months earlier, which delivered some incredibly exciting results.
Among the discoveries across the week-long monitoring were beetles, lizards, spiders, and Western Pygmy Possums.
Below are some of the highlights as well as other reptiles who were spotted across the property.
Every day started early with pitfall trap checks at sunrise around 6am ensuring any creatures captured are set free to avoid risk of other predators targeting them whilst in this enclosed space.
The first inspection delivered great excitement as a small reptile was revealed but only upon closer inspection could it be determined just what species this may be.
Is it a snake…is it a lizard…
To the untrained eye, it would be difficult to tell, but besides the brilliant Bill Harman, it was quickly determined that the team had in fact found a Striated or Striped Worm-lizard, a species of Legless Lizard.
These lizards are believed to be diurnal and largely fossorial, meaning they are adapted to living most of their lives underground and are able to move swiftly through the sand.
The Striated Worm-lizard hunts small invertebrates, especially ants and termites, which make up the bulk of its diet.
Legless Lizards are able to vocalise with a variety of high-pitched squeaks when disturbed.
Every reptile found was carefully measured for accurate data collection, which helps with tracking species growth patterns and understanding population dynamics over time.
The next trap revealed a fierce looking beetle in the Carabidae, or Ground Beetle family. Scaraphites is a genus known for its robustness that are generally predatory, feeding on a range of invertebrates.
Close by was a larger lizard soaking in the scorching sun of the Coorong; the Stumpy-tailed Lizard. These are easily recognised by their very coarse scalation, stout body, short limbs and short, rounded tail.
They are commonly found across the property and have a large range across most of the semi-arid and warm temperature zones of Australia. This species is unusual among Australian lizards in that it forms long-term pair bonds, sometimes for life – which can be more than 35 years!
The pitfall traps also found friends of the amphibian kind and we were encouraged to see many Eastern Banjo Frogs (or Pobblebonks) in the pitfall traps, which was a new species recorded for the Coorong Lakes property.
The chance to share this experience with Bill and his students, was so special and the partnership we have with both Cassinia Environmental as well as the Ngarrindjeri people is part of what makes the Coorong Lakes project so unique.
The week long visit, however, wouldn’t have been complete without a special guest waving goodbye as we all left the property – in this case a Central Bearded Dragon perched on the gate watching as the group drove away.
To learn more about the Coorong Lakes project and other management and monitoring activities taking place, make sure to explore last year’s annual report to see how the Wilderlands team are helping protect these projects forever thanks to your help.
