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BIO03103Wildlife Conservation

Prepared by: Ross Goldingay

Practical HandbookFifth edition

Fifth edition 2012

2012 Southern Cross University

Southern Cross University Military Road East Lismore NSW 2480

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Copyright material indicated in this work has been copied under Part VB of the Copyright Act 1968.

iContentsIntroduction ................................................................................................................................... 1

Exercise 1 Preparing a wildlife survey proposal ............................................................ 3

Aims ............................................................................................................................... 3

Introduction .................................................................................................................... 3

Survey brief .................................................................................................................... 4

Approach to the survey .................................................................................................. 4

Survey techniques .......................................................................................................... 6

Submission requirements ............................................................................................... 6

Checklist for your proposal ............................................................................................ 7

Appendix 1.1 Google earth image of survey area .......................................................... 8

Appendix 1.2 Equipment and techniques available for wildlife survey......................... 9

Photos of survey equipment and installation ................................................................ 11

Appendix 1.3 Code of Ethics for Wildlife Studies at Southern Cross University........ 15

Appendix 1.4 Protocol for professional conduct during field work ............................. 21

Exercise 2 Endangered Species Legislation ................................................................ 23

Exercise 3 Seminar .................................................................................................................. 25

Background .................................................................................................................. 25

Potential topics ............................................................................................................. 27

Exercise 4 Methods in wildlife survey ............................................................................. 29

Aims ............................................................................................................................. 29

Introduction .................................................................................................................. 29

What to bring on the field trip ...................................................................................... 31

Field exercises .............................................................................................................. 32

Report submission requirements .................................................................................. 33

Suggested readings ....................................................................................................... 37

Threatened species potentially occurring at Cambridge Plateau.................................. 38

Photos from previous field camps ................................................................................ 39

Appendix 3.1 Experimental design and data analysis .................................................. 42

Appendix 3.2 Report format ......................................................................................... 45

Appendix 3.3 Report mark sheet .................................................................................. 48

Appendix 3.4 Attached readings .................................................................................. 49

ii BIO03103 Wildlife Conservation

1Introduction

Practical exercises

This unit contains 3 practical exercises that must be completed to satisfy the requirements of this unit, and one revision exercise. One practical exercise will be completed at home, in your own time and before the residential period. The major practical exercise will be an extended exercise conducted on a field trip during the residential period for this unit.

The first exercise provides an introduction to the kinds of preparation you would need to do before you conduct a field survey. This exercise is in the form of a request to you to prepare a proposal for a field survey. This requires that you design a survey to satisfy the objectives of your investigation and that you consider the animal welfare issues that arise from the specific methods employed in your survey. In the professional world you would be required to apply for a licence that authorises you to capture, handle and survey for native wildlife and to apply to an animal ethics committee that determines whether the methods you propose have appropriately considered the welfare of the wildlife species you will survey. Without both of these authorisations, you cannot conduct your survey.

The second exercise links with one of the study guide topics. It is not assessed but is designed as a revision exercise to guide your learning on the topic.

The third exercise is for you to prepare a PowerPoint seminar presentation on a topic relating to wildlife conservation. External students will not actually present this as a seminar but a PowerPoint file and explanatory notes will be assessed.

The fourth exercise will be a detailed field survey you conduct with the class of students on the field trip/residential. You will need to consider the issues associated with the design of the survey and animal welfare as you did for the survey proposal. This survey will be conducted over 4 days and you will be required to prepare a detailed scientific report with data analysis for submission several weeks after the field trip.

2 BIO03103 Wildlife Conservation

3Exercise 1 Preparing a wildlife

survey proposalA fundamental component of wildlife conservation is conducting surveys. These may be used to describe the distribution and abundance of wildlife, and are central to monitoring of species that may be the subject of management actions. A reasonable level of planning is required before going into the field to conduct a survey.

AimsThis exercise has several separate aims. They are to introduce students to:

what is required to prepare a scientific proposal

issues relating to survey design

issues relating to animal welfare

how to design a broad-based wildlife survey.

IntroductionThis exercise is a necessary precursor to conducting wildlife surveys in the field. It provides an introduction to how to design a survey (where you should go and what you should do), what varied equipment might be available for conducting surveys, and how you should consider the welfare of the animals that you are likely to encounter. Conducting this as a desktop exercise means that you will have time to think the issues through and write about them, without being under pressure to get set up to collect real field data.

This is a very valuable exercise because it is quite common in the profession these days to be asked to prepare a proposal for work that needs to be done. This is likely whether you work for a government agency or a private company. Normally it would be associated with preparing a budget for the work to be done as a way of making a request for funding or as part of a tendering process.

Commonly, if you are working as a consultant, you will receive a request for a work proposal or tender. This request will take the form of a brief that will outline the work that is required by a client (i.e. a person or organisation for whom the work is to be done). Often this brief will describe the work in very vague terms because it has not been written by a wildlife expert. Also, there may be a budget ceiling that cannot be exceeded. It is therefore up to the consultant to provide the necessary detail in their proposal of the work required to satisfy the clients needs. This will include a description of the methods, duration, timing and budget for the survey (we wont be concerned with a budget here). In order to win such a contract, you need to be able to describe the work that you will do in very clear and concise detail. Often, a page limit is imposed on the proposal.


Such proposals are also required for research grants and for research permits so it is important that a student who is specialising in wildlife management or conservation (and most areas of science) has a good grasp of how to write a proposal. A proposal is also required before you commence your project work in Integrated Project in third year. A valuable aspect of the exercise is that you will need to make yourself familiar with the kinds of equipment that are typically available for wildlife surveys and with how to devise an approach that provides adequate consideration to the welfare of animals that will be sampled.

Survey briefA Google Earth image of a study area has been provided for your reference (see Appendix 1.1). Basically you will be conducting your survey throughout the area within the circle. This area can also be viewed in Google Earth by typing in Sandy Flat Rd, Cumbalum, NSW which forms the approximate north-west boundary of the survey area. The west boundary is the Pacific Hwy. The southern boundary is Deadmans Creek Rd. (A better map may be provided in the unit documents on Blackboard website.)

I require a comprehensive vertebrate fauna survey to be conducted of the area so that I can determine what limitations may be present when I prepare a development application for the site. I am particularly concerned about which threatened/endangered species may be present because these are protected by legislation that I must comply with. I require a detailed description of the methods to be used because I know these will influence the adequacy of the information collected.

You are not expected to know the threatened species that may occur in the study area for your proposal but it would be expected that you would find this out as part of your survey. Therefore, a part of your proposal is to state that you will conduct a literature review to determine what species occur in an area (you will only propose that you will do this). Often you can go into a local council office and see whether other environmental surveys have been conducted nearby, or the council (e.g. Byron Bay Council) might have its own database with this information. You would also try to get a printout of which species occur in and near your study area from your state conservation agency.

Approach to the surveyYou are to assume that a large housing development is being planned for the higher parts of the site that encompasses over 300 ha. You need to ensure that your survey is comprehensive in terms of species to be sampled and the area in which the survey is conducted. The standard approach to achieve the latter is that you would devise a method to allow you to sub-sample the study area. Two approaches are available to you that relate to sampling the different broad habitats present in the area. Typically you would aim to do some sort of sampling of different habitats that is proportional to their availability. For example, if a single dam is present you would recognise this as a specific habitat and conduct surveys there. If there were 20 dams across the study area you might sample just five. You wont have the time and resources available to you to sample every habitat at every location it occurs. How would you decide which five dams to survey if 20 are present? You could randomly chose five or you might recognise that animals can show patchy distributions that might be influenced by factors other than just broad habitat, so you might ensure that the five chosen are broadly distributed across the whole site. You also need to recognise that when applying statistical tests you need to ensure that your sampling sites are independent of each other (i.e. that what occurs at one location is not influenced by what occurs at

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5BIO03103 Exercise 1 Preparing a wildlife survey proposal

another). For example, two dams located close together are expected to contain the same frog species unless their habitats are vastly different (one may contain tadpole-eating fish). Two dams located a long way apart may be influenced by the array of adjoining habitats and have some species that occur at one dam only.

So a key consideration for you is to decide how many broad habitats are present in the study area. It is common that you might have to formulate a full proposal without being able to visit the site and simply based on a topographic map and aerial photos. Everyone now has access to Google Earth so you may hope that has relatively recent aerial photos. Topographic maps show details of contours and some shading that reflects the density of the vegetation and any wetland habitats. The stippling in a map represents sugar cane plantations. Short horizontal lines with plant symbols indicate a wetland. Dams are indicated by small blue squares. So you can rely on the shading to identify different broad habitats, or you can use the contours. Using contours is quite a reasonable approach because habitats will vary depending on whether they are on hill tops, valley bottoms, drainage lines, and slopes facing in different directions (east-facing will have different vegetation than west-facing slopes). If using aerial photos, you will need to base your judgement on the density of the vegetation; the colour of the vegetation can also indicate something about the plants (e.g. rainforest will tend to be darker and denser than eucalypt forest).

You should not identify too many broad habitats because it will become too difficult and costly to complete the survey. Somewhere of the order of about five habitats would be sufficient. In this exercise you should name them. Then you need to decide how many sites with that habitat will be sampled. Again, you dont want too many and about five would suffice. As indicated above, you need to be guided by how extensive each habitat is across the study area, so it is unlikely you will have the same number of each.

Next, you need to decide what wildlife groups will be sampled in each habitat. Consult Appendix 1.2 for the equipment available. You will start from a position that you want to sample all groups at all sites but you need to recognise that in some habitats you cannot sample all wildlife. For example, if sampling wetland habitat it may be impossible to place pitfall traps (they would fill with water), and difficult to place Elliott traps (unless on the edge of a habitat). You might rely more heavily on spotlighting. In an open grassland habitat; you cant use harp traps for bats because these traps rely on being able to funnel the bats as they fly through the trap. Your proposal needs to make reference to these sorts of constraints.

Next, you need to specify the number of traps per site and how many days or nights you will sample an individual site. Traps can be left in place for two to four nights. Note that when you have a large number of sites (five habitats five sites in each habitat) it will not be possible to sample all sites concurrently. Therefore, you need to determine how many can be surveyed per day and how long you will survey a given site for, and then specify the full duration of the survey. You also need to specify the timing of the survey (i.e. the season). Many species show seasonal variation in activity that must be accounted for. There is no point saying you have comprehensively sampled a study area when most of the survey was done when half the likely species were absent or inactive. Spring and summer are the periods when most species are active (spring may be better for some than summer). You might also say you want to sample in all four seasons (some frogs breed more commonly in winter). You wont be constrained by a budget here so some sampling across the year can be proposed but in the real world you will need to determine the minimum period you think is adequate unless the client says otherwise.

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khoaSticky Notein the wetland: spotlighting

In the dam: pitfall trap


Survey techniquesThe various survey techniques and equipment available to you are described in Appendix 1.2.

You will be required to make yourself familiar with these so you can write about them in your proposal and so you know how to use the equipment later in the semester.

Submission requirements

Animal ethics application

You need to complete an application form (this will be provided in the unit documents) to submit with your proposal. You will need to read the SCU Code of Ethics (Appendix 1.3) to help you complete this.

Assessment

The exercise will take the form of requiring you to write a proposal for conducting a fauna survey for a particular location and completing an animal ethics application for that survey. These will be submitted electronically through the assignment area of Blackboard. These will be checked to ensure they are fully completed. However, the actual evaluation of this assignment will be done via an online multiple-choice quiz that will test your understanding of the details you were required to provide in different parts of the proposal and animal ethics form. It is worth 10% of your unit mark. The justification for using an online quiz to evaluate this exercise is that you can receive a score as soon as you complete the quiz and to enable revision of the points you may not fully understand. Revision will be achieved by allowing you 2 attempts at the quiz. i.e. you can revise between attempts to improve your mark.

Length

Your proposal (excluding animal ethics application) should not exceed 2 pages of typed text with a 12 point font.

Due date

Your proposal and completed ethics form are due at the end of Week 4. You will have 1 week to complete your evaluation of it but can do this as soon as you have submitted the documents.

Format

The suggested format is: title, name, organisation (subject name will suffice here), background or introduction (short description of what has been requested), statement that a literature review is proposed, survey design and methodology (this should be divided into methods for different fauna groups and should include a description of where, when, why and how). Normally, a resume or curriculum vitae (CV) of your experience is requested but this is not required here (see the checklist below).

Other approvals and conduct

Wildlife surveys can only be conducted when you have been given approval (a scientific licence is needed) by the state conservation agency (in NSW the Office of Environment and Heritage) and by a recognised Animal Care and Ethics Committee (animal research authority). You will require these if you do a wildlife-based Integrated Project. See Appendix 1.4 for other important considerations.


Checklist for your proposalBackground where, why, etc.

Proposed literature review

Propose to get a printout of database records for your area.

Check to see if other surveys have been done near your area.

Survey design

Describe how you will partition or stratify areas or habitats for survey.

Describe how will you identify different habitats:

(a) identify broad vegetation habitat types, or

(b) identify topographic habitat areas (e.g. ridges versus gullies).

Methods

1. Specify the number of survey sites per habitat.

2. Describe a comprehensive set of techniques to survey all vertebrates: frogs, reptiles, birds (nocturnal and diurnal), mammals (ground-dwelling, arboreal, and bats).

3. Specify the number of traps.

4. Specify whether all procedures will be applied in all habitats.

5. Specify the duration of the survey.

6. Specify the timing of the survey (i.e. the season).

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Appendix 1.1 Google earth image of survey area


Appendix 1.2 Equipment and techniques available for wildlife survey

The following notes are meant to assist students with the correct techniques for using the various kinds of survey equipment.

Pitfall traps plastic buckets are used as pitfall traps. The configuration is important here. Unless told otherwise, these traps will set out in straight lines of five traps with a spacing of 5 m between traps. A drift fence (made of some type of mesh) will be erected to connect the traps. This serves to guide animals to the pits.

Harp traps these traps require considerable practice to be able to erect them properly. Care needs to be taken so that the fishing wires do not break. If they do they must be repaired. These traps are erected in areas that are believed to be flyways for bats. This may be along a forest track. Therefore, ensure that no vehicles are going to be using the track. It may be necessary to use foliage to block off openings beside the harp trap that will help funnel bats into the trap. When erected, they will need to be checked regularly in the first half of the night when bat activity levels are likely to be high. Trapped bats should be bagged quickly (in a calico bag), to help reduce their stress and help protect them from a carnivorous species.

Mist nets these nets are tricky to erect. Make sure you know what you are doing. They will require constant monitoring because captured bats may become distressed quickly. Setting mist nets too early should be avoided so you dont end up with a net full of birds.

Elliott traps these small aluminium folding traps will be used repeatedly in surveys. The configuration for setting them may be a line transect or a grid. The spacing may vary depending on the study. The key point here is to decide what spacing and then choose an appropriate spot for each trap at the desired interval. e.g. place the trap near a log, tree trunk or amongst some shrubs because animals are more likely to be there than in a completely open spot. They are baited with standard peanut butter and rolled oats or may have certain additives for particular target species.

When setting a trap, click the door open and then check that the treadle will activate the door to close. Also, if it has a hair trigger it may be set off before the animal has cleared the door, allowing it to escape. When lifting traps from the ground be careful that the pin that holds the sides together does not slide out and get lost. It is often easy for the hook in the pin to get caught on something and to slide out as the trap is lifted. Also, if you take the pin out to fix the trap or to release an animal (normally animals are shaken into bags) be careful not to lose it. The traps wont work without the pin holding the sides together.

The most important consideration is to adequately mark the location of all traps so they do not become lost. Most traps are numbered, so lay them out in consecutive order. This allows a check that traps have not been overlooked when you are walking a trap line.

Cage (wire) traps these traps also require that attention be paid to their trip mechanism. It pays to set them off several times to be sure that they work before the final setting. The door needs to be clear of any small sticks and vegetation that might prevent it from shutting properly. Again, mark the location adequately. Bait may depend on target species.

Hairtubes (also called hairtraps) this method relies on being able to identify mammals from their hair. There is an excellent book available which allows you to do this (Brunner and Coman 1974). Different species often have unique patterns to the


structure of their hair (surface pattern and cross-section). Congeners may be difficult to distinguish. Therefore, collecting hair for a given area may be enough to determine what species are present in an area. Hairtubes have been designed to do this. The tube is a piece of plastic downpipe that has a closed end in which bait can be placed. The bait section has a mesh cover inside the tube to prevent removal of the bait by an animal entering the tube. On the inside of the tube we place several strips of double-sided adhesive tape on which hair will stick if a mammal brushes against it. Hairs can later be removed for identification.

The main method here is to lay out the tubes along transect lines and bait with either meat or peanut butter-rolled oats. The tubes are fixed to the ground using tent pegs so they cannot be carried away by some voracious animal. They can also be nailed to the trunks of trees if the target species are arboreal.

Scat analysis animal scats are collected by walking transects or trails and placed in bags for later analysis. Hair samples may be removed from scats in the lab and analysed. Bone fragments may also be identified. Skulls and jaws are particularly good for this. Birds and reptiles could be identified also if you were an expert in this field.

Spotlighting this will involve walking along marked transects or along paths or roads with a spotlight (30100 watts) powered by a 12-volt battery. You must proceed quietly and carefully. The spotlight should be projected from one side of you to the other as well as up and down to cover all heights of the vegetation. Arboreal animals may be located from ground level up to the canopy and sometimes in the air (if they are a gliding species). You should have a pair of binoculars at your side to investigate objects that may resemble animals. You will be looking for the reflective eyeshine of animals (red, green or white) as well as for movement and sound (calls, branch and foliage sounds and scratching and clops on tree trunks).

When collecting quantitative data from spotlighting, you will need to record the length of the line traversed, the duration of the survey and often the position (distance and angle) of the animal from you. Prevailing weather conditions is also important.

Owl call broadcast this is a simple technique where tape-recorded calls of owl species are broadcast from a loud-hailer or speaker. Owls are territorial so playing a call may provoke a response from any resident owls, such as calling back or flying in (sometimes quietly) to the broadcast site. It will be necessary to listen in silence and for some time after a broadcast because owls may not respond immediately or they may be kilometres away when they first hear the broadcast of an intruder. Their response may be immediate, delayed or not at all and may vary throughout the year depending on breeding and other factors. This will require some sort of protocol that you stick to each time you broadcast a call (e.g. play a specified number of calls and then wait a specific time). It is important not to broadcast owl calls too regularly at a given site because this may disrupt the social balance in an area.

Digital cameras (also called camera traps) this is a relatively new technique that uses digital cameras within infrared motion sensitive detectors. These can be positioned in various ways (e.g. attached to a stake or star-picket) and left in place for weeks at a time. The cameras store the photos on a memory card (which grow in size; e.g. 8 gb). There are settings that allow control over when and how often photos are taken, and also whether still or video is taken. Cameras can be directed at a bait station. Many animals show aversion to traps so cameras are coming into their own in detecting some species usually quite difficult to detect. They usually dont need to be checked very often and you can end up with great photos of your target species. The down side is that they dont allow enumeration of the number of individuals but for some species, scientists are making use of markings on animals to distinguish different individuals.


Photos of survey equipment and installation

Figure 1 Elliott traps (left) are the standard equipment for conducting surveys of small mammals. Its preferable to place traps within or next to habitat components that offer protection

from predators (right) because this is where animals are more likely to forage.

Photo: by D. Newell.

Figure 2 Traps need to be marked by coloured flagging tape so they can be easily relocated.


Figure 3 Pitfall traps (left) are basically just buckets dug into the ground with the top flush with the ground. Some leaves and sticks should be placed in the bottom (right) to provide some

protection for any animals trapped (here, some Egernia skinks).

Photo at right: by D. Newell.

Figure 4 Pitfall traps are typically installed with a 25 cm tall fence to guide animals to the traps. In this case, 5 pits are placed 5 m apart in one line.


Figure 5 Survey equipment should be placed on straight transects at even intervals.

Photos: left, D. Newell; right, R. Goldingay.

Figure 6 Cage traps target medium-sized mammals. A piece of hessian is placed over the top to provide a darkened space to keep animals such as a potoroo calm.

Photos: D. Newell

Figure 7 Harp traps are used to capture microbats. They are comprised of an aluminium frame with two layers of fishing wire, strung top to bottom like a harp. Bats cant easily detect these wires and get tangled. They then slide down into a holding bag with an inner sleeve that

stops them climbing out.


Figure 8 The eye-shine of arboreal mammals (often, all you may see in the distance) should be evident when they look back at the spotlight, which needs to be held near your eye-level. At left, common brushtail possums (Trichosurus vulpecula); at right, bobuck or northern mountain brushtail possum (Trichosurus caninus) The colour and intensity of the eye-shine differs among species (e.g. brushtails vs greater glider). These brushtail species may both show grey, brown or black colour morphs. The length of the ear is the key distinguishing trait, being noticeably

longer and more pointed in the common brushtail.

Photos: left, B. Taylor; right, B. Taylor & R. Goldingay.

Figure 9 An automated camera set up on a glide pole in Brisbane (left) to detect squirrel gliders (right) that may use these poles to cross Compton Rd in Brisbane.


Appendix 1.3 Code of Ethics for Wildlife Studies at Southern Cross University

Introduction

An important component of study within the School of Resource Science and Management is the study of native species of wildlife (vertebrate animals). In addition to studies conducted at the postgraduate level, there is a strong emphasis on teaching undergraduate students how to capture, handle and identify wildlife. In order to ensure that this work is done in a way that is consistent with considerations of animal ethics, the following code of conduct has been developed for dissemination among individuals at SCU who are involved with studies on wildlife.

This code begins with consideration of the legislative responsibilities, then some general considerations for the capture and handling of animals. Much more detailed information is then provided for particular groups of wildlife (frogs, reptiles, birds and mammals). This is important because different capture techniques are used to target different groups and each may have an impact on the wellbeing of these animals in different ways, requiring different considerations to minimise any adverse impacts.

Legislative requirements

The NSW Animal Research Act 1985 requires approval from an Animal Care and Ethics Committee (ACEC) for the use (use has a broad meaning and includes capture or even observation!) of vertebrate animals in teaching and research. The ACEC will consider what is happening to animals and what is being done to ensure their well-being. This will include the period from the beginning to the completion of the project. The use of animals must be fully justified (including the choice of species and number of individual animals involved) and consideration is given as to whether the qualifications and experience of the applicant are appropriate for the project.

The investigator must ensure that all aspects of animal care and use meet the requirements of the Australian Code of Practice for the Care and Use of Animals for Scientific Purposes. This code requires that investigators show a responsibility to protect and promote the welfare of animals. This code, as it relates to wildlife, requires consideration of: disturbance to habitat, capture and handling of animals (including non-target species and feral species), marking procedures for identification and the responsible use of voucher specimens.

In addition, any studies on wildlife require a General Licence/Consent from the NSW National Parks & Wildlife Service (NPWS) to conduct research or collection. This licence is issued under Section 120 of the National Parks & Wildlife Act 1974. The NPWS will only authorise a general licence if approval has been given to conduct the project by an accredited ACEC.

Finally, for studies in the State Forests of NSW, a Special Purposes Permit is required under the Forestry Act 1916 and Forestry Regulation 1983. This permit will only be authorised if the applicant has a General Licence from the NPWS and an Animal Research Authority from an ACEC.


General considerations to minimise animal stress

Capture techniques

The capture of animals will involve either the use of specialised equipment designed to target certain types of animals or will involve the use of hand-capture techniques. When using capture equipment you should consider the wellbeing of animals while they are held within a trap or net. This requires you to consider how long an animal will be restrained by the equipment and whether the animal is subject to any heat or cold stress. To avoid holding animals longer than is necessary, you should check traps and nets at intervals specific to the type of equipment (see below). This is particularly important when using nets because animals may become distressed due to physical restraint or they may injure themselves in an attempt to escape. Netting procedures also require frequent checking because immobilisation of animals may make them vulnerable to predation by other animals. In some instances, captured animals (particularly those in pitfall traps) may be attacked by ants and such traps necessitate frequent checking to remove captured animals.

The minimisation of exposure to heat and cold are perhaps the most important considerations in routine trapping techniques. Heat exposure can be guarded against by the placement of trapping equipment in positions out of direct sunlight and for nocturnal species, by release of individuals before ambient temperatures become too excessive. In the case of pitfall traps that capture diurnal animals and may be in direct sunlight, you should place leaf litter in the bottom and check traps twice during the day in cooler months of the year and three times during hotter months.

Cold exposure can be guarded against by placing traps in areas of cover and by insulating traps (where appropriate) with dry leaf litter. Mist nets you should check at 30-minute intervals. It may be advisable to simply avoid setting traps and nets during periods of extreme cold. Captured animals that become wet are more likely to become cold stressed so strategies to keep animals dry should be employed. You should place plastic bags over traps to keep moisture out and use place litter or other material placed in the trap. You should avoid trapping during periods of heavy rainfall, particularly during winter. You should close your traps if heavy rain occurs within a trapping period.

Consideration should always be given to prevailing and predicted weather conditions when conducting trapping studies. During periods of torrential rain, equipment set near watercourses may become flooded. It is therefore important that equipment be checked or retrieved under such circumstances to prevent the animals death through drowning. Water levels may rise rapidly so some anticipation of such events is necessary.

A further consideration is that animals that are trapped repeatedly at a site within a short period of time may begin to lose weight. This often happens with small ground-dwelling mammals that may become trap-happy and can be a particular problem because the bait used to attract these animals (a mix of peanut butter and rolled oats) is often not eaten by them. Therefore, trapping for several days at the same site may result in captured animals going without food for that period. You can minimise the impact of this by reducing the number of nights that a site is trapped or by closing particular traps where repeat captures occur.


Handling techniques

The trapping of animals will usually require handling animals to identify the species or the sex of the individual and often may require some type of marking. You should be aware of the correct procedure for handling different species. This is important so that animals are not held too tightly and are not injured during the handling procedure. For some larger mammals, the most appropriate procedure may be to hold them in a hessian sack and to only expose that part of the body that is required for examination.

You should aim to minimise the period of time that an animal is handled. This should be long enough for close examination and marking (see below). Captured animals will usually be released soon after identification and measurement. If the individual is of a species that cannot be identified readily and requires a long period to proceed through an identification book (or key), you should check the wellbeing of the animal frequently (every 5 minutes) to make sure it does not become too hot or too dry. For example, some species of small frogs or lizards may be restricted to cool habitats and the heat transferred from a human hand may be sufficient to threaten the animals wellbeing. In such instances, you should keep a cool container nearby in which to place the animal periodically. Alternatively, do not handle the animal for the whole period required to identify it.

Marking techniques

In many instances, the number of animals living in an area may need to be determined. This will involve the use of temporary or permanent marking techniques. For most undergraduate student projects, only temporary marking will be required. You should use a marking pen to mark a part of an animals body or clip the fur from a small area on the animals back or flank. Such marks should be recognisable for 23 days.

In other instances, you may want to know how many individuals are living in an area over a longer period of time (months, years) and will require procedures that permanently mark an individual. The most accepted procedures these days are the use of ear tags, leg bands, arm bands and the injection of micro-chips under the skin. The latter are referred to as Passive Integrated Transponder (PIT) tags. Ears tags are used on mammals and involve crimping a metal tag onto the ear of an animal in a way similar to inserting an earring. Leg bands are used for birds and similar bands are attached to the arms of bats. Both of these procedures require specific permits from Environment Australia (formerly the Australian Nature Conservation Agency).

PIT tags are becoming more common for marking mammals and have recently been used to permanently mark frogs (Christy 1996) and snakes (Webb 1996). These micro-chips are the shape of a grain of rice but about twice the length and are injected under the skin of an animal with a syringe. A 10digit number is read off the chip with a bar-code scanner.

Other techniques involve making small cuts into the ear of a small mammal or the scale of a reptile. Ear clipping may be preferable in some instances because ear tags may readily pull out of some species. A small but identifiable nick is made into the ear of the animal (Ward 1990). Similarly, a small V-shaped nick is made in the scales of reptiles so they can be permanently marked for identification (see Madsen and Shine 1996). Tattoos on the ear or tail have also been used on small mammals (see Fleming and Frey 1984).


Trapping and survey techniques for different types of animals

Reptiles and frogs

Hand capture is often employed to survey these animals (see Goldingay et al. 1996). Animals can be captured when detected sheltering under objects in the field (e.g. rocks, logs) or when they are located actively moving about. Searches at night will be useful for detecting active frogs and some reptiles. Triangulation of calling frogs (the intersection of the call direction determined by two widely separated people) and/or playback of taped calls may be needed to locate some frogs. Taping of difficult to identify calls for later comparison with call identification tapes can be useful. You should keep handling of these animals to a minimum. You should place animals in plastic bags with plenty of air (and some water for frogs) if they need to be held for identification. Wash your hands before handling frogs if you have been using insect repellent.

Pitfall trapping (using plastic or metal buckets) is a standard survey technique for reptiles and frogs (see Friend et al. 1989; Moseby and Read 2001). Pitfall traps should have holes placed in their base to allow water to drain away and leaf litter should be placed in the bottom of the pits to provide refuge for animals from bright light. You should check and empty pitfall traps early each day and once during the day to reduce disturbance to captured animals. Pitfall traps will generally be set in straight lines of five traps with a 5-metre spacing between traps. A drift fence (made of some type of mesh or plastic sheeting) will be erected to connect the traps to guide animals to the pits.

Tortoises

Drum traps are used to capture these animals (see Georges et al. 1986). They are set before dark and checked at dawn. They are baited with a sardine sandwich. The most important point here is to ensure that you set these traps so that trapped animals do not drown. You must provide a breathing space for the animals above the water. Traps should be well tethered to the shore to prevent movement by water currents and allowance should be made for any sudden change in water levels during torrential rain.

Bats

Note: A rabies-like virus (lyssavirus) has been identified in both fruit bats and insectivorous bats, and has caused one human fatality. Therefore, bats should only be captured and handled by those people who have been vaccinated for the lyssavirus.

Bat-trapping includes standard procedures using harp traps and mist nets (see Lunney and Barker 1986). Harp traps are erected in areas that are believed to be flyways for bats. If netting on a forest track ensure that no vehicles will be using the track. Foliage can be used to block off openings beside the harp trap and will aid to funnel bats into the trap. Harp traps are set at dusk and checked regularly in the first half of the night (at hourly intervals until about 10 pm) when bat activity levels are likely to be high, before a final check at dawn. Trapped bats should be bagged quickly (in a calico bag); this may help reduce their stress and may help protect them from a carnivorous species.

Mist nets are also erected in flyways. You must constantly attend and monitor your net so that captured animals can be removed quickly. Setting mist nets too early should be avoided so you dont end up with a net full of birds. Trip lines (lengths of fishing wire


that are strung across a water body) are used to trip bats into the water. They must then swim to the waters edge where they can be captured by hand. You should constantly monitor the water when using one of these devices.

Non-flying mammals

These mammals will be captured in pitfall traps (see Friend et al. 1989; Moseby and Read 2001), in small aluminium live traps (Elliott traps) and in large wire live traps (see Davey 1990). Traps are baited with the standard mixture of peanut butter and rolled oats or may have certain additives for particular target species (e.g. honey, meat, pistachio essence). You should check traps at dawn and always before sun-up. Animals will be identified and measured before release at the point of capture. You should place leaf litter or paper towel in traps to reduce exposure to the cold in cold weather and provide a protective cover (e.g. plastic bag) to protect traps in wet weather. Trapping should not be conducted in excessively wet periods. Animals should be released at the point of capture at an appropriate time of day, e.g. bats are released at night not day to avoid predators.

Pitfall traps should be set in the same way as that described above and checked at dawn and also during the day in hot weather to remove non-target species.

Make sure you adequately mark the location of all traps so they do not become lost. Elliott traps will be numbered so lay them out in consecutive order so that you can check that traps have not been overlooked when you are walking a trap line.

Spotlighting is a routine technique for surveying arboreal mammal species. It involves walking along marked transects or along paths or roads with a spotlight (30100 watts) powered by a 12-volt battery. You must proceed quietly and carefully in order to have the best chance of seeing animals. You will be looking for the reflective eyeshine of animals (red, green or white) as well as for movement and sound (calls, branch and foliage sounds and scratching and clops on tree trunks). Avoid having a bright spotlight aimed at an animal for an excessive period of time (e.g. 20 minutes). Sometimes red filters can be used to facilitate observation of animal foraging behaviour.

Automated digital cameras with infra-red motion detectors are now being used to survey for a range of terrestrial and arboreal mammals (see Claridge et al. 2011; Goldingay et al. 2011).

Owls

Surveys for owls will include the broadcast of taped calls from a loud hailer (Kavanagh and Peake 1993; Kavanagh and Bamkin 1995). Owls are territorial so playing a call may provoke a response from any resident owls, such as calling back or flying in (sometimes quietly) to the broadcast site. The broadcast of owl calls too regularly may disrupt the social balance in an area. Therefore, you should not broadcast calls more than twice per month at a given site.

Other birds

Birds can be surveyed in a variety of ways including the use of call broadcast to target species other than owls. Again, consideration should be given to ensure that this is not conducted excessively (i.e. only two or three times per site). Birds will generally be surveyed using observational techniques. Birds can be captured using mist nets in a way similar to that described above for bats. The same considerations as those described above apply.

khoaHighlight


Mishaps

It is possible that even when all due care is taken, some mortality of animals may occur. This may result due to some unforeseen weather event or due to the capture of a non-target species. Any mortality should be reported to the immediate supervisor of the field work and later reported back to the Chair of the Animal Care and Ethics Committee who has approved the study. Voucher specimens should be made of dead animals whenever possible.

ReferencesBruner, H. & Coman, B. (1974). The identification of mammalian hair. Inkata Press,

Melbourne.

Christy, M.T. (1996). The efficacy of using Passive Integrated Transponder (PIT) tags without anaesthetic in free-living frogs. Australian Zoologist 30: 13942.

Claridge, A.W., Paull, D.J. & Barry, S.C. (2010). Detection of medium-sized ground-dwelling mammals using infrared digital cameras: an alternative way forward? Australian Mammalogy 32(2): 165171.

Davey, S.M. (1990). Methods for surveying the abundance and distribution of arboreal marsupials in a south coast forest of New South Wales. Australian Wildlife Research 17: 42745.

Fleming, M.R. & Frey, H. (1984). Aspects of the natural history of feathertail gliders (Acrobates pygmaeus) in Victoria. Pp. 4038. In Possums and Gliders. Ed by A.P. Smith and I. D. Hume. Australian Mammal Society, Sydney.

Friend, G.R., Smith, G.T., Mitchell, D.S. & Dickman, C.R. (1989). Influence of pitfall and drift fence design on capture rates of small vertebrates in semi-arid habitats of Western Australia. Australian Wildlife Research 16: 110.

Georges, A., Norris, R.H. & Wensing, L. (1986). Diet of the freshwater turtle Chelodina longicollis (Testudines: Chelidae) from the coastal dune lakes of the Jervis Bay territory. Australian Wildlife Research 13: 3018.

Goldingay, R.L., Daly, G. & Lemckert, F. (1996). Assessing the impacts of logging on reptiles and frogs in the montane forests of southern New South Wales. Wildlife Research 23: 495510.

Goldingay, R.L., Taylor, B.D. & Ball, T. (2011). Wooden poles can provide habitat connectivity for a gliding mammal. Australian Mammalogy 33(1), 3643.

Kavanagh, R.P. & Bamkin, K.L. (1995). Distribution of nocturnal forest birds and mammals in relation to the logging mosaic in south-eastern New South Wales, Australia. Biological Conservation 71: 4153.

Kavanagh, R.P. & Peake, P. (1993). Survey procedures for nocturnal forest birds: an evaluation of variability in census results due to temporal factors, weather and technique. pp. 86100. In Australian Raptor Studies. Ed by P. Olsen. Australasian Raptor Association, R.A.O.U., Melbourne.

Lunney, D. & Barker, J. (1986). Mammals of the coastal forests near Bega, New South Wales. I. Survey. Australian Zoologist 23: 1928.

Madsen, T. & Shine, R. (1996). Seasonal migration of predators and prey a study of pythons and rats in tropical Australia. Ecology 77: 14956.

Moseby, K.E. & Read, J.L. (2001). Factors affecting pitfall capture rates of small ground vertebrates in arid South Australia. II. Optimum pitfall trapping effort. Wildlife Research 28: 6171.

Ward, S.J. (1990). Life history of the eastern pygmy-possum Carcartetus nanus (Burramyidae: Marsupialia), in south-eastern Australia. Australian Journal of Zoology 38: 287304.


Appendix 1.4 Protocol for professional conduct during field work

This protocol is designed to specify and foster the adoption of a professional attitude among students while engaged in field work during formal class activities and during periods of independent study.

1. When field work is undertaken, ensure that you have obtained all appropriate permits (e.g. Office of Environment & Heritage (OEH) permit for scientific research, State Forests of New South Wales permit for research in State Forests, approval from a recognised animal ethics committee if research/collecting involves animals).

2. Ensure that appropriate land managers have been notified prior to conducting field work (this includes local Parks & Wildlife (OEH) or State Forest personnel and local landholders).

3. Ensure that safety problems have been discussed with your supervisor before commencing field work. This includes leaving location details of the work area (preferably using a map) and mobile phone number and specifying the duration of your work period. Carry a small first-aid kit, emergency food, GPS, map, compass and torch.

4. Plan work carefully, including giving consideration to the terrain of the work area and changes in weather conditions.

5. Endeavour to conduct field work away from public areas if possible. This will minimise vandalism to field equipment (e.g. traps) and public concern that field activities may pose a management problem.

6. Endeavour to adequately mark the location of field equipment to prevent failure to locate it (e.g. the loss of traps is a sin because of the considerable danger this poses to the life of animals and secondly because traps are expensive). In the case of mist nets, this may help to prevent someone walking/driving into them.

7. Ensure that appropriate care is taken when trapping and handling animals to minimise any distress to them. In particular, traps and nets should be checked at regular and appropriate times.

8. Students must conduct themselves in an appropriate and professional manner when in the field because they will be viewed by the general public as representatives of SCU.

9. Students should aim to minimise the disturbance that their activities may cause to an area. This means that no litter (including cigarette butts) should be dropped and includes the removal of location-marking materials when work is completed.

10. Always use available signs to make the public aware of who is doing the field work (i.e. SCU or OEH).

23

Exercise 2 Endangered Species

LegislationIt is important that as part of your learning in this unit that you gain an understanding of Endangered (or Threatened) Species Legislation. These Acts of law play an important role in driving protection of listed threatened species and ecological communities and how they may be recovered.

Topic 4 of the study guide will guide you to read up on State and Federal legislation from various government web pages. Based on that reading, a revision quiz has been made available to you in Blackboard in MySCU. Questions from this may appear in either of the quizzes that form part of your assessment.

25

Exercise 3 Seminar

A fundamental component of wildlife conservation is communicating the results of research and monitoring studies to other practitioners and the general public. A seminar or spoken presentation is often required so it is vital that you learn how to adequately prepare. Preparing properly will take much of the anxiety out of it.

BackgroundAcquainting students with seminar presentations is important because it is a common form of report presentation (in addition to a written report) that is requested by clients or employers when conducting wildlife surveys (or any scientific investigation actually). In such instances, oral presentations may be given to small or large groups and may be formal or informal. You may also be required to defend your results and conclusions. The most extreme scenario is having to front up to the Land and Environment Court as an expert witness.

It is typical these days that people use the PowerPoint program to assist when delivering a seminar. This program allows you to present a visual feast of a seminar. It is very worthwhile to use in environmental science because it enables you to present photos of field sites and details of equipment and experimental set-up. However, there is skill involved in getting the right balance. This exercise is about learning how to prepare a high quality seminar using PowerPoint.

A seminar is not a spoken version of a written report. A seminar needs to provide a summary of a topic or a completed study but it also needs to be entertaining and to capture the attention of the audience. This is where PowerPoint is very helpful but you still want to ensure that you have reasonable content and that you are not just relying on images. You also want to ensure that your seminar follows a logical sequence and that you finish with an adequate conclusion. i.e. it needs to be structured. If you are presenting a research seminar part of your conclusion should be to highlight future directions.

Getting the right balance

To effectively use PowerPoint means preparing slides that are attractive, eye-catching and interesting. Its easy to quickly throw some slides together and then bore your audience. Each slide must be carefully considered and have the right balance of colour, text and images. I believe using images on as many slides as possible is one way to get the attention of the audience. Text-only slides can look boring and too many will lose the attention of your audience. But one can overdo it and make the slide too chaotic or cluttered. Sometimes one image is enough, but sometimes you may need many on the one slide. On most slides you will need some text. Having text can help you to remember what it is you want to say, but having too much text can make a slide looked cluttered and unintelligible. Often you need a heading; for other text it may be best to have it as brief points (i.e. several abbreviated sentences rather than a paragraph).


Colour in the background or elsewhere can make a slide attractive but the wrong combination of colours (e.g. red text on blue background) will not only be difficult for those who are colour blind but for most people.

Description of exercise

Each student or group will either choose/devise a topic from a set list of topics (see below) or devise their own along similar lines. Internal (on-campus) students will do this as a group exercise so topics should be different for each group. This will be coordinated in class. You will then prepare a presentation that will be presented (internal students) or submitted (external students) for assessment. This must amount to at least 10 slides and when used as a seminar presentation will run for about 8 minutes. It needs to be sufficiently detailed and well illustrated.

External students (off-campus) will individually prepare a PowerPoint presentation with a word file containing detailed notes for each slide. It should be designed to run for about 8 minutes if you were required to present it.

Presenting a spoken presentation

It is worth pointing out to both internal and external students how you would present a spoken seminar. A seminar needs to be presented in a fluent way and you should not read your seminar. You might use notes to guide you but you need to ensure that you make adequate eye-contact with the audience during the presentation. Also, you should not just click through your PowerPoint slides and expect the audience to simply watch and read your slides behind you. There needs to be some engagement by you corresponding to what appears on the screen. The way to achieve the various requirements described here is to rehearse your seminar. This allows you to judge how long it will run for, allows you to learn to speak fluently and actually allows you to learn the text of your seminar so you dont need to rely on your notes. You might also use a pointer to point to various things on your slides as you go through it. It may pay to think of other techniques that may capture the attention of the audience.

Submission

External students will prepare a PowerPoint presentation with a word file containing detailed notes for each slide. Internal students will be organised into small groups and each group will present the seminar to the class in the lecture period. In this case, no written submission is required.

Due date

Your PowerPoint file or group presentation is due at the end of Week 6.

27BIO03103 Exercise 3 Seminar

Potential topics1. The influence of climate change on wildlife conservation or on [insert species].

2. Evaluation of the conservation plan for the (various species could be considered in different seminars).

3. The usefulness of habitat remnants in conservation. A case study of

4. The value of endangered species legislation in wildlife conservation.

5. Timber production and wildlife conservation.

6. Fire management in National Parks and its influence on wildlife conservation.

7. Fox control and its influence on wildlife conservation.

8. Koala management in the Lismore local government area.

9. Case studies of endangered [insert species] conservation.

10. The need for further wildlife surveys to assist wildlife conservation.

11. Evaluating the conservation status of wildlife species.

12. The relevance of the theory of island biogeography to conservation.

13. Are timber production and the conservation of Leadbeaters possum compatible?

14. Some high profile overseas wildlife projects [pandas, white rhinos, grey wolf, etc.].

Note: permissible topics will only involve terrestrial wildlife (i.e. no marine mammals or reptiles).

29

Exercise 4 Methods in wildlife surveyWildlife surveys may be conducted to determine the presence or absence of species from particular areas and habitats or they may be conducted to determine whether the abundance of particular species differs across areas or habitats. Understanding how to conduct such surveys and interpret the results is central to your training in wildlife conservation.

AimsThis field exercise has the following aims. These can be divided into those that relate to the learning exercise and those that relate to the specific survey.

The aims of the survey are to:

conduct a general wildlife survey with a particular focus on threatened species

determine whether the abundance of wildlife is influenced by habitat type.

The aims of the learning exercise are to:

acquaint students with the use of the equipment that is used in wildlife surveys

acquaint students with the correct procedure for handling and identifying wildlife

reinforce the importance of the elements of survey design

reinforce the importance of considering the welfare of the animals

provide students with experience of the quantitative procedures that are used in wildlife surveys.

IntroductionYou have had your desktop training in the important elements of conducting a field survey. Now it is time to put that preparation into practice. You will participate in a 4day survey that will include several different elements. This will form the basis of a detailed report that you will prepare. Your report will describe the different kinds of methods used to conduct this broad wildlife survey and the results of what we found.

The field exercises have been designed to provide you with the opportunity to learn about the types of equipment that are available for conducting wildlife surveys and how to use them. Another important component of this is learning how to handle and identify animals correctly (Fig. 1). The former is important so as to minimise any stress that an animal may experience and also to facilitate the identification of animals. If animals cannot be identified then you may need to hold onto them until an expert can be called in for a look. You may need holding containers or bags for this. An alternative may be to photograph the animal and take all the appropriate measurements that will assist the identification.


Fig. 1 The pincer technique for holding a bush rat

The field exercise has also been designed to provide you with an introduction to the quantitative techniques that are used in wildlife surveys. Such surveys may be used in a detailed research project on a particular target species (i.e. an endangered species) but may also be used in studies that aim to monitor changes in the population size of species in areas that are subject to intensive management (e.g. in areas regenerating from logging or fire).

Another important component of this study is to introduce you to considerations of data compiling and analysis. It is often not sufficient to survey an area and report only that 10 antechinuses (Fig. 2) or greater gliders were found there. If the survey is carefully designed (i.e. with adequate replication) it may be possible to compare animal density among different habitat types. If data have been collected in previous years then we may be able to compare among years and possibly state that the relative abundance in woodland habitat has not changed significantly in the last 3 years

Fig. 2 An antechinus captured in Border Ranges National Park

31BIO03103 Exercise 4 Methods in wildlife survey

What to bring on the field tripYou will need to bring your own food and camping equipment (Fig. 3). Lets use the Discussion Board to try to coordinate the sharing of some equipment.

Several coolers will be available in which you can store food requiring refrigeration. Staff will bring several gas cookers (Fig. 4) that you can make use of but if you dont like waiting you may need to bring your own. You will need plates, bowls and cutlery.

Make a checklist of items you need to bring on the field trip. This should include warm clothing, wet-weather gear, a note pad and this handbook. If you have them, bring binoculars and wildlife field guides, though we will bring many of each.

Photo: Tom Grace

Fig. 3 Camping out at Cambridge Plateau in the Richmond Range National Park

Fig. 4. Craig Taylor demonstrates the wildlife camp kitchen. This shows the communal cooking gear. There are cooking burners, pots and pans, and cooking utensils.


Field exercisesWe will attempt to use a wide variety of survey methods so you can become familiar with different survey equipment and with identifying different animals. Some details on the methods to be used for different animal groups is given in Appendix 1.2 in this handbook and should be read before the field trip.

Students will be divided into different groups and group leaders, responsible for the full return of equipment and for providing data to staff, will be appointed. Groups will devote a portion of their time to different survey types (i.e. those for different fauna groups) at one primary location (the spotlighting sites will differ from the trapping sites). You should acquaint yourself with all study sites so you know what you are describing in your reports.

The following four surveys are designed to provide quantitative data. Nine trapping sites will be established within three broad habitat types (rainforest and two types of eucalypt forest). Additional sites may be established to broaden our survey. At each of these sites we will place Elliott traps and cage traps. Each site will be a minimum of 300 m apart to ensure independence. You should acquaint yourself with all the different habitats.

1. Elliott trapping will be conducted across 10 transects in three habitat types (potentially 5 in rainforest and 5 in eucalypt forest). You will establish a transect of 25 traps (you will be told how many) with a 10 m spacing between traps. Therefore, the transect will be about 250 m in length. The distance can be approximated by paces of known length. You will use coloured flagging tape to mark the location of each trap that you should lay out in numerical order (numbers are marked on traps). This exercise will attempt to assess differences in habitat preference by small mammals.

2. We will conduct surveys for reptiles along the trap transects. Group members should search 10 m either side of the central transect line. The aim of searching will be to observe active reptiles and, by lifting rocks and fallen logs, detect sheltering species. This should take a minimum of 30 minutes to traverse each transect.

3. We will establish 10 transects, each 200 m in length (unless varied), at least 300 m apart along the roadway for spotlighting. It would be a bit difficult and unsafe for you to spotlight along your trapping transects. We will attempt to cover the same habitats used for the Elliott trapping. We will spotlight these transects on one or two nights.

4. Bird surveys will be conducted on one or two mornings along the trapping transects. The strip transect to be surveyed will extend 20 m either side of the central transect line. Distances can be maintained by having a group member placed at the 20 m mark on each side and one who stays on the central transect line to co-ordinate the others in between. The transects will be surveyed in the early morning for 30 minutes. Each group will slowly traverse their transect, identifying and counting all birds seen or heard calling within the transect boundary in order to provide data on the number of individuals of each species detected on the transect. Ignore any that fly through and do not stop. Care will need to be taken to ensure that birds are not double counted. You will need to ensure that at least one group member can distinguish the common bird species. At the very least, you should ensure that you can refer to arbitrary species A, B, C, . so the number of species per transect can be enumerated. We will note any significant species (i.e. threatened species).


Data collation

Data must be collated during your field work. The teaching staff will collect data summaries after each exercise has been conducted. Data will be collated and made available to all students on a white board during the field trip. It will be your responsibility to make a copy of the class data. The information collected on this field trip is provided to the local Parks & Wildlife Office (Office of Environment & Heritage) and is used for management and conservation purposes.

Report submission requirementsOverall, you will prepare a single scientific report for this exercise. However, there are two components for this that you will need to submit. One will be a hand-written account of the Introduction and Methods sections of your report, which will be submitted at the end of the field survey (i.e. before leaving the field site on day 4). The second will be the overall report. You will receive a mark for your Introduction and Methods submitted on the field trip but it will not be assessed again.

Your overall report should reflect an adequate understanding of the use of the different survey methods and their potential to detect species, particularly those threatened species that are likely to occur in the area and also the adequacy of our survey to provide quantitative data and the limitations of being able to collect such data over such a short period (what is an appropriate minimum number of nights?). A short tutorial will be given during the field trip. Read Appendix 3.1, Experimental design and data analysis, to understand the way the survey has been designed.

Submission during the field trip

A briefing session will be given during the field camp as to what needs to be included in your Introduction and Methods sections that will be submitted at the conclusion of the field camp. This component should be no more than 500 words in length.

Submission after the field trip

Your report will describe the survey from the point of view that it was designed to provide a general account of the wildlife present in the study area but with an intention to apply statistics to some of the data to determine whether some wildlife groups or individual species are more abundant in one habitat type than another. You should refer to the study by Goldingay et al. (1996) that describes a survey with a similar approach (i.e. recording simply the presence of some species and the abundance of others across habitats).

Your report will also describe the results of several data analyses. A tutorial will be given to assist you with this (read Appendix 3.1; Topic 8 in Study Guide).


Scope of data analyses

A variety of analyses could be performed on the data collected. However only the following analyses are required, unless otherwise stated. Depending on the adequacy of our data in the different surveys, we may end up comparing rainforest with all eucalypt forest (i.e. comparing two rather than three habitats).

Survey 1: assessment of whether the number of mammals and species caught in the Elliott traps differs between the habitats present. This may involve two different collations of the data per site (number of individuals of all species and number of bush rats and number of antechinuses separately) if data are adequate. Analyse these separately. In this case you will use a t-test to compare rainforest with eucalypt forest.

Survey 2: assessment of whether the number of birds and bird species differs between the habitats present. Analyse these separately. Here you will use ANOVA to compare the 3 forest types.

Survey 3: assessment of whether the number of reptiles detected along transects differs among the habitats present.

Survey 4: assessment of whether the number of mammals spotlighted differs among the habitats present.

Type of data analysis

Where you are comparing two sets of data (i.e. two habitat types), use a two-sample test (either a t-test or Mann-Whitney test). Where you are comparing three sets of data (i.e. three habitat types), use a test for three or more samples (either an ANOVA or non-parametric equivalent). You will be shown how to do these tests in Excel. This is also explained in Topic 8 of the Study Guide. (Your statistical output tables can be included in an appendix). Remember that your transects are your replicate sample units for placing in the analysis. For example your data will be placed in an Excel table like this (you will only highlight the animal values for analysis):

Number of small mammals

Transect number Habitat 1 Habitat 2

1 3 2

2 4 1

3 3 1

4 5 1

5 3 2

Include the output tables (see Study Guide Topic 8) in an appendix so it can be verified you have done the analyses the correct way.

Null hypotheses in writing your report you dont write out your null hypotheses the formal way you may have been taught in a stats unit. It is sufficient to state that your data were analysed to test the null hypothesis that there was no difference in the abundance of small mammals in the two different habitat types.


Length

The word limit for the overall report is 1700 words. It is assumed that your introduction and methods sections account for 500 words of text. A maximum length of 1200 words of text is imposed for the remainder of your report (i.e. this does not include figures or tables or captions or references). You will lose marks for exceeding this limit.

Format

The required format is: Project Title, Name, Abstract, Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, References (at least 6 journal refs), Appendices (your statistical output tables should be included in an appendix). Check Report format (Appendix 3.2) to get it right. Your Introduction and Methods that were submitted on the field trip will be resubmitted with the remainder of the report but they will not be assessed again.

Figures and tables can be included either embedded in the text or after the references. A report describing a wildlife survey should include a map of survey locations in the methods section. Because you are writing this to submit on the field camp it is not expected this time.

Marks will be allocated in accord with the mark sheet at the end of the manual (Appendix 3.3). Note that the marks given for the Results section will include correct presentation and citing of figures and tables.

Format references in a similar way to that used throughout this manual.

It is expected that your report will contain a minimum of 6 journal paper references (or book chapters) (e.g. see the reference list on the next page for some you might use). Include statistical output in appendices.

Study area

Approximately 30 km west of Casino. Richmond Range NP is about 15400 ha in area. Our transects are scattered along ~ 10 km of road. Include some AMGs of main survey sites, elevation and some weather data. Our survey is centred around the Cambridge Plateau Rest Area (474989 E, 6813390 S) at an elevation of 583 m. The weather summaries for Tabulum, 36 km away are mean annual rainfall: 1275 mm; mean minimum temperature of coldest month: 7.2oC; mean maximum temperature of warmest month: 27oC.

Assessment and report due date

Your introduction and methods will be submitted on the field camp. These will be returned after 2 weeks so you can refer to them when writing the remainder of your report. Your report on this exercise is due on Sunday of Week 12 (submit before midnight). The whole report is worth 50% of your total unit mark. Your introduction and methods are worth 15% of this (see Appendix 3.3). You will submit your report through the assignment section of the MySCU website.


Checklist for report submission Title

Your name

Abstract

Results

Description of findings Any tables or figures are cited in text before they appear

Discussion

References

At least 6 journal references Appendices

Data analysis output Raw data if your want

Report is within the word count.


Suggested readingsCatling, P.C. & Burt, R.J. (1994). Studies of the ground-dwelling mammals of

eucalypt forests in south-eastern New South Wales: the species, their abundance and distribution. Wildlife Research 21: 21939.

Catling, P.C. & Burt, R.J. (1997). Studies of the ground-dwelling mammals of eucalypt forests in north-eastern New South Wales: the species, their abundance and distribution. Wildlife Research 24: 119.

Claridge, A.W., Cunningham, R.B. & Tanton, M. (1993). Foraging patterns of the long-nosed potoroo (Potorous tridactylus) for hypogeal fungi in mixed-species and regrowth eucalypt forest stands in southeastern Australia. Forest Ecology and Management 61: 7590.

Claridge, A.W., Paull, D.J. & Barry, S.C. (2011). Detection of medium-sized ground-dwelling mammals using infrared digital cameras: an alternative way forward? Australian Mammalogy 32(2): 165171.

Goldingay, R.L. & Daly, G. (1997). Surveys of arboreal and terrestrial mammals in the montane forests of Queanbeyan, New South Wales. Australian Mammalogy 20: 919.

Goldingay, R.L. & OReilly P.J. (2010). The Mammals. pp. 155162, in Remnants of Gondwana: A Natural and Social History of the Gondwana Rainforests of Australia. Kitching, R., Braithwaite, R. & Cavanaugh, J. (Eds). Surrey Beatty & Sons, Baulkham Hills.

Goldingay, R.L., Daly, G. & Lemckert, F. (1996). Assessing the impacts of logging on reptiles and frogs in the montane forests of southern New South Wales. Wildlife Research 23: 495510.

Johnson, C.N., Isaac, J.L. & Fisher, D.O. (2007). Rarity of a top predator triggers continent-wide collapse of mammal prey: dingoes and marsupials in Australia. Proceedings of the Royal Society, Biological Sciences Series B 274, 341346.

Kavanagh, R.P. & Bamkin, K.L. (1995). Distribution of nocturnal forest birds and mammals in relation to the logging mosaic in south-eastern New South Wales, Australia. Biological Conservation 71: 4153.

Kavanagh, R.P. & Webb, G.A. (1998). Effects of variable-intensity logging on mammals, reptiles and amphibians at Waratah Creek, southeastern New South Wales. Pacific Conservation Biology 4: 32647.

Kortner, G., Gresser, S. & Harden, B. (2003). Does fox baiting threaten the spotted-tailed quoll, Dasyurus maculatus? Wildlife Research 30: 11118.

Lunney, D., Cullis, B. & Eby, P. (1987). Effects of logging and fire on small mammals in Mumbulla State Forest, near Bega, New South Wales. Australian Wildlife Research 14: 16381.

Lunney, D., Triggs, B., Eby, P. & Ashby, E. (1990). Analysis of scats of dogs Canis familiaris and foxes Vulpes vulpes (Canidae: Carnivora) in coastal forests near Bega, New South Wales. Australian Wildlife Research 17: 6168.

Milledge, D. (1991). A survey of the terrestrial vertebrates of coastal Byron Shire. Australian Zoologist 27: 6690.

Norton, M.A., Claridge, A.W., French, K., & Prentice, A. (2010). Population biology of the long-nosed potoroo (Potorous tridactylus) in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales. Australian Journal of Zoology 58, 362368.


Threatened species potentially occurring at Cambridge Plateau

COMMON NAME SCIENTIFIC NAME STATUS

Reptiles

Reticulated Skink Coeranoscincus reticulatus V

Stephens Banded Snake Hoplocephalus stephensii V

Frogs

Loveridges Frog Philoria loveridgei V

Pouched Frog Assa darlingtoni V

Green Thighed Frog Litoria brevipalmata V

Giant Barred Frog Mixophyes iteratus E

Fleays Barred Frog Mixophyes fleayi E

Birds

Glossy Black-Cockatoo Calyptorhynchus lathami V

Barred Cuckoo-shrike Coracina lineata V

White-eared Monarch Monarcha leucotis V

Wompoo Fruit-Dove Ptilinopus magnificus V

Rose-crowned Fruit-Dove Ptilinopus regina V

Superb Fruit-Dove Ptilinopus superbus V

Masked Owl Tyto novaehollandiae V

Sooty Owl Tyto tenebricosa V

Powerful Owl Ninox strenua V

Marbled Frogmouth Podargus ocellatus V

Mammals

Spotted-tailed Quoll Dasyurus maculatus V

Koala Phascolarctos cinereus V

Rufous Bettong Aepyprymnus rufescens V

Black-striped Wallaby Macropus dorsalis E

Parma Wallaby Macropus parma V

Long-nosed Potoroo Potorous tridactylus V

Red-legged Pademelon Thylogale stigmatica V

Yellow-bellied Glider Petaurus australis V

Squirrel Glider Petaurus norfolcensis V

Eastern pygmy-possum Cercartetus nanus V

Eastern Cave Bat Vespadelus troughtoni V

Eastern False Pipistrelle Falsistrellus tasmaniensis V

Golden-tipped Bat Kerivoula papuensis V

Greater Broad-nosed Bat Scoteanax rueppellii V

Little Bent-wing Bat Miniopterus australis V

Common Bent-wing Bat Miniopterus schreibersii V


Photos from previous field camps

Figure 5 Explaining to the wildlife students how the field camp will run.

Figure 6 Wildlife students hard at work at Cambridge Plateau.

Figure 7 A demonstrator explains to students how to organise their groups trapping equipment.


Figure 8 Processing the catch back at camp. A plastic bag is placed over the end of traps to provide some protection in the case of wet weather. Note that traps are kept in the shade during

processing to avoid overheating.

Figure 9 A long-nosed potoroo captured near camp.

Figure 10 A brown antechinus or subtropical antechinus?


Figure 11 The fossorial skink Calyptotis scutirostrum is found on most survey transects.

Figure 12 The fawned-footed melomys (Melomys cervinipes) can be common in the rainforest.


Appendix 3.1 Experimental design and data analysis

The following notes are provided to clarify the statistical component of your wildlife studies. They should be read in conjunction with A Companion to Statistics by M. Whelan, from Quantitative Analysis.

Experimental design

One of the most important considerations in any field study is the design of the sampling regime. This includes both the method of data collection and the physical layout of the sampling units. Both will be influenced by the question or issue being addressed. If one is only attempting to produce a species list for a given area then sampling (trapping and observing) do not require any great rigour. However, if specific questions are being asked about the number of species or abundance of certain species in a particular habitat, then a more rigorous design will be required.

An important point to remember about biological systems is that they are inherently variable. The abundance of species will vary through time and the suitability of habitats may also vary so that species may not always be observed in what appears to be suitable habitat. Such variation needs to be accommodated by our experimental designs. Therefore, we need to sample at a variety of sites in order to characterise the species of those sites and their abundance. We refer to this as replication. For example, if we want to determine which species of small terrestrial mammals commonly occur in heath and their average abundance, then we will need to sample at a number of sites. The number of replicate sites needed will depend on the amount of variation but the more the better (e.g. usually a minimum of three or four). We may need to refine our question to clarify whether we are defining any heath or NSW north coast heath.

When we are sampling at a number of sites in order to characterise a particular habitat, we need to consider how close our sampling sites should be to each other. Sites that are too close may sample the same individual animals. We need to ensure that sites can be considered independent sampling units and a rule of thumb that can be used is to consider the area requirements (i.e. movement distances) of the species of interest. For example, for heathland frogs, 50100m may be appropriate as a minimum distance between sites; for ground parrots, which can be observed to fly 500m in a single flight, then several kilometres may be needed between sites.

Another consideration is that we need to objectively select sites for sampling. Selecting sites that we think are suitable for the target species may not be representative and there may be certain factors that vary from site to site (e.g. soil type) that we do not readily recognise as being important. Selection of sites along a road or track may also impose a bias because our target species may be less abundant near disturbed habitat. The way to avoid introducing a bias to the location of survey sites is to select sites at random or locate them systematically (e.g. locate a site every 1 km in the target habitat).

Special survey designs that recognise that certain factors may influence species abundance will build this into the design. The factors are referred to as strata, hence stratified sampling. For example, an area contains moist and dry eucalypt forest and both may occur as logged or unlogged forest. We choose to investigate whether these factors influence the abundance of animals. Therefore, we systematically or randomly locate the same number of sample sites in forest representing each factor (see Goldingay et al. 1996).


Experimental studies

Referring to the experimental design of a study does not mean that you are conducting an experiment when you collect survey data.

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