Suchergebnisse

Middens built by stick-nest rats (Leporillus apicalis
and/or Leporillus conditor) contain information
relating to the animals that lived in the arid areas of Australia. The hair
and bones recovered from stick-nest rat middens in the Northern Territory,
South Australia and Western Australia provide information about the former
distribution and community composition of species in arid Australia. Some of
the species recorded from the middens are no longer present in the surrounding
areas. The bone and hair materials appear to have been derived from the scats
of small carnivorous mammals and incorporated into middens by stick-nest rats.
The material has been radiocarbon dated and, in some cases, represents over
2000 years of accumulation in the middens of stick-nest rats.

We compare detection rates of different species of mammals by three types of
hairtubes in both the mountain ash forests of the central highlands of
Victoria and a range of wet forest types at Tumut in southern New South Wales.
The types of hairtubes were a small-diameter PVC pipe, a large-diameter PVC
pipe and a newly constructed tapered hair funnel. Data were analysed for brown
antechinus (Antechinus stuartii), bush rat
(Rattus fuscipes), common wombat
(Vombatus ursinus), swamp wallaby
(Wallabia bicolor) and common and mountain brushtail
possums (Trichosurus vulpecula and
T. caninus). The most effective hairtube type (i.e. the
one yielding the highest number of detections) varied between species: small
hairtubes forR. fuscipes, hair funnels for
Trichosurus spp., and large hairtubes for
V. ursinus and W. bicolor. For
A. stuartii, the most effective hairtube type differed
between the two study regions (hair funnels in Victoria and small hairtubes at
Tumut). Detection by more than one hairtube type at a given plot was uncommon.
Our findings have important implications for field surveys and how data
gathered from such studies are interpreted. For example, if the aim of field
survey is to detect a wide range of species then several types of hairtubes
may need to be deployed.