Hunting for Numbat Digs

Attendees learning how to identify numbat digs and scats in Dryandra Woodland

Christine Townsend (PHCC) updated attendees on the Farmers for Fauna Project, Megan Leroy (PHCC) spoke about black-cockatoos and her search for nesting hollows. Brian MacMahon (DBCA) provided a Dryandra Woodland Fauna Update and Tamara Wilkes-Jones (Numbat Niche Consulting) spoke about all things numbats and how to identify numbat digs and scats.  

As well as learning more about these native species, the workshop was a great opportunity for Christine (PHCC) to thank landholders for their hard work controlling feral and cats and foxes on their properties and also provide an update on the amount of habitat that has been created and protected. Over 200 feral cats have been culled and reported to PHCC through the Farmers for Fauna Project and a partnership with PYNC Invasive Animal control. 550 hectares of on farm habitat has been protected through fencing and 23 hectares of farmland has been revegetated through the Numbat Neighbourhood Project.

Megan Leroy spoke about PHCC’s Black-Cockatoo Project and how one element of the project is to identify breeding locations in the Wheatbelt. Everyone was encouraged to keep a look out for signs that a female may be breeding in the area including lone male birds or flocks of mostly males out feeding, females coming out of a nesting hollow to get a feed from a male and freshly chewed marks around the entrance of hollows. After the workshop Megan went in search of potential nesting with a workshop attendee.

Brian MacMahon, who has been working in Dryandra for about 30 years, gave background and an update on threatened fauna in the Woodland and how in most cases populations have recently increased due to efforts of DBCA and local landholders controlling feral species. No collared numbats have been lost to feral cats in the last four years and the woylie populations have recovered to the high levels they were in the 1990’s.

Tamara Wilkes-Jones, who has years of experience with annual Numbat Dig Surveys, taught us all about numbats, their habitat, diet and how to identify their digs and scats.  After the informative presentation from Tamara we visited a section of the Woodland to look for diggings and scats where there had been a lot of recent activities. We saw numbat, echidna and woylie diggings, various scats and antlion pits. By learning how to identify Numbat traces, landholders can determine if numbats are utilising on farm habitat which can indicate if the numbat population is increasing. This increased trajectory is one of the outcomes of PHCC’s Numbat Neighbourhood Project.

This workshop provided a great opportunity for local landholders to catch up with each other and for PHCC to thank them for the hard work they have been doing controlling feral cats and foxes as well as offer our support.

This project is supported by the Peel-Harvey Catchment Council through funding from the Australian Government’s National Landcare Program, Newmont Boddington and South 32 Worsley Alumina in partnership with Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions, Project Numbat and the Shires of Boddington, Cuballing, Wandering and Williams.