It’s always exciting when you first get up to the island to see how the quolls have faired in our absence, which females made it to their second or third year and how many babies survived the wet season. This is now the 5th year of sampling the “Grids Population” – a 128-hectare area that Jaime originally set up as her PhD study population.
Rain radar week one, me hiding in a cave so the quolls would stay dry (I was already drenched) and the 8 am forecast for trapping sites on Groote.
Pre-breeding sampling of the Northern quolls on Groote Eylandt NT, started with thunderstorm after thunderstorm. This came with incessant heavy tropical rain and us getting drenched to the core most days – either from the torrential downpours or from the intense sweating due to 95% humidity - so much for only doing fieldwork during the dry season.
Walking out of Beach Grid towards the rainbow (Grid 4) with a bag full of quolls.
First up Pippa and I were out laying the traps on Grids and starting population assessments for the pre-breeding season. Quoll numbers were looking low from the start and we got some of the smallest quolls we have ever had for this time of year (124 g female – Emily).
The smallest quoll of the season (Emily – 124g) and the largest (Goliath – 822g).
Waterhole – where quick post-trapping dips are had before the long sandy walk back to the Lodge.
It seems that this years lower numbers are likely due to the combination of reduced rainfall the wet season just gone and intense fires in the trapping Grids November-December last year. So fingers crossed for a better-wet season come 2017.
Fire scared landscape on Beach Grid (Grid 4) and the second smallest female quoll Ophelia at 140g.
Sarah trapping up to go out and lay a line on Grid 1.
After an epic fun filled week with Pippa, Sarah arrived to bring us home for the last three weeks of the season. Although Sarah’s background is hospitality management – she excelled at rock hopping, animal handling and aiding my OCD with everything done to perfection!
We also had a mountain of additional on island volunteers – with Nicky coming three times a week for a morning stroll through the bush (and sometimes trying to bag an empty trap), Marcelle wishing he hadn’t said he would help, as we laid 40 traps out in the blistering sun, to Jen, the new MJD researcher and Shanna, the ALC Rangers left hand woman, just coming for a jaunt to see what we are all about. It is fantastic that the local community are so interested and engaged in our research! After 5 years on island everyone knows the “Quoll Girls” and love to stop you for a quick chat about their resident quoll that most locals have in their backyard or even their homes.
On island volunteers - Nicky, Jen and Shanna out helping us capture quolls for processing.
With the “Dust and Human Health Team” needing KOB (our trusty field car) most days, the Quoll Team had to source some new wheels to move about island. So after getting on Groote Eylandt ‘Buy, Sell, Swap’ Facebook page we found ourselves with two not-so-new bicycles all for the grand old price of $40. With a little elbow grease, some bush bicycle mechanics and some hodge-podge modifications for transporting animals – we were underway to being able to move around between the field station, trapping sites and our accommodation. However, we soon realised that Alyangula is not all flat, and after morning and evening tramples through the bush trapping animals, the legs were a tad tired – with Sarah now labelling volunteering as “Skye’s boot camp”. Luckily we have use of one of the ALC Rangers’ Polaris that enabled us to hoon through the back-road dirt tracks to trapping sites when our legs just said they had had enough!
The Quoll Team’s new wheels with built-in animal carrying baskets and Sarah and I hooning around on the ALC Rangers Polaris.
From bikes to blisters - during week two I started getting a mysterious blister on my knuckle one night after laying traps all day. At first I thought typical clumsy me – must have burnt my hand and not even noticed! But as the night wore on and the pain intensified I used Dr Google to investigate what a typical spider bite can look like – because what else could it be? By the next morning my little 5 mm diameter blister had become a 10 mm one and by lunch time a 15 mm pusy blister. A trip to the Alyangula clinic and a doctor’s visit later I was on strong antibiotics and antihistamines – with the doctor confirming that good old trusty Dr Google was right– it was a spider bite. Three days later the blister had popped and it started to heal – and two weeks since the day I only have a faint red mark. Thank goodness – I was worried for a while that I might loose my finger. Turned out Robbie thought the same – not game to Tweet the bite to the public just in case it took over my whole hand, although there were daily requests for updates so he could show all his friends in the US – What a good caring boss (as I normally never hear from him)! But no doubt it was so he could just say “Everything can kill you in Straya!” to all the United Statians.
Mysterious spider bite – 2 hours, 12 hours, 24 hours, 36 hours, 3 days, and a week later.
During this field season we were fortunate enough to spend four days with Groote Eylandt school kids as part of the Learning on Country (LoC) program. First up we had the work experience boys from Umbakumba, Angurugu and Alyangula schools out learning how to lay trapping grids, set up camera traps and use a GPS. These skills got used the following weeks when we took them out for the real deal to lay all 40 traps for Grid 1. Come week three we had the boys helping us set up the trial camera and baited traps for Northern “Lambalk” gliders as part the new Small Mammal Project. The boys smashed through the bush, not giving a dam about the painful green-ants biting their necks and the intense heat in the middle of the day. They even got to help us process the quolls we had taken back to the ALC Rangers station to process, from data entry to collecting hair samples. Apparently they are still talking about it all!
We also got to spend a day out at Umbakumba School with the senior class in the morning and the Junior school in the afternoon. We were extremely lucky to be joined by two elder Anindilyakwa ladies, Edith and Kathy, who told stories and the history of Northern quolls (in Anindilyakwa language) for their people. The kids learnt how to trap, measure and take DNA samples from the quolls and why cane toads, cats and fire are bad for them. Then they learnt the best time to eat them from the ladies and why there are no dreamtime stories of the quolls – with even an impromptu sex ed lesson to the senior class from Edith and Kathy! Nikki (LoC coordinator), Sarah and I had no idea what was going on (as it was all spoken in language) until the class burst into laughter and then got very serious faces as Edith and Kathy bought home the important message; when animals (quolls included) have sex (guju-guju) they will get pregnant – and humans are no exception! Go ladies!
This season also entailed trialling procedures for the new Small Mammal Project (ARC Linkage with ALC) investigating the role of trace metal contamination in the ecology of native Australian mammals. We had bandicoots rip and jump through our capture bags, fall asleep in my lab while processing and some females with day old to two week old pouch young. Our glider trial, fixed open baited traps and camera traps, was of little success – but with new connections made – we have now learnt we need a water pistol armed with honey water to help entice the little critters down the tree.
Setting up Northern glider traps with cameras and processing Northern brown bandicoots.
From teaching kids, to spider bites, to trialling new small mammal capture techniques nothing could beat the fact that Sarah and I got to give a quoll a bath! Yes a bath – suds and all! Jimmy is the resident quoll at the Groote Eylandt Lodge (our accommodation) – and the staff were concerned for him as he didn’t look the healthiest. On capture and closer inspection we soon realised poor Jimmy was in a bad state – with severely damaged ears, lack of fur on his whole underbelly and badly irritated skin. A trip to the community vet, antibiotics and steroid shot later – Sarah and I were on our way back to the lab to give a Jimmy a bath. With me holding Jimmy tightly and Sarah giving him a good belly rub, we somehow successfully cleaned up his poor belly and put some cream on his ears to stop him scratching at them – although he did somewhat resemble a drowned rat! On release we tried to give him a feed – but he would have none of it – although we did catch him in our kitchen two days later trying to eat our dinner!
Giving Jimmy a bath and post bath ointment rub prior to release – he is doing well post vet visit.
All in all the Pre-breeding fieldtrip was a great succes full of Sweat, Sex Ed, Spiders and Salutations. I kept my peace of mind with daily yoga sessions on my own private stretch of beach.
Yoga on Groote – keeping my inner balance during the intense fieldwork.
And the best of it all were the few evenings the whole UQ team took off to go camping at some of our favourite places! Marble Point and Jagged Head – with even Buddy, Gwen’s best mate coming along for the ride. Four weeks done and dusted – now for a short hiatus back in Brisbane until my return in four weeks – with new volunteers and a renewed source of energy. What shenanigans will the Breeding Season 2016 bring?
Camping shenanigans on Groote Eylandt: Jagged Head, Wayne’s World and Marble Point.
Pre-breeding shenanigans coming to an end – with our last camping trip to Jagged Head.