The Monitor takes off
Welcome to the first edition of The Monitor – the newsletter to keep you up-to-date on the National Flying-fox Monitoring Programme.
February 2013 saw the first full national count for the National Flying-fox Monitoring Programme held across South Australia, Victoria, New South Wales, the ACT and Queensland.
The programme is locating and estimating grey-headed flying-fox and spectacled flying-fox populations over three years. Both species are listed as threatened under national environmental law and relevant state and territory legislation.
Data collected from the quarterly surveys will give us a better idea of the population size of these species, whether the populations are increasing or decreasing, and where they can be found. This information will help guide the management of flying-foxes, particularly in relation to public concerns about their impact on industry, agriculture and public health.
The programme is being coordinated nationally by CSIRO and the Australian Government Department of the Environment with the counts in each jusridiction being coordinated and resourced by the state and territory governments. The counts are being undertaken by a strong commitment from these governments, as well as council, volunteer and state agency staff.
This newsletter will bring you regular progress updates including the results of each quarterly count and news on any upcoming surveys. It will also feature stories on some of the dedicated groups and individuals who help make this important work possible.
Please pass this newsletter on to anyone with an interest in flying foxes. Future editions can be found on the federal environment department website: www.environment.gov.au/node/16393 .
NEWS FROM THE LATEST SURVEY
Results of the third survey – August 2013
The first three surveys of the monitoring programme were successfully in November 2012 and in February and May2013. The reports detailing the results of each survey are available on the federal environment department’s website: www.environment.gov.au/node/16393.
Dedicated groups of counters again went out in August this year to conduct the fourth survey. Our counters surveyed a total of 325 grey-headed flying-fox camps and found flying-foxes at 125of those sites. It is estimated that approximately 335,000animals were present at those sites.
In this count, 46 per cent of the grey-headed flying-foxes counted were in New South Wales, 45per cent in Queensland, 8 per cent in Victoria and less than 1 per cent was recorded in South Australia and the Australian Capital Territory.
During the third survey, counters also visited a total of 50 spectacled flying-fox camps and found animals at 6of those sites. It is estimated that there were 30,000spectacled flying-foxes at those sites.
For both these species, these numbers represent a dramatic decrease in numbers over previous counts—less than half the animals counted at the peak in the surveys last summer for the grey-headed flying-foxes. They also reflect the annual spectacled flying-fox pattern of movement out of known camps during the middle of the year that has been documented in the last nine years. It is not known exactly why this is happening, but we are hoping that our work will identify what is going on and why.
While the counts focused on the grey-headed and spectacled flying-foxes, black and little-red flying-foxes were also counted in the same geographic region. In total, 142,000 black flying-foxes were recorded at 76 camps mostly in Queensland, a slight reduction in numbers. However, little-red flying-foxes were only recorded in very small numbers—290individuals at 2camps in Queensland. This is a very large drop from the 133,000 recorded in the region in May.
Quarterly surveys are subject to various factors which may influence the results. For example, comparing the current monitoring to previous efforts is difficult due to differences in the time of year in which surveys were conducted, the number and distribution of camps counted and the methods used.
Such was the case during the February 2013 count which took place shortly after severe storms and flooding in northern Queensland and an unprecedented January heat wave in south-eastern Australia. These factors saw many flying foxes stressed or killed.
The aim of the programme is to establish a reliable baseline estimate of the flying-fox populations in2013 and over time to estimate trends. This will take a number of years.
VIEWS FROM THE GROUND
Expect the unexpected in Tumut
Census workers have been kept on their toes in Tumut this year, as a seasonal camp of flying-foxes continues to buck its own trends.
The camp hadn’t been occupied for a few years, so was not initially slated for the census. Its location on a densely vegetated island in the Tumut River nearly meant out of sight, out of mind.
But NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) Ranger Megan Bowden’s home shares a river frontage with this colony and she heard the squabbling of unexpected visitors during the February census period.
February was already a busy time for NPWS in the Snowy Mountains and, speaking before the August2013 survey, Megan recalls the high drama of the first flying-fox count.
“A mix of grey-headed and little-red flying-foxes made an appearance in February, but I wasn’t the one to count them,” Megan said.
“We had multiple bushfires in the area. When I noticed the camp had returned I was literally on my way to the airport to head up in a helicopter in response to a lightning strike.
“I tried to get a count but they were obscured, so I made some calls and my colleague Gabrielle Wilks headed out in her fire overalls with Janine Kovacs from WIRES.”
Gabrielle said about 50animals revealed themselves gradually. Once they were more obvious to her, she and Janine counted the camp from a few different vantage points.
“I brought Janine because she’s experienced in flying-fox rehabilitation and is very good at identifying the different species,” Gabby said.
“There was dense vegetation, but we could hear some scrabbling and chattering sounds and gradually we noticed rustling leaves and flying-foxes hanging from trees.
“They weren’t sound asleep. They shift and squabble, moving each other around a little bit during the day, which I hadn’t realised.”
Megan remembers the May census as less frantic and by then the camp had grown from 50to1,000.
“My daughters Annabelle and Emily stood on the riverbank and helped me with the May census.
“It’s like a racetrack. They get noisier and noisier, do a lap of the island, and then they fly off.”
PROFILES
Dr David Westcott – project leader and rainforest ecologist
Meet the person leading our research project – Dr David Westcott.
Dr Westcott currently holds the role of Principal Research Scientist with CSIRO and is an expert in animal movement, landscape ecology and conservation biology. He joined the national science agency in 1995 after completing a PhD in zoology at the Unversity of British Columbia in Canada.
Dr Westcott has produced nearly 80 peer-reviewed scientific publications and more than 20other scientific reports and articles. He is currently a subject editor for the journal Biodiversity and Conservationand an Adjunct Senior Lecturer at James Cook University. He has worked on a variety of projects in Australia and overseas, and is well-known among the scientific community.
However, many of the counters and volunteers simply know him as David—the funny and helpful guy who sometimes runs the training sessions for the surveys. And this characterises David, and the other members of the CSIRO team for that matter—they’re highly-qualified, experienced and greatly enjoy their work.
When asked what he enjoys most about leading this research project, David says: “The more I have to do with flying-foxes, the more I learn about them and the more I work on them, the more fascinating I find them. For me, this project is a great opportunity to delve more into their ecology and behaviour.
“The data we gather from the monitoring programme helps to give us with insights into their ecology, such as the processes driving their population dynamics, their habitat needs and our impacts on them, as well as to their potential impact on humans.”
“So for me, this programme is a great opportunity to contribute data to assist in the management and conservation of these important animals. If we want to be able to live with flying-foxes and have them thrive alongside us, we have to understand their needs and our impact on them,” he added.
Given the importance of the programme, David says it is great to seet that the people who volunteer on this project have a strong commitment to flying-foxes.
“The volunteers working with the project really do care about the animals and are genuinely interested in them,” David said.
WHO TO CONTACT
ACT: / Murray Evans(02) 6207 2118
NSW: / Liza Schaeper
(02) 9995 6753
Roger Bell
(02) 9995 6484
QLD: / Rebecca Williams
(07) 3330 5512
SA: / Department of Environment, Water and Natural Resources
(08) 8204 1910
CSIRO: / Adam McKeown
(07) 4059 5009
Australian Government: / Peter Wright
(02) 6274 1052
5