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Western Australia is a fabulous state for mammal watching. There are a lot of endemic species, a great variety of habitat, speccy scenery and no people. Some very successful fox poisoning campaigns in the south-west (using 1080, a poison found naturally in the local vegetation that the native species, but not foxes, have developed immunity to) gives you a feel for what Australian wildlife was like a couple of hundred years ago. The Department of Conservation and Land Management (CALM) have some of the friendliest rangers and researchers in all Australia (and that's a big call!). Frank O'Connors excellent website on WA birding has a lot of good mammal info. CALM also run Landscope Expeditions each year that are open to the public. THey are not cheap but they can be a great way to explore some remote country and see many mammals. See below (in the Pilbara section) for details of one I went on. In the South-West of the State there is a lot of mammal surveying accompanying the Western Shield program (a remarkably successful program that is eradicating foxes using a poison that native species tolerate - it has resulted in species being removed from the endangered list). CALM run this work but might not mind taking a volunteer along - parks like Lake Magenta and Fitzgerald River promise particular diverse catches. The South West Dryandra Woodland, near Narrogin, is one of the best bits of Australia for seeing native wildlife. Numbats are here though they are not particularly easy to find - they are diurnal so your best bet is to drive the trails. I saw my first Echidna here, as well as my first Western Brush Wallaby, and first Woylie (Brush-tailed Bettong). Woylies tend to be more active at night and came out to graze in some of the open areas near the cottage accommodation (in fact we had Woylies fighting around our deck). There are also Western Grey Kangaroos, Tammar Wallabies and an unusual - white tipped tail - variant of the Brushtail Possum. Western Grey Kangaroos are here too of course. Dryandra is also possibly the best place to try to see the groovy Red-tailed Phascogale, endemic to WA with a much reduced range. They are small, nocturnal and tend to stick to Sheoak thickets. I've never tried to see one while spotlighting and imagine they would be quite tricky to get onto, though Rohan Clark found one this way during an evening. An alternative is to sign up for one of Dryandra' s Field Study Weekends which are - or at least were - run periodically and involved various wildlife activities including small mammal trapping. We caught one Red-tailed Phascogale and not a lot else if I remember, though Honey Possums, Western Pygmy Possums and one or two of the Dunnarts (probably Fat-tailed and White-bellied) were all possible. But things change and in 2006, Frank O'Connor advised me that " Short-beaked Echidna
and Numbat are easier to find, but Woylie is getting quite difficult. Tammar Perup Forest Ecology Centre, near Manjimup, is another top spot - probably even better than Dryandra for the number and diversity of its mammals. It is run by CALM and in 2002 at least they had a wonderful policy of only allowing one guest or group of guests at a time and yet only charging per person. So when I spent a night there I had the whole accommodation complex and surrounding bush to myself for something like $20. I saw my first Numbat here, one of my favourite mammals of all time (made all the more special because after just missing three in Dryandra I was borderline suicidal). At night the forest comes alive with Tammar Wallabies, Western Brush Wallabies, Woylies, Western Ringtail Possums (these are easy to find near the accommodation block), and Southern Brown Bandicoots. I also saw a Brush-tailed Phascogale from the car while spotlighting along the kilometre square road which rings the forest. They also had nest boxes up for Phascogales which would be worth staking out. The surrounding dirt roads outside the park are also thick with mammals. Western Quolls (Chudditch) are also not uncommon. Lane-Poole Reserve (the Nanga Mill area in particular) near Dwellingup is one of the best spots to see Western Quolls. Once very endangered they have made a rapid recovery after the success of fox baiting programs. Two People's Bay, near Albany is famous for its rare species. Birders will know it as one of the best places to see the pretty cryptic Noisy Scrubbirds and Western Whipbirds. Mammal people will know it as the place where Gilbert's Potoroo, a rabbit-sized kangaroo, was rediscovered after 100 year absence. A small colony lives in the heathland around Little Beach. Only about 40 individuals are thought to live in the wild, with a few captive animals held near the visitor centre, making it one of the world's rarest mammals. They live in very thick heath and I tried a couple of times to find the animals using a spotlight without luck. Tony Friend, legendary CALM biologist and protector of the Potoroos, eventually took pity on me and invited me out on a trapping expedition. We caught one animal and a lot of bandicoots. I also saw a Quokka here, near the visitor centre one dawn (Quokkas, which are very common on Rottnest Island off of Perth aren't easy to see on the mainland). Birdwatchers staking out scrubbirds have reported seeing Honey Possums. Great scenery too. Whenever I visited Two People's Bay I stayed at Cheyne's Beach, a half hour drive to the east. This seems to be another magnet for rare wildlife. Dibblers (a large antechinus) were rediscovered at Cheyne's Beach, though I have never seen them there. If you are staying at the caravan site ask about whether the nest boxes are still up for Western Pygmy Possums - they were occupied in November 2003. Vagrant marine life seems attracted to the bay - a Subantarctic Fur Seal was reported there in 2003, and a Strap-toothed Beaked Whale had been hanging around in 2002 (I didn't see either species). There are Bush Rats in the heathland along with Honey Possums and Southern Brown Bandicoots. Some good birds there too - I think may have won the world speed record for Noisy Scrubbird spotting the first time I visited. I got up at dawn, picked my way past the Red-eared Firetails on the grass outside my cabin, heard a scrubbird walked to the nearest bush and looked straight at the thing as it was singing its lungs out. The Stirling Ranges is another nice park in the south west and Frank O'Connor says that the Bluff Knoll Cafe on the north side of the Stirling Range Retreat is a great place to see Honey Possums, particularly in September (late in the afternoon is a good time).The cafe has flowering grevilleas, hakeas, eucalypts which the animals feed on. The Fitzgerald River National Park is a large tract of heathland along the southern coast. I spent a few days here helping a friend catch Honey Possums for her phD. We caught loads - in pitfalls - though they were a bit patchy in their distribution. Also caught a few White-bellied Dunnarts and several Bush Rats. Lake Magenta, near Newdegate, is one of the largest nature reserves in the wheatbelt. The good people of CALM arranged for me to take part in a trapping program there for a few days in 2004. We caught a lot of nice stuff including Heath Mice, Ash-Grey Mice, beautiful Western Mice, a Mitchell's Hopping Mouse, a Gilbert's Dunnart, Honey Possums and Western Pygmy Possums. In 2005 CALM also caught Red-tailed Phascogales and Chudditch there. CALM's Katanning office are worth talking to if you are in the area and want to volunteer. I never crossed the Nullabor but there are some interesting mammals including Southern Right Whales (in the winter) and Southern Hairy-Nosed Wombats. The Eyre Bird Observatory runs various wildlife courses, including a bat course which involves trapping. They also have nest-boxes up for Western Pygmy Possums. Perth to Exmouth Jurien Bay, a few hours north of Perth, is home to some islands that support Dibbler populations. I spent a week trapping and radio tracking them here in December 2002. We also caught hundreds of feral house mice but none of the Boulanger Island Dunnarts (a subspecies of Sminthopsis griseoventer). Inshore Bottlenose Dolphins were just off the beach one day. Further north Shark Bay is the easiest place to see Dugongs, which are common - boat trips run around the bay every day. Inshore Bottlenose Dolphins (Tursiops aduncus) are well known at Monkey Mia and come into the beach several times each day to interact with (i.e. get fed fish by) the tourists. In April 1999 I visited Exmouth, or at least I tried to - it was flattened by a cyclone a few days before I got there so I had to stop at Coral Bay and swim with Whale Sharks there. En route though I began seeing Red Kangaroos up near Denham. Boat trips along Yardie Gorge near Exmouth usually see Black-footed Rock Wallabies I believe. Red Kangaroos and Euros are common in Cape Range National Park. The Pilbara
Barrow is completely free of feral animals, even mice, and the only weeds are near the airport. Its a A class nature reserve and also a working oil field. Pretty much the only way to visit there is to get a job on the island, or (like me) volunteer to help a student. The oil infrastructure on the island has been there so long that I thought it blended in quite nicely with the spinifex (I'd almost say they livened things up a bit). Some great place names too ... the 'Valley of the Giants' is home to a few 4m Eucalypts (the only trees of any note), while 'The lighthouse' was basically a spotlight on a stick.
The larger mammals on Barrow are supremely easy to see and catch. I'd estimate the average capture rate for our cage traps was about 75%. Golden Bandicoots are everywhere - and wander through the bar in search of scraps of food. We caught plenty of Boodies and saw a few while spotlighting (Felicity's trapping was focused at Boodie warrens), and we also caught a few Spectacled Hare Wallabies (these are particularly easy to see on the sports oval by camp). The Barrow Island Brushtail Possums were commonly trapped too - and they are much softer (in looks and personality) than those in the South and East. THe Barrow Island subspecies of Euro (Wallaroo) is smaller than those I've seen on the mainland. Most of the animals - presumably unused to fearing people - were very easy to approach and handle. Its something of an Australian Galapagos Island.
I didn't do a lot of spotlighting but when we did go out we saw a Common Rock Rat, along with the usual Bandicoots, Bettongs, Hare Wallabies and Possums. Black-footed Rock Wallabies are easy to see behind pumping station Q21. And we found some Common Sheathtail Bats in a small cave, but couldn't see the other species of bat that is supposed to be here (presumably Vespadelus Finlaysoni from the description I was given). We didn't see the Water Rats, Planigale or Pseudantechinus species (possibly P. Roryi though its being debated) but then we weren't small mammal trapping...
Off the South East coast of the island (from base) I saw what I think might
have been a couple of Fin or Bryde's Whales one morning off shore. But maybe they
were Humpbacks behaving peculiarly... they were a long way off.
It sounded like Spinner Dolphins were pretty regular off the island too,
though I didn't see any.
The diversity of land birds is pretty low - lots of White-breasted
Woodswallows, Welcome Swallows, Singing Honeyeaters, Kestrels and Ospreys.
Saw a few of the
Black and WHite fairy wrens, along with several Spinifex birds and a couple
of Spotted Harriers. THere was more variety among the sea birds, though my
IDing of
most of them would be pretty dodgy.Oher wildlife of interest included stacks of Green Turtles nesting and
mating on the beaches, a fair few Perenties and a Brown
Snake. The Kimberley The Broome Bird Observatory is the most reliable place I know to see Australian Snubfin Dolphins (a recent split from the Irrawaddy Dolphin) . They are seen just about every day around high tide. Ask at the observatory for directions to the one tree lookout over the estuary. Agile Wallabies are quite common in the scrub around Broome and Northern Nailtail Wallabies are here too, though less easy to see. The Gibb River Road runs from Derby up into the Kimberley proper. Mount Hart station, a few hours north of Derby, is a lovely place to stop. They've occasionally seen Golden-backed Tree Rats in their garden. I didn't
see
any, despite spending 8 hours spotlighting for
them. In 2004
there were what I think were probably a small group of Kimberley Cave Bats (and perhaps Northern Cave Bats) roosting
in a shed during the night though, and Black-flying Foxes and Sugar Gliders were
common around the orchard with Northern Nailtails and Agile Wallabies around the
airstrip and what was probably a Western Chestnut Mouse along the creek. I stopped again here on a surprisingly cold night in August 2005 but didn't see a great deal of wildlife. Bachsten's Creek is a pretty spot, and there's a safari camp there with In August 2005 I finally made it to the Mitchell Plateau. Mammals were fairly thin on the ground during my 3 hours spotlighting along the track from the campsite to Little Merten's falls and around that falls area. But its quality not quantity ... I got crippling views of a Golden-Backed Tree Rat just 400 metres from camp (about half way between camp and the first falls). It was feeding in a small tree just off the trail and obligingly froze in the spotlight for 10 minutes. A spectacular beast and one, I think, I was pretty lucky to see there. Didn't see a great deal else that night other than a Monjon near Merten Falls. Narbaleks have been reported from here too.
The next day I did a recce for good Scaly-tail Possum sites and after advice from Jiri Lochman decided to focus on the stretch of vine thicket/rain forest, a little more than half way along the trail to the falls. I arrived at dusk and walked the few hundred metres of most productive looking habitat every 45 minutes. On my 5th transect, at 10.30 or so, I saw a Scaly-tail right in the middle of the rainforest. Brief but excellent views of it as it shimmied down a tree and wandered off into the rocks. Jiri suggested that these possums are pretty secretive and tend not to emerge until well after dark so this late sighting helps confirm that theory. My second night was much warmer and there was a good deal more mammalian activity. On the walk in, and subsequent spotlighting, I saw 6 Northern Quolls! though some might have been the same animal, a probable Kimberley Rock Rat, Black Flying Foxes and what appeared to be a Rock Ringtail - a brief glimpse as it was bolting down a tree near Little Merten's (it could have been another scaly-tail). There was a Monjon at Little Merten's the next morning. And the scenery isn't bad either...
After I left the Mitchell Plateau I stopped at the Australian Wildlife Conservancy's fabulous Mornington
Station on the way back to Broome for 2 nights. Steve Murphy - one of the
managers - had been good enough to ask me along to the fauna survey they
were running. They caught a decent haul of mammals: Western Chestnut Mice, Pale Field Rats, Delicate Mice, Common Rock Rats and Common Planigales and
- on my second morning - the Long-tailed Planigale I was hoping for. They'd
Long-haired Rats (Plague Rats) irrupt occasionally in inland Australia but otherwise are quite difficult to find. A small population is permanently established near Kununurra. I saw one in the cane fields near town: head out of town on Ivanhoe Road, take a right onto research station road and then bear left at the Y junction at the end of the road and look in the cane fields around there. I haven't been to the Kimberley Coastal Camp. It is expensive but reputedly good for mammals like Northern Quoll and Ningbing Pseudantechinus. Other People's Trip Reports Around the World (Australia), 2004: Richard Webb, 6 weeks. |
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