Volunteers needed to help threatened species recover from Cherry Gardens bushfire
South Australia’s National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) are calling for volunteers to help identify endangered animals captured in images taken from recovering Cherry Gardens bushland using motion sensing cameras.
National Parks and Wildlife Service Manager of Threatened Species, Jason Higham, said seventy motion detection cameras were installed to monitor threatened species following the January 2021 Cherry Gardens bushfire.
“After two months, the cameras had captured all sorts of wildlife activity in Scott Creek Conservation Park and the Mt Bold Reservoir,” Mr Higham said.
“This survey is our first detailed, evidence-based look at how the landscape is recovering.
“The results will help us understand how these threatened species are using unburnt areas, and how they are responding as the vegetation regrows.
“Images captured have been uploaded to the DigiVol website, and we’re hoping community members will log-in and help with the important task of identifying local threatened species.
“Species of interest include the endangered Southern Brown Bandicoot and the endangered Mt Lofty Ranges subspecies of the Chestnut-rumped Heathwren.
“This is the first phase of a multi-year project which will see NPWS collect data through annual surveys to help gain information about the survival and recolonisation of priority threatened animals associated with these habitats.
“Information gathered will provide our ecologists with vital information about habitat recovery and inform the planning of future management in the area including fire management and prescribed burning.
“Some habitats in this area haven’t been burnt for a long time and are getting to the point that they no longer provide suitable habitat for these species, so a balanced approach is needed when planning future fire management activities in the landscape.”
Volunteers can join the endangered animal expedition at DigiVol, a crowdsourced digitisation platform developed by the Australian Museum in collaboration with the Atlas of Living Australia.
