Camera Trapping-Hidden Cameras Reveal Secret Wheatbelt Wildlife
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An echidna wanders in front of a hidden camera and stops to drink from a puddle. The scene is nothing dramatic, but what happens next provides the first such footage taken in the WA Wheatbelt. A second echidna follows the first, then a second, third, fourth and fifth to create an “echidna train” as they follow the scent of a female. The short film clip, captured at the Korrelocking Township Reserve, has now been posted on You Tube and has had more than a thousand hits, generating plenty of interest amongst wildlife enthusiasts. Private landholders, keen to know what’s hiding on their Wheatbelt properties, are filming scenes like these.
Helping to coordinate some of the 50 or so camera traps in the region is WWF – Australia’s Mike Griffiths. “Camera traps are similar to security lights in that they are triggered by moving, warm objects,” he said. “Some cost less than $300 and can take up to one minute of video footage. “They’ve been used in the Wheatbelt for a few years, but have really taken off in the last 12 months or so.”
Avon's Most Wanted
To view the most wanted animals in the Avon River Basin click here
Arid Bronze Azure Butterfly (Orgyris subterrestris)
Chuditch (Dasyurus geoffroii)
Heath Rat (Pseudomys shortridgei)
Malleefowl (Leipoa ocellata)
Western Spiny-tailed Skink (Egernia stokesii badia)
Tree-stem Trapdoor Spider (Aganippe castellum)
Woma Python (Aspidites ramsayi)
Yorkrakine Trapdoor Spider (Kwonkan eboracum)
Recent photo from Wubin Oct 2010
Credit: Alan Southcott
