GPS collaring for our second trial

At our second trial site on the eastern side of the Hunters Hills we successfully collared 15 wallabies. These were captured using ground set nets with help from an experienced trapper who had previously captured wallabies for live export. Corrie set about 140 nets on runs under fences in pasture, scrub, and remnant forest areas. We ended up with a mix of females and males unlike in the first trial where all wallabies were males and captured at high elevations. We can now monitor these wallabies on the web via the LoRa wireless system.

In this trial on the approval from our Animal Ethics Committee, we anaesthetised about 50% of the animals that were collared to compare the welfare of them to those that were not anaesthetised.

At the same time as Corrie was setting nets we set up trail cameras as an additional detection method to see if these are better for wallaby detection that thermal imaging or dogs, particularly in denser forest which is more common in this trial site.

We will carry out the aerial survey this week and the dog survey will be carried out immediately after.