From the desk of Bronte, Regional Ecologist. 

Rain or shine, wildlife monitoring never stops!  

Our Regional Ecologist, Bronte, and school-based Aboriginal Trainee Steven, along with a team of amazing volunteers have been spotlighting for western ringtail possums over the past week at Lake Pleasant View, North Sister and South Sister Nature Reserve.  

Armed with spotlights, beanies, and rain jackets they were lucky enough to spot 25 western ringtail possums and 4 brushtail possums over three nights. This is the 14th season of spotlighting in just over three years. South Coast NRM is using this data to examine changes in western ringtail possum activity following fox and cat control delivered by our partner, the Department of Biodiversity Conservation and Attractions.

If spotting 29 possums wasn’t exciting enough, the team saw bonus wildlife including a tawny frogmouth and perhaps best of all, an echidna! 

This work is proudly supported by South Coast NRM through funding from the Australian Government’s National Landcare Program.

For more information, contact Bronte Van Helden, Regional Ecologist, South Coast NRM (e) brontev@southcoastnrm.com.au (p) 9845 8537. To read more about Ballogup/ Lake Pleasant View and western ringtail possum monitoring, head to our previous posts.