Surveillance device captures 'unexpected' find on six-million-hectare outback farm
During the day you won't see anything but tumbleweeds, cattle and dingoes. But when the sun goes down the landscape becomes magical.
Acoustic and visual surveillance devices at a six-million-hectare farm have picked up signs of something incredible. During the day, the only signs of life on the western Queensland property are wandering cattle, the odd dingo, and tumbleweeds, and there’s little indication it’s home to a thriving tapestry of rare and unusual tiny creatures.
“It's pretty flat. It looks desolate when you're out there. But as soon as the sun goes down, the place comes to life,” Hayden de Villiers a field ecologist with Australian Wildlife Conservancy (AWC) explained to Yahoo News.
Traditional monitoring of the outback landscape had been a challenge because most native animals are afraid of humans. “Walking through the property, animals will take notice of you. They’re usually fairly skittish, and they'll take off,” de Villiers said.
But the 60 electronic monitoring systems don't have the problem of frightening wildlife away. And they are protected from livestock by tall fences, and powered by solar panels which can collect data for months. “They’ll continuously run until the SD card fills up,” de Villiers said.
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Tiny predator found to be 'unexpectedly' thriving
Data has only been downloaded from eight of the AWC’s cameras at the North Australian Pastoral Company station. And most of the images captured were of the tumbleweeds that have been dominating the landscape during the dry season.
But excitingly, they’ve also snapped small nocturnal predators with large upright ears, known as Kowari.
"There seems to be a healthy population of them, which was unexpected," de Villiers said. "That's been the highlight so far, but as we continue to search for more creatures out there, it'll probably get even more exciting."
Small marsupial bilbies have also been spotted. They once occupied most of semi-arid Australia, but foxes and cats have picked them off, and livestock has eroded its habitat, meaning it has been obliterated from 80 per cent of its former range.
Researchers now searching for elusive bird
AWC CEO Tim Allard said with 44 per cent of Australia covered by pastoral land, working with leaseholders is key to securing the future of Australia’s threatened wildlife. "Assessing the extant conservation values of NAPCo’s properties is first priority of the partnership as this data will enable us to assess the benefits of different land management options for biodiversity," he said.
The pilot survey began in May 2023, but it’s only now that the data is beginning to be analysed. By using AI, researchers were able to quickly weed out images that didn’t show the rare and endangered species they were searching for.
They hope to also find evidence of the plains wanderer, a shy, ground-based bird that’s endemic to Queensland, NSW, Victoria and South Australia. It's federally listed as critically endangered and estimates suggest between 250 and 1,000 now survive in the wild.
While it's wildlife that AWC is working to monitor, they have also made some disturbing finds. Invasive cats were photographed occupying the nests of raptors that live along the creek line, highlighting the need to bring the predators under control.
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