New data is in for Cherry Gardens bushfire threatened species
Threatened species monitoring is underway following the January 2021 Cherry Gardens bushfire. Now we need your help to find our endangered animals from hundreds of thousands of images that have been captured.
Seventy motion detection cameras have been in place for around 2 months now, capturing all sorts of activity in Scott Creek Conservation Park and Mt Bold Reservoir. This will be our first look at how the landscape is recovering, and how these threatened species are responding as the vegetation regrows.
The results will help us understand how these threatened species are using unburnt areas, and how they are responding as the vegetation regrows.
Images are currently being uploaded to DigiVol, where you can log in and help identify threatened species such as the endangered southern brown bandicoot and Mt Lofty Ranges subspecies of the chestnut-rumped heathwren.
With your help, scientists will uncover how threatened species are responding, 10 to 12 months after such a significant fire event, as well as increase their understanding of how these animals use any unburnt locations in the area.
The best habitat for these species is in areas that have burnt in the last 5 to 25 years. Some heathy habitats around Mount Bold and Scott Creek haven’t burnt for a long time so they’re getting to the point that they no longer provide suitable homes for these threatened species. That’s why we’ll take what we can learn from the recent fire to help provide a balanced approach to planning future fire management activities in the landscape.
To build our knowledge on the behaviour of a range of threatened animals, data will continue to be collected through annual surveys so we can better manage them, including for future prescribed burns in this area as well as similar vegetation types elsewhere in the Mount Lofty Ranges where these species live.
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