Koalas Are Not Cute And Cuddly

By: Oakleigh Wilson

Koalas are not cute and cuddly. Although they might look like it from a distance, up close and personal with a koala, they alternate between rumbling like a behemoth and high-pitched screaming like a flock of birds. Their claws, built to pierce tree trunks, easily slice through thick canvas, through Ben’s pants, through Ben’s boots, through Ben’s flesh - Ben, 8m up a tree, dangling by a rope, trying not to drop the koala, yelps. And that’s if you can even find the koalas at all. They’re really, really, really hard to find.

Sean grabbing Jack out of his tree. Jack quite angry about it.

Koalas, one of Australia’s most beloved and iconic species, are going extinct. Surveys estimate there could be as few as 32,000 remaining in the wild, and as of February 2022 they were officially reclassified as endangered. Most of their population decline is caused by ground-based threats such as car strikes and dog attacks, so to save the koala, conservation efforts could benefit from focusing on this specific period. While lots of amazing research has been done on koala movement, up until now we’ve lacked the technology to undertake really fine-scale analyses. That’s where my honours came in: To combine GPS with fine-scale movement detecting devices called accelerometers, allowing us to determine every behaviour the koala did while wearing it.

While simple enough on paper, this honours took me on a ride into the world of big-data, machine learning, and all kinds of fun. Although it could be frustrating waiting for the poor old computer to crunch the numbers (one week, I got so fed up, I automated everything and went on a three day hike… after which I came back to the office and found it still processing. Hmm.) working with the data from this technology was a hugely exciting and fulfilling experience that made me eager to pursue more data-based research in future. I also massively enjoyed the fieldwork component with our team, the Hidden Vale biologists, and the koala experts Bill, Sean, and Ben, whose research is excellent, but fire-side banter is even better.

Overall, there were the usual challenges and tribulations as with any project, but I was blessed with a project that I was excited by enough to spend countless hours researching obscure analysis methods for. Most of all I am exceptionally lucky to have been a part of the Wilson lab culture, and to have had so many people help me with fieldwork and analysis, yes, but having a good laugh and making the long office hours go fast. 

Ben, Bill, Terrence (the koala), Sean, Ami, and myself.

Isolation: the Northern Quoll way

By Jessica Latimer

If someone asked me to sum up my Honours experience in one word, I’d tell them, that’s an impossible task. My Honours year was full of highs and lows, but whose Honours year isn’t? I learnt so many new skills, particularly in the lab, since my project was in the field of conservation genetics focusing on the Northern Quoll population (Dasyurus hallucatus) of Groote Eylandt.

Back during my 2018 trip to Groote Eylandt. I am collecting data after finding a quoll in the trap one morning.

Groote Eylandt is one of the last safe havens for the endangered species, remaining free from the main causes of their decline (eg. cane toads). Whilst this island population is high in density compared to that of other populations, we didn’t know if translates to the population having a high genetic diversity. Genetic diversity is needed to ensure the population can adapt in the future and avoid inbreeding; in other words, it’s vital for survival. Island populations, however, are at increased risk of losing genetic diversity, especially if the population fluctuates in density.

A quoll from my first trip to Groote Eylandt in 2018. If you look closely you can see the ear clip we took for DNA analysis.

This island population was recorded by the Wilson Lab to almost halve in density between 2012 and 2016, followed by a sharp increase in 2017 and 2018. These large fluctuations had the potential to cause a drop in genetic diversity which could be disastrous for this precious island population. Therefore, the main aim of my Honours was to assess if genetic diversity, for this particular Northern Quoll’s island population, declined over these years.

To test my hypothesis, I spent many hours in the lab with Nat (thank you, you absolute legend!) and Mather (the genetics whiz who we could not have done this without), extracting DNA from tissues, then running polymerase chain reactions (PCR) to amplify the DNA. I then had to ‘score’ the microsatellites (fancy term for the DNA data) we got back from the sequencing company. After what felt like years in front of a computer screen, along came COVID-19 to shake things up. We had to forget about the DNA data for the babies, but I was lucky to finish all 794 adults before the uni was shut down.

Nat (foreground) and myself (background) trying to smile our way through lab work while blocking the horrible sounds of a machine we had to use (Photo credit: Nat Freeman)

Now bound to my share house with two fellow uni students, I worked on analysing the microsatellite data. I can tell you that my roommates are now very well educated on Northern Quolls!

Now for the exciting part – what did I find? Spoiler alert, it’s all good news!

I found that the genetic diversity of the Groote Eylandt Northern Quoll population did not change over time, despite the massive decline in density (another mystery to solve!). All other genetic parameters I tested came back positive too, - for instance, there was no signs of inbreeding and their effective population size was high – yay!

In this case, the isolation of an island has been advantageous, acting as a refuge from the threats faced on the mainland. As a result, this population may be a vital insurance policy against future declines, potentially providing a source of individuals for future translocations programs should the need ever arise.

Me releasing a quoll during my trip to Groote Eylandt in Oct 2019. Since I didn't get to do my own fieldwork I got to help Kaylah!

To spot a possum, you must become the possum

By Ehlana Davidson

It was a rough five months as I became fully nocturnal in the pursuit of the question: what affects the road mortality rate of ringtail possums in an urban environment? To answer this, I would head out just before dawn every 3 days to start the 1.5 hour trip around every single street in a 2.25 km2 area of St Lucia and Taringa in the hope of finding a road-killed possum that I could take back to the lab. Between when I started in mid-October 2019 and when I finished at the start of March 2020 I collected 20 dead possums.

My study area; man it’s big.

I didn’t just collect dead possums though - I also counted cars to estimate the vehicle density, counted live possums to estimate population density and convinced my friends and family to let me record their speed as they drove through sections the study area. Of course, all this data collection was completed at night because in order to spot the possums you must become one. I mean… Look at these cuties that I spotted along my transects, I love babies!

The first night of possum spotlighting in October (left) and the last night of spotlighting with Nellie Pease in March (right).

Between October 2019 and March 2020, with the help of my amazing team of volunteers, I counted approximately 4900 cars on 48 roads and more than 750 live possums on 12 transects. Of course this didn’t happen all at once, I spent 16 nights counting cars and 18 nights running around the neighbourhood equipped with click-counters and super bright head-torches to spotlight possums. These nights were the best bit by far, because I got to hang out with my friends and walk around looking for these cute little guys all in the name of science!

After finally finishing my field work I began the long process of reverting my sleep schedule back to hours normally kept by humans (and not possums). I was so excited to return to the office and properly start writing my thesis but after only being back for a very short week we were all told to work from home as UQ closed down for COVID-19. What a bummer.

Writing was a challenge because I was locked in my house with my family who were all trying to work from home too. Also my dog Jessie was a huge distraction because she was almost always doing something cute and if no one paid attention to her, she’d get grouchy. But despite the distractions and inconveniences of meetings over Zoom or Facetime, I finished my thesis right on time and successfully presented it! Now it's on to re-writing it for publication and preparing to attend the ESA conference in November.

< Jessie after she dramatically shredded a toy all over the living room rug.

And the Endeavour Research Leadership Award goes to Carmen da Silva!

Our very own Carmen da Silva was awarded a 2019 Endeavour Research Leadership Award last week. Her research will be in collaboration with The University of the South Pacific in Fiji later this year. Below is a little about what she will be up to when “working” in tropical paradise!

Thermal adaptation in Fijian highland bees.

By Carmen da Silva

I will lead a collaborative project that will investigate how Fijian bees will respond to climate change. Bees are the most important group of animal pollinators due to their diversity and ability to pollinate a wide range of plant species. Twenty-two endemic species have recently been discovered in the Fijian highlands at elevations higher than 800 m above sea level (asl) on distinct mountain peaks. The highest mountains in the region are only 1100 m asl, and therefore highland species will have a limited capacity to escape to higher elevations with further climate warming. Therefore, species must adapt with climate change or go extinct. Previous studies from the Schwarz lab (Flinders University) show that these recently discovered species are closely related and live within particular altitudinal bands, which experience different thermal environments. I aim to assess the thermal tolerance of bee species that live at different altitudes and predict their capacity to adapt with climate change using recently collected phylogenetic data. In addition, highland villages are dependent on bees for crop pollination and declines in native bee populations will significantly reduce crop yields. I will engage local communities to participate in a citizen science project that will promote endemic pollinator conservation, and collect data on native bee distributions. The University of the South Pacific (USP) is the best institution to host studies on adaptation of pollinators to climate change in the South Pacific due to ongoing assessments of flora vulnerability by Marika Tuiwawa (Herbarium Curator) and Dr. Stephen Galvin (climate biogeography). USP is the key university in the South West Pacific (SWP) and provides education and research to other countries in the region. Nations in the SWP are highly concerned about the impacts of climate change on ecosystem function and local economies.

Bad weather, blue-tongues and baby quolls - it's the start of a new year on Groote!

By Miranda Rew-Duffy

This trip was my fourth to Groote Eylandt but my first time during the wet season, and the humidity and temperatures lived up to all expectations. The Natalie-Miranda team got off to a strong start, managing to get off the plane in the afternoon and have a grid of traps set by sundown the same day. 

Getting up early pays off when you get views like this! Heading out early to check traps on the Gorge grid.

We had plenty of quolls the next morning and I got my first taste of measuring. Before this trip I mainly did performance with the quolls and left Natalie to do all the morphological measurements, but seeing as all we had to do this trip was get DNA samples and body measurements it was time for me learn some new skills! Happy to say my first two days of measuring went well with only one escapee in the lab (who was quickly caught again) and no quoll bites. It was all going too well….

On our third night we were woken to the sound of heavy wind and pouring rain – my first tropical storm on Groote. We had only set our traps a few hours beforehand but neither Nat or I could sleep at the thought of our quolls stuck in traps during the storm (even though we do our best to put our traps in secure and dry places). At 12am we headed out with head torches and closed all our traps, thankfully only a couple of quolls had actually been in a trap and they were released unharmed. In one of our last traps for the night we found a blue tongue lizard AND a quoll! Both were released unharmed – but it was one crazy night and to this day we still can’t think of how a lizard and a quoll ended up in a trap together.

The tropical storm that came out of nowhere!

That was the start of our record number of blue tongue lizard sightings. In total we must have seen about 20 blue tongue lizards, both in and out of our traps. And while it was great to see such a healthy population it became a bit frustrating when they were taking up our traps instead of quolls each morning.

Some of the beautiful (and sometimes angry) blue tongue lizards - they must like Chum too!

In comparison to last year, this year has been a much drier wet season, and there was a decrease in quolls captured in our traps. A lot of our second and third year females were missing but I was extremely happy to be reunited with one of my favourite ‘old girls’ Storm. Storm has reached granny status within our population and was the only four year old female caught this season. Typically, only around 30% of female quolls survive to their second year, so she really has beaten the odds living to four! She does seem to have gotten a little grumpier in her old age though, and was not happy getting her photo taken.

Storm and I in 2017 (2nd year female) vs. 2019 (4th year female)!

Re-organising the lab equipment with the help of a forklift - thanks Bro!

The Andrew-Andrew team (better known as Chopper and Bushy) were also up on Groote, and after a week we decided they were having too many sleep ins so we put them to work when we could. We had them hauling out traps, conducting habitat assessments and tidying up our lab equipment - thanks guys! There was also some time for fishing and the boys brought us home plenty of delicious fish; fish curry was a staple dinner this trip. 

A big congratulations are in order for Natalie, who at the end of this trip has officially finished ALL her data collection for her PhD. We managed to fit in some last site-seeing and outings to celebrate the end of over 2.5 years of fieldwork, and of course we had to have one last logistics meeting by the pool.

Some time on the tinny, and meetings in the pool (Miranda, Bushy, Natalie and Chopper)

Some final quoll selfies were taken the last morning and we both agreed that these feisty little marsupials really are one of the best creatures to work with. In times to come we’ll miss our time catching, measuring and recording performance with them (even if we said we didn’t want to touch ANOTHER quoll some days). I reflect back to my first trip up almost two years ago, and how I jokingly said it would be really cool to have a scar from a quoll…. Yep I am nuts, but amazingly I got my scar thanks to a well-aimed quoll bite on my shin, along with a lot of other crazy and memorable stories that will be great to tell around a fire one day. 

The Anindilyakwa Rangers hit Bris-Vegas!

The Rangers visited Brisbane to see how the science continues when off Groote Eylandt.  We also discussed some findings and potential directions of future ecological and manganese research - in particular what the Rangers felt was important for their country and people.

Photo: Skye Cameron, Catherine Mamarika, Robbie Wilson, Jocelyn Yantarrgna & Cassandra Mamarika having a coffee break.

Whilst visiting the Central Analytical Research Facility at QUT, the Rangers were shown how the animal and human hair samples from Groote are analysed with cutting-edge laser technology and scanning helium ion microscopy.

Photo: Left, Charlotte Allen (back right) explaining how scanning helium ion microscopy works on human and animal hair on Groote, to Jocelyn Yantarrgna, Catherine Mamarika, Cassandra Mamarika & Gwendolyn David.

An interesting side visit to the Palaeontology research lab at UQ allowed the Rangers to see dinosaur footprints from Broome, WA and fossils from around Australia.

Photo: Catherine Mamarika, Steve Salisbury, Cassandra Mamarika & Jocelyn Yantarrgna in the Archaeology research lab at UQ.

The visit to Brisbane also involved some fun – with excursions to the Botanical Gardens and Noosa Headlands National Park. 

Photo: Cassandra Mamarika, Catherine Mamarika, Andrew Hunter & Jocelyn Yantarrgna strolling through the Brisbane Botanical Gardens.

Photo: Cassandra Mamarika, Catherine Mamarika, Jocelyn Yantarrgna & Gwendolyn David on the excursion to Noosa Headland National Park.

Photo: The beach at Tea Tree Bay, Noosa Headland National Park.

It’s raining quolls: The 2018 wrap-up!

By Natalie Freeman

Data for the northern quoll project on Groote Eylandt has ended for 2018 and while I may be biased, I’d say it was a smashing success.

Quick overnight escape for some RnR to Wayne’s World AKA Jagged Head

Our marked population is up 30% from 2017, with a whopping 182 individually-identified quolls trapped from February - October. To put this in perspective, literature on the mainland has northern quoll densities around 3-4 individuals per km2, Groote is estimated to be sitting at 142 quolls/km2 within our long term study site for 2018 (data still to be analysed). These overwhelming densities can be largely attributed to the lack of cane toads on Groote Eylandt, along with traditional benign indigenous fire regimes and low feral cat densities. Getting to study this booming northern quoll population (and possibly healthiest population in Australia) is all thanks to the Anindilyakwa Land Council(ALC), Anindilyakwa Land and Sea Rangers, and Traditional Owners of the Groote Archipelago who have allowed our nerdy Wilson Performance Lab to come & research these wonderful creatures on Groote Eylandt for the past 8 years. 

The annual trap repair & grease ; A breath of fresh air through a rip in the bag for this quoll

Feb 2017 & Oct 2018—Same shit-eating grin throughout my PhD

With the help of Miranda and Kaylah, we collected DNA samples from 472 joeys that will help answer my PhD question of personality affecting reproductive success for both sexes. The females will soon be putting their joeys in the den for safe keeping, and will wean them by February 2019. A good chunk of my 2019 will be spent genotyping over 2000 individuals from the past few years, and my memories of sunshine on Groote will keep me from withering away under the fluorescent lights of the lab. 

Timeline of joey growth: a few days old in mid August (far left) to approximately 5 weeks old (middle) to spots just developing by early October - joeys will be denned in the next few weeks (late October).

See one, do one, teach one: Miranda and Kaylah (middle & right) learning how to collect joey DNA samples

I am more than overjoyed to announce the giving-up density trials I was conducting over the past 2 years for quoll personality have also ended. With the help of almost everyone in the Wilson lab, we hauled over 6100kg of camera equipment through the bush for my PhD. And here I thought in 2016 “Oh ya, chuck some trail-cams up, and boom! Your first chapter on foraging personality is pretty low on energy input”. With each infrared camera setup being approximately 9kg… my Groote bootcamp of trudging through the bush has our lab in tiptop physical shape with some fine-looking legs & bums as a byproduct. 

Backpacks loaded and an early start to beat the heat (left) and celebratory bakery treats to keep energy up from Grooty Eylandt Bakery (right).

The NQ team did get to sneak away for some cheeky golf and  beach visits this trip, along with the occasional sunset drink at the resort to wind down after a long day

And like these quoll footprints in the sand, the UQ Northern Quoll research team have waltzed off into the sunset back to Brisbane for the remainder of 2018. With our annual lab retreat just around the corner, brainstorming for our 2019 year on Groote will soon be in full swing (with a beer in hand of course!)

My anaconda don’t unless you got bogged hun?

By Carmen Da Silva

I’ve departed from the Wilson Lab for the Northern Hemisphere summer. Little did I know that Arizona summer is the equivalent of winter. A stifling 45°C is a normal day here in Tempe, and like winter you often don’t find too many people strolling around during the day. This crazy environment does, however, seem like it should be a good location to continue my pursuit to better understand thermal performance in animals and it is the home of Professor Michael Angilletta whose lab I am visiting and expertise I am seeking!

My first task here has been to learn how to do climate envelope modelling. Jake (PhD student in Mikes lab) and I figured out how to run generalized additive models, machine learning (decision tree) models and how to use MaxEnt to predict how thermal generalists will respond to climate change. I’ve applied these models to intertidal fish and we are writing a cool paper on how thermal generalists will respond to climate change.

Mike was kind enough to take us on a lab adventure to see some of the amazing desert sites while we (a French student named Sam and myself) visited. Driving through the desert was pretty incredible, giant cacti everywhere and bare mountains popping out of the ground all over the place. When we arrived at the campsite (just over the Utah border) we were disappointed to find many RVs enjoying the beautiful lake with crazy rock formations coming out of it. We decided to get further away from the crowd and find a more relaxed setting. As we drove further the road turned into a dirt path, this was fine, we were all up for an adventure. But then it turned to sand. We were in a small Hyundai sedan. Uh oh. The sand got deeper. We found a slightly firm spot and deliberated what to do. It seemed unwise to go further into potentially deeper sand – but it also seemed difficult to go back up hill in deep sand. We decided to take everything out of the car to make it as light as possible and set up camp where we were as it was a bit further away from everyone else, and then tried to drive out. Mike drove up the sand hill in his Hyundia as fast as possible, he made it all the way to the top, we were all cheering – but then he got bogged. Oh no. Time to push

the car down the hill. We looked around trying to find hard ground, but we were out of luck. Things were looking bad. The ground was harder down by the water, but the expanse between us and the water was completely torn up deep sand. I was walking down to the water trying to find an escape path for us, when I heard a “Fuck it, get out of the car Jake, I’m going for it”, I hadn’t quite registered what was happening until I heard a yell “Caarrrmmenn!!” Jake was yelling at me because Mike and his Hyundai were coming at me at full speed bouncing around like crazy through the sand. I ran to the side and the Hyundai flew past. The car stopped. Mike came out of the car and two fists went up into the air and we all cheered – we wouldn’t waste away and die in the desert sun!!

The camping extravaganzas didn’t stop there. Once we decided to go to sleep many people in large trucks kept driving past us to get to a more remote site around 2am. As our tents stuck out like sore thumbs (since we were randomly perched in the middle of the sand bank) one truck decided to come and investigate us at about 3am. We were not aware of the truck until it drove literally and I mean literally 10cm away from Sam’s tent and on FULL volume blasted “MY ANACONDA DON’T, MY ANACONDA DON’T, MY ANACONDA DON’T WANT NONE UNLESS YOU GOT BUNS HUN”!! As you can imagine we all woke with a start, but no altercations were made with the truck full of red necks. I’ll tuck that encounter away as a cultural experience.

The rest of the trip was much less eventful, but more enjoyable. We made it to Horseshoe bend, part of the Grand Canyon, an extremely expensive frozen yoghurt store for Jake to do some marking in Wifi and we went to a place called Flagstaff which is forested and elevated so it was shady and cool – a lovely reprieve where we could relax and go on some hikes.

Once we got back to Tempe it was time to do some work again. We are currently running a thermal performance and oxygen limitation experiment with grasshoppers. Putting my hand into a small box full of jumping insects initially seemed like my worst nightmare – and I consequently did have a dream a couple days later of having to put my hand into a small box full of cockroaches – but it’s actually not so bad holding the hoppers and I have ended up becoming quite fond of them. Plus, we get to use this cool machine where we get to put our hands in giant gloves and feel like we are working in outer space (to put the hoppers into a hypoxic environment).

I’ve only got one week left in Tempe before heading to Montpellier France for the Evolution conference. I’ve ended up learning a lot on this trip so far and I feel like I have also re-gained some motivation and enthusiasm to help me finish off the final leg of my PhD. Working in a new environment and doing something new seems like it can be a great way to get re- energized. Hopefully this momentum will help me make a good presentation for the

conference – which I feel like vomiting just thinking about. However, I am very excited to re- unite with my fellow goby boy Josh, my co-supervisor Cynthia and roach boy Jules at the conference!

I’ll let you know if I vomited at the conference or not in a couple weeks. Adios from Tempe!

The "Not-so-Twinsies" conquer Groote!

Hannah and Ellie's first morning out checking traps..... learning the skills on Nat's animals :P

1009 traps and 111 quolls later and we have returned from our 5 weeks of data collection on Groote Eylandt!!!

Hannah looking chuffed at her and Ellie's accomplishment - Construction of the cornering runway!!! 

The trip up there was an adventure in itself, with a flight to Darwin, a quick lunch stop with past lab member Jaime and then a 90 minute flight on a small 30-seater to Groote. We spent the first few days setting up the lab and building the performance structures. It was here that we began acquiring many new skills as handy-women, including taking a whole hour to insert ONE screw with a power drill and nearly sawing off a finger. After 4 seemingly long days as tradies, our structures were fit for quoll performance and we commenced trapping the next night.

We are looking at quoll diet and performance in two habitat types, open sclerophyll and rocky escarpment areas. Every evening we would set out traps at a site, check them the next morning, process the quolls during the day and then release them that evening.

Hannah reading the pit-tag on a quoll in the field - to keep or to let go?

Cheeky northern quoll being inquisitive - or angry you can never know.

Trap hauling was another steep learning curve, holding 6 traps on one shoulder, two more in each hand, GPS for navigation, flagging tape and of course a 1kg tin of chum somehow balanced and ready to bait the traps. Needless to say this didn’t come naturally… especially when something like a shoelace needed tying. Nevertheless, it only took a few falls before we became slightly less uncoordinated and carrying traps became the norm

The impressed face of Ellie crying traps in the field at an open woodlands site.

Hannah trying to tie her shoe lace without having to put down the trap load.

Our sites were beautiful, particularly at sunrise and sunset. We often saw dingoes, frilled lizards and rock wallabies, plus beautiful golden wattle and red grevillea flowers. The beauty of each site made the early mornings and late nights all worth it and we honestly cannot believe how lucky we were to experience such a unique and untouched environment.

Sunsetting from HW6 - one of our rocky trapping sites - quolls from here were names after big cats (Tiger, Lion, Civet, Puma etc etc)!

Hannah checking out some of the sandstone formations that Groote has on offer.

Ellie enjoying the size and grandeur of the termite mounds on island.

Back in the lab we ran the quolls through six performance tests. Up poles, around corners, along straight paths and up and down – it truly was the quoll-ympics. While most were willing, some just wanted no business cooperating which made for some very interesting yoga positions for us, especially when attempting to get them to climb the pole!

The quolls are master escape artists, and when they’ve escaped once there’s a 100% chance it’ll happen again. We once spent 40 minutes trying to coax one out from behind the freezer, while he sat there contently knowing there was no chance we could squeeze into the tight crevice. One of the tests was the ‘firepole’ which involved a quoll climbing a pole and us scaling a ladder to reach them at the top. As a rough estimation, we climbed the ladder 552 times!

Skye and Ellie trying to coax a quoll up the fire-pole. 

Of course, we also managed to squeeze in a camping spot to beautiful Marble Point, to enjoy a campfire on the beach and an incredible starry night sky, and a trip to aboriginal cave paintings.

Cave Paintings - this site is a communal gathering area for all family clans on Groote Eylandt.

Hannah watching the sunrise from our tent - camping at Marble Point (Hanging Rock). This was our first sleep in in 3 weeks - Bliss!

The sunsets on Groote were stunning and we made time to watch as many as possible, either in the field or relaxing on the deck with a cider in hand.

While we didn't make it to many - the few sunsets enjoyed on the deck of the resort we amazing.

And what better way to wind down after a massive day then a chilled cider, sunset, sugar gliders and great company.

There were 5 other fellow lab members on Groote while we were there, and a big shout out goes to Nat and Jess for their delicious vego cooking, Nat and Heather for collecting 95% of Hannah’s insects for her, Nat and Chop for setting up the fire pole and Skye for teaching us how to be expert quoll/trap handlers. The past 5 weeks have been an absolute blast and despite the bites and scratches, we miss the little guys already! Here’s to a whooole lot of data extraction ahead!

We did it! 5 weeks of non-stop field work!! Over 500 traps in total laid, 24 camera stations deployed, 40 pitfall traps set, and 13 habitat surveys done! 

A day in the life of the Wilson Performance Lab on Groote Eylandt, NT.

The GTE Performance team are home after a whirlwind 5 weeks on island - setting over a thousand traps and measuring and testing over 200 northern quolls! The below video is a time lapse of 8 hrs in the Anindilyakwa Land and Sea Rangers wet lab - where we conduct all our lab based research. 

Harnessing the fury of Groote sun

By Nat

The main crux of my PhD is looking to see how personality and performance of an individual affects their vulnerability to predation. 

The first component of my PhD is understanding how an individual’s personality affects their chances of being spotted by a predator. Moving throughout and feeding in conspicuous (read: open) foraging locations is risky business for any quoll, as both of these behaviours greatly increases their odds of being spotted. Some quolls may choose to play it safe, and feed in less risk-prone areas or reduce their foraging time in open patches. Other quolls may throw caution to the wind, and stay out in the open, foraging if the food rewards outweigh the costs. This balance between food intake & amount of acceptable risk varies between individuals, creating a spectrum of quoll personalities. Simply put, some quolls are bolder or shyer than others. I have developed a methodology that allows me to score how bold or shy an individual is, all captured on candid camera out in the bush:

Quolls come and search for pieces of bait hidden within the sand, and my infra-red CCTV cameras film their foraging behaviour. I compare the footage against a photo catalogue of all my quolls I have caught during the year, and with a lot of frustration and time, can individually ID the quolls. By knowing who’s who, I can score how bold they are with regards to their foraging decisions.

Quolls foraging through sand for hidden bait

 

A leopard can’t change its spots; neither does a quoll. Each quoll has a different pattern of spots just like a fingerprint

Each camera is powered by 12volt batteries that weigh 6kg each. Needless to say, setting up & taking down my 20 camera-experiment is back-breaking. To make matters worse, everything needs to be waterproof so these batteries bake in sun in an enclosed box all day, dramatically reducing their charge. My poor volunteers and I were hauling fresh batteries almost every other day through our rocky fieldsite…an OH&S nightmare.

Something smells fishy- making sardine oil to scent the bait; Waterproof battery boxes with a quoll poop garnish; The joys of hauling 6kg batteries once again

Last year, I was extremely lucky enough to receive the Holsworth Wildlife Research Endowment from the Ecological Society of Australia (ESA). This grant allowed me to purchase solar panels for my camera set-up, meaning I didn’t have to replace dying/dead batteries every other day. These solar panels meant I can collect better data (and for longer), dramatically reduce the intensive labour costs of this setup, and as a bonus, decrease my carbon footprint for electricity usage. A trifecta of science gains, all thanks to the ESA and their grants for PhD students. When the Groote sun may cook my brain on a daily basis, at least I’m putting a bit of it’s fury into good use. 

New solar panel set-up, propped up by specimen tubes. Need to be resourceful while conducting research on a remote island

To address the second part of my PhD (ability to escape the predator), I need to understand the locomotive capabilities of the quolls. The long-term aspect of the northern quoll study on Groote Eylandt means I have access to experimental designs that the Wilson lab have perfected over the years, helping us quantify an animal’s locomotive performance. These include max sprint speed, acceleration, and agility-  how fast can an individual run around a corner without crashing. In other words, our quolls perform Olympic feats for us while being filmed by high-speed cameras, so we can attempt to understand their ability to evade a chasing predator. Some quolls go above and beyond our standardized tests, which is visible in the video below. This video goes to show just how nimble & agile quolls are, this Matrix-like move is about 1m from the ground.

video to be added

The 2018 data collection year started off with a bang, Chopper was my lucky volunteer for the first 6 week trip. I think he now has a complete understanding on how different his Groote experiences are than mine… studying humans can have perks (like a 9-4pm workday). We averaged 13hours days every day and trapped an astounding total of 104 quolls within our 128 hectare field site, a 25% increase in population from last year. 

 

The fun never stops: hauling traps back out into the grids

Chop catching us much needed protein

Quite a few evenings finished in the last rays of sunlight

One perk of battery hauling: it makes that booty round

Crazy weather plagued this trip, Cyclone Marcus shut down trapping for almost a week, and our trip was rudely cut short by Cyclone Nora. We flew off island shortly before the rains & wind ramped up. The trip was overall a smashing success, and a great start to 2018 on Groote. The May trip will have 7 Wilson Lab hooligans descending onto the island, so stay tuned for those shenanigans. 

Moody skies before the cyclone

Wonders of nature: a flashy moth and 3 bandicoot joeys whose eyes are just beginning to open

Update from Bec in the USA: new year, new job, new papers!

I am pretty dang happy to be able to say that as of the 25th of January, I officially became "Dr Bec". This would obviously not have been even remotely possible without my fantastic support network - my advisors, the lab, my collaborators, my students and volunteers, my family, and a whole lot of 80s rock star buff-footed antechinus - thank you, from the bottom of my overjoyed, geeky heart.

Thanks lil guys!

I've been lucky enough to score a postdoc with Robbie, so I get to stick around in the Wilson lab for another year! For my postdoc, I'm building a mathematical model to predict prey escape success against predators in different kinds of habitats. The end goal of this model is to predict how well different native marsupials (such as northern quolls and brown bandicoots) can escape from mammalian predators (like cats and dingoes) in different kinds of habitats, using data my lab mates are collecting on Groote Eylandt. This will allow us to predict what kinds of habitats are best for native mammals, which will hopefully have some conservation implications. I also function as the Wilson lab's go-to stats person, and am running a bunch of the statistics for our human health project.

Tempe, clockwise from top left – wall of awesome at King’s Coffee (as everyone knows coffee is a key element of research); cycling on a sunny afternoon; nap time with Mylo the gangsta cat; sunsets and palm trees on the way home

At the moment, I'm back in at Arizona State University in Tempe, working with A/Prof Ted Pavlic to get the generalised version of our predator-prey model finished and written up. Things are progressing very nicely, and as always, it’s been an amazing experience and I've learned a lot!

I also attended a Gordon Research Conference on Predator-Prey Interactions in Ventura, California at the start of the month. This conference was absolutely amazing - I learned so many new things, got a ton of new ideas, and met some awesome people doing freakin' awesome research. Though I can't share any pictures (GRCs focus on presenting research that's right at the cutting edge of the field, so most of it is unpublished), I would absolutely recommend these conferences, as they are fantastic for networking and gaining a broader insight into your own field.

Whale watching in the Santa Barbara channel

Last up, a couple of papers just came out in early view! The second paper from my PhD, titled "Ecological context and the probability of mistakes underlie speed choice" came out recently in Functional Ecology. In it, we show that antechinus choose both how fast and where they move based on their chance of making mistakes - when looking for food and escaping from predators. You can read a plain language summary of the paper here.

Also, a paper I coauthored with Skye, titled "Sex-specific thermal sensitivities of performance and activity in the asian house gecko, Hemidactylus frenatus", came out in the Journal of Comparative Physiology B, and is available to view here. We demonstrate that male geckos have broader thermal performance curves than females across different populations, possibly to allow them to fight competitors and acquire matings more effectively over a wider range of thermal habitats. Go Skye!

An asian house gecko (image courtesy of Wikimedia commons), and a buff-footed antechinus on a (non-experimental) branch

I'm absolutely psyched to be sticking around and continuing my research, and I'm looking forward to the year ahead - which is already off to a great start. All images by Rebecca Wheatley unless otherwise credited.

Wilson Lab Cleans and Consumes together.... Feb 2018

To start the year out right, all the Wilson Lab members came together to do a 'summer' clean out of our work spaces. It was hilarious to see the diversity in what equipment, systems and paraphernalia we had collected over the years due to our lab's eclectic array of research programs: from soccer balls and goals, modified clothes lines for camera calibration, metal race tracks for sprinting crabs and froglets, fish swim ways, pingpong balls for human performance, bird cages, 9 year old beer, castle whiskey stands and the list goes on and on.......

400+ lizard and crayfish containers, 200+ fishtanks, clothes lines turned 3D camera calibration, bird cages, fish nets, koala catching poles, herp funnel traps - What have we not worked on!

Crab and frog racetrack on top of our fish swim way....

So many fish tanks for Mosquito fish and Gobby research - all has come to an end....until next time.

With music blaring (although hard to hear with so many people), a designated job mat to allow Skye to delegate cleaning jobs, catch ups on everyone's research and plans for the weekend we somehow got the lab, field storage unit and student office cleaned up and organised within 2 hrs. Even the microwave and fridges got a clean - Thanks Nat and Gwen!

What a welcome Ellie and Hannah got to the Wilson lab - both ladies just started their Honours on Monday (Bio's and research projects to be posted soon) - and have had a true introduction to what they can expect for their upcoming year.

Lizard equipment, 3D camera setups, security cameras, field camera traps and every imaginable computer cable you can think of!

The final product of the Wilson lab - clean and organised and ready for a jam packed year of data collection, sample analysis, fun times and definitely many more crazy experiments - bring on 2018!

Fun afternoon of everyone pitching in - in true Wilson Lab spirit! Of course we had to all head out and discuss the success over many enjoyable cold beers!

Wilsonites after the we smashed out a massive clean up session: Skye, Gwen, Ellie, Carmen, Andrew, Kaylah, Hannah, Miranda and Nat

Well deserved celebratory beers on campus at St Lucy's

Kaylah getting to enjoy the new clean lab bench space - happily mounting bandicoot hair to glass slides - which are about to undergo a new and exciting laser analysis methods for Mn content at QUT.

AWESOME WORK TEAM - LET'S SEE HOW LONG THE CLEAN LAB CAN LAST :P ........

Australasian Evolution Society Conference 2017, Hobart Tasmania

By Carmen da Silva - PhD candidate

I travelled to Hobart for the Australasian Evolution Society conference at the start of December 2017 with other UQ PhD candidates Iva Popovic, Julian Beaman and Joshua Thia. It was the first non-student conference I have attended and it was great experience learning about what other labs around the country are working on.

Presenting my burst swimming speed performance data showing that Coco’s Frillgoby has the capacity to acclimate and has wide thermal performance curves. 

I presented my first PhD chapters work on environmental thermal variability and how it plays a role in the evolution of thermal acclimation capacity (how plastic an animal is) and thermal performance curve shape (how wide an animal’s thermal tolerance is).

Thermal acclimation theory suggests that when daily thermal fluctuations are smaller than seasonal thermal variations animals will have narrow thermal performance curves and the capacity to acclimate to seasonal conditions. When daily thermal fluctuations are equal to or larger than seasonal variations however, animals are expected to evolve wide thermal performance curves and have no capacity to acclimate. What makes Coco’s Frillgoby exciting is that they live in rock-pool environments where daily thermal variation is equal to seasonal variation but changes in daily thermal means and ranges shift predictably with season, allowing Coco’s Frillgoby to have wide thermal performance curves and the capacity to acclimate.

Joshua Thia also works on Coco’s Frillgoby and presented his work on population connectivity along Australia’s east coast. Iva Popovic presented her work on the transcriptome of an invasive mussel species that is spreading around the world and Julian Beaman presented his work on the allometric scaling relationship of mass and metabolic rate in cockroaches, and tested if metabolic rate is heritable.

Iva Popovic won best student talk at the conference and Julian Beaman won best poster! Well done you guys and go UQ!!

Wineglass bay in Freycinet National Park. 

Julian Beaman (left) and Iva Popovic (right) the AES student poster and presentation winners! So happy and proud for them! 

After the conference, the four of us Queenslanders explored Hobart where of course we couldn’t miss the vagina wall at MONA (Museum of Old and New Art) and we travelled to Freycinet National Park - a beautiful mountainous and coastal region a few hours north of Hobart. We loved it! We will be back Tasmania!! 

Another top finish to Groote field-work for 2017

So much happened for our lab’s field-work stints for the last half of 2017, with multiple co-current teams collecting data - it was busy times on Groote.

Sunrise at Marble

Out trapping - beautiful!

Skye & Kaylah were out-and-about all over the island, setting up funnels baited with yummy dog food to collect hair from passer-by bandicoots & quolls. Doing the hard yards (walking over 600km) & long days the ladies left with plenty of hairy success …… after a few mishaps of course. Tom put his hand up again to re-visit Groote for October, to help out Kaylah in deploying more hair traps…. freeing up Skye to move on to her many mountains of work & adventure.

Hair-trapping at Marble

Bush lights up

Fire 1, Hair trap 0

Nat and her minions, Miranda & Cleme, were busy at it – catching quolls, collecting more performance data in the Ranger lab and, setting up perve-cameras to watch how quolls dig & devour yummy sardine nuggets. With a mighty full schedule, Nat finished up on Groote a little stiff but smiling with oodles of video to analyse about how quolls eat dinner.

Miranda & Nat's 4pm Logistics meeting

Quoll performance once again

Quoll babies growing strong

Chop & Gwen returned to the rock for another round of data collection from the people living in Angurugu & Umbakumba. A couple of weeks into the trip, Ami (ex-quoller) joined the human team to help out with the cognitive & motor skill testing – a very welcomed addition. Also a plus, our Angurugu testing room was upgraded to the recently renovated ALC field office, woohoo! Gwen made an exit after 5 weeks, leaving the Chop-Ami duo to push through to November winning – well done!

Gwen out front the new Angurugu testing room

Chop setting up in Angurugu

Welcoming Ami to the Human team

Robbie & Frank von Hippel (Eco-toxicologist from Arizona) also made an appearance on Groote in October – bringing smarts, support & laughs to the Groote teams. Thanks guys :)

Frank, Robbie & Ami talking all things eco-toxic

The team's way in & out of Groote

A big welcome to MEF, the new car member to the Groote research team. With a bunch of teams needing wheels to collect data, KOB was working overtime & was in high demand. So, Skye & Kaylah had the pleasure of escorting MEF to Darwin where it was then barged over to Groote……of course there was a little sight-seeing a long the way.

Skye & Kaylah en route escorting MEF to Darwin's port.....

...... getting closer....

......with a bit of sightseeing along the way at Edith Falls

There were plenty of the usual shenanigans & happenings: curry sessions, fishing trips, co-ordinated attire, down-pours & camping adventures.

Curry time, dig in!

Co-ordinated attire at work AND home!

A cheeky fish when out with the Rangers

Fun fishing times out with good mates - the weekends can be pretty awesome up here

Chop, after numerous morning let-downs, bought his own Weetbix-specific bowl – a key contributor to how Chop starts the day. The resident Alyangula Flat’s bower bird decorated his bachelor pad with a new white & green theme.

The prized Weetbix-specific bowl - check out his smiley satisfaction

Alyangula Flat's resident bachelor pad

Now mid-November, the Wilsonite Grooters are all happy to be back in Briz-vegas after a fruitful 2017 year to begin devouring the field data & head into the festive season. Top year team!

The wet season begins.....

We're off - the Groote sunset saying goodbye to Skye for 2017

Nightclubs, fights and escape performance: speed and agility save the day (night)

If you’re a gazelle wandering the plains of Africa then what’s gonna save your tasty, hairy arse when a cheetah comes flying at you from the long grass. Assuming that you have some warning – and you see it before it crunches into you – then the most common answer will be speed. Performance biologists are fixated with sprint speed and often use it interchangeably with escape performance. So many biologists will suggest it is speed – and speed alone - that will determine escape from capture. 

Image from Pinterest.com

But I disagree. Escaping (or deathing) will always be decided by a combination of speed, acceleration and agility. After all – almost every predator has a faster top speed than their prey!! There has to be something else to escape than just speed.

I first learned this lesson as a 20 year old back in 1992. Of all the places to discover the importance of escape performance – it was outside a nightclub. So, get comfortable, put on some slippers and pour yourself a goblet of brandy, and let me tell you all about my discoveries…….

For me, it was the usual Saturday night when I was a young buck. My friends and I headed out to the local RSL club (Retired Military Services Club) until about midnight. Having got ourselves suitably joyful on $2 spirits (it was cheap then), we walked down the road to the only nightclub around at the time. I lived in Mona Vale on the northern beaches of Sydney – and the Rocklilly nightclub was the only action around, unless you wanted to catch the bus to Manly (1/2 hr) or the city (1 hr). Apathy meant that was a rarity.

Three hours of fun, loud music, bad dancing and a little bit of YMCA, and it was closing time at the Rocklilly. We were all very intoxicated, but not quite ready to let go of the night. A crowd gathered out on the street. Maybe I was trying to chat up a girl that I had no chance of getting to know better OR maybe I was just trying to act the clown to an audience (any audience) but I heard a scream and then shouting. I turned to see one of my best mates (Chris*) on all fours looking in real trouble. He was about 10 m from me. 

Then I watched some guy line up what could only be described as a very impressive “top-of-the-laces” kick straight into the side of his jaw. Did I really see that? I was a little confused. My first instinct was to run over and help. I was beside him in a flash but was stopped by two strong hands to my chest. 

I didn’t recognise the guy stopping my progress, but I looked him in the eye and pointed to my friend as if to say, “Help me pick up my friend”.

This dude did want to help. But not me!! 

I felt a solid right hook to the cheek – ouch!! I staggered back trying to wrap my thoughts around what was happening. Shit that hurt – was my first insight. The next was an explosion of anger. I sent three punches straight to the guys face and he went down. Wow – my adrenaline just surged.

The immense satisfaction of dealing with this clown completely overwhelmed the realisation that I’d just broken my hand. Again, my instinct was to my friend.

Chris was being lifted up and helped away. Immediate threat dealt with. I turned towards my combatant and he was gone. Adrenaline surged again – “I’m the man”, I’m thinking to myself. I probably wouldn’t have used that phrase in 1992, but maybe I did a little dance in my parachute pants and said “You can’t touch this……”

As I walked over to Chris I saw my rival appear again on the scene. Oh no. This time he had three friends in tow. With a finger clearly pointed in my direction, I heard him say “ Yep – that’s him. Let’s f*ck him up”. I got to admit that there were sphincters in my body that I didn’t even know existed until I felt them all simultaneously contract.

I assessed the situation. Four angry dudes, me, Chris being helped into a taxi, and no other friends around that I could see – I foresaw a situation that wasn’t ideal. 

I turned away from the threat and drifted into a brisk walk. Not necessarily a good idea – but what could I do? Isolated with four guys on my tail – three of them clearly bigger than me – and all wanting to hit me. 

My problems quickly escalated. They all sprinted at me audibly shouting,  “Get him”. 

Feeling like they were in no mood to negotiate, I did the only sensible thing and ran. 

Let’s consider this scenario for one moment. In this predicament, I was clearly the prey. I was smaller, vulnerable and going to be irrevocably altered, if caught. My thoughts were along the lines of faster is always better, so I was hoping my speed was good enough.

When I was 20 I was fast – real fast. But it soon became apparent that so were two of these big fellas in the quartet of pain. I needed to stretch it out and slip into 5th gear. Although they were gaining on me I had a revelation – not a spiritual one – although that could come later. I was damn fit and I was much shorter than my predators - so I changed my escape strategy. 

I began to side-step when they approached, and I ran at different angles. My quick, sharp changes in direction were totally eating up their fitness and these large, cumbersome clowns couldn’t cope with my agile moves. I knew I was going to be safe. 

I learned another thing about myself that night. I was a total smart arse when I knew I had the advantage, so I began taunting my would-be predators. “You know you can’t catch me”!! “You know you’re just big, dumb, and slow”!! “Losers”!! Not smart in hindsight, I know – but it all worked out.

As I rounded the first corner up the road I spotted my final saviour for the evening, a police wagon. Walking up to them calmly, and losing my smart arse swagger, I said “You see those guys over there? They want to beat me up. Would you mind terribly if you gave me a lift home? The policemen looked at me, at the four meatheads and resigned themselves to the situation. They couldn’t leave this little smart arse on the street with these four guys hunting him. So they gestured to me to jump in the back of the wagon. I was safely locked up and they kindly gave me a lift home to Chris’ place. 

Five minutes later, I rolled up in a police wagon feeling quite proud of myself. Not sure why.

I greeted Chris who was laying on the sofa with ice on his head. I grabbed some ice for myself and placed it on my now throbbing hand and joined my friend on the sofa. We exchanged an understanding grunt and began to laugh. It was then I considered the importance of speed and agility for out-running my predators. Thank goodness I had enough of both. 

Needless to say, I stayed away from that nightclub for the next year. Safe move Robbie. Safe move.

And for those of you interested in what caused the initial fight – or in other words, why was Chris attacked. It was all over a girl – of course!!! It seems that an ex-boyfriend did not approve of his old flame moving on to better pastures (i.e. Chris). In any case, Chris and this ‘new’ girlfriend have now been together now for 20+ years, and have three beautiful children together.  How do you like them apples? Ya dickhead……..

*not his real name

Smiles all round Groote – Round 2 for 2017

In May, the Wilsonites returned to a super green Groote Eylandt for a very successful jam-packed data collection trip. Lots of fun was had, and Robbie joined his flock towards the end of  the trip mid-June for some much needed lab bonding.

Heather, Nat & quollies

Freeman sisters returning from the field

Kaylah meeting a new friend

First to arrive was Nat and her 1st volunteer (also her sister, Heather, also Canadian). They hit the bush quolling, already bruised from white-water rafting in Cairns (a submerged log decided to beat up tourist-Heather), they setup perv-cameras to spy on quolls chowing down on yummy-sardene-goodness, mmmmm. After 2 weeks, Kaylah was the super-sub replacing Heather as Nat’s volunteer – and did a top job at that!

Skye & Diana on prime quoll realestate

Diana & Chop setting up shop

Lab mayhem

Skye was also one of the first to step back on Groote for round 2, to help guide Diana in collecting data for her Honours thesis. They worked real hard, like migraine-inducing-hesitant-smiles Hard…..setting up first ever cognitive tests for wild quolls! And………it worked – congrats both of you, it was all worth it in the end. Not to mention Diana has now collected all her Honours data months before submission (a feat not shared many honours students!).

Local kid photography skills

Camp dog keen on some pegboard

A happy Chop

The human-testing crew also had a cracker 2nd trip for 2017, based in Angurugu again. Full days, but they came out the end with smiles on their dials & over 100 people tested. Robbie happily joined in for the last day of data collection – and experienced the common brain-oozing-out-ears symptom that comes from end-of-day testing fatigue. Well done Robbie – it was great to have you up here again bringing laughter with you always.

As usual, the time up here is not all about research – the crew did relax with a few camping trips & good meals (& bevvies). On a funny note, Chop lost his free Qantas lounge pass that he was raving about all trip……..he found it as we were flying off. Lucky.

Bird bachelor pad

Found it!

Reflections of a volunteer field assistant

Plenty of adventures in various parts of Queensland had already occurred before Natalie & I ventured up to the Northern Territory (the purpose of my travels from Calgary, Alberta, Canada).

The opportunity to spend time with my sister, collecting data on quolls & bandicoots for her PhD studies - on Groote Eylandt was finally happening!

In healthcare (where I work), there are six daily living activities that can be used to measure a patient’s mental health. Even though I was in vacation mode and away from a hospital environment, these necessities of daily living were active thoughts of mine.

Differences of what I knew a normal day to be, verses a day on Groote were vast! So I hope you find this read as enjoyable as I lived it to be. 

The first activity is eating

• At home, this task for the most part is an easy one complete. Moderate amounts of food are eaten when you’re hungry, and reasonable volumes of liquid are downed when you’re thirsty. When food is running low you go to the store and usually staple items are readily available.
• On Groote this task is not quite as easy. With increased physical activity you might turn into bottomless pit of hunger. Hopping around in the sun can rival your water consumption to match that of a camel. With food being barged in weekly, the Alyangula Supermarket bill could shock you into cost denial. As for staples, plain white sugar to enjoy in your coffee just may not exist.            

$36 Coke Zero was expired & reduced   

The second activity is bathing                             

• At home in a 24 hour window, a single shower would generally result in little to no noticeable body odour.
• However in Groote’s heat, a daily shower most likely won’t get you by… If in doubt of your own level of ripeness, what’s best is to blend aromas with your fellow lab mates. Nothing says comradery like climbing into the truck at the end of the day for a possible breathtaking ride home.

This hat was a magnet for tree pollen

The third activity is dressing

• Sensible fashion back home is an achievable goal for most. You can mix and match, layer up/layer down, accessorize, you name it.
• Sensible fashion for Groote terrain consists of hiking boots, long pants, some form of shirt & a hat. These articles of clothing are usually in varying stages of disrepair. Pants & shirts might have stains, missing buttons, tears & holes while boots maybe held together with epoxy.

Shiners on the plane

A quick interlude from comparisons.

Remember how I mentioned previous adventures before arriving in the Northern Territory? A prior canoeing accident meant I had two black eyes to heal during my time on island. Temporarily adding a whole extra level of enchantment to my bush trekking appearance. 

Back to daily living activities, the fourth activity is toileting                                                                            

• While discussion of this might be a humbling topic, we can all be thankful that somewhere at home a toilet is always open for business.
• A toilet while traversing the grids on Groote however is non-existent. If by chance you’ve got some business to complete, your best bet is to embrace nature & find some leaves—hopefully not the bastard bush ones.

The fifth activity is mobility

• Generally at home, there are few obstacles to hinder the action of walking. Sidewalks, crosswalks & pathways all greatly aid movement.
• Once again on Groote grids, there is no such thing as a relaxed walk. Traps are set 50 metres apart and in those metres you could encounter boulders, fallen trees, spider webs, nests of green ant larva, forests of acacia plants, and the odd critter.

Not all rocks were rock solid

The sixth activity is sleeping

• While how many zzz’s you catch in a night’s sleep at home could vary.
• With all the fresh air on Groote, what I can guarantee is you’re going to sleep well. The hours of rest you netted before waking pre-sunrise were always quality.  

Despite learning that daily life on Groote Eylandt was different, the wonder and coolness of gathering data was fantastic! Natalie and I collected information on a total of 55 quolls & 26 bandicoots! That equates to 81 tail length measurements, 162 hair samples, and plenty of opportunities to be exposed to teeth!

Other wildlife encounters consisted of hairy caterpillars, goannas, and rock wallabies. Plus a well camouflaged pair of tawny frogmouths, a hermit crab & juvenile bynoes gecko.  

Tawny frogmouths

Dennis the hermit crab                                           

Bynoes gecko

Siblings & quolls

The chance to assist with field research was a unique and rare opportunity. All of those endearing Groote Eylandt un-normalcies added up to be an amazing & out of this world experience! If the quoll & small mammal teams are in need of a repeat volunteer in the near future, please look this girl up!

Best regards                                                                                                              

Heather

Chop leaps ahead….again (in his head).

The figure says it all.

We land, we start. Straight into it for 2017.

It’s February 2017, Chop was on a high after his return from a New Orleans conference & some sweet Japanese pow-pow, whilst Gwen still needed some more holidays – the two gathered themselves and their testing arsenal for another research assault on Groote Eylandt. 

Heading to Angurugu down the Rowell highway

Angurugu community meets mining fence

Old linguistics building, new testing office

First entrance to Angurugu, the air filters are out and keys were in our hot little hands for the old Linguistics building – our testing home for the next 6 weeks. This was a great little work space , and had air-con. Despite being an old building, Chop eventually navigated the weathered warped floor boards to level the force-plate needed for balance testing. After a practice run through the tests with our superstar local guide, Joselle, we were up and running for a record-breaking trip.

Setting up force-plate, attempt #11

Force-plate setup complete (attempt #21)

Gwen with our star local guide, Joselle, running through a practice test

Participants were flocking in, smiles on faces – the word was getting around community that we were in town. Lots of interest and people banging down the door every morning – keen to get tested. The standard day was pretty fun and exciting, kids running around, bananas flying about and plenty of laughter whilst collecting great data. 

Local kid photography - Gwen mid-data collection

 Local kid photography - Sweet data collection action

Local kid photography - playing with the Grooved Pegboard test

Now, data collection of this type takes a lot of concentration so “monitoring” the fun and excitement whilst maintaining zen-like-focus was a good lesson in multi-tasking, but eventually took its toll on the research-duo.  When, at the end of a long day, Chop looking for a rubber-band, asked Gwen “ have you seen the umbrello?” - then, a couple of days later , another one from Chop “If I ever was gonna get the snip – today was the day”.......... We knew from that day onwards, we were wearing thick socks on a slippery slope to brain-liquification.

Quick work meeting at Top Crossing

Chop's brain just oozed out his ears before this shot was taken

Manic Gwen perhaps a little too excited about her pre-testing coffee

To slow-down the impending Groote-testing-fever, relaxed team brekkies & pre-testing field Campos coffees were a must. To wind-down after days mayhem, golf & frosty beverages was a regular on the menu.

What do the rules of golf say about turd-nuggets on the green?

Ahhh, sweet relief

What a delightful Goat

Other news-worthy items for the trip: Nat collected her first PhD data, Gwen found a purple rock,  Chop perfected his one-armed golf swing & another cracking sunset….

Go Nat !! First PhD data collected

Flying-purple-people-eater nugget?

No spills, ball in ocean

Top trip.