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.

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.

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.

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!

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 :)

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.

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

*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.

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!