A recent post reporting on the results of our camera trap monitoring program for 2013, identified a trend with Swamp Wallabies where numbers photographed by across the park by camera traps dropped very sharply after July. We have no real explanation for this, but as we gather further data, it will be interested to see large annual fluctuations in the Wallaby count continues.
We had an inquiry as to whether it was more common to record Swamp Wallabies in daylight or during the night-time, which is an interesting question and one which is easy to work out from our database. So after crunching some numbers here are some answers, not just for Swamp Wallabies, but for all our commonly recorded species.
Swamp Wallabies
Swamp Wallaby triggers are fairly regular at any time of day or night, they do seem to slow down as you might predict in the middle of the day, but then fire up to have their peak numbers in the early evening.
Wombats
Although it is not particularly uncommon to see Wombats out during the day sometimes, perhaps surprisingly we have never had one trigger a camera between 8am to 4pm. They seem to have peak activity in the evening and another peak around 4am.
Long-nosed Bandicoots
It’s no surprise that these Bandicoots are rarely seen, although we get fairly regular photos of them, they seem to have a definite peak of activity between 2am and 4am.
Foxes
The graph shows here that there is never any time of day for animals to be complacent. Foxes can be active at any time of day, seems like they are marginally more common at night. Also have data on Feral Cats, they too can be around at all hours, but seem less likely than a Fox to be around in daylight.
Lyrebirds
Lyrebirds in Tarra-Bulga obviously need to make the most of the daylight hours. It seems there is a slightly greater chance they will be snapped by a camera in the morning, but overall any time of the day is good for them.
Friends of Tarra-Bulga National Park 