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Rakali Community Survey 2014-2015

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Rakali Community Survey 2014-2015 THIS REPORT WAS PRODUCED IN COLLABORATION WITH: REPORT AUS 2015 Rakali Community Survey 2014-2015 Rakali Community Survey contacts: Dr Geoff Barrett Regional Ecologist Swan Region Department of Parks and Wildlife Corner Australia II & Hackett Drive Crawley WA 6009 Email: [email protected] Dr Sabrina Trocini Rakali Community Survey Project Coordinator WWF-Australia Corner Flynn & Selby Streets PO Box 4010 Wembley WA 6913 Email: [email protected] This document can be referenced as: Trocini S., Barrett G., Howard K. and Ramalho C. (2015) Rakali Community Survey 2014-2015. Report prepared by WWF-Australia and the Western Australian Department of Parks and Wildlife. WWF-Australia, Perth, WA. Cover Photograph: © David Judge Editor: Chris Greenwood, Words in Time Layout: SUBStitution Pty Ltd © WWF-Australia 2015 This work is copyright. You may download, display, print and reproduce this material in unaltered form only (retaining this notice) for your personal, non-commercial use or use within your organisation. Apart from any use as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, all other rights are reserved. Requests and inquiries concerning reproduction and rights should be addressed to WWF-Australia. Acknowledgements This project was generously supported by Lotterywest. We are thankful to the WWF communications staff and the many newspapers, radio stations and online media outlets that publicised the Rakali Community Survey. Furthermore, we greatly appreciate the assistance of the many individuals and organisations that promoted the Rakali Community Survey on their webpages, newsletters and on social media. We are also very grateful to Dr Peter Speldewinde (University of Western Australia [UWA]), Geoff Williams (Australian Platypus Conservancy), Karen Bettink (UWA) and Dr Matt Williams (Department of Parks and Wildlife) for their advice during the survey design and/or for sharing their expertise at other stages of the project. We are very grateful to Parks and Wildlife staff, Ken Atkins, Keith Morris, Dr Barbara Wilson, Karen Bettink and Dr Nicole Willers for their valuable comments and feedback on the report. Our sincere gratitude also goes to Tim Gamblin, Gary Muir (WOW Wilderness tours), Boyd Wykes and Caroline Hughes (Cape to Cape Conservation Council), Ruth Clark (Waterbird Conservation Group) and Ciara McIlduff (Yanchep NP volunteer coordinator) for their great help in the organisation of the Rakali Walk events. Last but not least, we would like to sincerely thank all the individuals and organisations that participated in the Rakali Walks, including the Yanchep National Park and Canning River Regional Park volunteers, Friends of the Paganoni Swamp, the Swan Estuaries Reserves Action Group and the Mount Henry Peninsula Conservation Group, and also all the people that participated in the Rakali Community Survey by reporting rakali sightings. This project would not have been possible without the enthusiastic response from the community. CONTENTS 1. Summary 4 2. Introduction 5 2.1 Background 5 2.2 Citizen science in wildlife research 9 2.3 The Rakali Community Survey 9 3. Methods 10 3.1 Survey period 10 3.2 Survey promotion 10 3.3 Data collection and processing 10 3.4 Species identification 10 3.5 Sighting location and habitat 12 3.6 The Rakali Walk 13 3.7 Data analysis 16 4. Results 17 4.1 Survey participation 17 4.2 Sighting confidence 17 4.3 Temporal and geographic distribution of the rakali sightings 18 4.4 Habitat 21 4.5 Rakali behaviour 22 4.6 Rakali mortality and perceived threats 22 4.7 The Rakali Walk 24 5. Discussion 26 5.1 Community engagement 26 5.2 Distribution 26 5.3 Comparison with historic records 27 5.4 Habitat 27 5.5 Rakali as indicators of healthy waterways 28 5.6 Mortality and Perceived Threats 28 5.6 The Rakali Walk – a simple methodology to survey rakali 31 6. Recommendations 32 6.1 Future rakali community surveys 32 6.2 Research and Management 32 References 34 Appendices Appendix 1: WWF media releases to promote the Rakali Community Survey 36 Appendix 2: Media coverage 38 Appendix 3: Poster for Wetland Conference – 2 February 2015 40 Appendix 4: Rakali Community Survey Datasheet 41 Appendix 5: Rakali Walk Methodology 43 Appendix 6: Complete list of sites where rakali were recorded during the Rakali Community Survey 45 Appendix 7: Follow-up survey 47 RAKALI COMMUNITY SURVEY REPORT 3 1. SUMMARY Rakali or Australian water rat (Hydromys chrysogaster) the sightings occurring in the south-west corner of the is a cryptic native rodent that is perfectly adapted to state and a limited number of sightings in the Wheatbelt. the aquatic environment and can be found near fresh There was also anecdotal evidence of localised declines or brackish permanent waterbodies and sheltered and extinctions in the Perth Metropolitan Region. For coastal beaches. Rakali are common and widespread instance, historical rakali distribution data obtained throughout Australia, but have suffered localised from NatureMap showed that rakali were distributed declines in Western Australia, in particular the along the Helena River in the 1960s, but no recent Wheatbelt, due to habitat loss and degradation, drying sightings were reported from this location. Besides, only climate, salinisation and predation by introduced scarce and localised evidence of rakali was found along predators. this river and its tributaries during the transect surveys. The reduction in water levels and flow due to a dam built WWF-Australia, in partnership with the Western in the 1970s, in association with habitat degradation, Australian Department of Parks and Wildlife conducted may have contributed to a localised decline along this a widely publicised community survey collecting sighting waterway north-east of Perth. reports of rakali in Western Australia, in particular from the southwest of the state. Citizen science offers The main reported cause of rakali mortality was an opportunity to collect monitoring data on a large attributed to drowning in box or opera-house style traps spatial and temporal scale and to detect changes in used to catch freshwater crayfish (in particular marron, frequency and distribution of easily observable threats Cherax cainii). These crayfish traps, which are illegal to to wildlife species. Results obtained by citizen science use for recreational marron fishing were also one of the projects such as the Rakali Community Survey can also main threats identified by survey participants. Predation provide essential baseline data to identify research and by foxes and cats, habitat degradation and changes in management priorities. The aim of this survey was to hydrology were also identified as important threats. obtain rakali distribution data and to identify potential Recommendations highlight the importance of further threats, while educating the community about this rakali monitoring in Western Australia and research into cryptic and understudied native rodent. the effects of habitat degradation, introduced predators A total of 234 sightings were reported over four months and changes in hydrology on rakali populations. (December 2014 to March 2015). Additionally, 49 Identified management recommendations include transect surveys were carried out with the help of predator control at important sites and the protection community volunteers, looking for characteristic rakali and restoration of wetland habitat where the presence foot prints and feeding middens (the Rakali Walk). The of rakali was confirmed. Increased monitoring of described survey methodology was found to be a simple the illegal use of crayfish traps throughout Western and effective way to monitor the presence of rakali. This Australia is also deemed a priority to reduce rakali technique in association with other survey methods, mortality rates. Education of crayfish fishers and such as camera trapping, could be utilised to extensively farmers, as well as retailers selling crayfish traps, in survey sites over time and gather information on relative association with the promotion of a crayfish trap with abundance. an escape hatch recently developed by the Australian Platypus Conservancy will also play an important role in The distribution of rakali sightings obtained from the protecting this native species. Rakali Community Survey was found to largely overlap with the known species distribution, with the majority of © DAVI D JU D GE 4 RAKALI COMMUNITY SURVEY 2014-2015 2. INTRODUCTION 2.1 BACKGROUND The rakali (Hydromys chrysogaster) (Geoffroy, 1804), all Australian mammal extinctions in this time) and also known as the Australian water rat, can be found in another 15 rodent taxa are regarded as threatened.2 all Australian states and mainland federal territories, While historical and recent declines and extinction New Guinea and nearby islands1 (Figure 1) and belongs of Australian marsupials are widely known and well to the eutherian Order Rodentia. Twenty-five per cent described, the equally dramatic extinction rates in of all Australian land mammals are rodents (66 species rodents have received very little attention.9 Of the in total)2 but, in general, this diverse native taxa is still 35 native rodents in Western Australia (WA), six are relatively understudied and poorly known.2-4 Australian threatened and four are presumed extinct.10 The lack of native rodents all belong to the Family Muridae. They research, awareness and interest in rodents nationally play an important role in ecosystems by, for example, and internationally is related to the fact that rodents are dispersing
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