Up close and personal with the fauna of Booderee National Park
As a part of the ENVS3039 Biodiversity Conservation course, we had the opportunity to spend a few days in the stunning Booderee National Park in Jervis Bay on the NSW south coast.
We set traps overnight, loaded with with highly appetising balls of rolled oats and peanut butter. Early in the next morning, we hiked back out through very dense and spiky, but wildflower–filled, bushland to tag, identify and record the animals trapped. Despite the wild and wet conditions we were able to get up close with a variety of native mammals including antechinus, bandicoots, bush rats, possums and many wallabies and kangaroos.
Chris MacGregor, a local expert of everything alive in Booderee National Park checking mammal traps we set the night before.
A native antechinus caught in one of the traps we set.
Checking the pouch of an antechinus for any joeys.
Walking through thick scrub and heathland to set three different types of traps and wildlife cameras.
A native bush rat.
The wild coastline near the old lighthouse ruins on the tall sea cliffs at Cape St George.
Bushflowers in the heathland.
A banksia flower.
A bush rat caught in one of the larger traps.
Illuka beach in Jervis Bay, which has some of the whitest sand in Australia!
Crystal clear and icy cold waters of Booderee.
A tiny sand spider found on the beach.
