Volunteers…

Tasmanian devils need your help!

Devil Facial Tumour Disease (DFTD) is a fatal condition that is currently affecting most populations of Tassie devils.
The University of Tasmania 's School of Zoology is undertaking several research projects.

We need your help in the field !!!

VOLUNTEER WORK INVOLVES:

• Live Trapping • Radio Tracking • Field Data scribing

Accommodation, food, transport and parks & wildlife passes provided

There will be constant updates for more field trips during the year.

Job Description

Live Trapping

Live trapping involves setting up forty traps in a 25sq km area during ten days. During this time we will undertake a capture-mark-recapture study in which animals will be examined for DFTD symptoms, health condition assessment, and estimation of sex and age. All individuals will be micro chipped and a small biopsy sample will be taken for genetic analysis.

Volunteers will be asked to sterilize, bait and set up devil traps, help to check them and scribe data.

Fieldwork will be undertaken at West Pencil Pine around cradle Mountain area and at Wisedale on private land adjacent to Narawntapu national Park

Radio Tracking

Radio tracking a "collared" population at Narawntapu National Park will be undertaken from early April to late August. The adult population at Narawntapu National Park has been collared with Proximity Loggers, a new telemetric equipment specifically designed to assess contact network on wildlife diseases. These collars interrogate each other and log all the information on a chip which can be directly downloaded to a computer. They also have a VHF antenna which constantly emits a signal that can be radio tracked. Three different teams will triangulate and get fixed signals to estimate the home range of wild devils at Narawntapu National Park. Volunteers will be asked to find signals from the collars and map them to help to assess devil home range.

Data scribing

During our field work we need to take as much information as possible when examining devils. Volunteers will be asked to fill different field data sheets and assist with related aspects of the fieldwork, such as preparing biopsy samples and microchiping animals.

information: contact   Rodrigo Hamede (mobile: 0428394626 or office: 62261928)