29th April 2011
You’re all mammal experts by now, I’m sure. At least you should be if you’ve been reading this blog avidly.
Well, perhaps not. We don’t claim to be experts ourselves and a diet of David Attenborough and whatever we’ve picked up talking to guides and rangers around the world isn’t the same as a degree in Zoology (would a specialisation in mammals be Mammology? I suspect not…). But it’s still slightly satisfying to realise we’re getting a good eye for spotting furry critters. Example: spotting a koala by the road and stopping to look, then watching as several more cars full of people peering hopefully out of the window just drive straight past. Or… haha… finding some people at Moeraki pointing out to sea and saying “look, it’s a whale” and, after a quick check with the binoculars to make sure, telling them it’s actually just a bed of kelp. They borrowed our binoculars and had a good long look themselves, before telling us triumphantly “no, it’s definitely a whale!” Well, if you like.
Anyway, my moan today is about the difficulty of finding people who can help us out when we’re looking for mammals*. Today is a good example. We went back to Tower Hill Reserve, hoping to ask someone for advice on looking for the sugar gliders there; which part of the reserve, what kind of trees they live in, how high up, any particular time of night, etc. The lady at the Info Centre was positively delighted to tell us that she didn’t have a clue, warned us that we might be unlucky as she had heard that sugar gliders mostly come out at night, and then said there were no park rangers around.
So we gave up on that and headed north 60kms. We stopped at the Mt Eccles NP because some info on the web suggested it was good for a range of interesting mammals. The ranger station here was simply locked up, with a number to call if you wanted to book a camp site. I’d swear there were cobwebs on the filing cabinets when I peered through the office window.
So we went on another half-hour to Hamilton instead, where there are meant to be a population of Eastern Barred Bandicoots. The lady at the Info Centre said we should call into the Hamilton Blah Blah Blah where they would be able to tell us about the current status of the bandicoots and where we might have a chance of finding them. When we got there at 2pm it was locked up tight with no clue about opening hours.
So we abandoned Hamilton’s bandicoots and continued north two hours to the Grampians NP. We’d run out of day by now, so we’ve found some accommodation (trumps again, pretty much an entire cottage on a quiet farm with all mod-cons and a wood-burning stove) and settled down for a quiet evening in.
And that’s the trouble. Without some local advice you could spend two chilly hours walking around in the dark with torches and not even realise that you’re in the wrong part of the park… or are looking at the wrong time of night… or the animals have gone into hibernation… or they’ve actually died out completely in the area. All of which have happened to us. So we’re not going to spend another evening at Tower Hill on the off-chance, or a night near Mt Eccles just in case, or stop at Hamilton with a vague notion. This isn’t like spotting elephants in the Kruger, we know we need some help.
We’ll go to the Park Info Centre tomorrow with our fingers crossed, but given that huge floods in January still have most of the park closed to visitors we’ll just have to see.
* – this isn’t a real moan. I’m quite aware that our interest is a lot more specialised than the vast majority of tourists, so of course we can’t expect Info Centre staff to know all about rare mammals and how to find them. What’s needed, if we’re utterly serious, is to spend a couple more days in each area so we’ve got chance to hunt down the right people and learn enough to do some sensible mammal-watching. But of course, there’s too much we want to see! Onwards and upwards.
Related Images: