Walkatjurra Junior Rangers help CCWA

Walkatjurra Junior Rangers capped off a big year for the Walkatjurra rangers with a field trip helping Dr Nic Dunlop of Conservation Council of WA and the Citizen Science initiative undertake a study at Mt Forrest Nature reserve.

The junior rangers worked alongside Dr Dunlop to run a ghost net over Wutukumpu spring, trapping, measuring and identifying up to seven species of bat.

They also set up and monitored traplines, catching small animals like this lizard.

The Walkatjurra Junior Rangers caught a Painted Snipe at Mt Forrest which is listed as threatened under the EPBC Act and Rare & Likely to Become Extinct under the WA Wildlife Conservation Act. The species declined significantly everywhere early last century and has only been recorded 5 times in Western Australia since 1909.

All up it was a successful fieldtrip to document and record animals in an cultural and natural environment subject to intense pressures from mining and exploration companies.