In April, KJ rangers gathered at Nifty Mine to undertake Incendiary Machine Operator (IMO) training; a critical role in aerial burning operations.

KJ ranger teams have been carrying out mankarr (bilby) surveys as part of the mankarr monitoring project. This work, over time, will monitor population size, distribution and assess habitat health.

The detection of a quoll in 2012 in Karlamilyi National Park – about 200 kilometres away from other known records – prompted DBCA researchers and KJ Martu Rangers to broaden the search for quolls in the Great Sandy Desert. What they’ve found indicates quolls occur far more extensively than first thought.

A study of how the Martu shaped their land presents an example where humans seem to benefit an environment perceived as wilderness.

In August the Jigalong rangers worked together with Alicia and Jo from Parks and Wildlife Services WA to conduct monitoring of warru (Black-flanked Rock Wallaby) at Pinpi (Durba Springs) and Kaalpi (Calvert Ranges). The motion-sensor cameras at Pinpi captured a wiminyji (Northern Quoll). This is the first time this species has been recorded by Western Science in this area.

“Our main hope was that we would find banded stilts, which was the main bird we did find in very large numbers, but it was a mainly a general survey which hadn’t been done before in any systematic way.”