THE WILDLIFE Preservation Society is on the hunt for information about the numbers and locations of echidnas in Ipswich.
The organisation has been awarded $2580 through Ipswich City Council’s Enviroplan Levy Community Funding to run workshops to equip the community with the tools to help identify the elusive mammal, which is native to Australia and New Guinea.
Ipswich Mayor Teresa Harding said there was not a lot of data on where echidna were located in Ipswich and how abundant they were.
“Despite short-beaked echidnas having roamed Australia for millions of years, they still manage to keep most of their lives hidden from us,” Cr Harding said.
“This iconic Australian mammal plays a vital role in maintaining healthy ecosystems and we want to make sure that we know their conservation status so they can be properly protected.”
Wildlife Preservation Society of Queensland (Wildlife Queensland) short-beaked echidna ecologist Kate Dutton-Regester is building a baseline to assist with echidna conservation and is showing residents how they can help with the research.
“We will be holding workshops to show the community how to observe these unique monotremes and then provide us with details of that sighting, so we can build a greater understanding of the short-beaked echidna’s needs,” Dr Dutton-Regester said.
“Using the power of citizen observation, the project will be able to gather valuable information from the community across the region to build a clearer picture of these elusive animals and how best to protect them.”
To learn more about the program, head to Echidna Watch on the Wildlife Queensland website, wildlife.org.au.
The next workshop is from 9.30-11.30am on September 13 at Denmark Hill Conservation Reserve.
The Enviroplan Levy Community Funding Program supports not-for-profit organisations and wildlife carers.
