# Lace Monitor GPS Research Part 2 -UPDATE



## hazzard (May 8, 2008)

Hey folks,
Just got back from another brief University of Western Sydney feild trip into the Warragamba catchment area. The purpose of this trip was to track the previously tagged Lace Monitors and to check on level of activity (due to the onset of winter) and a few that appeared to be shedding on our last visit (in the hope to retrieve any dropped units).

It was a beautiful 2 days with fantastic weather conditions. 

The area is littered with wild dogs and dingo packs. A short way in we came across 3 dogs hunting, just managed to grab a few snapshots of a black one. It's not uncommon to see a pack picking off an Eastern Grey. The University of Western Sydney is extensively studying these in a similar GPS tracking study.

The scenery put on a fine display and conditions were a treat for a sometimes hostile environment. Pictured is the Wollondilly river (arm of the Warragamba dam)






Part 1 of this project can be found here!
http://www.aussiepythons.com/forum/...e-studies/lace-monitor-research-project-80170


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## JasonL (May 8, 2008)

OMG! The Black Panther!!!!


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## hazzard (May 8, 2008)

Our first tracked animal was one that appeared to be shedding or just that the edges of the unit pouch had lifted. They blend in so well to the landscape that we nearly trod on this fella!

This big male was soon spooked, pouch and GPS unit still sturdy and scooted up into a hollow dead trunk!

Lucky for me there was a crack i could sneak a pic from.

That wasn't good enough for our student Laura, who proceeded to climb the trunk and sneak a snap shot inside.


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## Australis (May 8, 2008)

It looks like real amazing country out here, lucky mongrel you are.

Does anyone go out and shoot these wild dogs at all that you know of?


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## hazzard (May 8, 2008)

Our next animal to be tracked caused us a great deal of pain. The VHF signal was bouncing all over the surrounding rock escarpments and finding this guy would be difficult. Alicia waved the magic wand and came up trumps on the location. However were not going to see this one.

Not until after climbing up and down ridiculous terrain that had us all exhausted and covered in farmers friends and blackberry scars!

The find was fantastic. A suspected congregation mating area. A serious of burrows under the sandstone. Many containing animal fur reminents and scratch marks.

We figure this as an untagged specimen scuttled away up a nearby tree. We did not capture this animal as the objective of this trip was just tracking (the real reason, we forgot the tagging equipment forehead slap for someone). 

This is now a place of interest for us for future investigations!


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## Luke1 (May 8, 2008)

that looks like awsome fun!!! i was gonna say that photo of the river looks like its somewhere in NZ

thanks for the pics!!! wish i could come LOL!!!

Luke


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## hazzard (May 8, 2008)

The next candidate was a similar story to the first. What was now noted on this trip was the Lacey's activity has slowed, although not stopped. In 2 months all animals are still within 2Km's of their capture sites. Although on this trip they have only moved within 200 metres of their last VHF tracked location.

Once we download the GPS information when the tags are finally collected, the information will be very informative.

This guy was also nearly walked on. The 8kg male dashed down a small nearby wombat digging. It was noted that this animals gps unit was almost detatched. Deciding that 8 weeks data was a good start we captured this animal and removed the pouch and unit.

Some quick work by Jason soon had the monitor out of the whole and on a nearby fallen tree.


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## 888lowndes888 (May 8, 2008)

Hey its awesome out Yerranderie isn't it. Out of interest do you have to go through Taralga or Oberon or do you get the keys to come in through oakdale. I was supposed to be out there on Tues night but didnt end up going. The boss stayed at the Cop Shop on tues night i think. Its such an awesome area, people say im lucky at being able to go out there but I think your the lucky one being able to go out and AND study herps.:evil: lol.


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## hazzard (May 8, 2008)

Hi mate, we ran into Steve (your welding mate) and said you said hi! Oh and we get the keys of course!


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## hazzard (May 8, 2008)

Some more pics of this capture, and some posing shots of course. We are interested in features such as tail and claw markings. Also the after effects of the tagging. As you can see in the next few shots, little damage is done. The reminent glue will be gone after shedding is completed!


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## hazzard (May 8, 2008)

And of course the release of this guy. A big thankyou for letting us into your world for a brief glimpse!

Now to take the unit home download, reformat and back out again in spring. It is hoped that we will have between 10-20 monitors tagged at any one time.


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## cris (May 8, 2008)

awesome thanks for sharing, keep up the good work


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## Just_Joshin (May 8, 2008)

Your a lucky bugger Michael!!! It looks like amazing country out there. Can anyone say jealous much??? Has the GPS data been downloaded yet?? Interesting data?


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## hazzard (May 8, 2008)

The next guy was also a challenge to track. When you get close the signal can bounce like crazy in this country. Jason using his well practiced skills adjusting gain and looking for likely places to hide, pinpointed the fellow to here. After a ridiculous up-hill clamber that took 45mins to go 200 metres and back, this was the result.

Laura wasn't as keen to scale this tree!


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## Just_Joshin (May 8, 2008)

hazzard said:


> The next guy was also a challenge to track. When you get close the signal can bounce like crazy in this country. Jason using his well practiced skills adjusting gain and looking for likely places to hide, pinpointed the fellow to here. After a ridiculous up-hill clamber that took 45mins to go 200 metres and back, this was the result.
> 
> Laura wasn't as keen to scale this tree!


I'll scale the tree for you!!!


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## hazzard (May 8, 2008)

And of course you hate to leave this country! Until the next time!

Better than a day in the office for Alicia and Laura!

The famous Bonham Pick makes a good wall shot!

Until next time!


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## smacdonald (May 8, 2008)

It sounds like a great project. I've just gone back and had a look at the first instalment. In it, you say:



> This data gives us information such as location and elevation tracked by SIRTRACK sattelites



Just to clarify... Are the GPS devices you're using loggers, or do they beam data back to satellites in realtime? Reading the entire thread I think they're loggers, but the quote above made me unsure.

Is this a student's research project (like honours or PhD)?

I was involved in a project where we put a GPS logger on a crocodile. We retrieved it a month later and looked at the data, only to find our crocodile had been to Antarctica. I think some water got into the device.

I look forward to reading more updates!


Stewart


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## serpenttongue (May 8, 2008)

My favourite reptile!! Awesome stuff hazzard. The best thread to come along in ages. How was that male like to handle? Did he remain calm or did he struggle a lot? 

Also, strange looking nostrils on that male. They look too far forward and sit too high up compared to my Lacies:? Maybe an individual thing?:?


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## hazzard (May 8, 2008)

Firstly,

Yes you a right these ones are loggers, i'm jumping the gun. The dog project has the real time GPS collars so far. It is anticipated that out new trackers may be real time as long as we get the appropriate funding. As can be invisaged, they are not cheap! At this stage it's not a student project but a pet research project of Jason's and myself and a few others are part of it. It may become a studen't project in the future. Aleesha pictured is doing her PHD on the South Creek catchment area and came on this trip for experience. Laura has also done the research on our "feeding trials of childrens pythons" experiment that was presented at the recent CARA conference (which the results of will be outlined shortly).

And serpenttongue, 

The temperament of these guys is variable. So far we have big males all over 7kg. If it's hot they can be scary. Some just sit like puppydogs, it's an individual thing. One things for sure you must make sure you don't stuff up. Generally we will use the kevlar gloves for precaution being in a remote area. Just on this particular walk we did not take them, and it was a last minute decision to remove the unit! They are also usually placed in a bag which helps them settle quickly!

Cheers


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## $NaKe PiMp (May 9, 2008)

gloves a re gay LOL

wild laceys are awsome animals

keep us posted


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## moloch05 (May 9, 2008)

Hazzard,

Excellent report of an interesting study. How much longer do Lace Monitors remain active? I thought that they might be gone already until the days warm again.

Regards,
David


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## hazzard (May 9, 2008)

moloch05 said:


> Hazzard,
> 
> Excellent report of an interesting study. How much longer do Lace Monitors remain active? I thought that they might be gone already until the days warm again.
> 
> ...



Yes good question David, it suprised us to! This we don't really know for sure and we hope and aim to find out. It's extremely cold in this area at night already dipping to around 0 degC. 

They are not moving far now however are still moving. It is exciting times ahead.


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## smacdonald (May 9, 2008)

Do you have temperature loggers attached to the animals too?


Stewart


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## hazzard (May 9, 2008)

reptilesDownUnder said:


> Do you have temperature loggers attached to the animals too?
> 
> 
> Stewart



Not at this stage Stewart. We will be doing that from this Spring. This was initially a technique trial as we were not sure if these units would even stay on. We tried a harness system and all sorts of things before this.

Now we have a system that works, we have more units being made, sacrificing uneccesary weight and enabling us to add sensors such as data loggers. It's early days yet and we would like to continue this study for at least 3 years.


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## michelleryan (May 9, 2008)

What a great study, in a beautiful location, I am jealous.


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## hazzard (May 9, 2008)

michelleryan said:


> What a great study, in a beautiful location, I am jealous.



Well Michelle,

You equally are doing exciting and interesting work through the same institution. There is no reason we can't combine a trip so you can go searchin that dam you tal about for more longneck turtles. Then you get to catch Lacey's as well. Remember like you there will be plenty of feild trips for the next few years.!


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## serpenttongue (May 9, 2008)

Hazzard, even though you're working with Lacies with a weight of around 7-8kg, have you seen wild ones out there that have been much larger, or have they all been around this size?

Also, have you found that there is a large number of termite mounds out there, or not that many?


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## hazzard (May 9, 2008)

serpenttongue said:


> Hazzard, even though you're working with Lacies with a weight of around 7-8kg, have you seen wild ones out there that have been much larger, or have they all been around this size?
> 
> Also, have you found that there is a large number of termite mounds out there, or not that many?



Hey ST,

We had a little disscusion about this. I think that wild ones don't get much bigger personally, these are huge and all we have caught males (seem to be between 7-8kg). Nothing larger has been seen.

Termite mounds everywhere. Speaking to Dr Dave Kirchener the other night, these are quite large animals.

Just to put it into a bit of perspective. The study came about as Jason was on a dingo tracking study. One thing that was noticed was the unusually high population of monitors in the area. We put this down to the dog packs picking off Eastern Grey Kangaroos, then when they have had their share the monitors move in. There is such an abundance of food for them. They basically have no predators when they reach this size.

It's a fantastic study site for this reason as there is no human inteference in regard to artificial feeding etc.


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## boconnor (May 9, 2008)

Breeding season will be interesting to see how many males compete for females.


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## hazzard (May 9, 2008)

boconnor said:


> Breeding season will be interesting to see how many males compete for females.



I agree there seems to be heaps of big males around. We may have to get smaller trackers designed for the females. Dave suggests that wild females are rarely over 2kg's in size. I'm not familiar with this, but i personally thought that was very small.


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## boconnor (May 9, 2008)

It would be good to track the females and get an insight into breeding nesting etc. I've seen upto three males within 5 to 10 metres of a female in Daisy Hill State Forest. I look forward to what you guys find out after winter.


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## cockney red (May 9, 2008)

Awesome work. You are a very lucky man!!!!!!


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## serpenttongue (May 9, 2008)

hazzard, of all the wild Lacies i've seen (which isn't many) i have found them to be close to creeks/rivers. Have you found that the Lacies you're studying stay within a certain distance of permanent water, or are they moving off into drier areas?

Also, have you seen any juveniles out there, or mistaken Heath Monitors for Lacies? (Not sure if Heaths are actually out there, though??:?)


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## hazzard (May 9, 2008)

serpenttongue said:


> hazzard, of all the wild Lacies i've seen (which isn't many) i have found them to be close to creeks/rivers. Have you found that the Lacies you're studying stay within a certain distance of permanent water, or are they moving off into drier areas?
> 
> Also, have you seen any juveniles out there, or mistaken Heath Monitors for Lacies? (Not sure if Heaths are actually out there, though??:?)



It is said that their is heathy's out there although if there is they are extremely rare. Yes plenty of juveniles have been seen by Jason on various trips, and i think he has even trapped a few.

Well in this country it's hard for them to be that far away from water. Warragamba is on one side and the Wollondilly on the other. Having said that 1 monitor has moved a fair distance away from any main water source, but as the crow fly's we are talking 3Km at most.

It will be interesting when this data is overlayed on maps.


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## spongebob (May 9, 2008)

I'm fascinated by your photo of the suspected congregation mating site. These 'caves' dont look like geographical features but more like something that has occured over eons due to animal activity. But why would they have congregational mating sites? I've heard of congregations in reptiles for hibernating and laying eggs but not for mating. Are you sure they are no hobbits in there!
Bob


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## hazzard (May 9, 2008)

spongebob said:


> I'm fascinated by your photo of the suspected congregation mating site. These 'caves' dont look like geographical features but more like something that has occured over eons due to animal activity. But why would they have congregational mating sites? I've heard of congregations in reptiles for hibernating and laying eggs but not for mating. Are you sure they are no hobbits in there!
> Bob



No idea Bob, however there has been considerable lacey activity in them and we saw at least 2 near them. That's a photo of 3 of these structures, there are about 6 or so holes there that go right under the rock face. There were scratch marks and fur in most of them. Maybe they just like to live in a gregarious situation, I'd doubt that, but who knows. At worst it's a new trapping site where we should get a few. Then the data might tell us.

Cheers


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## spongebob (May 9, 2008)

Perhaps a remote control car with a video camera taped to the top could investigate whats down there! (or plumbers equipment).
Possibly ?salt licks, bush fire retreats, food traps, summer homes for those in the 'shire', who knows?
This is a fascinating area of study. Thanks for sharing


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## richardsc (May 9, 2008)

great post,like serp,lacies are one og my faves as well,really looking forward to some female data,are u still going to track them over winter,i reckon they will still move a bit overthe winter,after a cold night,they will bask the next day if the suns out,like diamonds,but stick close to there retreats i guess,but still would be interesting as to what they do,is there any chance that that many hole spot is like somewhere they just feed on the original hole makers,that looks like a fantastic spot regardless if they live there or not to get some good data,keep up the great work


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## dragon lady (May 9, 2008)

that was awesome to read...thankyou for sharing hazzard!


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## rick n (May 9, 2008)

do the lacies go back 2 the same spot 2 mate each year ?


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## urodacus_au (May 13, 2008)

Interesting Haz, look forward to seeing your combined results in future.

Jordan


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## Dylanhart1994 (Jun 25, 2008)

nice pics


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