SahulTraits Description
Hi
My name is Caitlin Mudge, I am a research assistant at Flinders University, South Australia working with the Global Ecology group (https://globalecologyflinders.com/)
I am working on building a traits database, SahulTraits, to collect ecological trait data for birds, mammals, reptiles, and amphibians across Sahul (Australia and New Guinea). As part of this database, I will be including predator-prey interaction data for two of Australia’s main groups of native predators, monitor lizards (Varanids) and carnivorous marsupials (Dasyurids).
The database will be used to predict the predator-prey interactions of extinct species and how the relationship between predators and prey across Australia changes in human-modified ecosystems.
I have asked for your help in particular as you are all the top observers for Australia and my two target groups on iNaturalist. Your help with this project would be greatly appreciated!
Observations must include an ID of predator and prey species, along with location of interaction. Additionally, information on whether the prey item was taken live or as carrion will be recorded, but this information is not required when submitting your observation. There is no requirement regarding date of the interaction so past observations are also accepted.
Please feel free to message/email me with any other questions (caitlin.mudge@flinders.edu.au)
Kind regards,
Caitlin.
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Comments
Hey Caitlin, looks like a cool project
Am I correct in saying that the observations you want going into the project will all be of the predators themselves, not the prey? If yes, then the required observation field 'Interaction->Preyed upon by' is redundant; the ID that would be entered into this field would already be the ID of the observation
also, I've just added 17 observations to the project for you by searching for the term 'eat' across observations of Varanus in Australia
also, since the 'carrion' observation field is freeform answer, it would be useful if you specify what answer(s) you're looking for, eg do you want yes/no? You'll get a lot of inconsistent answers without standardised answers which will be a pain for you later to analyse
at the moment I'm adding yes if relevant, and leaving blank if not
also note observations like this one: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/68619105
eating dog food, for which the prey field can't really be ascribed to a species
https://inaturalist.ala.org.au/projects/sahultraits-predator-prey-database
So only observations where the prey is animal?
So not feeding on peanut butter? https://inaturalist.ala.org.au/observations/169287492
And not feeding on nectar? https://inaturalist.ala.org.au/observations/167471882
Is that correct?
I'm happy to be involved, but I'm likely to need prompting or help of some sort along the way. Meanwhile, I'll leave the sorting out of various practicalities, uncertainties of definition and other aspects, some of which have already been posted 👌👍.
I do have a photo of a common goanna (varanus varius) eating something unidentifiable; haven't yet put the pix up on i-nat/aus - taken 10th April 2023, on the Blackall Range - but will do so tomorrow morning. Another member of the party took photos and has posted them as an observation, but my photos were taken with a better quality camera so should show more detail.
Happy to help out but most of my finds of monitors feeding have been on carrion and they tend to take off before I get a shot of them actually feeding. I still have many sightings I haven't posted so will trawl through them and see what there is.
Unfortunately, none of my current images of Varanids or Dasyurids show any predatory behaviours - but I will certainly keep watch for the future.
This Lace Monitor has just eaten the baby Galahs that were in the hollow you can see below the Monitor. It is resting with a full stomach.
The Galah parents tried very noisily to deter but failed. https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/89422252
This tiny Lace Monitor was living in a termite mound and presumably hatched from eggs in this mound. It would have been eating the termites. https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/141976681
I have many other videos of Lace Monitors visiting termite mounds (some digging in them), these are taken with movement sensing cameras.
I also have many videos of Lace Monitors eating a dead kangaroo, these are also taken with movement sensing cameras.
They have dates and are all from the same property. I could put them all on a USB stick and send them to you.
5 short videos filmed with camera traps showing a number of wild Antechinus visiting a water survey pond. This Antechinus video shows some of the many daytime videos we have and includes an Antechinus jumping on the back of a rabbit and one catching and killing a frog!
The Antechinus catches and kills and eats the frog near the end of these videos the frog screams our quite loudly so it is quite dramatic.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9D7XAigkUdI&list=PLD5VaOICY98nPSc58GkJLyKuAzFFVNo-T&index=2&t=1s
@caitlinmudge Maybe I am missing something, but I don't seem able to join the project or add some of my existing observations to the project.
I just have this one where there were a couple of lace monitors feeding on swamp wallaby carrion: https://inaturalist.ala.org.au/observations/74315256
@basicz go to https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/sahultraits-predator-prey-database, and at the top right corner of the page, there's a small blue hyperlink that says 'join this project'
@thebeachcomber Cheers, all sorted.
Almost all of my vertebrate observations are of fish, and i don't have any Varanids or Dasyurids interactions, which may be useful information in itself (?) but i'll keep my eyes open. All the best with you project.
@thebeachcomber Thank you for taking the time to contribute to my project.
That is correct, I included the 'preyed upon by' field to try and capture any pre-existing observations that included the prey as the ID of the observation but couldn't seem to get it to import older observations.
I want to be able to differentiate between prey that was taken live or as carrion so 'yes/no' would be preferable.
@scottwgavins That is correct, i'm mainly interested in interactions where the prey is an animal.
Thanks @davemmdave, @sylviafelicityannhaworth, @mattcampbellaus, @arthur_chapman, @basicz and @jmartincrossley for your support! Any additions to the project are greatly appreciated. Cheers.
Thanks @thorpewood for pointing out those observations! If you could send me those extra photos that would be great, feel free to send them here or email me at caitlin.mudge@flinders.edu.au. Cheers
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