Unusual or unnatural shelters used by wildlife in Au...

The loss of habitat and unprecedented weather events are making some normal shelters unusable, so Australian wildlife is frequently sheltering in unusual places, both man made and natural.

There will be increasing need for placing some sorts of permanent alternative shelters in the landscape to protect wildlife from the climate extremes.

The purpose of this project is to record the unusual ways in which the various wildlife species are sheltering, in order to design appropriate wildlife shelters which wildlife will use, or to make more available the kinds of successful shelters they are already favouring.

Already there are periods with repeated flooding rains, leaving wildlife without any dry place to shelter for months. This results in fungal skin lesions, parasites, exhaustion and poor physical condition. There are also extensive droughts and heat waves, and fires, with the attendant health consequences.

The easiest way to know what any species would use is to see what they are choosing to use in the wild when they cannot use their normal shelters. Designs can then be based on features that those shelters have in common.

There has been awareness of the need for tree hollow substitutes due to the ongoing loss of hollow bearing trees. This has seen the design and installation of nest boxes for birds, bats and small arboreal mammals, and bee hotels for various native bee species. These designs continue to evolve to better fit their purpose, and new ideas can be incorporated into the designs.

But there has been no design concept developed for large mammal substitute shelters, nor for many small and medium sized ground species, including insects and reptiles.

Observations of unusual natural or unnatural shelters for this project may include any form of shelter that a creature has adopted temporarily or permanently.

Please add notes about any characteristics which are not apparent in the photo which are thought to be important, such as thermal properties, and the weather at the time of the sheltering.

Details such as whether the creature is hidden from view, whether it is a dark or light area and access to exit points from the place they are sheltering, can be added in the Observation fields.

Photos of occupied nest boxes or other occupied shelters which have been constructed for wildlife could also be useful, noting detail about the siting of the nest box/structure, the materials and any unusual design details if possible.
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Please see the associated iNaturalist project Tree hollows and significant habitat trees in Australia at https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/tree-hollows-and-significant-habitat-trees-in-australia
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Banner photo of possum living in tyre by Ken Rawlins at https://inaturalist.ala.org.au/observations/43592643

Icon photo of echidna in a bucket by Bronwyn Gould at
https://inaturalist.ala.org.au/observations/37969069 less ↑