Lace Monitor GPS Research Part 2 -UPDATE

[hazzard]

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!

[reptilesDownUnder]

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

[serpenttongue]

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?

[hazzard]

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

[$NaKe PiMp]

gloves a re gay LOL

wild laceys are awsome animals

keep us posted

[moloch05]

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

[hazzard]

Originally Posted by moloch05

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

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.

[reptilesDownUnder]

Do you have temperature loggers attached to the animals too?


Stewart

[hazzard]

Originally Posted by reptilesDownUnder

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.

[michelleryan]

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

[hazzard]

Originally Posted by michelleryan

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.!

[serpenttongue]

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?

[hazzard]

Originally Posted by serpenttongue

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.

[boconnor]

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

[hazzard]

Originally Posted by boconnor

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.