LTERN Data Portal

Fauna survey sites (50x50 m) are set up adjacent (preferably to the left) of the fixed vegetation monitoring plots.

The fauna survey protocol comprises searches and trapping over a 72 hour period, including:

(i) eight “instantaneous” counts (predominantly in the early morning) of birds present in a 1 ha plot,

(ii) two nocturnal spotlighting searches each for 10-minutes of a 50 m x 50 m plot within the 1 ha plot, for frogs, reptiles, birds and mammals;

(iii) three 10-minute day-time searches for reptiles, frogs and mammals in the 50 m x 50 m plot;

(iv) an array of 20 Elliott traps (metal box traps 30 cm x 7 cm x 7 cm) and four cage traps (65 cm x 15 cm x 15 cm) evenly spaced along the perimeter of the 50 m x 50 m plot (mostly to sample small mammals), baited with a mixture of peanut butter, honey and oats, and checked early every morning; and

(v) two pitfall traps (20 L plastic buckets dug into the ground), with 8 m of 30 cm high flywire drift-line netting. For each species, an abundance value is calculated as the sum of all individuals captured or reported in searches.