Curious Minds: Final Preparation

 We are about to return to school for the start of the final term for 2020.   During the past month we have been awaiting for electronics delivery of the equipment needed to complete our sound lures for the Curios Minds part of our project targetting Possums.

In preparation for this we have been running a final deployment phase with the equipment that we will be using during the project to check its viability etc.   We have maintained two sites at a local farm, one containing a sound lure with Timms Possum trap and rat boxes, and a second site which contains a standard Timms Possums trap (both are ground mounted) and a rat box.

For the past month we have been logging the activity based on the activations at the traps and by using Browning Trail Cameras that are motivation activated to tell us what is happening where the units are deployed.   We have made some adjustments to the deployment at each site - both of which are bordering the river that is featured in deployment site one, on the other side to this location.

At the non sound lure site after a month we have had 76 image activations from 17 pest animals and two domestic cat activations.    We have had two rats removed by a box trap at the location.   We have experimented with using apple, lemon and the Timms trap has not been activated, although bait has been removed from the unit.    There is clear possum activity at this location and the number of image activations has been up to twenty at the site of the tree.

By contrast at the sound lure site we have had sixty activations from 32 pest animals including hedgehogs, possums and rats.   There have been five rats removed at this location, one hedgehog and one mouse.    These animals have caused sixty image activations on the cameras.   

However - there is a significant deployment change that occurred in the week from 4/10/2020 to the 11/10/2020.    Until this point the sound lure that was deployed as part of this set up was placed inside the rat box, with the intention of seeing if it would encourage rats to enter the box.      For the last week it was decided to instead place the lure on top of the rat box as this it was believed would cause the sound to be significantly greater.

This would appear to have had a significant impact on the activations at this location.   

Prior to this the target species of Brush Tailed Possums had appeared five times for single activations.   Rats were dominating the activations at the site.   

The week when the unit was switched to the top of the rat box (as shown) there were eight possum activations and thirty activations from the cameras as the possums were active in the trap location and remained at the location during the activations of the sound lure.   

There were multiplication activations including a pair of Possums and possums showing interest in the different traps/lures on display (although there was not any setting off of the traps).   The rats which had been so prevelant during the first three weeks of deployment were not active.

In contrast at Deployment Site One, on the other side of the river there have been limited interactions all of which have centred around rats.

We will continue to monitor both sites moving forward as this is a pleasing indication that the lure is showing promise if used in the right situations.  We also need to look at modifying the sound which is part of the deployment so it is focussed on Possums or rats rather than the generic sound pattern that we are currently using for the test purposes (which still includes for instance the original stoat profile which we have been using for a year).   

Also of note the unit that is being deployed at site two is the original unit which is approaching nearly a year in deployment.   This unit is featuring an original solar panel, wiring and speaker which has been left in outside conditions for a full calendar year.   The unit is still operating as anticipated without showing any damage from the elements.