Early Promising Results: Curious Minds Possum Project

We have completed some early results in two locations on our Curious Minds Possum Project.   The results to start with, appear to be very positive.   This is with the new sound profile that is being used - our sound lures are remaining during the day and activating at night when the solar panel detects a lowering of the light level.

When this occurs the computer controlling the device starts to operate with the unit emitting a variety of possum sounds which are played at one minute interval.   We have Browning Trail Cameras located to record the interactions with animals at both the locations with and without the sound lures.   This is providing invaluable data as to what is happening at these locations, as instead of the traps providing 'capture' or kill data we can assess the importance or value of the sound lures (or otherwise).    

At our first farm deployment in September.    While the non-sound lure site has remained constant and included 17 pest animals during the course of a month.   On the sound lure site the rat version of the soundlure saw numerous levels of rat activity (and five removals).  There were numerous possum activations, although these tended to be singular and in passing.    Moving the sound lure onto the top of the box resulted in eight Possum activiations during a week.   Following this we removed the sound lure from the locations but kept the cameras in place to monitor activty - this resulted in significant reduced possum activity.   Instead of seeing eight possums in a week in the following two weeks four possums were sited.  Basic mathematics expected us to see four possums and it was half that - there was also a significant relative number of change in activations.   While this is a pleasing indication it should be acknowledge that this is a small sample size and we need to continue to deploy at this location and monitor the results of what we are going to be able to record.

At the second location on another local farm which has just started results have already been significant between the sound lure and non sound lure location.   At the non sound lure site during a two week period there were thirty eight activations from seven possum activations.   At the sound lure site on the same farm there have been thirty three possums recorded during a four day time frame and a hundred activations.   Again these results need to be viewed in the context of the length of time that the data is being gathered this is a small sample of a long term project to track these results.   We will continue to publish and update these results as they are collected.