At Deployment Site One we have repeated trialing variations of our Possum Sound Lure. This location is distinct from the data gathering locations where we are maintaining consistent set ups to record the effectiveness of the lures. One of the latest uses is bringing flashing LED lights into the equations
One of the other questions that we have begun investigating is the sound lure acting as a deterrent at locations where it is being deployed, based on the sounds that might be playing and the volume level. Our current set ups are involving 4w/8ohm speakers working in conjunction with the lure.
When viewing recent footage shown by trail cameras monitoring a DOC200 trap there have been less than expected activations at the key site.
We made a decision to return to using a rat box, which considerably muffles the sound - to see if this would have a positive effect on the number of activations as rats were particularly absent from the images. Within the first two days of using the rat box again, after a week of using a DOC200, without general activations, there now have been two consecutive nights with a total of 64 activations, which is more in line for what we were expecting for this time of the year.
In particular of note on the second of two nights there was repeated possum activity targetting the box. From 9:42pm until 1:20am we saw five seperate visits to the location of the box in a series of images from brush tailed possums. One clearly appeared to knock the box over and at least three seperate occasions possums or the possum if singular appear to try and enter the box. This is particularly significant as the trap had peanut butter in it which had been baited the previous week had not been replaced and was not fresh, the only change with the trap was the replacing of the unit inside a rat box instead of a DOC200. We are going to monitor this location over the next few nights to see if the same kinds of activations and details occur and will note it for further reference.
No comments:
Post a Comment