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Boxes give wildlife safe place to nest

9 April 2008

Birds are already taking up residence in the boxes.

Students from the School of Applied Sciences and Engineering at the Gippsland campus will get hands-on experience monitoring the nesting habits of local wildlife thanks to a unique collaboration with Facilities and Services.

In the past few weeks staff from Facilities and Services have installed 48 nesting boxes in various wooded areas.

The boxes have been specifically designed to suit various bird and mammal species such as bats, bush-tailed and ring-tailed possums, sugar gliders, owls, lorikeets, rosellas, large parrots and smaller birds such as pardalotes.

The students will establish records of the use of the nesting boxes. A purpose built inspection camera will help with the monitoring.

Senior Lecturer in Biological and Environmental Sciences Dr Wendy Wright said many native Australian birds and mammals were dependant on hollows in trees for shelter and for rearing their young.

Students try out the purpose built inspection camera.

"Unlike the woodpeckers of Europe and America, our native animals do not create their own hollows," Dr Wright said.

"Instead, the hollows form naturally as trees age and are exposed to extremes of temperature, wetting and drying cycles, wind, fire and lightning.

"However, hollows take time to form and so they only really occur in older trees. This means that recently revegetated areas, even those designed for conservation of biodiversity, are often lacking in this important resource for wildlife."

Dr Wright said the joint project was a great opportunity for students in the Environmental Management program to be involved in a long-term ecological monitoring project.

"This is a collaborative project between an academic unit and Facilities and Services and will allow students to get hands-on experience," Dr Wright said.

"While nesting boxes are no substitute for old growth vegetation, it's great to see some provision being made for wildlife on our regional campus."