New reptiles for Hamelin list

This Spring, Ben Parkhurst (Reserves Ecologist for the Mid-West) ran the annual small animal trapping survey at Hamelin Station Reserve.

Ben was joined by expert volunteers Brad Maryan and Gary Hearle, as well as Traditional Malgana Owners Bianca McNeair, Nykita McNeair and Rhodessa Oakley. Geraldton students from the Follow the Dream program also lent a hand to set up the traps and check them on the first morning.

The survey ran over a week and involved the hard slog of digging in pitfalls as part of the site set-up but the group was rewarded with a beautiful array of 24 reptile species!

Despite late winter rains and a relatively poor season the survey team was still able to add new species to the Hamelin species list. These included:

• the West-coast Banded Snake (Simoselaps littoralis),
• Blunt-tailed West-coast Slider (Lerista praepedita),
• Micro Slider (Lerista micra) and
• the Blinking Broad-blazed Slider (Lerista connivens).

Every year we’ll run trapping to keep an eye on the critters at Hamelin, particularly species like the Hamelin Skink (Ctenotus zastictus) ... the entire population of Hamelin Skinks is limited to Hamelin and a neighbouring property.

This year we trapped eight healthy Hamelin Skinks from sites all through the spinifex country at Hamelin so they seem to be doing well”.

Read about the Follow the Dream program that students experience at Hamelin Station Reserve.