MAMMALS OF WILROY NATURE RESERVE

WA Museum Records and Supplements | Updated 9 years ago

Introduction: The mammal survey of Wilroy Reserve is part of an integrated survey of the vertebrates of the Western Australian wheatbelt involving some 25 reserves (Kitchener, 1976). Mammal surveys of 8 of these reserves have previously been published in reports cited in Dell (Introduction, this publication). In addition, surveys of two coastal areas near to the wheatbelt have been conducted for zoogeographic comparison (Kitchener & Chapman, 1975 and Chapman & Kitchener, 1977). At conclusion of these separate reports, information on each species will be summarised; therefore no attempt is made to record detailed measurements and summary observations on individual species in these interim reports.

Prior to our survey no information was available on the mammals of this Reserve. Our surveys were conducted between the following dates: 7-15 July 1975, 14-20 May 1976 and 20-26 September 1976. The annotated list below includes mammals sighted, and those collected and lodged in the Western Australian Museum. Registration numbers of those collected are as follows: M13739-13821 and M15433 (July), M14532-39, M14547-8 (May) and M15419-26 (September).

The types of traps, the manner of positioning small mammal traps as 'standard traplines' and the bait used are described in Kitchener & Chapman (1976). Sites where traplines were deployed are shown in Map 1 in Muir (this publication). The trapping effort is detailed in Appendix 1. The numbers of animals captured at each trapline are indicated in brackets. Weight was recorded for all specimens, and body measurements recorded for those specimens made into study skins. All females were dissected and their reproductive organs examined in situ.

Detailed descriptions of the vegetation, soil and litter at each trapline are presented in Muir (this publication). These data are summarised in Appendix 2.