to our Myrtleford Landcare Threatened Species Mosaic Trail. This trail is a component of the “Piecing together our threatened species” project undertaken by Myrtleford & District Landcare and Sustainability Group.
We hope you love it as much as we do.
Please click on the link below to see the mosaic trail map.
This exciting project has been the collaboration between many partners, including our communities’ ideas and suggestions which has resulted in what you will see today - Myrtlefords newest mosaic trail.
VICTORIAN THREATENED SPECIES
Like most places in Australia, our local biodiversity is constantly changing. We sometimes see biodiversity increases, like in “good” years, and biodiversity can be reduced by threats which results in population decline and concern for species existence across our whole living environment. Locally there is a real threat that in the future we may not have Turquoise Parrots feeding on our grasses, Lace Monitors swaggering across the road and Barking Owls, scaring us in the night with the sound of a screeching woman outside.
Many threatened species are impacted by the same threatening processes. We can generalize specific species into groups that suffer from the same threatening processes.
Greater Glider (Petauroides volans)
SOME ADDITIONAL THREATS INCLUDE
Turquoise Parrot (Neophena pulchella)
The Long-footed Potoroo has grey-brown fur that is paler on the underside. It has large hind-feet. They grow to an approximate body length of 40 cm, a tail length of about 32 cm and weighs between 1.6 - 2.2 kg.
The Long-footed Potoroo is a forest-dwelling rat-kangaroo which inhabits forest with a dense understorey. They feed almost exclusively on the fruiting body of specific fungi.
From the present distribution it seems unlikely that the total number of Long-footed Potoroos across all known sites would exceed a few thousand animals and may be no more than a few hundred.
The Turquoise parrot is predominantly green with more yellowish underparts and a bright turquoise blue face. Wing markings are mainly blue with red shoulders. The female is duller and paler and lacks the red wing patch. Turquoise parrots are a small slightly built parrot around 20 cm long and 40 g in weight.
Found in grasslands and open woodlands dominated by Eucalyptus and Callitris trees, the turquoise parrot feeds mainly on grasses and seeds and occasionally flowers, fruit, and scale insects. It nests in hollows of gum trees. Much of its habitat has been altered and potential nesting sites lost.
The Crimson Spider Orchid is a ground orchid with a single, sparsely hairy leaf, and one or two hairy, dark purplish-red flowers.
This Orchid occurs in Box-Ironbark open forests on well drained, gravelly or stony sand and clay loam. It is known from two locations in Victoria near Beechworth and Chiltern. The main threats to its survival are habitat loss, weed invasion and grazing by livestock and rabbits.
The Stony Bush-pea is an erect shrub with narrow hairy leaves that are often crowded along branchlets and tapered to a long, sharp, fragile point with clusters of yellow pea flowers with red centres at the ends (Nov-Dec). It grows to 1 m tall and is characterised by fruits consisting of a flattened oval shaped pod.
As the name implies Stony Bush-pea occurs on rocky slopes dominated by dry open forest on shallow soils.
In Victoria, Stony Bush-pea is known in the wild from three localities, one being Reform Hill, Myrtleford. The Reform Hill population numbers more than 1500 plants and supplementary planting continue. .
The Barking owl, also known as the winking owl, is a brown nocturnal bird with white spots on the wings and has a streaked breast. Growing to a length of 35-45cm, a wingspan of 85-100cm and a weight of 425-510g.
They have a characteristic voice with calls ranging from a barking dog noise to a shrill human-like howl of great intensity.
Within Victoria the Barking Owl occurs in open woodlands and forests, as well as some foothill habitats on granitic slopes. The Barking Owl is the most threatened owl in Victoria. The primary threat in Victoria is the lack of hollow bearing trees in which to nest. Suitable nesting hollows do not form in Eucalypts until they are 150-200 years old.
The Spot-tailed Quolls striking fur is sandy to dark brown with irregular white spots covering the back, sides and extending down the tail, its stomach is cream to white. The Spot-tailed quoll is the largest of the quoll family, growing to 1.3 m in length (including tail) and weigh up to 7 kg, females are smaller.
The Spot-tailed Quoll is a distinctive marsupial carnivore eating birds, reptiles & mammals, and requires a den such as a hollow log, rocky crevice, cave, burrow, or tree hollow for survival.
The Eastern Barred Bandicoots fur is grey-brown to buff above, somewhat paler on the sides and pale grey to white below. They have three or four pale bars on the hindquarters. This small, ‘rabbit-sized’, terrestrial marsupial grows to approximately 300 mm in length (body) with a 110 mm long tail and weighs approximately 800 g.
EBB emerges from their nest at dusk to forage for a variety of invertebrates. During the day it rests in a grass-lined nest. EBB’s preferred habitat is native perennial tussock grasslands and grassy woodlands along watercourses.
The bush stone-curlew is a large ground-dwelling bird of grey-brown coloration with distinguished dark streaks, its eyes are large, and legs are long.
Their favoured habitat is open plains and woodlands, where they stalk slowly at night in search of invertebrates such as insects. They are capable of flight but rely on the camouflage of their plumage to evade detection during the day; the bush curlew will adopt a rigid posture when it becomes aware of an observer. Both sexes care for two eggs laid on the bare ground, usually sited near bush in a shaded position or next to a fallen branch.
Large-scale habitat destruction and fragmentation has undoubtedly been a factor in the fall of numbers and predation from introduced foxes & cats.
The Greater Glider typically has thick, dark grey-brown fur on its back and a cream-white furred belly and has large, distinctive furry ears. Some animals are much lighter in colouration. The largest Australian gliding mammal, the Greater Glider has a head and body length of 35-46 cm and a long, furry, tail measuring 45-60 cm and a weight range from 900-1700 g.
The greater gliders are solitary nocturnal herbivores feeding almost exclusively on Eucalyptus leaves and buds high in the forest canopy. During the day, they spend most of their time denning in hollowed trees, with each animal inhabiting up to twenty different dens within its home range.
The key threats to the Greater Glider are, habitat degradation, genetic decline associated with small, fragmented populations and the loss of hollow-bearing trees.
The Lace monitor or Tree goanna is a distinguished dark steel grey colour above with pale yellow or cream bands or rows of spots, their underside is cream. The jaws and snout are usually strongly barred with yellow and dark grey. Their tongue is long and forked like a snake. Monitors are the only lizards that have a forked tongue. The large lizard can reach 2 metres in total length and 14 kilograms in weight. The tail is long and slender and about 1.5 times the length of the head and body.
Much of their time is spent up large trees, although they usually come down to the ground to forage for food including birds, insects, bird eggs, reptiles and small mammals. They will readily feed on carrion, including road kills. They frequent both open and closed forests and forage up to 3 km a day.
Striped Legless Lizards base colour is a light brown and the longitudinal stripes are darker brown, they have ear holes, eyelids, a lizard tongue and a dislodged scale is all that remains of its legs. SLL are up to 30cms in length and are slightly thicker than a pencil. Most of its body is made up of a non-detachable tail.
All legless lizards are oviparous (egg- laying). The Striped Legless Lizard lays two eggs during spring and summer, and tenaciously hunts for spiders, crickets, moth larvae and cockroaches.
The Striped Legless Lizard is a grassland specialist, being found only in areas of native grassland and nearby grassy woodland and exotic pasture, they are sometimes found in grasslands with significant amounts of surface rocks, which are used for shelter.
Turquoise Parrot (Neophena pulchella)
Andrew R Jones Photography
A convergence of art, recycling and nature - take a walk to explore this evolving street art project in North East Victoria, discovering hidden mosaic treasures in unexpected places.
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Title image
The Eastern barred bandicoot mosaic
Andrew R Jones Photography
Long-footed Potoroo (Potorous longipes) Dave Watts / davewattsphoto.com
Eastern barred bandicoot (Perameles gunnii) By JJ Harrison (https://www.jjharrison.com.au/) - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=11051942
Striped legless lizard (Delma impar) https://museumsvictoria.com.au/media/12978/vic-stripedleglesslizard-large.jpg
Lace monitor (Varanus varius) Peter Firminger from Wollombi, Australia
Greater Glider (Petauroides volans) Josh Bowell
Bush stone curlew (Burhinus grallarius) JJ Harrison (https://www.jjharrison.com.au/) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Spot-tailed Quoll (Dasyurus maculayus) https://www.forestsandreserves.vic.gov.au/__data/assets/image/0024/437361/Quoll.jpg
Barking Owl (Ninox connivens) Julie Edgley - Flickr: Whoof? Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Genericl
Stony Bush-pea (Pultenaea lapidosa) Glen Johnson, DELWP Sept 2016
Crimson Spider Orchid (Caladenia concolor) Cathy Powers - https://biocache.ala.org.au/occurrences/a35330fb-e859-4fc1-9161-9550ad560210
Turquoise parrot (Neophema pulchella) JJ Harrison (https://www.jjharrison.com.au/) - Own work
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