Pobblebonk – Animals of the Maribyrnong River Estuary

BAT BOX PROJECT AT THE ORGAN PIPES NATIONAL PARK

Since November 1994 a group of volunteers, led by Natasha Schedvin, has monitored monthly a set of roost boxes for bats in the valley of Jackson’s Creek along the Maribyrnong River at the Organ Pipes National Park. The group started with 10 boxes which has risen to 40 and in that time have registered 7,500 bat captures of six species being recorded. The majority being Gould’s Wattled Bats. The bats have now been through 10 breeding seasons with the basic population growing from 35 in 1994-5 to over 200 now. The many people who have joined the project are learning much about the lives of bats which make up the majority of mammal species in Australia.

The people seen here in the background of this picture are capturing the micro bats nesting in this particular bat box. Every month the bats in every bat box are captured, identified, counted, monitored, weighed and then released after dark.