A Guide to living with local wildlife Meet The Locals!
Living on your bush block will bring you closer to the wild locals. You will get to know their habits quite well, as they will get to know yours.
Hepburn Wildlife Shelter is on Dja Dja Wurrung Country. ‘In the spirit of reconciliation, we acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their Elders past and present We also acknowledge and respect the diversity of wildlife that has occupied these lands for millennia.
About This Guide
Chances are you are sharing your garden and home with many other locals - kangaroos and wallabies, koalas, wombats, an array of birds, tiny bats, echidnas, lizards and a myriad of insects. Their home is your home too.
Animals see our gardens and homes as parts of their habitat. If there is shelter to be found, or food on offer, they will roost in your roof and feast on your fruit tree as part of their daily routines. You have become an integral part of their habitat, so living in harmony with the locals requires some understanding of their habits.
A Habitat is a collection of localised resources that support survival.
A Habit is a behaviour that is repeated regularly
This guide aims to give you an idea of the challenges wildlife face by having to share their homes with us. We will ask you the occasional question (?) and encourage you to have a think about them. We hope to inspire you to get out in your garden and property to see what the locals get up to. The benefits of making the effort to live in harmony with our wild neighbours may surprise you. The results will certainly delight you.
What habits and habitats do you share with other animals?
Contents
Habitats - it’s all about home!!
Life’s daily challenges
How is wildlife habitat protected on private property
legislation, fire protection
All the stuff that makes a home
leaf litter, large trees, continuous habitat, water
Gardens as sanctuaries
Safety (the need for a roof)
Habits ours & theirs
Tidy vs Mess
debris, fencing, firewood, keeping it messy
Netting food trees
Chemical use
Pets
Lighting & Noise
What’s in the roof?
Life’s daily challenges
The habits of Wildlife are not so different to ours. Everyday they seek food, water, shelter and company. Like us, they often have to travel across the landscape to find these things and, like us, they often use the same path ways that are familiar to them.
As roads are widened, fences are raised, trees are pulled down for development, and large areas of forest are frequently burnt, wildlife must travel further and further distances across open ground, roads and back yards, seeking the things they need to survive. They are extremely vulnerable.
Imagine if you were to go down to your local grocery store and had to negotiate everything this koala does to get to their food.
How many barriers and dangers does this koala need to negotiate? Can you see any of these barriers in the area you live?
How is habitat protected on your property
According to federal and state governments, and local councils, any bush, native trees, woodland or native grassland on your property is known as ‘native vegetation’. This is native habitat, and as such is protected in a number of ways, including legislation.
There may also be other significant habitat on your property that is not ‘native’ and so is not protected by legislation and other voluntary schemes. If you choose to remove non - native vegetation, such as blackberries or pine trees, it is important to understand how and who is using them for their habitat, and often for their survival. You may be able to put weed removal and native replacement plans in place to minimise the impact. ?
As a property owner YOU are the most effective agent in the protection of Habitat and looking out for the wild locals.
Legislation
The Victorian State Government has regulations in place for the removal of native vegetation. These regulations are administered through the local council.
Do you know the different habitats on your property and who uses them?
Voluntary Schemes
Land for Wildlife is a state run wildlife conservation program that assists people in conservation and restoration of habitat. It does not alter the legal status of your property but provides lots of great assistance and advice.
If you wish to provide more permanent protection to the habitat values of your property, you can arrange for Conservation Covenant to placed on the property. The Trust for Nature will work with you on this.
Fire Protection
The very first thing that you need to ask yourself is “Is a bush block really for me?” If you are very worried about the prospect of bush fires you will not enjoy summer in the bush. If your worry means that you are willing to radically alter the bush on and beyond the boundaries of your property, then wild locals will not be enjoying themselves either.
Please consider balancing the needs of wildlife with the need to prepare your property for fire.
Leaf litter
Otherwise known as the metropolis of the small, all the leaves and twigs on the ground form vital habitats that are essential to the health and survival of the natural environment.
Leaf litter helps to keep the soil moist, which is great for the plants and fungi. The more fungi and plants, the more insects. The more insects, the more small carnivorous marsupials, echidnas, birds and lizards.
How many different critters can you identify in this picture? Do you have anywhere on your property for them to set up house?
All the stuff that makes a home
You may need to keep an area around your house free of leaf litter for fire protection, but leave as much as you can on the rest of your property undisturbed.
Caution: Piles of raked up leaf litter and garden debris will become home to animals such as echidnas, frogs, insects and lizards. Disturb your leaf litter piles before you burn them.
Logs on the ground
Dead logs on the ground are habitat. Large logs on the ground with central hollow areas have local real estate values as high as standing hollow bearing trees.
Dead trees on the ground are often used as firewood, and the resulting loss of this ground habitat is considered to be a significant conservation issue.
Logs on the ground provide moist, cool places in the summer and protect small creatures from predators and fire. As they decay, termites set up home and provide food for echidnas, birds, insects, soil and fungi.
Large old trees
Large old trees are loved by all the wild locals. They are apartments, supermarket and water bowl all in one shady location.
Under the bark and between the crevices of these old trees is a world little seen by us.
Over 300 vertebrate animal species in Australia need hollows in trees, not to mention all the insects and spiders. The value of old trees can not be over stated. Sadly they are now rare in the landscape.
Because the wild locals are so diverse, so are their needs for different sizes and shapes of hollows. Once a suitable hollow is found by an animal, they will return to it year after year for nesting. Many small mammals, such as possums and gliders, require multiple hollows - some for winter, some for summer! Some animals like to move regularly so they don’t attract the notice of predators and some hollows just need to be vacated to let the insect cleaners do their jobs.
Shallow hollows along the branches form little drinking cups for small mammals, frog and insects.
Even after they have died old trees are valuable. Known as stag trees, they bear wonderful hollows for nesting and great
It takes more than our lifetime for a tree to form a hollow.
Do everything you can to protect these important giants. Speak to an arbourist about keeping the tree safe and healthy rather than removing it. If the tree is standing alone you can help protect it by planting some trees or bushes to screen it from adverse weather. Avoid excavations and buildings that will damage the roots.
How will you protect the old trees on your property? ?
Continuous Habitat
A continuous habitat is an unbroken corridor of trees and shrubs that connect your single old tree, or an ‘island’ of a few trees, to each other or to a larger forest area. Small animals risk their lives to cross open ground such as roads, paths and paddocks. Wildlife must move across the landscape to find the resources they need and providing them with a bit more protection would be well appreciated.
Have a look about your property to see where you can plant trees and shrubs that will connect patches of habitat to each other. If you have a creek line this is a good place to connect things to. Remember to plant all sizes of shrubs and trees. Use plants that have fire retardant properties closer to the house.
Resources for habitat gardening
There are some great resources to help you to garden for wildlife and design gardens with native plants. There are likely to be Gardens for Wildlife groups near you that can provide you with lots of tips and direct you to nurseries that sell locally indigenous plants.
Check out Gardens for Wildlife
This book is a great place to start planning how you can adapt or create a garden that the wildlife will love. This book is available at Paradise book store in Daylesford Hepburn Shire Council also lists local plants and where to buy them.
Australian Planting Design by Paul Thompson.
Wildlife on Farms by Andrew Claridge
Water
Everybody needs water; from the tiniest insect to the largest kangaroo. Some animals, such as koalas, Ringtail Possums and Greater Gliders, extract most of their water needs from the moisture in the leaves of the trees. As the forests dry during summer, these animals need to come down from the trees to find water. Most animals need to move across the landscape in search of water and moist grounds. Even insects, snakes and lizards will make the journey to the edge of dams for a drink.
There are a few things you can do to make it easier for the many wild locals to find a drink.
Place shallow bowls of water filled with marbles or pebbles on the ground so insects can drink without drowning.
Put a long stick in all the water bowls and troughs so that insects, birds and small animals can climb out.
Plant shrubs and bushes to create cool micro climates where ground will be damp for longer. ?
Where can the wildlife find water in your garden?
Put the sprinkler or hose on in the evening so the foliage of low trees and shrubs is sprinkled with water drops. The insects will be grateful! Keep water bowls for cats and dogs separate from water for wildlife.
Don’t fence dams off from wildlife or build fences across water. Wildlife has to get under, over or through these obstacles. Wildlife are frequently caught in fences and are consequently injured and killed.
Place water baths in shady, protected areas that pets can’t get to.
Make sure there are some protected areas right up to the edge of dams or ponds so small animals can approach safely.
? Can wildlife drink safely on your property?
Your property as a wildlife sanctuary
The habits of the wild locals are predictable; which is great because it means you have a chance to plan things to accommodate them. Believe me, it will make life easier in the long run.
Wild animals, such as kangaroos, wallabies and wombats, follow the same paths within their territories. They lay down tracks with their feet like we lay down roads with a dozer. Many tracks will be subtle but many are also easily recognizable.
?
As you drive along the road, can you see the paths on the sides where animals cross the road?
When it comes to laying down garden beds or putting up sheds,
Putting a fence across a wombat pathway wont stop the wombat, but it will damage your fence. Wildlife MUST be able to move across their habitats to survive. Your fence is a structure that wildlife have no choice but to try to get over or through, to reach feeding grounds, water and roosting sites.
Wildlife friendly fencing
Before you erect a fence think about what you need. Do you need to fence the entire property of just the house yard? If you do decide to erect a fence think about a fence design that will serve your purpose and also allow movement of wildlife along their local pathways.
Build gates at wildlife paths to allow wildlife access and keep your fences intact. You can build them for kangaroos as well.
Do not use barbed wire.
Sadly many animals catch themselves on barbed wire and this often results in serious injury and death.
Kangaroo mums with heavy joeys in the pouch often catch themselves on barbs and tear their pouch muscle. Birds, bats and gliders can become horribly entangled and can not escape the fence.
Do not underestimate the trouble your fence will cause.
Wildlife
friendly
netting
Fruit tree netting is a leading cause of death of Grey Headed Flying Foxes in Victoria. Birds and snakes are also commonly caught in netting. To protect wildlife from fruit tree netting, new provisions have been introduced under Victoria’s Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Regulations. The new provisions came into effect from 1 September 2021 and require that any netting used to protect household fruit trees, vegetable gardens or other fruiting plants must have a mesh size no greater than 5mm x 5mm at full stretch.
If you can poke your finger through the net it is not the right net!
Netting on trees need to be hung properly to avoid bat and bird casualties. Netting laying on the ground can entangle snakes and lizards too.
For great advice on wildlife friendly fencing and netting go to the Wildlife Friendly Fencing web site.
Protecting plants from wildlife
Our exotic gardens are invitations to dine. Given that we have taken up so much habitat space and removed so many food resources for wildlife, it seems only fair that we learn to share a little.
Consider sacrificing or deliberately planting some tasty treats for the wildlife. Leave some berries and fruit for the birds and protect the rest for yourselves.
Keep food trees that birds and possums will try to use away from objects that can entrap or cause injury, such as dangerous fencing.
?
Is your plant protection safe for wildlife?
It’s common for newly placed plants and pots to be pushed over and ‘calling cards’ to be left as a message to you. This is polite in the animal world. Eventually your wild neighbours will come to accept your decorations but it may take a little patience on your part.
Removing
large areas of weeds
There are consequences for wildlife even when restoring habitat.
Weeds and introduced species, such as Blackberries and pine trees, have become habitats and important food resources for many wild locals as they have adapted to life in an altered landscape.
Prickly, dense weeds provide excellent protection for small birds to roost and nest.
Plan to remove weeds in stages and then replace them with natives before, or as you clear.
Try not to remove weeds in spring when birds are nesting or when the plant is fruiting.
Removing
other ‘stuff’
The Blackberry bush provides great protective habitat for small birds. Wallabies and even wombats will make hides and burrows in blackberries. The fruit is sweet and nutritious and many wild animals have come to depend on this seasonal food resource.
Lizards, frogs, snakes and insects shelter in the moist, dark places under anything on the ground. Microbats squeeze themselves into the narrow cracks of old wooden fence posts. Tiny Spotted Pardalote tunnel into compost heaps to build nests in spring. Echidnas burrow into piles of leaf litter and can even stash their puggles there.
Move things with caution, especially in spring when most animals are nesting or laying eggs. If possible give the locals a little time to move away from their disturbed homes. Think about providing them with new suitable habitat nearby by that you will all enjoy. A rock garden perhaps or a water feature with lots of great ground cover and hollow logs.
Collecting firewood
Dead logs that are on the ground are very important habitat and are increasingly scarce in the landscape. This is considered to be a significant conservation issue.
Larger logs with central hollow areas should be left alone and it is also preferable to leave logs that are 30cm or larger in diameter so that they can develop ground hollows.
When cutting firewood check carefully for hollows and signs of habitation, including insects, and allow animals time to leave logs. Pull bark away from logs so that insects have time to vacate.
During fire (including burn off) the larger logs provide refuge for small wildlife.
Tiny animals like Feathertail
Gliders are often found in wood piles amongst the logs that were once called home.
Small animals, such as insects and bats live under bark. Don’t let them end up in your fire place like this little microbat. He sustained burns to his face and ears before She was rescued from the flames.
Chemicals, baits and sticky traps.
Insecticides are having enormous impact on the habitats of all life. Insect life is now in decline across the planet and many animals, such as birds, lizards and dasyurids, can become very ill and die from eating insects killed from insecticides. Plants and crops are left unpollinated because there are not enough pollinating insects anymore; insecticides are polluting water bodies which impacts all aquatic life.
Use insecticides with caution and restraint
They key to controlling pest insects is diversity. A healthy garden is one full of spiders and bugs and small animals.
Sticky traps can be a terrible hazard to birds and bats if placed in the wrong spot. Many birds and bats will try to catch insects caught on the paper and become stuck themselves. Unable to free themselves, they will die.
A single microbat can eat 1000 mosquitoes a night.
Are the insects at home enemies or your friends?
Many birds of prey eat carrion. Owls, like this poorly Barn Owl, prey on rats and mice.
Rats and mice that are either unwell from eating baits, or have died in the open, are often consumed by owls. The poison that killed the rats and mice will go on to poison and kill the bird that eats them.
Baits are also consumed by native animals, such as Possums, Phascogales, Quolls, Bandicoots, Antechinus and wallabies.
Resources
More on the effects of rodenticides on birds of prey
Integrated pest management
Great information on pesticides from the American EPA.
A guide to safe solutions for pest control
Lighting
Wildlife have evolved to eat, sleep, hunt, migrate and even when to reproduce under the guidance of the night skies.
Some animals are instinctively drawn towards light, and other animals will not cross paths of light because they are in danger of being preyed upon. Wildlife is sensitive to extremely faint light signals, such as moonlight and even starlight.
Light sources can affect animals many kilometers away, (or deep under water).
Nearly half of all species start their “daily” activities at sundown.
Lights affects the health and ability of wildlife to carry out their necessary nocturnal activities.
Drive slowly at night –
Native mammals are blinded and disoriented by streetlights and headlights.
Light pollution can harm night hunters such as birds and insect eating bats. Bats emerge around sunset to feed – artificial light delays feeding because resting bats do not notice night fall.
How you can help
Use light only if it is needed
Don’t light up habitat patches, dark refuge sites and connecting corridors.
Preserve canopy and understorey vegetation to provide dark refuges and corridors for mammals.
Direct outdoor lighting downwards and use shielding to reduce light spill into nearby habitat.
Use timers, sensors and dimmers to keep light use to a minimum in areas near habitat.
Pets
Living in the bush means that the locals will be passing through your pets’ territory. The only way to protect everyone is to keep your pets and wildlife separate. You are responsible for keeping your dogs and cats away from wildlife, even in your back yard.
Your beautiful dogs and cats are still predators and the will attack wildlife given the opportunity. Allowing your dogs and cats to roam will result in injury and death to wildlife.
Your dogs and cats deserve to enjoy the fresh air and laze in the sun. There are a few easy things you can do to keep every one safe.
Keep cats and dogs enclosed n purpose built enclosures or in your fenced garden area.
Make sure your pets are enclosed at night when most mammals are moving around.
Place wooden logs up against fences so that koalas can escape quickly.
Allow wildlife time to move out of your yard by putting your pets inside. Keep water and food bowls well away from areas where lizards, birds and small animals can access them.
Provide habitats for small animals for protection and safe access to water.
Don’t empty litter trays into the compost or bush - cat faeces can spread toxoplasmosis to wildlife
The nature of cat and dog bite
A quick bite from a dog, even a small dog, can cause very significant tissue damage and bruising. The teeth do not need to puncture the skin to cause a very serious injury. There is significant crushing force in a dog bite. Penetrating dog teeth will drive bacteria into wounds. These wounds are difficult to treat.
Cat bites also have a significant crushing effect, but they also have needle like teeth that can penetrate tissue and drive bacteria deep into wounds. Punctures from cat teeth can close over quickly and go unnoticed.
Although an animal may appear to be OK after a cat or dog attack it must be checked by a vet or an experienced wildlife rehabilitator - if it can be caught.
The shock and trauma of being attacked by a cat or dog, or even chased by a dog, is enough to kill many animals.
Joeys in pouches, or clinging onto mums’ back, are often dropped when mum is being chased.
Have your dogs properly trained not to chase wildlife, or to attack snakes and lizards.
Dog attack
Cat attack
Injured Wildlife
How do you know if an animal is in trouble?
An animal that doesn’t move away from you when you approach is likely to be in trouble.
If you can see blood, a broken bone or limping, they will need help.
An animal that has been hit by a car, caught in a fence, twine or netting, attacked by a cat or dog needs immediate attention.
Any animal that has been orphaned needs immediate attention.
Stop and check animals laying on roadsides. ALL marsupials have pouches. If they have a big cross on them they have already been checked for pouch young. Joeys can be alive in a dead mother’s pouch, sometimes for days. Check up and down the road in case joeys have been thrown out of the pouch.
Never attempt to raise orphaned wildlife or look after injured wildlife yourself. Not only is it illegal, but these animals may have injuries and needs that you are not aware of. Wildlife often requires veterinary attention, specialised diets and species appropriate housing.
If you find an injured animal..
Call for help
Warriors for wildlife - 1300 352 923
Wildlife Victoria - 8400 7300
Central goldfields wildlife rescue - 0499 654 950
Injured or orphaned wildlife are often in shock and pain; they will be terrified of you. Do not mistake easy handling as calm. If not handled quietly and respectfully YOU CAN KILL THEM.
• If the animal is on the road make sure it is safe to stop; put your hazard lights on.
• Approach the animal quietly and cover (especially the head) with a blanket, towel, sheet, shirt.
• If the animal moves away do not chase it. Call for help.
• If you cannot stay with the animal while help is on the way, tie a marker to a nearby tree or post that will be visible from the road.
• If picking up or transporting the animal keep handling to an absolute minimum.
• Do not pet or talk to the animal.
• Switch the radio off in the car or put animals in a quiet room
• Do not allow children to handle wildlife.
• Do not try to feed or give water to the animal other than a bowl placed near by.
• Birds can be placed in a box with a towel at the bottom.
• Check pouches and accident zones for joeys
Meet the Locals has been written and prepared by the Hepburn Wildlife Shelter. We would like to acknowledge Tanya Loose and Koala Connect for their contribution to the original pamphlet.
Hepburn
Wildlife Shelter