A soft-walled double-layered trap for capture of swamp wallabies Wallabia bicolor.

Abstract

SINCE the development of soft-walled traps suitable for the capture of small to medium-sized macropodids (Kinnear et al. 1988; Pollock and Montague 1991), traps of similar design have been used to capture swamp wallabies (Wallabia bicolor) by a number of workers (Wood 2002; Ben-Ami 2005; Paplinska 2005; B Parker, pers. comm.). Although immobilising drugs delivered by syringe darts have also been used to capture W. bicolor successfully (Troy et al. 1992), this species is difficult to dart relative to other similar sized wallabies (Wood 2002), and once darted can be hard to find within its often densely vegetated habitat (Pollock and Montague 1991). The difficulty of locating drugged animals in dense vegetation or steep terrain also makes the use of bait laced with diazepam or alpha chloralose (e.g., Norbury et al. 1994) impractical. Other capture techniques, such as stunning and netting (e.g., Taggart et al. 2003) are also rendered ineffective due to the habitat selected by this species.

Spatial and temporal responses of swamp wallabies to roads in a human-modified landscape

“…We captured wallabies using two methods. Some were captured in purpose‐built double‐layered traps (Di Stefano et al 2005) set in the late afternoon, baited with carrots and checked the next morning. We sedated trapped wallabies with an intramuscular injection of Zoletil 100 (0.5 mg kg‐ 1 ) (Virbac Australia, Sydney).…”

Ecological specialisation in habitat selection within a macropodid herbivore guild

“…Both devices injected Zoletil (1:1 Zolezapam and Tiletamine) into the hindlimb muscle at a rate of 5 mg/kg. Induction of Zoletil was rapid (5 -10 min) resulting in immobilisation and anaesthesia for approximately 30 min, and full recovery within 2 h. We also captured red-necked and swamp wallabies using soft-walled double-layered traps described by Di Stefano et al (2005) and sedated them with Zoletil at the same dose rate. Once each macropodid was immobilised, we marked all adult macropodids with paired colour combinations of Allflex ear tags for identification at a distance.…”