Id like to acknowledge the Bunurong and the land I've lived my whole life on, pay respect to elders from the past, present and emerging. The land of the Koem. (Kangaroo, known for its big boomers as the big males were called by the colonisers)
In May 2018 Virginia and I (Mark) started counting and recording our local mob. We were curious about seasonal fluctuations in numbers, short term variations and particularly long term trends.
So three years of records have been transcribed from a note pad to spreadsheets. One day we will upload that to Inaturalist along with other peoples historical data. Exactly how and when can be determined by our Wildlife Action Group so keep your old records no matter what form they are in. We are using Inaturalist now for all new entries and am loving the application and its features. Record any species you can, join the Mornington Peninsula Biodiversity Project as well as the Mornington Peninsula Kangaroo Count
Our mob is on private land that is not ours, it's currently owned by someone who seems happy to have the mob move through the landscape as they have done for millennia. Our small bushland property and the land the mob congregates on are adjacent to Greens Bush. Of course we get visited by a small number of females and their joeys and the occasional male or two courting a female. Also we had the amazing experience of being involved in the soft release of several kangaroos that had been rescued by wildlife carers, this young mini mob eventually joined our local mob and we still get visits.
Our mob counting for three years now has fluctuated dramatically, after counting a few times, particularly with another person at first to corroborate numbers, you get better and reasonably accurate. We realised that guessing would overestimate numbers, a guess would be say a mob of 100, an actual count would reveal about 45. So our mob has peaked at 70 in October 2020 and 70 again in November 2020. Looking through the numbers 50 seems to be the peak mob gathering and often the number is about a dozen or so.
We count several times a week from our car whenever we go to and from our property. Counting would be best at dawn and dusk at regular places and times in relation to sunrise and sunset. But any observation is better than none. Using Inaturalist means observations can be filtered for times, seasons and locations. This information can then be compared to weather information, landscape changes and other management practices.
Get out and count your mob, wouldn't we all love to know what was happening historically. Ive just finished reading 'I Succeeded Once' The Aboriginal Protectorate on the Mornington Peninsula, 1839-1840 Marie Hansen Fels. Don't underestimate the value of records, they can be all we have to remember what once was and what could be.
Mark
