Tracking Tunnels

The Enviro Leaders made tracking tunnels to see what predators and other animals we have around the school. We also made chew cards to identify the pest bite marks.  We spent some time discussing what a predator is, what they do that may be harmful to our environment, how we find out if there are any at NLS, and what we could do about it.  There was lots of spirited discussion!

Making the tracking tunnels:
​We made tracking tunnels out of old real estate signs (thank you Harcourts!). We folded them into a triangular prism, taping them firmly.  They are fitted with a long slip of paper and and ink pad in the middle.  We baited the tracking tunnels with peanut butter to attract them.  The pests then walk over the ink pad and we can identify their footprints.

Chew Cards:
​We bent some coroflute and smeared peanut butter onto the card.   We nailed the chew cards onto the nearest tree by each tracking tunnel. The reason we did this is to identify the bite marks from the predators that try to get the peanut butter.

Laying the tracking tunnels:
​One lunch time while the seniors were at camp, Toni Watts helped us to lay the tracking tunnels around the school.  We laid them 50 metres apart and attached the chew cards on a tree beside them. We lay them along the fence lines and in the trees in the carpark as this is where we thought the predators would most likely be.

What we found:
​Using a trapping website, we carefully examined our tracking sheets and the footprints on them.  It was quite tricky to tell the difference between some of them!
We think we in our school grounds we have… possums, mice, lots of hedgehogs, and possibly cats, stoats and a skink!
We also found that a lot of rain washes the peanut butter off the chew cards.
We plan to repeat this next year when the weather is drier!