Published on 03 March 2022

New habitat for local wildlife

Finding the right home or moving house can be tough for anyone. Thankfully, a new City of Onkaparinga program is making the job a bit easier for some of the region’s winged, scaly and furry friends.

Council’s Habitat Creation Pilot Program kicked off in late 2021 and it has seen artificial hollows and wildlife nesting boxes installed at reserves in Aberfoyle Park, Darlington, Morphett Vale and Old Reynella (see locations below) to help the region’s native wildlife to thrive.

Onkaparinga Now is shining a spotlight on the program to coincide with World Wildlife Day, a UN-observed day that raises awareness of the world’s wild animals and plants.

The theme of World Wildlife Day for 2022 is ‘Recovering key species for ecosystem restoration’, which aligns with council’s pilot program and much of its wider nature conservation work.

City of Onkaparinga Nature Conservation Project Officer Nikola Manos says the new habitat structures were installed in late 2021.

“They were specifically designed and oriented to target species known to use hollows and thought to exist in the area, but perhaps not in great numbers,” she explains.

“The birds or other wildlife you see all time are probably not the ones that need our help. The ones that are disappearing from the landscape often struggle to find a safe place to breed, move between isolated habitat patches or find enough food and shelter.

“More than 300 of Australian native animals use tree hollows and many of these are threatened or in decline because of changes in land use. A range of hollow types, including fallen trees, is also important for many ground-dwelling animals such as echidnas, bandicoots and lizards.

“Our project aim is to trial different habitat creation measures, including deliberately placing habitat logs (also known as ‘log hotels’) on the ground, increasing plant diversity, installing wildlife boxes, and creating artificial hollows in dead, standing trees.

“The decisions about which species to target were guided by bird surveys we’ve commissioned or carried out, and it’s hoped the new habitats will provide homes for a range of animals, including parrots, kookaburras, pardalotes, bats and lizards.

“We engaged a specialist contractor, fauNature, who worked in partnership with qualified arborists to create the new habitat structures, and we also planted more than 1500 local native seedlings to provide additional food and shelter across the four sites.”

The program was made possible with funding from the federal government’s Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment’s Communities Environment Program, and this also helped fund the bird surveys and community education and workshops.

“We installed two interpretive signs in Aberfoyle Park and Old Reynella, which feature technical information about the program and a fun and engaging ‘log hotel’ illustration to appeal to all age groups,” Nikola says.

“We’ve also held several community workshops—guided by Edge Environment urban ecologist and fauna survey expert, Dr Jenni Garden—to help build the skills and confidence of residents interested in bird watching.

“They’re now able to record their observations via citizen science tools(PDF, 602KB), which will help us monitor the effectiveness of the improved habitats.”

Nikola says it could take up to two years before there’s evidence of the nesting boxes and hollows being used, but she’s hopeful the program will see an increase in native wildlife across the four sites soon.

Each artificial habitat has been mapped, numbered and registered with council so they can be regularly inspected to monitor their use and undertake maintenance and repairs.

“I can’t wait to be able to publish some photos of cute and fluffy baby birds or possums or even some resident micro-bats,” she says.

Next time you’re passing through one of the reserves, see if you can spot the new habitat structures and whether anyone has moved in.

Reserve locations

• Pine Reserve, Pine Drive, Aberfoyle Park
• Pimpala Conservation Reserve, Farnsworth Drive, Morphett Vale
• Cameron Avenue Creek Conservation Area, Cameron Ave, Darlington
• Gladys Reynell Reserve, corner Concord Drive and States Road, Old Reynella

For more information on City of Onkaparinga’s nature conservation work and how you can get involved or attract local wildlife at home, visit council’s website.