Western Shield — Camera Watch

Western Shield is a government funded conservation project that is dedicated to managing introduced predators, primarily foxes and cats, that threaten native wildlife in Western Australia. The program has been in operation in Western Australia since 1996 and in that period the program has been largely responsible for the recovery and return of a number of Western Australia's small to medium size mammals and birds. Species that have benefited from the program include the woylie, quenda, numbat, black-flanked rock-wallaby and chuditch. However, although Western Shield has been successful in controlling foxes, foxes continue to come into our unfenced but managed areas from surrounding lands. Feral cats can also have a significant impact on our native fauna. In some areas such as Kalbarri we have implemented operational feral cat baiting in others we are still working out how best to manage this problem species.

Western Shield is committed to improving our management programs to ensure the ongoing survival of our precious wildlife. As such, it is important to the program to understand if our management is successful and where it may not be working. Monitoring the numbers of predators and native species in different areas is good way to see how populations respond to management. In order to implement adaptive management it is vital we understand how the fox and cat populations respond to management and also to understand if the native species we are trying to protect are flourishing or failing.

Staff from the Department of Biodiversity and Conservation have established automated wildlife cameras in areas which are managed to control foxes and/or feral cats and in areas which have never had any fox or feral cat control (treatments). Comparing the number of sightings of feral cats, foxes and native wildlife in different treatments will help us to understand the impact of the management program. We may also be able to see how quickly foxes and feral cats return to an area after baiting. By watching the native animals we also get an understanding of what species survive with foxes and feral cats still in the area.

We currently manage foxes over an area encompassing 3.8 million hectares of Western Australia, incorporating land from the South-coast, right through to the Pilbara to the north. The images you see come from a variety of areas in the state. With the information we collect from this project we hope to improve our fox and feral cat management and ensure our native species thrive and we hope the volunteers on Zooniverse can help us along the way.