Djurrubu Rangers and TNRM staff on Mirrar Country (Credit: Territory Natural Resource Management).

Territory Natural Resource Management (TNRM) ecologists have been working with Indigenous Ranger groups across the Arnhem Plateau Sandstone Shrubland Complex (more commonly known as the ‘Arnhem Land Stone Country’) combining First Nations knowledge and western science to survey for the white-throated grasswren and undertake threat management activities. 

On-Country planning discussions at the start of a trip are an important part of each survey. After a welcome to country, ecological staff explained the different survey methodologies to be used — in this instance camera trapping, bioacoustic audio recorders, and call playback surveys, and outlined what constitutes good habitat for the species. Rangers and Traditional Owners discussed suitable locations for the survey from their knowledge of Country, and ensured no pre-identified sites are within culturally sensitive areas. Everyone listened to the call of the grasswren to familiarise themselves with the sound before commencing the surveys at sunrise the next day.

Warddeken Rangers deploying a song meter to detect the yirlinkirrkirr (white-throated grasswren) (Credit: Donal Sullivan).

Territory Natural Resource Management (TNRM) ecologists have been working with Indigenous Ranger groups across the Arnhem Plateau Sandstone Shrubland Complex (more commonly known as the ‘Arnhem Land Stone Country’) combining First Nations knowledge and western science to survey for the white-throated grasswren and undertake threat management activities. 

Warddeken Rangers and ecological monitoring manager Cara Penton set up a TNRM bioacoustic audio recorder (‘song meter’) within the Warddeken IPA. TNRM staff supplied the equipment and training in the use of song meters and supported the Warddeken Rangers to deploy monitoring equipment. Warddeken Rangers, TOs and custodians chose sites based on their knowledge of good habitat and where Old People have seen the bird in the past, and are guided by a map of habitat niche modelling provided by TNRM. Song meters are left in situ for 4 – 6 weeks. Once retrieved, tens of thousands of hours of data are run through a semi-automated bioacoustic call recognition system created by Dr Kyle Armstrong for this project. The use of song meters and the call recognition system has enabled us to find the white-throated grasswren in sites where we did not detect them using other survey methods. Warddeken Land Management are using information from these surveys, coupled with cultural knowledge, to inform targeted fire management for the yirlinkirrkirr. They are protecting both known and potential white-throated grasswren sites, and helping create habitat connectivity through prescribed burning and fire suppression.

This piece has been extracted from an online gallery of images from Indigenous ecological practitioners around Australia. Images in this collection tell the stories of programs continuing, reviving and protecting the ecological practices and knowledge held by First Nations people for millennia – consult the full gallery here.