At night, the East Gippsland Spiny Crayfish comes out of its burrow home to explore the creeks and forest floor. It looks for food and starts building new burrows. Every night, it leaves its burrow, works on a new one, and then goes back home before the sun comes up. They only move out when their new burrow is ready.

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Their burrows can be long, deep, and twisty, with lots of chambers that go into the ground. They like living near the edges of forested streams, temporary streams, and swampy areas.

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Freshwater crayfish are super important for rivers, lakes, and streams!

They help keep everything balanced and healthy. They control the numbers of tiny water insects and invertebrates and eat things like dead plants, roots, and other plant material. They help keep their freshwater homes clean and healthy. If we take care of crayfish, we also help many other animals that need them and freshwater creeks to survive!

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The Biggest Danger to Spiny Crayfish

Spiny crayfish are in trouble because they are losing their homes, both in the ground and in the water. Their homes are being damaged in different ways, like: Less water in streams and underground. Plants and forest being removed from around streams. Bushfires. Soil being dug up or washed away. Mud covering their homes after heavy rain. Harmful chemicals in the water.

Warmer water because there’s no shade. Fewer leaves and sticks in the water, which crayfish need for food and hiding sots.

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How you can help

Taking care of and planting native plants and trees near rivers helps spiny crayfish stay safe and happy

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Big pieces of wood in the water help crayfish stay safe, and small bits of debris are food for them. Without these things, streams become bad places for crayfish to live When these things disappear, streams become less suitable for spiny crayfish to live in.

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East Gippsland Spiny Crayfish photo by Matt Clancy 

Little Terns are small seabirds that live near the coast and in estuarine (river) areas of Australia. Every year, they fly a long way from northern Australia and further afield to come to the Gippsland Lakes to build their nests and raise their chicks. Sadly many chicks don’t survive because their nesting areas get disturbed.

Little Terns eat small fish, insects, crustaceans and other invertebrates. They prefer to feed in shallow coastal water and sometimes hover before plunging into the water to catch prey.

Little Terns fly fast and they are noisy in breeding groups, where they perform aerial displays. The male calls and carries a fish to attract a mate, who then chases him up high before he descends, gliding with wings in a ‘V’.

Little Terns make their nests in a shallow dip in the sand on the beach, usually just above the high tide mark. They decorate their nests with bits of seaweed, sticks, shells, and small pebbles.

One of the biggest threats to Little Terns is disturbance at nesting places by human activity, including dogs off-leash. Nesting sites can be located on beaches where humans swim, walk, exercise dogs, picnic and drive off-road vehicles. Many of their eggs are accidentally stepped on by walkers or crushed by vehicles on beaches. Many Little Tern eggs and chicks are taken by dogs, foxes, and cats.

How you can help: Next time you are at a beach or estuary, watch where you are stepping, especially in sandy areas with lots of plants where a hidden nest might be easy to miss. If you find a nest, leave it alone! Keep your dog on a leash at beaches where shorebirds are nesting.

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Little Tern photo: JJ Harrison Wikimedia commons

Greater Gliders are the largest gliding marsupials in the world. They are about the size of a large fluffy cat and come in a different colours, from almost pure white, to grey to black and black and white. They need old forests and old trees that have large hollows for them to live in that are called dens.

Sound: Greater Gliders do not make any sounds, except a whoosh as they glide and they can glide up to 100 metres in a single glide and can change direction at 90-degree angles mid-flight. They steer by using their long tails.

Greater Gliders are marsupials (they have a pouch) and for the first three to four months of their lives, the baby Greater Glider stays in their mother’s pouch. Then, they ride on mum’s back for up to three more months.

Greater Gliders are threatened by: Fires, losing their old forest and hot nights. When the temperature at night is over 20 degrees they have trouble digesting their food and they can die from hunger if there are too many hot nights in a row.

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It can take up to 250 years for a eucalypt (a gum) tree to form a hollow big enough for a Greater Glider to live in (this is called a den) and they can use up to 18 den trees within their range. They have small home ranges of about 1-5Ha and they only eat the leaves of certain eucalypt trees.

Where Found: in forests of East Gippsland, such as the Colquhuon Forest near Lakes Entrance and Mt Alfred Forest north of Bairnsdale and other forests and National Parks in East Gippsland.

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Greater Gliderhoto: Third Silence Nature Photography

Spotted-tailed quolls are about the size of a cat and look cute with their pink noses and soft brown fur with white spots, but they have sharp teeth and claws, are good hunters and are mostly meat eaters (carnivores). Spotted-tailed quolls are mainly nocturnal (awake in the night-time) although they also hunt during the day.

Where Spotted-tailed Quolls live: They need really big areas of forest to roam in. They are very good climbers and they make their homes (dens) in rocky outcrops, small caves, hollow logs and hollows in old standing trees. They use their dens for shelter and to raise their babies that are called joeys. Spotted-tailed quolls are marsupials (they have a pouch for their babies). Quoll joeys are first carried in their mother’s pouch until they get too big and then they will ride on her back.

Spotted-tailed quolls are threatened by clearing forests and bush (they need big areas of forest to roam in), cars on roads where quolls have to cross, bushfires and foxes and feral cats who prey on them and their joeys and compete with them for food.

Since 2004 there have been only 26 confirmed sightings of Spotted-tailed quolls in Victoria.

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Spotted-Tailed Quoll photo: David Paul

​Goannas, also known as Lace Monitors are one of Australia’s largest lizards and can grow to over 2mtrs long. They have strong claws and powerful legs. They are dark grey to black in colour with cream or yellow scales forming bands and blotches or spots. There are usually black bars across the snout, throat and chin. The tongue is long and forked like a snake. Goannas are the only lizards that have a forked tongue.

What goannas eat: Goannas are predators and scavengers eating insects, small mammals, lizards, nestling birds, eggs and dead animals. After a large feed they can go for many weeks without eating.

The female Goanna lays from 6-12 eggs - usually in ant nests, particularly those found in trees. The female digs a hole on the side of the termite mound, lays the eggs and then leaves the termites to reseal the eggs inside the nest. She sometimes returns to the nest and opens it up with her strong claws to allow the baby Goannas to escape.

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Where found: Most of the time, Goannas are up fairly large trees. They forage on the ground but will climb a tree when disturbed. They are found in forests, tall woodlands and open tablelands and slopes.

Goannas are threatened by: Clearing and burning forests that destroy the termite mounds they lay their eggs in. The destruction of habitat features such as fallen trees and hollow logs, that they need. Goannas can die from eating a rat or a mouse that has eaten poison. Foxes and cats also eat young Goannas.

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Photo: Lisa Roberts

The Australian grayling is a fish that loves cool, clear rivers and streams with pools and gravel bottoms and flowing water. These fish travel a lot! Grayling swim downstream to estuaries where the river meets the sea to lay (spawn) their eggs, then swim back upstream to fresh water. Their babies start life drifting out to sea, moving between freshwater and the sea as they grow. Eventually, they move back up the river and this is where they stay until it’s spawning time again.

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What Grayling eat

Australian Grayling are omnivorous. They snack on tiny water insects, bits of water plants, and algae (the green stuff that grows in water).

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Grayling need clean flowing water

Grayling need flowing waterways to survive, so things like dams and barriers can make life really hard for them. Australian Grayling need big floods to help them lay eggs. If rivers don’t flood, especially in spring, the fish might not be able to spawn. The baby fish (larvae) need flowing water to carry them to the sea.

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Keep Trees and Plants Healthy for Fish

Taking care of plants and trees near rivers helps fish stay safe and happy. Keeping big trees and shrubs along the water makes great homes for fish. Trees and branches hanging over the river help stop the riverbanks from washing away, give fish places to hide, and keep the water cool and shady. Fish love that!

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Australian Grayling photo by Tarmo Raadik

​The Giant Burrowing Frog is a large, round, slow-moving frog that grows to about 10 cm long. It is a strong, powerfully built frog, with muscly back legs and enlarged lumps on their feet called so they can burrow really well.

What they eat: Giant Burrowing frogs eat mainly insects including ants, beetles, cockroaches, spiders, centipedes and scorpions. This frog is slow growing and lives for up to 10 years, maybe more.

Where found: When not in breeding season, the Giant Burrowing Frog spends most of its time up to 300 mtrs away from the creek. During this time, it burrows below the ground or in the leaf litter. Individual frogs occupy a series of burrow sites, some of which are used over and over again.

Giant Burrowing Frogs lay about 500-800 eggs at a time and the eggs are laid in burrows or under vegetation and dead leaves in small pools near creeks. After rains, tadpoles are washed into larger pools where they finish growing in pond areas of the creek.

Threatened by: Giant Burrowing Frogs are threatened by water pollution in creeks, by draining and damming creeks, by cutting down the forest and shrubs around creeks they need to live in, and cats and foxes who dig them up and eat them.

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Giant Burrowing Frog photo Brendan Casey

​Grey headed Flying foxes are called megabats and are one of the largest bats in the world. They navigate by their excellent sight and smell - not by sonar as microbats do.

What Grey-headed flying-foxes eat: Their favourite food is the nectar and pollen of flowering eucalypts, banksias and paperbark trees. They also eat rainforest fruit like lilly-pillies. They will also eat fruit from backyard trees when they are hungry, but it isn't as good for them, or provide them with as much energy as nectar and pollen.

Grey-headed flying foxes are a bit like giant long range bees, with over 100 native trees and shrubs depending on Grey-headed flying foxes for pollination and reproduction. They can fly up to 100kms a night.

Theatened by: Losing forests that they need to supply them with nectar and rainforest fruits all year round. Extreme heat during the day will kill them. They also need rainforest type jungles, often near water or a big river, to roost in in the day to protect them from very hot weather. They are also threatened by people wanting to cut down the trees they roost in during the day, as sometimes people think they are too noisy and smelly.

Where Found: You can see Grey-headed Flying-Fox colonies on the Mitchell River in Bairnsdale and at Sale, Maffra and Mallacoota. They come to Gippsland where there are lots of trees blossoming in the forests - like eucalypts, banksias and melaleucas and they move somewhere else when the blossom is gone.

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Grey-Headed Flying-Fox photo: Lisa Roberts

Powerful Owls are the biggest owls in Australia and they live mostly in the damp forests of eastern Australia. Powerful owls can grow up to 70 centimetres tall with a wingspan of up to 140 centimetres.

What Powerful Owls eat: Powerful Owls are carnivores (meat eaters) and their main food is possums, though large bats such as flying foxes are also often caught as wells as rabbits, rats and mice. Powerful Owls catch their prey using the sharp claws on their feet (called talons). They roost by day, perched in the dense shade of a tree, often with the previous night’s dinner held in their talons. Under the shade of a tree, in the daytime is where people most often see Powerful Owls.

Where found: Powerful Owls are found in old open forests and woodlands, as well as along sheltered gullies in wet forests with dense shrubs, especially along creeks. They will sometimes be found in open areas near forests such as farmland, parks and town areas, as well as in remnant bushland patches. They need very old hollow trees to make their nests in.

Powerful Owls live for over 30 years and mate for life. The male prepares the nest, which is usually a vertical hollow in a large old tree, and provides the female and the chicks with a constant supply of food during the early part of the nesting period.

The female sits on the eggs and broods the young, emerging later in the nesting period to hunt for food as well. Young birds remain with the parents for several months after fledging and may stay in their parents’ territory for over a year.

Threatened by: Powerful Owls need big areas of forest to support the animals they need to eat. Fires that burn their old hollow trees needed for nests and cutting down their forest homes is a threat to them. Rat and mice poisons also kill Powerful Owls, if they eat a sick or dead rat or a mouse that has eaten poison.

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More info and hear a Powerful Owl call here

https://birdlife.org.au/bird-profiles/powerful-owl/

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Powerful Owl photo by Greg Sharkey

There may only be around 500 Swift Parrots left in the wild.

Where they live: Swift Parrots breed only in Tasmania around October to December – to coincide with the flowering of the Tasmanian Blue Gum trees. They make their nests in old tree hollows. Many pairs breed close together and they return to the same nest site each year. Because of this, if their old trees are cut down, they won’t breed and may die.

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In winter, Swift parrots fly all the way across Bass Strait to forage on the flowering eucalypts in open forests of the Australian mainland. While on the mainland, they are nomadic, spending weeks or months at some places and only a few hours at others, determined by the supply of nectar. They roost together in their flocks, often in the same tree each night. They are almost always in trees, coming to the ground only to drink.

What they eat: Swift Parrots feed in the outer canopy of flowering eucalypts, eating mainly nectar, as well as some insects, seeds, and flowers. They are active and chatty when feeding, often hanging upside down.In dry years, when the eucalypts’ don’t flower very much, Swift Parrots are forced to travel far and wide to find enough food. Some birds fly as far as south-east Queensland, making them the world’s longest known parrot migration.

Swift Parrots are threatened by their old trees that they nest in Tasmania being cut down and not being able to find enough nectar from eucalypt trees due to drought, fires and lack of old trees on the mainland.

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This year Swift Parrots were seen in big old flowering eucalypt trees on Raymond Island, where they had flown all the way from Tasmania.

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You can hear Swift Parrots calls here:

https://birdlife.org.au/bird-profiles/swift-parrot/#

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Photo: Charles J. Sharp, Creative Commons licence

Hooded Plovers live on Australia’s coastline and are non-migratory. They spend their whole lives on the beach, between the dunes and shoreline. They are mostly found in pairs or small groups, darting around the water’s edge and pecking and foraging along the shore.

Hooded Plovers eat insects, sandhoppers, small shellfish and soldier crabs. They forage at all levels of the beach during all tide phases.

Hooded Plovers lay their sand-coloured eggs in a little dent in the sand near the high-water mark. Their eggs blend into the sand, helping hide them from predators. This also makes them hard for beach-goers to see and easy for them to be accidentally crushed. They also risk their nests being washed away on high tides.

Hooded Plovers are threatened by their nests being disturbed and where they live being damaged. Hooded plovers nest on the beach during the busiest time of year, in spring and summer, and that increases the danger of nests being damaged by humans and their pets. Dogs, cats and foxes will eat them too and destroy their nests.  

You can help by keeping your dog on a leash when you go to the beach – especially during spring and summer. Only walking below the high tide
mark during the nesting season, not driving on the beach or dune areas, looking out for signs and fences, indicating there is a nest or chicks! Moving away quietly if you see hooded plovers.

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Hooded Plover photo by JJ Harrison Wikimedia commons

Growling Grass Frogs, also known as Growlers and Southern Bell Frogs, are one of the largest frog species in Australia, growing to around 10cm in length. They are most often found in and around clusters of permanent or temporary swamps and wetlands, which they can move between on rainy nights.

Who am I?

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I make a distinctive "growling" or "grunting" sound, like the sound of a distant motorbike or a revving engine.

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Listen here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2bQ4ATZsKw

(Growling grass frogs calling at Greening Australia site Clydebank Morass)

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I am a ‘sit-and-wait’ predator, feeding on a wide range of insects, small lizards, fish, tadpoles and other frogs.

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Where can you find me?

I need still or slow-moving water with vegetation around the edges and floating and submerged plants. You can usually find me hanging out in wetlands, swamps, dams and slow-moving streams. Look out for me among the grasses, reeds, and water plants along the water's edge.

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 I am more likely to be heard than seen, so keep an ear out when exploring local wetlands and swamps!

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Growling Grass Frog photo by Tereza T commonswiki 

Where found: In Victoria, Glossy Black Cockatoos are only found in coastal forest between Lakes Entrance and Orbost.

It is estimated there are only 35-40 Glossy Black Cockatoos left in East Gippsland, since the 2019/20 bushfires. Nearly half of the Glossy Black Cockatoo’s trees they use as homes and the trees they need for food were burnt in those bushfires.

What Glossy Black cockatoos eat: In East Gippsland, Glossy Black-Cockatoos only eat the seeds of Black she-oak trees. Some people are planting more Black she-oak trees for them, but it takes up to ten years for the Black she-oak trees to start producing the seed Glossy Black Cockatoos need to eat.

Hollows in old trees are where they make their homes. Glossy Black Cockatoos make nests to lay their eggs and raise their chicks in big tree hollows in old, large eucalypts, that can take up to 200 years to form a hollow big enough for Glossy Black Cockatoos to make a nest in. These nest trees need to be near food and water. Glossy Black-cockatoos stay with their mates for life, often re-using the same hollow year after year.

Threatened by: Burning the Black she-oak trees they depend on for food and cutting down and burning the old hollow trees they need for nests.

More info and hear their call: https://birdlife.org.au/bird-profiles/glossy-black-cockatoo/

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Glossy Black Cockatoo photo: Warren Chad

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Sadly, the Pookila or New Holland Mouse is now classified as extinct in seven out of twelve of its known Victorian locations

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Precious Pookila is no ordinary mouse: The Pookila might be similar in size to the introduced house mouse we all know, but it’s also so different. It has larger eyes, rounded ears, a bi-coloured pink and dusky brown tail, and no mousey odour at all. It’s just gorgeous.

Where found: You might find Pookilas in the open heathland and banksia forest in Providence Ponds Flora Reserve between Bairnsdale and Stratford. They are also found at Wilsons Promentary.

The Pookila is a rodent (like a Guinea Pig or a house mouse) which means it has to chew on hard things like wood and tree roots, to wear down its teeth, as all rodents have teeth that keep on growing.

What do Pookilas eat: They mostly eat native plant seeds, flowers, fruits, leaves and fungi. The Pookila plays an important role in spreading seeds and fungi – that helps the heathland and forests it lives in, to reproduce and regrow.

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Threatened by: The Pookila is under threat from drought, the coastal heathland and forests it lives in being cut down or burnt, as well as introduced predators such as roaming cats and foxes, who eat them. Bushfires and competition from introduced rats and mice, for food and their homes, also put this precious native mouse at risk.

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Pookila photo: Doug Beckers

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