Monitoring the activity of a southern hairy-nosed wombat, Lasiorhinus latifrons, using temperature dataloggers.

Abstract

THERE is limited information on the activity of the southern hairy-nosed wombat, Lasiorhinus latifrons, due predominantly to the cryptic nature of this species and its burrowing lifestyle. As part of a recent field study of L. latifrons, temperature data loggers were employed to determine the usefulness of this equipment for studying activity patterns in this species including; emergence times, total length of bouts of activity, patterns and variation in activity throughout the year. Data from this pilot study suggest that temperature dataloggers provide an extremely useful and relatively non-invasive means of determining activity patterns in a semi-fossorial mammal.