Stag beetles found on TLC properties
Close-up of a Simson's stag beetle
Over the weekend TLC volunteer and ecologist Jane Keble-Williams lead workshops at Blue Tier reserve and one of our revolving fund properties, West Pyengana, to look for stag beetles as part of her intensive ecological survey work for us.
The trip was a resounding success with the team confirming the presence of the iconic Simson’s stag beetle at Blue Tier and the equally vulnerable Vanderschoor’s stag beetle at West Pyengana.
Our Conservation Scientist Matt Taylor helped Jane organise and design the project and he attended the workshop with his mum and dad, Richard Taylor and Lillian Haines, who own a small farm at Goshen, which is in the same catchment as the Blue Tier and West Pyengana.
"The workshop was organised specifically with local landowners in mind, which is why mum and dad attended," he said.
"They were there to help with the survey work, but also got to learn about survey techniques that they can then apply to their own property, which is home to the threatened giant velvet worm (Tasmanipatus barretti).
"By engaging locals in the northeast in activities like this one we have the benefit of accessing local knowledge, have some extra hands, ears and eyes for the research activity and all whilst raising community awareness of invertebrate conservation.
"The Blue Tier and surrounds is a real hotspot for threatened and endemic beetles, velvet worms and snails... and other unusual creatures, no doubt!"
The research is titled, A survey of threatened stag beetle species on the Tasmanian Land Conservancy Blue Tier and West Pyengana reserves in North East Tasmania. The data collected will help direct conservation management at the reserve and will also be forwarded to the DPIPWE Threatened Species Section for inclusion in the state government’s Natural Values Atlas.
Jane Keble-Williams painstakingly looking for stag beetles with a volunteer at the Blue Tier - Photo by Matt Taylor
Parts of a Simson's stag beetle found at the Blue Tier - photo by Matt Taylor