26/09/2024
Wow 🤩 what an amazing trip we had!
As we wrap up our part in the dragon 🐉 fieldwork for this season, i have a few MASSIVE thankyou’s - and I think the list really highlights that conservation is a team effort.
The Qld Government provided funding for this research, without which it wouldn’t be happening.
The dragon team is not just us - there is a wonderful research crew including first and foremost the UQ wildlife conservation lab crew - especially my main field crew Laura Harms and Emilee Laine, all of our volunteers, and the labs fearless leader April, as well as JP Emery at USQ who always goes out of his way to line up the fieldwork and USQ student Callum who is working on tracking dragon movements with JP. When we all work together we can help limited conservation funds go farther!!
And it’s not just the core team! The wider dragon family are so incredibly supportive and we just could not do it without them 🙂
First up - did you see our shiny decked out Hilux this year?! A MASSIVE SHOUT OUT to Jim and Jenni Reside who donated the use of their incredibly well set up field vehicle and all the accompanying kit for this field season to keep us safe, mobile, and able to deploy two teams - we are so grateful!!
Another big thankyou to the Harms family who hosted us in transit and provided all the camping gear for our Evie friendly field camp.
Last but definitely not least the Ringma family who are an amazing support crew - providing off season gear storage, airport pickups and transport, driving all the way to Pittsworth with a drill, helping us out with vehicle cleandown, and sourcing and donating the model dragons we are using for our detection experiments - thanks Frank & Ainsley Ringma 🙂
We are also super grateful to all the wonderful community in the Darling Downs who love the dragons 🐉 as much as we do and I hope they know how much we love dragon country! Thanks for allowing us access to your land, showing us around, sharing your systems and knowledge, keeping an eye out for dragons and always stopping to say hi 👋 - as well looking out for us by letting us know when there is baiting to keep Evie safe, and giving us a heads up about surprise weather!
There is something special about these little beasts that brings everyone together and we are so lucky 🍀 to be a part of it.
If you’d like to support our work, you can donate to our research collaboration with the Wildlife Conservation Lab here:
https://donations.uq.edu.au/wildlifeconservation
Just write ✍️ in the box Evie, Detection Dog or DFG to be sure it goes to our collaborative program 🙂
AND keep your eyes peeled for 🐉 gear coming soon ⚙️!!
April Reside Laura Harms Ainsley Ringma Jim Reside
Pretty dragon and Evie photos 📸 thanks to Emilee Laine Photography 🤩