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Scientists check pit and funnel traps in a shrubby landscape

Wildlife of the Pilbara

The Western Australian Museum Terrestrial Zoology team recently ran a field trip to Karijini and Millstream-Chichester national parks in the Pilbara, to collect tissue samples for the Molecular Systematics Unit’s Conservation Genetics of the Pilbara Fauna Project, funded by the Net Conservation Benefits Fund. Survey teams used a variety of techniques to sample for reptiles, mammals, frogs, trapdoor spiders, pseudoscorpions, land snails, insects and other invertebrate groups. Key habitats examined were gorges, mulga woodland and spinifex hummock-grassland on heavy clay soils.

Large sprawling fig trees growing along a rock ledge
Fig trees grow along the rock ledges in the gorges, where the conditions are more wet and humid. The leaf-litter from the figs and melaleucas forms a crucial habitat for gorge dwelling animals.
Image copyright Linette Umbrello
A river gorge with overhanging trees and rushes
Kalamina gorge, Karijini NP
Image copyright Linette Umbrello
A sweeping landscape of red rock gorges and greenery
Kalamina gorge, Karijini National Park
Image copyright Linette Umbrello
A landscape with large, looming gorges beneath a blue, cloudy sky
George River gorge, Millstream-Chichester NP, an important habitat for pseudoscorpions
Image copyright Linette Umbrello
Scientists check pit and funnel traps in a shrubby landscape
Scientists check pit and funnel traps for reptiles and spiders in the early morning, at Karijini National Park
Image copyright Linette Umbrello
Red dirt tinged storm clouds roll in across a grassland landscape, a red dirt road rolling through the centre of the image.
A Pilbara storm sweeps across the burnt landscape, picking up dust and turning the clouds red, at Millstream-Chichester National Park
Image copyright Linette Umbrello
Scientists inspect traps in a grassland environment
Early morning digging in a pit fall trap line for the vertebrate survey of Millstream-Chichester National Park
Image copyright Linette Umbrello
Three people, two wearing head torches, examine hanging white sheets covered in insects and bugs at night
Scientists collect insects using a light trap at Millstream-Chichester National Park
Image copyright Linette Umbrello
A reddish brown snake with dark spots on red rocks
A juvenile pygmy python (Antaresia perthensis) found foraging for frogs at night
Image copyright Linette Umbrello
Two spotty reddish toadlets in shallow water
Male and female Pilbara toadlets (Uperolia saxatilis) in amplexis, Karijini NP
Image copyright Linette Umbrello
A smooth gecko with tiny spots blending into reddish brown rocks
Northern Pilbara beak-faced gecko (Diplodactylus galaxias) caught at Millstream-Chichester National Park
Image copyright Linette Umbrello
A tiny marsupial with a long tail eats a moth on the red dirt ground
A female planigale, a tiny carnivorous marsupial, eating a moth at Millstream-Chichester NP
Image copyright Linette Umbrello
A brownish coloured schizomid
A new species of the schizomid genus Draculoides, found in Karijini NP
Mark Harvey, WA Museum
A brown gecko covered in small yellow spots, sitting on reddish coloured rocks
A marbled gecko (Oedura marmorata) commonly seen on rocks in the gorges at night
Image copyright Linette Umbrello
A large, black, shiny scorpion
A new species of the scorpion genus Urodacus from Karijini NP
Mark Harvey, WA Museum
A large, reddish and brown spider with thick body and legs
A new species of the trapdoor spider genus Conothele from Millstream-Chichester NP
Mark Harvey, WA Museum
An array of insects pinned on special boards in a Museum environment
Insects collected on the trip and pinned by Entomology Curator Nikolai Tatarnic
Image copyright Linette Umbrello