Antilopine Kangaroo

Camera traps can be used to monitor Antilopine Kangaroos. They can be set to automatically take photos or videos when an animal passes the camera. You can make your monitoring more efficient and cost effective by monitoring multiple species (including native and introduced species) with this method.

You will need to buy good quality remote cameras, but not much training is needed for deploying cameras or identifying species in the images. Images can also be processed first with the use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools, which can be useful when you have large numbers of images.

• Animals use lots of different habitat types, so make sure the cameras are spread across all of the different major habitat types found on Country. If possible, have replicates in each habitat type. 
• Use this method in areas suitable for camera trapping i.e. open enough to take photos or along trails, good access.
• Avoid putting cameras in areas prone to flooding or become seasonally inaccessible, or make sure you bring in cameras before it becomes inaccessible.
• Kangaroos are generally nocturnal but can be active at all times of day.
• If there is an obvious path or area that kangaroos use, you can set up cameras to face this path. Angle the camera down the path, so that you increase the amount of time the camera has to take pictures as kangaroos pass by.
• Kangaroos have a large body, so should easily trigger the camera sensors. You can use the standard camera trapping set up (height of 30 - 40 cm from ground) to monitor them.
• Place cameras 1 km apart.
• Whenever possible, proof image classifications (including images with “nothing” in them), especially when using AI.

• Where Antilopine Kangaroo live:
  • Occupancy – the proportion of sites occupied by a species.
  • Changes over time – are species being detected at the same sites every year, or are they disappearing from some and/or appearing at other sites?
  • Habitat preferences – does the species only occur in particular habitats?
• Detection frequency – how often are they being detected in an area?
• Behaviour – what they are doing in the photos?
• Activity – You can know when they are active or pass through areas. This can also be used as an indicator of how large the population might be.
• You can collect data from seeing Antilopine Kangaroo in an image. You might be able to identify their age, sex, group size, health (skinny or fat

This is a method where trackers search a 2 Ha area for all signs of animals, including tracks, scats, diggings and other signs. If signs of a species are found in a plot, its presence is recorded. This method doesn’t focus only on kangaroos, as the presence of all species is recorded.

You can use tracking skills to collect data, and you don’t need to catch animals or use special equipment.

By using these standardised methods, you can choose to share your data with the ‘Arid Zone Monitoring’ project. This program gather’s data and uses it to map the distributions of desert species and look for trends in abundance over time. Ultimately, the project’s aim was to create national-scale monitoring for desert wildlife and showcase the work being done in the deserts, especially by Indigenous ranger groups. Contact Sarah Legge at AridZoneMonitoring@gmail.com if you are interested in sharing data.

Find out if kangaroos are present on country at that time.

• Find out where on country they are and aren’t present.

If you do the survey over multiple years (and at the same time of year):

• See if the number of sites that kangaroos are present are going up or down.
• Check how well your management is working.