Bobuck Research sponsored by the Department of Sustainability and Environment. For Victoria. For Our World.

Bobucks in Gippsland. Past Sightings?

Bobucks have been seen by a few locals on rare occasions along waterways in southwest Gippsland in the decades prior to our Survey. This could indicate that small, isolated populations left over from former times somehow mangaed to persist in the the district, while yet evading the best attempts of science to catalogue the creatures prsent.

On the other hand, the amazingly few sightings might represent 'pioneer' animals that were, in small numbers, colonising the district, undetected, for decades prior. Our Survey solicited information from the general public in Gippsland by means of newspaper releases and this webiste. These paltry few reports are all that we found.

Phil Westwood, Bassbush 1999.

Phil took this photo of a Bobuck on the Bass River.

Also of interest are reports from Bassbush of a feathertail glider colony in The Gurdies. The first record of feathertails there for over 10 years.

Jan Hillyard, Grantville 1990.

An injured Bobuck discovered at Grantville, 1990. Cared for at Inverloch Wildlife Refuge and released - near Emerald in the Dandenongs! Bobucks were - are? - so little known in South West Gippsland they figured it was brought in on a truck or similar. The first and only Bobuck ever seen by the Wildlife Refuge.

Gurdies Bobuck cared for in 1990 by the Inverloch Wildlife Refuge

Gary Wallis, Foster, 1978.

Courtesy G. Wallace Gary Wallis photographed a Bobuck on his property at Foster in March 1978. It seems that Bobucks are unusual enough that people notice them. And photograph them. The scarcity of sightings must be telling us something. But what? Our cameras are detecting Bobucks across a wide swathe of south gippsland. Have they always been there in isolated habitat islands? Or are they moving in, displacing Common Brushtail Possums? Is a population migration underway in Gippsland, unseen and unknown till now?

In either case, how could they have remained undiscovered for so long? There is amazingly little local knowledge of them. A mere three informal anecdotes spread over thirty years is all we can find. Yet Bobucks are quite a large animal and many individuals in the population are coloured jet black. Hard to miss, surely?

The paucity of previous records is a real puzzle. Our cameras have shown Bobucks to be widespread about SW Gippsland. Yet prior to our initial survey (Hynes & Cleeland 2005) they remained undiscovered and unrecorded in formal scientific literature. The sparse local folklore and anecdotes such as the above are pretty much all there is. Reminiscences after the event are, of course, interesting but unfortunately are of no scientific relevance.

The bobuck Underground - Infrared Camera Survey