Heaps of fantastic NatureTrackers activities are coming up, in particular to get us fully ready for the start of this year’s seasons of CallTrackers and Claws on the Line…
Always thought you might like to be part of a NatureTrackers project, but never quite had the time to get to grips with it? Or maybe you’re a stalwart NatureTracker, or someone who’s had a go and has a few questions, how about a catchup with the coordinators?
Supported by Inspiring Tasmania, NatureTrackers HQ are once again warmly embracing National Science Week this August, enabling everyone who might be interested to help monitor our threatened, and potentially threatened, species. Together, we can research and share information on Tasmania-wide population increases or decreases in the species we’re tracking, to guide the most effective conservation action for each of them.
Details below. Find out more, and book your spot today. It’s all free.
CallTrackers workshops around Tasmania
Every September to March, Tasmanians get the chance to borrow CallTrackers’ state-of-the-art recorders from a number of libraries around the state. There are options to set one up within a few kilometres of your home; or perhaps you’d like to take it off on a remote adventure. After eight days, you get to upload your recordings to the monitoring database, receive automatic suggestions on some of the likely species that made the recorded ultrasonic and audible calls, and perhaps explore them further.
You’re almost guaranteed to pick up at least one bat species, and perhaps you might pick up one of the target birds too…
This August, you can book into a workshop hosted by Libraries Tasmania (at five libraries, and an online webinar), where NatureTrackers HQ will introduce you to the process of using them, and their incredible potential. Not every nature-lover is a tech-lover; everyone will be welcome and supported to begin exploring these amazing gadgets and the related computer wizardry at their own pace!
Discover CallTrackers at:
- Smithton Library – 10:30 am Tuesday 12 August 2025 – Book tickets
- Hobart Library – 4 pm Thursday 14 August 2025 – Book tickets
- Online – 6 pm Monday 18 August 2025 – Book tickets
- Launceston Library – 4 pm Tuesday 19 August 2025 – Book tickets
- St Helens Library – 10:30 am Wednesday 20 August 2025 – Book tickets
- Queenstown Library – 2 pm Friday 22 August 2025 – Book tickets
On Sunday 17th August, two extra special workshops are being held in Hobart. After discussing the Endangered Australasian bittern and getting familiar with its haunting call, we’ll each listen through batches of CallTrackers recordings from previous years, in the hope of confirming some bittern ‘booms’:
- Bittern Quest: Boom or Bust? University of Tasmania, Sandy Bay campus. Book the 10 am–1 pm session, the 1.30–4.30 pm session or both.
- And details of another workshop or two are still to come!
There’s also some extra exciting news coming soon about another, very rare species that the CallTrackers project will be listening out for this season — keep your ears pricked…
NatureTrackers coordinator at the Beaker Street Festival
If you’re in Hobart, come and chat to a wonderful range of scientists at Beaker Street’s Roving Scientist Bar! From 5–7 pm on Friday 15 August 2025 you have a chance to bend the ear of NatureTrackers coordinator Dr Clare Hawkins on all things related to threatened species and wildlife monitoring. Tasmania is home to hundreds of threatened species; hundreds more are potentially threatened. Are we succeeding in protecting these species, and helping them to recover? Do we need to do more, or something different? Through the NatureTrackers program, Clare and colleagues coordinate everyone interested to take part in annual surveys across Tasmania — to help keep track of as many species as we can, and guide everyone’s conservation efforts. The techniques involved range from a pair of binoculars to AI-trained animal call recognisers. Chat with Clare about the science, the surveys and the amazing animals!
NatureTrackers at the Circular Head Science Gig
If you’re in Smithton on Monday 11th August, come and say hello! Learn all about becoming a NatureTracker, and about Tasmania’s threatened and potentially threatened species, including birds of prey, burrowing crayfish, bats and bitterns. Find out how you can be involved in researching their numbers, distribution, habitats and habits. You can also explore monitoring techniques such as observational surveys and acoustic monitoring, and discover lots of ways to get involved in NatureTrackers’ projects.
Claws on the Line activities around Devonport, Latrobe and now… Burnie!
Bookings are now open for the free, two-hour ‘incursions’ which Claws on the Line HQ have been running at primary schools around Devonport and Latrobe, accompanied by an art competition, every September since 2019. This is the range of the Endangered Central North burrowing crayfish. But this year…drum roll… we can announce that there will be another round of incursions available to schools around Burnie - in the range of another threatened species, the Vulnerable Burnie Burrowing Crayfish, and also accompanied by an art competition.
Available dates for booking:
- Devonport/Latrobe 15–17 September 2025
- Burnie 22–24 September 2025
If you want to book in, or just want to find out more, please fill out an expression of interest.
Keep an eye on the events calendar, social media and emails to NatureTrackers — there’s more information to follow on the art competition, and on two community workshops all about burrowing crayfish and the Claws on the Line citizen science…
