19 May, 2011 10:47AM AEST

Rats and researchers respond

With good rain and flooding over two seasons, the landscape in western Queensland is really booming and blooming.

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The native long-haired rat (Rattus villoissimus) is one animal that's taking advantage of the season and they've reached plague proportions in some areas.

They moved as far north as Longreach in March and they're still in big numbers in parts of the channel country.

Joel D'Souza is a researcher who's also taking advantage of the seasonal conditions, he's been out and about catching rats and other small animals in Lochern National Park (near Stonehenge), to gather information for his honours thesis.

He's studying environmental management at the University of Queensland in conjunction with Queensland Parks and Wildlife and he's looking at the impact of fire on these small native mammals and reptiles.

Mr D'Souza said it's still very early in the project but data so far is showing that fire is having minimal negative impact on the wildlife.

"It's more to do with the type of fire.

"We've been focussing on patchy burns as opposed to large scale burning and we're finding that yes there are effects but they're very, very minor."

The burning is to do with reducing fuel loads during a time when a fire can be properly managed.

He said immediately after these types of fires, small animals can get greater exposure to predators with less ground cover and they also can be affected by reduced access to food sources.

Mr D'Souza is still working on producing more accurate estimates of the [native] rat population in particular and exact numbers on densities," he explained.

He said the rains have done wonders for all aspects of the wildlife.

"The vegetation is looking pretty good and providing a lot of cover and a lot of food.

"We've been measuring food variables such as the composition and abundance of invertebrates and things like seed bank in the soil and yeah it's pretty amazing.

"Everything seems to be booming."

Mr D'Souza said he's hoping his research will ultimately provide land managers with additional information on how to burn.

"And more specifically that fire is not necessarily a bad thing for the ecosystem.

"It's the way you burn that's more important than burning itself.

"If its patchy mosaic burns like we're doing now it seems to have small impacts," he said.

More information on the native long-haired rat and other wildlife in the attached audio (An interview with Christine Crafter, Operations Manager for QPWS in Longreach, recorded March 2011).