Australia; SA
We can use satellites to estimate the movement patterns of wombats and rabbits in remote areas of Australia that are hard to survey on the ground, according to Australian research. The team conducted ground surveys of two 100km road sections along the Nullarbor, looking for southern hairy-nosed wombat and European rabbit warrens to estimate the patterns of both species living in the area. They then used Google Earth and Microsoft Bing imagery to scour the same areas for visible warrens. The researchers say the results of both strategies were similar, though smaller rabbit warrens were often missed in the satellite imagery. They say their work shows satellite images are a viable strategy for monitoring these populations, especially for wombats, which can tell us more about the populations of these animals in remote areas.
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