A trapping survey of small, ground-dwelling vertebrates in the Little Desert National Park, Victoria

Compared to many parts of Victoria, there have been few systematic surveys of ground-dwelling vertebrates in the Little Desert National Park. Using pitfall and Elliott traps, we conducted a trapping survey of small, ground-dwelling vertebrates at three sites in the eastern block of this park. We trapped for seven consecutive days and nights on each of three sessions between October and December 2002. Over this period we trapped 20 species, comprising four native mammals, one exotic mammal and 15 species of herpetofauna. We used these data to appraise the adequacy of our sampling in this area. Our trapping detected the majority of ground-dwelling vertebrates known from the park that are likely to be trapped in pitfall and Elliott traps. Notably, this trapping procured the first specimen of the Little Pygmy-possum Cercartetus lepidus from this park, and incidental observations confirmed the occurrence of Rosenberg's Goanna Varanus rosenbergi within the park.