Kuyu pungu shares tracking knowledge in Tasmania

Kuyu pungu (master tracker) Christine Napanangka Ellis Michaels has shared her cat management knowledge with Tasmania’s Pakana Rangers. The rangers had invited Ms Ellis Michaels, from the Warlpiri Rangers in Nyirrpi, to Lungtalanana (Clarke Island), a small island between Tasmania and the mainland of Australia to learn how to rid it of feral cats.

The rangers had invited Ms Ellis Michaels, from the Warlpiri Rangers in Nyirrpi, to Lungtalanana (Clarke Island), a small island between Tasmania and the mainland of Australia to learn how to rid it of feral cats.

The Tasmanians were keen to draw on her decades of experience tracking, trapping and hunting feral cats in the desert. So over the course of a week last year, she shared her expertise. She used material from the Central Land Council’s Yitaki Mani (reading the country) project – a training program she created with other kuyu pungu to keep traditional tracking knowledge alive.

The Pakana Rangers were impressed to see Ms Ellis Michaels using her desert tracking skills in a tricky new environment. The island is covered in thick vegetation and rocks, and the strong wind and frequent rain wipe out tracks quickly.

The kuyu pungu and Indigenous Desert Alliance ecologist Rachel Paltridge, who had come along, both felt that eradicating cats from Lungtalanana was possible. They told the rangers to “go hard for a shorter time,” rather than on-again, off-again attempts over many years, which can make cats shy of traps and baits. 

Ms Paltridge said they analysed feral cat scat (poo) and saw that they were eating native lizards, birds and mice.

Ms Ellis Michaels enjoyed sharing knowledge with the Pakana Rangers and learning about island country. She saw her very first pademelons, little native animals that look a bit like mala (hare wallabies). She heard about the mutton birds on neighbouring islands and how the rangers want to bring back wombats.