flood plain. As these animals are gene- 
rally uncommon and are semi- 
nomadic, it seems probable that the 
area was visited by them regularly. 
Because of the difficulty of spot- 
lighting smaller animals only three 
Sugar Gliders were observed. These 
were seen beside the Big River Valley 
Road and at Arnold's Creek, within 
about three hundred yards of each 
other. Similarly, three Feather-tail 
Gliders were seen during the 1967 
trip, all in the one tree in the middle 
of the valley and one was seen in 
1968 on the hill beside The Big River 
Valley Road in a Peppermint tree. 
The Bobucks present in the survey 
area were all silver-grey in colour 
(the "Mountain Blue" of the locals), 
and the Ringtail Possums were a 
beautiful rufous colour on the sides 
and forelimbs, and had fluffy white 
ear tufts. 
Eight Bobucks were seen altogether, 
and of these, only two were seen in 
the hifls. Sixteen Ringtail Possums 
were seen and were fairly evenly 
spread between valleys and hills. 
The Water Rat and Platypus are 
both shy animals and are a rare find 
at any time. The Platypus was seen 
in The Big River near the junction of 
Snowy Road and New Road in 1967 
and the Water Rat was found walk- 
ing up The Big River Valley Road in 
broad daylight. 
Noises attributable to macropods 
were heard during the 1967 trip, but 
none was seen until 1968. Five Black 
Wallabies were observed during the 
day on hills near Frenchman's Spur 
and Little Creek fire trail. 
The ground animals. Allied Rats 
and Brown Phascogales could only be 
observed by trapping. Although thirty- 
five of the total of ninety-one trap- 
nights were on the hills, no animals at 
all were collected there. The rest of 
the time traps were set in the valley 
and thirty-one animals — twenty Allied 
Rats and eleven Brown Phascogales — 
were collected. All these were caught 
where there was thick ground cover of 
Blackberry, Tussock Grass or Long 
Matt Rush, or beside holes in creek 
banks. Traps set beside burrows al- 
ways caught animals, even a small 
wren was trapped. 
Many bats were seen hawking for 
insects on the warm nights, but the 
species could not be identified. Shot 
guns or mist nets are essential items 
for the collection of bats and as these 
were not available no bats were col- 
lected. 
Dogs were common in the area, 
as many tracks and faeces were found. 
A lot of deer hunting occurs near the 
area and hounds are lost, turn wild 
and form packs. One of these packs 
was heard howling like dingoes near 
the top of Petroff's Track. 
Conclusions 
The differences in the numbers of 
individuals recorded in 1967 and 1968 
are, in general, not significant. How- 
ever, the difference in the number of 
Greater Gliders seen on each trip was 
probably significant. Even this habitu- 
ally wet area dried out excessively 
during the drought and many of the 
eucalypts on the hills died. In the 
valleys undergrowth was killed and 
the young gums, the main supply of 
food for the Greater Gliders, dried out 
considerably. As the Greater Glider 
population in 1967 was quite concen- 
trated, some had to leave to find new 
areas of food trees and this could 
explain the fewer sightings of Greater 
Glider in 1968. Ringtail Possums prob- 
ably have a less specific diet than the 
Greater Glider, their food trees being 
more abundant and less affected by 
the drought. Thus, as more Greater 
Gliders moved out, more Ringtail 
Possums were observed. 
The hills were affected much more 
than the valleys by the drought and 
52 
Vict. Nat.— Vol. 86 
