Survey guidelines for Australia’s threatened non-flying mammals

Sandhill dunnart

Sminthopsis psammophila

States and territories: Western Australia, South Australia and Northern Territory.

Regions: Western Australia: Queen Victorian Spring Nature Reserve and Mulga Rocks in the south-western edge of the Queen Victoria Desert (Pearson & Robinson 1990, Churchill 2003).

South Australia: Yarle Lakes, Ooldea and Mount Christie in the Yellabinna sand dunes (Pearson & Robinson 1990) and various localities on the Eyre Peninsula (Churchill 2003, Way 2008).

Northern Territory: Collected from the Lake Amadeus region in 1894, with no recent records although remains have been identified from owl pellets at Uluru and Kata Tjuta.

Habitat: Poorly understood, but found in a variety of sandy habitats, including desert oak, Allocasuarina decaisneana mallee, tea-tree, eucalypt and Callitris woodlands with an understorey of hummock grass, Triodia or Plectrachne spp. and usually with sand dunes present (Pearson & Churchill 2008).

Habit: Ground-dwelling.

Avg. body weight: 33 g (females); 36 g (males) (Pearson & Churchill 2008).

Activity pattern: Nocturnal.

Diet: A wide variety of invertebrates (Pearson & Churchill 2008).

Breeding: Spring to early autumn (Pearson & Churchill 2008).

Description

The sandhill dunnart is larger than all other dunnarts, with the exception of the Julia Creek dunnart, Sminthopsis douglasi, but the two species do not overlap in distribution. The sandhill dunnart is distinguished by dark eye rings and a distinctive tail that is pale grey above and darker grey below. The tail tapers towards the tip and has a vertical crest of hairs on the terminal quarter.

The sandhill dunnart was first collected at Lake Amadeus in the Northern Territory in 1894, but was not recorded again until 1967 in South Australia. Since then, it has been captured in the arid zone of Western Australia and South Australia. Capture sites are characterised by a sandy substrate with a spinifex grass understorey (Pearson & Churchill 2008).

In a recent study on the Eyre Peninsula, mid-aged (stage three of a five stage age classification) spinifex Triodia irritans hummocks were preferentially selected by radio-tracked sandhill dunnart for shelter during the day (Churchill 2003). The spinifex hummocks in this growth phase had live spiny foliage around the periphery, but the older spines in the centre were softer, and could be moulded by the dunnarts to form a nest for shelter (Churchill 2003). Large-sized stage three hummocks were restricted to unburnt sand dune slopes within the site, which indicated that the sandhill dunnart preferred habitat available within this particular seral stage of spinifex growth (Churchill 2003). Suitable habitat is usually associated with open mallee communities with a diverse shrub layer, with species including yarell Eucalyptus gracilis, ridge-fruited mallee E. incrassate, red mallee E. oleosa, beaked red mallee E. socialis and scrub cypress pine Callitris verrucosa (Way 2008).

Survey methods

On the basis of previous surveys, the following survey techniques are recommended to detect the presence of the sandhill dunnart in areas up to 5 hectares in size:

• 
  daytime searches for potentially suitable habitat resources such as mid-aged spinifex hummocks (description of the survey technique and recommended effort is provided in Section 3.1)
  
• 
  collection of predator scats, owl casts or remains, targeting predatory bird/mammal nests/dens (description of the survey technique and recommended effort is provided in Section 3.2)
  
• 
  pitfall trapping surveys (at least 60 centimetres deep) conducted according to the technique and recommended effort provided in Section 3.3.8
  
• 
  Elliott E/A trapping surveys (especially in winter) conducted according to the technique and recommended effort provided in Section 3.3.9
  
• 
  hair sampling device surveys as the sandhill dunnart is included among those species known to be distinguishable from hair samples (see Table 2, Section 3.3.7)
  
• 
  daytime searches for signs such as tracks in sandy substrates in suitable habitat (description of the survey technique and recommended effort is provided in Section 3.2). Note that care is required in the separation of this species from other sympatric small mammal species
  
• 
  consider the placement of camera traps in suitable habitat as this technique is ideal for cryptic species occurring at low densities, particularly as this species can be relatively easily separated from other sympatric dunnart species
  
• 
  consultation with local people, particularly investigating potential Indigenous knowledge of this species’ presence in an area.
  

In addition, sand tray/soil plot surveys may provide a suitable survey method for detection in areas that do not have a sandy substrate. A description of the technique and recommended survey effort is provided in Section 3.3.2.

Similar species in range

The distributional range of the sandhill dunnart overlaps with a number of other dunnart species, including the Ooldea dunnart S. ooldea, striped-faced dunnart S. macroura, hairy-footed dunnart S. hirtipes, little long-tailed dunnart S. dolichura, grey-bellied dunnart S. griseoventer, long-tailed dunnart S. longicaudata, Gilbert’s dunnart S. gilberti, lesser hairy-footed dunnart S. youngsoni and the fat-tailed dunnart S. crassicaudata. The sandhill dunnart can be distinguished in the field by its relatively larger body size and distinctive tail (Pearson & Churchill 2008).

References

Churchill, S. 2001. Recovery Plan for the Sandhill Dunnart (Sminthopsis psammophila). Department for Environment and Heritage, South Australia.
Churchill, S. 2003. Sandhill Dunnart Species Profile. Fact Sheet: National Parks and Wildlife, South Australia.
Pearson, D.J. 1995. Sandhill Dunnart Sminthopsis psammophila. In ‘The Mammals of Australia’ (Ed. R. Strahan) pp. 154-155 (Reed Books: Sydney).
Pearson, D.J. and Churchill, S.K. 2008. Sandhill Dunnart Sminthopsis psammophila. In ‘The Mammals of Australia’ (Ed. S. Van Dyck and R. Strahan) pp. 156-158. (Reed New Holland: Sydney).
Pearson, D.J. and Robinson, A.C. 1990. New records of the Sandhill Dunnart Sminthopsis psammophila (Marsupialia: Dasyuridae) in South and Western Australia. Australian Mammalogy 13, 57-59.
Way 2008. Sandhill Dunnart (Sminthopsis psammophila) surveys on eastern Eyre Peninsula, SA. Report prepared for the Department for Environment and Heritage, South Australia.