Native Wildlife in Monash

The most common mammals visiting Monash gardens include possums, bats and sometimes even echidnas.

Bats play a role in pollination, seed dispersal and insect population control.

Flying foxes or fruit bats can fly for many kilometres each night searching for available fruit and usually only stop over for short visits each year.

Insectivorous bats or microbats are also very active at night, and we have over 11 species of microbats in Monash.

You may not be able to find or see these little bats as they can be as tiny as a fingernail and make sounds outside of our hearing range!

Possums can be seen on a regular basis as they have adapted well to urbanised areas. They are protected from harm or capture under the Wildlife Act (1975).

Possums eat a variety of leaves, flowers and fruits from a wide range of plants. The Common Brushtail Possum may also eat grass, fungi, bird eggs and baby birds.

Bats

Grey Headed Flying Fox

Goulds Wattle Bat

Find out more about microbats in Victoria: Insectivorous bats of Victoria (swifft.net.au)

Possums

Sugar Glider

Brushtail Possum

Eastern Ringtail Possum

Native invertebrates such as butterflies, bees, ladybirds, ants, beetles, spiders, dragonflies benefit the environment in many ways. They are our plant pollinators, our waste recyclers, our pest eaters and an important source of food for many native birds, frogs, reptiles and mammals.

Butterflies

Australian Painted Lady

Meadow Argus Butterfly

Dainty Swallowtail (Papilio anactus) (ala.org.au)

Common Grass Blue Butterfly

Native Bees

Blue banded Bee

Leafcutter Bee

Resin Bees (Megachile) (aussiebee.com.au)

Cuckoo Bees

Other insects

Blue-spotted Hawker (Adversaeschna brevistyla) (ala.org.au)

Lamprima aurata - Golden Stag Beetle | Atlas of Living Australia (ala.org.au)

Bogong Moth

Greengrocer Cicada

Small birds forage in the lower levels of the garden and like dense, prickly bushes for shelter. They feed on insects, caterpillars, and spiders and some eat berries and seeds. Small birds can help keep insect pests, such as mosquitos, at bay in your garden.

Honeyeaters are attracted to flowers of plants that produce lots of nectar. They also include insects in their diet. Honeyeaters are helpful pollinators for your gardens and veggie patches.

Small birds

White-browed Scrubwren

Brown Thornbill

Willie Wagtail

Superb Fairy-wren

Honeyeaters

New Holland Honeyeater

Eastern Spinebill

Red Wattlebird

White-plumed Honeyeater

Parrots feed on a variety of food sources that can include flowers and seeds of Eucalyptus, She-oaks and Bottlebrush. Some feed mainly on ground sourcing indigenous grass seed, ground tubers or grubs.

Large birds feed on small mammals, lizards and large insects. Ensuring you have one or more large trees in your garden will provide roosting an nesting spots for them to rest and hunt from. You could consider adding a nest box in your tree to provide habitat for large birds, bats or possums.

Parrots

Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoo

Musk Lorikeet

Gang-Gang Cockatoo

Crimson Rosella

Large birds

Australian Magpie

Grey Currawong

Powerful Owl

Tawny Frogmouth

Frog population have undergone serious decline in recent decades and a third of the species are now listed as threatened worldwide. Nine species of frog in Eastern Australia have already been listed as extinct in the last 20 years.

Frogs have been vulnerable to habitat loss and feral animal predation but are also susceptible to disease, pollution and climate change. You can support frogs by building a frog bog or pond in your garden. The prey of each frog differs based on the species with some eating insects, lizards and sometimes even other frogs!

Southern Bell Frog

Spotted Marsh Frog

Striped Marsh Frog

Brown or Whistling Tree Frog

Lizards and skinks are important species in the Monash environment. Lizards and skinks like bathing on sunny and protected spots to warm up, such as flat rocks, logs or brick pavers. Provide lots of leaf litter, mulch and tussock grasses for protection and so they can hunt for insects.

Avoid using snail baits, including pet friendly options, as some lizards will die eating either the bait or the dead snail.

Blue-tongue Lizard

Southern Marbled Gecko (Christinus marmoratus)

Delicate Garden Skink (Lampropholis delicata)