Keeping a watch on the Purple-spotted Gudgeon

Posted 15 July 2019.

Monitoring of the threatened Flinders Ranges Purple-spotted Gudgeon was the focus of a training day involving Friends of Vulkathunha Gammon Ranges National Park (VGRNP), Nantawarrina IPA Rangers and SA Arid Lands staff.

Monitoring of the threatened fish is one component of the Bounceback and Beyond project, which is supported by SA Arid Lands NRM Board through funding from the Australian Government’s National Landcare Program.

SA Arid Lands NRM Manager of Scientific Services Rob Brandle and Community Ecologist Catherine Lynch joined the Friends Group in their work monitoring Weetootla and Nepouie Springs for both water quality and presence of fish species including the Flinders Ranges Purple-spotted Gudgeon (Mogurnda clivicola).

The Purple-spotted Gudgeon is classed as a threatened species because it is only known to live in two springs less than 11km apart. Funding received as part of Bounceback and Beyond will allow scientists to improve their understanding of the species and undertake management actions that will reduce threats to the species’ survival.

Nantawarrina Indigenous Protected Area (IPA) staff and rangers came out for a day to learn more about the work being done and were able to see how water quality measurements are made, how monitoring of the Purple-spotted Gudgeon is undertaken, and how the impacts that herbivores such as goats have on native plant species are measured.

It also gave SA Arid Lands NRM Board staff a chance to learn more about the cultural significance of the Gudgeon to the local Adnyamathanha people and to thank the Friends for their continued commitment to supporting the protection and preservation of the Park’s natural and historic values.