Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2023L01712:body:0:p16
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2023L01712
Segment Type: other
Provision Reference: 
Character Range: 46737–49467

Sanctuary in NT.
  Source: Desert Wildlife Services

  Photograph 10. Open mulga woodland habitat with an understorey of Woolybutt grass (Eragrostis eriopoda) with scattered Eremophila gilesii on the Watarru IPA in SA.
  Source: Desert Wildlife Services

Ecology

"Warrana lives with its family in one burrow. Mum and dad look after them. Sometimes dad goes out looking for a feed and make another burrow then comes back and they make scat on
 one place. So there's different scat you can find next to the burrow, there's a big one, small one and the baby one."
 Christine Ellis, Newhaven Wildlife Sanctuary /Nyirripi Ranger, December 2021

 Tjakura is one of the few reptile species in the world known to build a complex family burrow system and look after their young (McAlpin et al. 2011). Burrows are often developed from old holes originally constructed by other burrowing animals such as sand goanna (Varanus gouldii), brush-tailed mulgara (Dasycercus blythi), spinifex hopping-mouse (Notomys alexis) or night skink (L. striata). Males dig the burrows, starting with a single tunnel that is gradually added to over successive years as the family grows. Well established breeding burrows are about 10 m wide and have 10-20 burrow entrances to tunnels that interconnect underground (McAlpin et al. 2011). At Yulara the oldest burrow in the monitoring program was continually inhabited by Tjakura for 16 years (Paltridge and Eldridge 2020) before eventually going inactive 12 months after being burnt. Burrows extend to depths of 80-100 cm, where temperatures remain stable, and humidity does not fall below 80% (Moore et al. 2017).

 A burrow system has one or more latrines where the family members all deposit their scats in a pile. These 'toilets' are usually located among vegetation within a couple of metres of a burrow entrance. The latrine plays an important role in advertising burrow ownership, occupancy and the genetics of the occupants. For example, as the size of the scats is directly related to the size of the Tjakura living in that burrow, inspection of the latrine reveals whether there is a big adult male present and if breeding has been successful. However, it should be noted that dung beetles emerge in rainy weather and can rapidly demolish latrines.
 A family burrow may have up to 10 animals living
 inside – the parents, and their young from the past two years. The mother Tjakura is believed to use only one burrow system, and her children are all full siblings,

 sharing a single mother and father, but a male may move between several burrows of wives and children (McAlpin et al., 2011). At two to three years of age male Tjakura leave home to establish their own burrow and attempt to start a