Andrew Marshall and his girls Paige and Adia are used to spotting wallabies and the odd echidna on their Tinderbox property, south of Hobart.
But they're only now discovering the array of creatures that share their home, with the help of a hidden camera.
Today, they're moving the camera to the front of the property, in the hopes they will capture images of the elusive forty-spotted pardalote, one of Australia's most endangered birds.
They have set up bird boxes to encourage their survival and habitation.
"We're really interested to know where they roam here and how many of them live here," Mr Marshall said.
"We haven't spotted them yet inside the boxes but hopefully over the coming few months or seasons we can see them take up residence in those boxes."
The family is participating in the Tasmanian Land Conservancy's WildTracker project, a citizen science program that allows landholders to share images with the not-for-profit group, so they can find out more about what creatures live where.
A camera trap is typically installed for a month before batteries are recharged and the host of images on its SD card are downloaded onto a computer.
Checking the camera is an exciting moment for the family.
The camera isn't just for birds, although eight-year-old Adia has developed a keen fascination.
"One of the ones that was on the camera was a common bronzewing … the one that has a bit of rainbow on their wings, which is very cool. And some superb fairy wrens," she said.
Her sister Paige said favourite moment was when a baby brushtail possum climbed onto its mother.
"It was really cute," she said.
"It's just like wow, we didn't know we had so many different types of animals."
The Marshalls's camera has captured eastern bettongs, pademelons, a couple of extra echidnas they didn't know about, and even a pair of wallabies having what looked like a very physical argument.
"It's really just about educating all of us really on the natives and the wildlife that live here," Mr Marshall said.
"We're learning so much and it's a really important natural education for our girls to learn what lives here."
More than 100,000 wildlife photos
The project has so far attracted about 170 participants, who have submitted more than 100,000 photos in total.
While the major question for the project is to figure out what lives where, it is not the only one.
Its aim is also to track the range expansion of a couple of invasive species, including the lyrebird and the fallow deer, and to track the spread of disease, such as devil facial tumour disease in Tasmanian devils.
Participants are a mix of big landholders and people living in more urban areas — which is just as useful, according to conservation ecologist at Tasmanian Land Conservancy Glen Bain.
"The interesting thing for me about Tassie is that we still have really special wildlife living in the suburbs of Hobart and Launceston so I'm keen to have people with those smaller plots of land involved as well," Dr Bain said.
"If we know that quolls are using big patches of bush, we also need to know where they're not using to give it context. So it's just as interesting to me if you collect images of rabbits or starlings."
He said some of the animals that turned up on camera traps had been surprising.
"Another record we had recently was of a feral goat on someone's property. That's not even a species I had considered, so I had to add that as a possible tag on the WildTracker website," he said.
"We had our first record not long ago of a pygmy possum, which you very rarely capture on camera or see in the wild. Very cute little thing. You can recognise it by its big ears."
Sharing a property with wildlife
Carol Hurst's involvement stems from her strong sense of curiosity.
She knew she wasn't alone on her property near Ranelagh, in Tasmania's Huon Valley.
Since 2016, her camera has picked up everything from quolls, to mischievous owls who like to perch on top of the camera, to Tasmanian devils.
Ms Hurst said discovering what lived at her property made her feel "connected" with her surroundings.
"It's so nice that I haven't just overtaken this area. Obviously, I've cleared an area, I've built a house."
She said it was important people learned to accept the wildlife they shared their garden with.
"I know I've got a snake, but that's OK," she said.
"Animals don't share your vegetables, so you have to put nets around things. So there's an acceptance there that that's the way it is."
Anyone in Tasmania who is looking to help the WildTracker project can register their interest.
