As 2007 draws to a conclusion, I make my final entry for the year, in the form of a challenge: Can anyone identify this critter?
I photographed it on the distinctive new foliage of a juvenile mahogany (Dysoxylum sp.) and it is about 2 mm long (cerci excluded).
For 2008, I wish our entire readership all the very best.
The Cooper Valley has been dumped on with exceptional rainfall over the past few days. Since Boxing Day, over 700 mm has been recorded in our portion of the catchment.
Last night I was unable to collect three travellers that had booked onto the nocturnal tour because of flooding. Another two, one from Hamburg and the other from Switzerland were awe-struck by the deluge, but eventually I had to abandon the tour. Flooding, landslides and tree falls were commonplace throughout the area.
This is by far the most exciting time of the year for wildlife. A Giant Petilurid, Australia’s largest dragonfly, took refuge from the downfall, in our bathroom. The infrequently seen onychophorans or peripatus are at their most conspicuous. Tree frogs descend from their upper-story concealment in their thousands and produce such a cacophony that it is virtually impossible to be heard.
Not all is bad! We can rejoice in the grandeur of nature … in a multitude of expressions.
The Privet Hawk Moth, for example,
blends magnificently with its environment.
Happy New Year to you all. Hope to see you in the ancient rainforests of the Daintree, or in the not too distant future, at www.ccwild.com/wiki
Your’s,
Neil
According to our most outspoken local adherent to Al Gore, business owners within the Daintree Cape Tribulation rainforest community need to start taking some responsibility and planning for a very different future to what we are used to.
We cannot anticipate a never-ending tourism market into the foreseeable future – I suspect we have 5-years at the most, and perhaps as a community we need to start planning our futures.
The extremely rapid pace of change in the Arctic (and Greenland and Antarctica) are indicative of what is happening – these areas are described as the ‘canaries in the coal mine’. Since 1999 – Cape Tribulation has had an almost doubling of rainfall – far more cloudiness … and this year, for the first time in recorded memory, currawongs have appeared on the lowlands.
It is true that currawongs Strepera graculina made an unexpected appearance this year. Top-knot pigeons were also much more abundant and remained within the area far longer than expected. And Kookaburras Dacelo novaeguineae have been frequenting the cleared areas in the Cooper Valley. However, this atypical representation is more likely due to the abundance of natural resources in the Daintree rainforest, relative to those areas south that were so severely damaged by Cyclone Larry in March of last year.
As I photographed this individual, a spotted catbird Ailuroedus melanotis did its utmost to evict the intruder, calling incessantly and finally dropping vegetation from above. The catbird has two nestlings nearby and I wondered if the Kookaburra’s notorious nest-thievery was familiar to the catbird.
Katydids grow incrementally, from the exoskeletal confines of one instar to the next. They emerge from a hanging position on warm, still, humid nights and rely on a very limited variation of climatic tolerances. They will not survive the moult if it rains too heavily. Colouring and hardening takes several hours to complete.
This (unidentified) individual is capable of flight. It is a powerful, predatory katydid, as indicated by its size and the tibial spurs on its forelegs (in the close-up below).
According to a report in today’s Cairns Post, the Federal Court of Australia has made a consent determination, handing over a major management role of 126,000 hectares in the Daintree, to the Eastern Kuku Yalanji native title holders.
The determination has resulted in a major reconfiguration of land ownership and management arrangements across a complex array of World Heritage tenures.
The report states that 33,300-hectares of state-owned land has been declared for the exclusive occupation and use of the native title-holders. 96,600-hectares has been recognised for non-exclusive rights, including rights to the water and to fish and hunt in the water, the right to camp, hunt, gather resources for personal (non-commercial) needs and to conduct ceremonies. 16,500-hectares of Aboriginal freehold land has also been declared for residential and economic development.
The determination took over thirteen years to finalise. A range of benefits, negotiated under the broader indigenous land use package, will include a greater role in managing parks and reserves and a veritable doubling of national park estate between Cooktown and Mossman.
Jennifer Marohasy BSc PhD has worked in industry and government. She is currently researching a novel technique for long-range weather forecasting funded by the B. Macfie Family Foundation.
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