Plants and Animals

One of Australia’s largest native rodents, the Giant White-tailed Rat (Uromys caudimaculatus) has such formidable teeth and jaw strength, they have been known to eat through steel garbage bins. They are also capable of dispersing large-seeded tree species in Australian tropical rain forests, including some that have no alternate vector, such as the magnificent Yellow Walnut (Beilschmiedia bancrofti) (Lauraceae).

When I first settled into the Daintree rainforest, I was surprised by the local council’s provision of free rodenticide for “vermin control”. Never mind that these were protected species and inhabitants of World Heritage estate, apparently they were rats first and foremost and therefore vermin.

There is quite a diversity of native rodent fauna in the Daintree rainforest, but as far as I know, no introduced species. The Bush Rat (Rattus fuscipes coracius) looks most like the notorious Black Rat (Rattus rattus) of bubonic infamy, but even these are protected by legislation.

Over the years, newcomers settling into the rainforest have expressed dismay at the intrusion of rodents with not the slightest regard for the meticulously installed barriers of fly-wire mesh. Aggrieved home-owners almost invariably resort to trapping the trespassers, as sensitively as possible, and transporting them to a remote corner of the Daintree for release. Like-minded counterparts could very possibly be doing the same thing, from the opposite direction and it would be interesting to know how this shuttling of rats around the rainforest affected their social dynamics, for it most certainly does not affect the continued breaching of residential boundaries. Residents either accepted the inevitable or leave.

The Bleeding Heart (Homalanthus novoguineensis) is the preferred food plant of the caterpillar (above), which attains a length of 12 cm and produces Australia’s largest moth: The Hercules (Coscinocera hercules).

The female moth has a slightly paler and larger wing area than the male (below), whose wingspan reaches up to 27 cms.

The female Cairns Birdwing (Ornithoptera euphorion) (below) is Australia’s largest endemic butterfly species, reaching a wingspan of up to 16 cm. Males are usually a few centimeters smaller.

The caterpillar of this species (below) prefers to feed upon the native rainforest vine Dutchman’s Pipe (Aristolochia tagala).

Hi Jennifer,

In the animal world we have heard about the most strange adoptions, for example a lion that adopted an antelope, a turtle that adopted a rhino baby and the list goes on. Here’s a story about hedgehogs that adopted a cleaning brush as their mother :

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=478026&in_page_id=1

Many hedgehogs are taken into care each year in Sweden, mostly injured animals and young ones unlikely to survive hibernation.

Hedgehog litter size averages 4, but can be up to 9.

Hedgehogs released back into the wild have a high survival rate. A majority adapt to life in the wild quickly, find their food and make nests and quickly learn their ways.

Their main enemies are badgers and cars (road accidents).

Ann Novek
Sweden

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see part 1 here: https://jennifermarohasy.com.dev.internet-thinking.com.au/blog/archives/002469.html

and if you can cope with the really gruesome, click here, but warning the photograph may cause distress: https://jennifermarohasy.com.dev.internet-thinking.com.au/blog/archives/002374.html

Like most birds that I see at night, this Azure Kingfisher (Alcedo azurea) was roosting strategically on the distal end of isolated vegetation, to forecast the vibrations of predators. In this instance, the climbing bamboo (Bambusa moreheadiana) provided safe harbour.

What was most unusual, though, was the sighting itself; being only my second of such a species in fourteen years of almost nightly scrutiny. The first, many years ago, was overhanging a section of Cooper Creek, where they are seen frequently throughout the day. In this sighting, the bird was quite a distance up an officially un-named tributary feeder creek, but perfectly positioned for a photograph.

I find it very significant that such a beautifully conspicuous plumage can remain so well hidden over the years. As an individual species, how can its part in the natural landscape be understood and appreciated when it is so adept at concealment? Its importance to other species and the interrelationships that define its ecological character are even less accessible.

The longer I persevere with my immersion into this ancient and secretive world, the more insurmountable its complexity becomes. Very clearly, one lifetime will not be enough. I take a degree of comfort from the obvious advantage of my children, benefiting from the contribution of the knowledge that their parents and grandparents are able to impart, but additionally, from the knowledge that they gain from their own observations and interrelationships. With only three generations I can see the growing accumulation of intellectual property.

Just imagine the intellectual insight of the thousand generations accrued by Australia’s indigenous people, the longest surviving human culture in the world.

There are two criteria which should be applied to the harvest of an animal species: 1. Are the numbers taken sustainable, and 2. Is the method of killing humane?

At least that’s what I said on ABC Radio National last Friday morning when Steve Cannane asked me why I thought it was hypocritical for Australians to rally against whaling by the Japanese while ignoring the slaughter of dugongs by indigenous Australians.

In reply Steve interviewed Joe Morrison, Executive Officer of the North Australian Indigenous Land and Sea Management Alliance, this morning. Mr Morrison essentially side-stepped the issue of whether dugongs were killed humanely, but he did dispute my claim that 1,000 dugongs are killed in northern Australia each year.

Mr Morrison suggested this number only applied to the Torres Straits. So how many dugongs are killed each year in Northern Australia?

You can listen to both interviews by podcast. The interviews were part of the Breakfast Program and so the podcasts include other interviews and news reports during that segment of the program.

1. Anti-whaling activists released

…The men are about to be handed over to the Sea Shepherd ship, the Steve Irwin. Meanwhile, an Australian public policy group is critical of the strong tactics used by conservation groups like the Sea Shepherds and Greenpeace, and the position of the Australian government on the whales issue.

Guests
Paul Watson, Captain of the Steve Irwin
Dr. Jennifer Marohasy, Senior fellow at the Institute of Public Affairs

Listen here: http://www.abc.net.au/rn/breakfast/stories/2008/2141167.htm

2. Whales and dugongs

Last week Breakfast heard from Dr Jennifer Marohasy from the Melbourne-based Institute of Public Affairs who described the Australian Government’s anti-whaling position as hypocritical. Dr Marohasy said the Federal Government and conservation groups like Greenpeace and the Sea Shepherd are jumping up and down about the slaughter of whales by the Japanese, yet ignoring the killing of more endangered species like dugongs and turtles by Indigenous people in Northern Australia.

Guests
Joe Morrison, Executive Officer of the North Australian Indigenous Land and Sea Management Alliance (NAILSMA)

Listen here: http://www.abc.net.au/rn/breakfast/stories/2008/2142705.htm

These voracious, venomous predators of the night are seldom seen and even more infrequently in pairs, but what can be said of the affairs of the Scutigeromorph heart?

Well first of all, they have a series of trachea originating at dorsal openings that channel oxygen into the pericardium. They also have a single dorsal heart which pumps oxygenated blood about the tissues of their relatively large and active architecture.

Generally, arthropods have open circulatory systems within which circulating fluid (haemolymph) passes directly through tissues, but in the scutigeromorph, a more complex distribution system is controlled by cardioarterial valves. Also, large respiratory copper proteins, called haemocyanins carry oxygen through the haemolymph.

Socially, the two individuals photographed were engaged in a repertoire with what appeared to be a greater enthusiasm on the part of the larger male. Reproduction is most probably via indirect sperm transfer. Male scutigeromorphs strategically deposit a sperm droplet and then encourage the female to this location through behavioural ritual. The female receives the droplet directly through the genital opening.