Unsurpa�s�d accuracy Finding your way in the and prec1s1on bush with SILVA I11Iustrated 1s SILVA type 41 Map magnifying fens Finest Swedish Map and compass use opens up the real steel needle enjoyment and many rewards of finding Pivot on friction- your way 1n the bush with full free sapphire confidence. The Swedish SILVA designers have made the tedious task of compass work a pure simplicity. When you add a SILVA -0.' · Distortion proof compass to a topographic map and a acrylic baseplate few basic map reading instructions, you gain a sixth sense. The sense of "seeing" Non-radioactive over the hill: knowing what to expect luminous readout behind it and how to get there with the Anti-static, liquid least effort. Most importantly, it will filled capsule enable you to get back to your home base, as well as find that special spot As syea as 1,2,3 to use again next time. 1 Place compass on map Fun & safety in the bush with edge along direction of travel Good compass and map use increases SILVA compasses are built to the highest the fun and safety of outings in the standards of accuracy, not deliberately 2 Rotate the bush. capsule until "N" on compass dial points With a good map and a SILVA Compass, down to a low price. SILVA is the only north on map a sense of complete independence and North-South lines freedom of movement 1s acquired. Any compass in the world that uses the finest should be parallel Swedish steel in its sensitive magnetic wuh magnetic time that you feel like leaving a track or North gnd lines on road, you will be able to take a direct the map needle. SILVA is filled with a unique non­ route through the bush knowing the yellowing anti-static liquid that resists bubble 3 Hold compass direction and distance required to travel. honzontally In front A standard SILVA compass is not formation. SILVA is tested to operate in of you and rotate your body until red expensive, retailing for around $30. temperatures from -40C to +SOC. SILVA is point of needle ,s Some more professional models cost a over red part of little more. And there are more than 60 North arrow. Look specially counter- balanced to account for up. pick up a land different models in the SILVA range. mark and walk the magnetic dip forces found in Australasia. toward it The SILVA Guarantee When its a SILVA compass you can be sure SILVA guarantee that their compasses are there is no better or more accurate compass unsurpassed 1n quality and accuracy, being shockproof, waterproof and come you can buy. with an exclusive 6 year warranty Choose from many differentSILVA models at backed by an Australian better camping stores throughout Australia, after sales and spare parts service base. but beware of cheaper, look-alike imitations. There is no other compas that 1s more accurate Look for this display than SILVA. in all good camping stores that sell quality equipment You'll find a compass displayed to suit your exact requirements and Insist on budget. Try them for yourself and quality test the "Easy as 1,2,3"" SILVA system. asl< for a SILVA Compass! Trade enquiries: Macson Trading Company Ply Ltd Tel (03) 9489 9766 Fax (03) 9481 5368 http://www.macson.com.au - u Front 30 JUN 1999

coral cay in the Great Barrier Reef, we follow the trials and tribulations of booby chicks struggling to reach maturity. now all about the From the moment they hatch, these Effect? ick of Greenhouse birds are harassed by siblings, ino? Well here's hearing about EI neighbours and predators, and if that's you not a global phenomenon may not enough, their parents are often be as familiar with but one that can conned out of dinner before it gets to have just as much impact on the them. planet . . . and us. In fact it's Velvet geckos, on the other hand, responsible for Australia turning face quite different dilemmas. Being from the lush tropical forest of th nocturnal, they laze about in the warmth past into the harsh desert we know of their rock crevices during the day and today. It's called an ice age and it then rush about at night until it's time to seems that our planet has been go home. Unfortunately for Lesueur's 5 subjected Lo several of these cold Velvet Gecko finding a home is a bit like � Lesueur's Velvet Gecko. events since they began millions of playing Russian roulette as any potential r years ago. Wl1at started all this f eezing and thawing is still abode could contain an angry rival male or even a gecko­ unknown (although Geoff McNamara presents some eating snake. So how do the geckos tell which home is a safe intere ting theories) but what continues to trigger them house? appears to be a complicated interplay of various planetary We also take a look at how giant squids have sex, and conditions. One thing is for sure, they have been responsible discover that the smartest marsupials are wearing long tails. for some major events including mass extinctions and Our regular features include tips on saving a species when allowing humans to migrate from Siberia Lo Alaska. So when there is only one individual left, instructions on the best way is the next one? Is it time to stock up on extra winter woollies? to serve earthworms to your friends, advice on how to beat You may be surprised by the answer. Read 'The Big chill" on the flim-flam virus, and The Last Word highlights what can page 54 and find out. happen when we all look the other way. From the chill of an ice age to the tropical warmth of a -Jennifer Saunders

Sorry We don't have any of the things you may be used to. But we do have clean air, fine food and enchanting scenery Talk to your NO TRAFFIC JAMS, travel agent about a visit to Freycinet Lodge, and immerse yourself POLITICIANS, in the beauty of Tasmania's most stunning coastal wilderness area. CROWDS, You can bring your stress if you like, but you can't take it home with you. I -LAWS, Please send me a complimentary copy of your brochure. PARK.I GTICKETS Name .... . OR SMOG. Address ... . Ph (. .... ) ...... But we still call it ho111,e. Send this coupon to: PO Box 225 Kings Meadows TAS 7249 Ph (03) 6257 0 IOI Fax (03) 6257 0278 Frey in t Lodge .f" TIV ITI ES fR(YCINET Nt\TIONt\l l';\IU,•COLES SAY J- A WOR LD OF /\.TUR AL A

NATU RE AUSTRALIA WINTER 1999 bz HOME GECKONOMICS For Lesueur's Velvet Gecko, a discerning sense of smell can Nature mean the difference between WINTER 19 99 VOLUME 26 NUMBER 5 life, death and a warm place Published by the Australian Museum Trust to slee/J. 6 College Street, BY SHARON J. DOWNES Sydney, SW 2000. Phone: (02) 9320 6000 46 Fax: (02) 9320 6073 Web: http:/ /www.austmus.gov.au Trust President: Malcolm Long Museum Director: Michael Archer MAJ AGING EDITOR Jennifer Saunders, B.Sc. email: [email protected] CIENTIFIC EDITOR Georgina Hickey, B.Sc. email: [email protected] PHOTO & EDITORIAL RESEARCHER Kate Lowe email: [email protected] RIVETING SEX IN THE DESIG AND PRODUCTIO GIANT SQUIDS Watch This! Design When a 220-lzilogram female PRINT! 1G was hauled up from the murlzy Excel Printing depths off Tasmania, scientists were amazed to find sperm ADVERTISI G cords embedded in her arms­ THE BIG CHILL Robbie Muller the first-ever evidence of mating The Earth freezes for thousands Phone: (02) 9320 6119 in giant squids. of years and then it thaws. Not email: [email protected] BY MARK ORMAN just once, but again and again. SUBSCR.IPTIO S 24 Why?And what does our planet Robbie Muller have in store for us? Phone: (02) 9320 6119 BY GEOFF McNAMARA Toll-free (1800) 028 558 RAISING BOOBIES Fax: (02) 9320 6073 The trials of life for a booby 54 email: [email protected] chicli begin almost before it has hatched. Parental inadequacy, Annual subscription (4 issues) accidents, bad weather and Within Australia $A33 Other countries $A45 Two-year subscription (8 issues) predators all talze their toll, Within Australia $A63 Other countries $A83 maliing life hell in paradise. Three-year subscription (12 issues) BY MYRIAM PREKER Within Australia $A89 Other countries $A116 1 ew subscriptions can be made by credit card on the NATURE 28 AUSTRALIAtoll-free hotline (1800) 028 558 or use the form in this magazine. If it has been removed, send cheque. money LAND OF THE LONGTAILS order or credit card authorisation to the address above, made In the drier rainforest scrubs of payable to the 'Australian Museum' in Australian currency. northern Queensland, could All materialappearing i11 NATURE AUSTRALIA is copyright. Reproduction in part or whole is not permitted without written long tails and braininess be a11thorisatio11 from the Editor. NATURE AUSTRALIA welcomes linked? articles on the natural and cultural heritage of the Australian BY ROGER MARTIN Region. Opinions expressed by the authors are their own and do not necessarily represent the poHcies or views of the Au tralian 38 Museum. NATURE AUSTRALIA is printed on archival quality paper suitable for library collections. Published 1999 ISSN-1324-2598

NATURE AUSTRALIA (asA H) @ is proud winner of the 1987, '88, '89, '90, '91, '92 & '93 Whitley Awards for Best Periodical, and the 1988 & '90 Australian Heritage Awards. Front Cover Masked Boobies (Su/a dactylatra) live and breed in an impoverished blue-water environment-the Great Barrier Reef. Photo by Kathie Atkinson.

2 NATURE AUSTRALIA WINTER 1999 p

Regular Features Trach a Python; Goose Growth island Style; Plastic Perils for Platypus; Tell-tail Lizards; THE BACKYARD NATURALIST Tongue Transfer; Quich Quiz. WORMS TO MAKE THE EARTH MOVE worm ... The versatile earth . 1101 only is it gooq fior yo ' soil 1 ro te111 but it ea II be a l11g i-p meal as well. BY STEVE V DYCK 18

P H O T O A R T BOOBIES A beautiful bunch of Boobies to ogle at. LETTERS Chocolate Bilbies; Peregrines BYKATHIE ATKJ SO Not People; Stilt ID; Fly Traps 62 & Kalla Sex. 4 VIEWSFROM THEFOUR THDI MENSION REVIEWS IMMUNISING AGAINST Caring for Australian Wildlife; FLIM-FLAM VIRUS Encyclopedia of Birds; A If your daily horoscope starts Photographic Guide to Trees of colouring your view of the Australia; Encyclopedia of world, you may be suffering Reptiles and Amphibians; from fl,im-flam virus. Michael Tailing Wing. Archer suggests the best cure RARE & EN DANGE RED for this is a healthy dose of 72 scepticism. SOCIETY PAGE NORFOLK ISLAND BYMICHAEL ARCHER interested in nature but not BOOBOOK OWL sure what to do or where to go? How do you preserve an owl's 70 ature Australia's SocietyPage genetic integrity when there is is a great place to start. only one bird left? Using 74 methods both old and new, the ing a wonderf seemingly impossible was made possible. BYPE NYOLSE 20

THE LAST WORD WINGECARRIBEE SWAMP-GONE! NATURE STRIPS THE GUIDE Australia's largest montane ature Australia's W I L D Paydirt for Parrots; R�man market THINGSpeatland was mined and False Teeth; Blame Big Ears; place. degraded with reckless abandon DRE Oxpeckers and Elephants; . 75 AMING ABOUT FIBRES for years until, after heavy One Dinosaur's Supersonic Tail; hundred years ago men rains, it finally disappeared reamed Penis Fencing; Knowing Me, A � of making fortunes forever in a torrent of mud. Knowing Ewe; Frog Bubble Q& ;om native fibres. But the Where were our environmental Ladybird, Ladybird ...; ream Nests· Frosty Warning; Cuckoo's never came true. Why? caretakers? Secrdt· Stoned Gannets; Snails' Whistling Wings; Winter BY r T!M LOW BY GEOFF SAINTY Agony and Ecstasy; Fogs' Legs Basking; Pie Tease,: 22 in Hot Water; Novel Way to 78 NATURE 80 3 AUSTRALIAWI NTER 1999 ---

Morrison (Nature Aust. Spring 1998) that the Easter LETTERS Bilby owes its origins to the The forum for readers to Anli-Rabbil Research Foun­ dation of Auslralia (ARRFA) air their views about their in 1991. concerns, past articles and Quile independently of interesting personal events. ARRFA, Melbas Chocolates made and sold an Easter Bilby before Haighs in 1993. They and other chocolate bilby makers have con­ lributed proceeds to the sav­ ing of Bilbies and other Stilt ID emerged Lhal the birds breed including olher plumage pat­ wildlife ever since withoul around inland salt lakes, terns, and hints that derive reference to ARRFA. So, peo­ One of the satisfying r aspects of Nature Australia is when they are filled by the f om the bird's habitat choice ple can purchase chocolate the wonderful photographs, unpredictable rainfall of the or behaviour. For example, bilbies at Easter as well as accompanied by informative interior. Black-winged Stilts the nest habitat shown in the other times, and know that mislabelled photograph is captions. As a committed are found in Australasia, not only. are they increasing waderologi t (one who stud­ Eurasia, India, Africa and the typical of a Black-winged Stilt community awareness of Bil­ ies wading birds), and an Americas. In Australia, they breeding around a freshwa­ bies but in many instances also seem to move inland ter wetland, but very differ­ they are also helping wildlife amateur photographer, I feel r it is my duty to point out a with favourable rainfall condi­ ent f om the scorched sand financially. small lapse in caption accura­ tions, bul their breeding of an island in a salt lake, This is particularly true for cy in the Summer 1998-99 tend to occur at freshwater where Banded Stilts breed. Melba Wildlife Chocolates is ue. The photograph wetlands. -Michael A. Weston which feature Brush-tailed labelled Banded Stilt (Clador­ The easiest single clue to University of Melbourne, Vic. Bettong , quolls, umbats, hynchus leucocephalus) is identifying stilts in Australia Short-beaked Echiclnas, a actually of a Black-winged is the head plumage. The Chocolate Bilbies well as Bilbies. A royalty goes Stilt (Himantopus himanto­ Banded Stilt has an all-white I have in my possession a to the South Australian pus). head, and the Black-winged book Billy the Aussie Easter National Parks and Wildlife The Banded Stilt is endem­ Stilt has a black area stretch­ Bilby written by Rose-Marie and the Threatened Species ic to Australia, and very few ing from the back of the head Dusting and .first published in Foundation of Australia. records of its breeding have clown the neck. There are Australia in 1979. This contra­ -D. John Hunwick been made. Recently, it has many clues to identification, dicts the claim by Robert Eden Hills, SA

Banded Stilts-note the all-white head P 1 umage, • • which 1s one of the easies· t · . ways to d1fferent1ate them from Black-winged Stilts.

4 NATURE AUSTRALIA WINTER 1999 >

New Zealand Kakas. CopuI a ting . to continue for Th1S pair seemed long time. an unusually l fly Traps & Kaka Se" . couple o[ art1· c1 es ll1 tl 1e A Nature Spring �998 issue of _ Australia _really ea� oht m,y • s .)11 teresl.Firs! was Tun Low s 't' 't Y_" • ·'Plants with , �ns,_ 1v1 Common in cultivation 111 Ausb·alasia is the Ven�, Fly Trap (Dio11aea musc1pula). Any insect that enters the open leaf an_d to�ches_ any two of the tnp hairs will be lucky to escape ensnarement as the b·ap is sprung and the leaf closes over the intruding insect.The rapidity 0£ the clo­ sure is amazing to watch and, if an insect is caught, the leaf remains closed until most 0£ the nourishment it contains is ab orbed by the plant.Leaves can be b·iggered into closing by brushing the trio·ger hairs, but if no food provider is trapped , the leaf gradually reopens shortly afterwards. The second article of par­ ticular intere t to me was the one on "Why Kissing is for the Birds". Several months ago my wife and I were in the walk-through aviary at Auck­ land Zoo where we spotted a pair of courting ew Zealand Kakas (Nestor meridionalis). In my year r of bird watching that copulation lasted two impacts may be had, then to energy (f om her diet) to pro­ and photography I have often minutes.When the male final­ make decisions concerning duce seen a larger clutch, not birds copulate-a very ly baled out, he remained her future. because she determined he brief and vigorous affair last­ standing on the ground, beak The male's courtship ing wasn't good enough to sire just a few econds.This open, panting for some time, behaviour indirectly dictates three or more eggs. pair of Kakas was on the before regaining enough the success of the breeding ground, Putting a human perspec­ on a bank above the energy to fly off. An amazing pair of birds.Since it is driven tive on animal issues is scien­ walk!ng track, urrounded by feat of endurance for a bird. by instinct (not learned), it's tifically unsound and leads to �on 1derable vegetation, and -Brian Chudleigh if w grounded in genes, and so false understanding of the as difficult for us to get an Katikati, NZ the stronger the instinct (the psychology of animals.Unfor ­ op_e_n view for photography. more prey captured), the bet­ tunately it is too common. I111t,ally there was a lot of Peregrines Not ter chance of breeding suc­ P.S.The magazine is excel­ sp arring with beaks, flapping lent. and People cess. The male's ability to bumbling around, and In the article on Peregrine "provide" for the female is -Dean Portelli eventually copulation Westmead, NSW · began Falcons (Nature Aust. Spring also governed by physical · · and went on and on, on and 1998) by Penny Olsen, I attributes that are grounded like I have never previ­ in genes. The female doesn't sly found what seems to be com­ NATURE AUSTRALIA welcomes �h .seen with birds. As decide on which male to mate ere is monplace when interpreting letters for publication and supposedly no penis animal behaviour-anthropo­ with by a conscious, deliber­ �� co�nect the bir?s, requests that they be limited to I found morphism. ate examination Gudgement); 250 words and typed if possible. quite extraordmary how was said instead she mates with the they re The female falcon Please supply a daytime tele­ mained in contact for to be able to "judge what sort male whose behaviour �� 1?11&· My wif� phone number and type or print missed the of a provider the male is and inspires the greatest instinc­ your name and address dearly gmnmg but still her part. on got 75 sec- scale her reproductive effort tive reaction on on the letter. The best letter in d . of ,· t on the obt . v,'d eo and I accordingly" based on the Olsen also mentions this issue will receive a copy of med e(ght a cer­ a ; . photos, using male bringing prey to her "female 'decided' to lay The Graham Pizzey & Frank ��-m,11,metre on O lens with during courtship. I resent tain number of eggs based Knight field guide to the birds of · as 111 very abili­ In dark surround­ this statement. It implies the the male's provisioning Australia from the Museum b gs. ' wh' 1c h ties . .". If the female lays a really soaked up female Peregrine has the . Shop. The winner this issue is ttery power .. a male that i rna requinng intelligence to examine _her fewer eggs with Brian Chudleigh. b � seconds for repo a poor provider, i�'s beca_use e een wering current situation and proJect shots. I would say it into the future to see what there has been 1nsuffic1ent

NAT URE AUS 5 TRALIA WINTER 1999 seems, have learnt that eat­ ing dirt protects them against plant toxins. So effective is this method that dirt-eating Nature parrots have to ingest 50 limes more quinidine (a poi­ sonous alkaloid) than humans for it lo be detectable in their blood stream. Strips -A.T. COMPILED BY Roman False GEORGINA HICKEY Teeth trip lo the dentist is bad Aenough these days, with Paydirt for as salt to the diet, and adsorb had little value as a buffer the option of anaesthetics toxins. ow new clues have again l acidic foods. and modern technology. Pity Parrots emerged from two recent One thing the researchers then the Gallic man who umans and other ani­ studies on soil-eating parrots. did notice was that both soils 1,900 years ago had to have H mals have eaten soil for Jared Diamond and David were rich in clay. Clays are an iron replica implanted in generations. Descriptions of Bishop (University of Califor­ known to bind to bacteria and his upper jaw. geophagy go back to Roman nia at Los Angeles) studied toxins, effectively preventing This remarkable discovery times, and the practice con­ parrots in ew Guinea, while them from being absorbed in of the oldest-known function­ tinues today. In Zambia and James Gilardi (University of the blood. In fact, Kaomagna, al prosthetic tooth was made Zimbabwe, for example, 90 California at Davis) looked at an over-the-counter medicine in a skeleton from a cemetery per cent of pregnant women the soil-eating habits of Ama­ used to combat diarrhoea, is at Chantambre in France, and eat soil, a nub·ient-rich mix zonian parrots. largely fine clay in solution. was the only one of the 500 or derived from giant termite Suspecting that dirt was Diamond surmised that so skeletons with such dental mounds. eaten as a dietary supple­ ingestion of the clay soils work. So what's so great about ment, the researchers investi­ helped parrots cope with Particularly interesting, eating dirt? Theories on why gated the mineral content. plant toxins in their diet. say Eric Crubezy (Univer­ abound, including to sup­ But in both areas, the soils Many seeds and unripe site Paul Sabatier, France) press appetite, provide grit were low in nutrients, and fruits contain toxins, such as and colleagues, is the iron for grinding food, buffer the were also too fine to be of use quinine and strychnine, to tooth's precise fit in the sock­ stomach, add minerals such in grinding food. They also deter predators. Parrots, it et, suggesting that whoever

Why do humans and other animals, like this Eclectus Parrot (Eclectus roratus), eat dirt?

6 NATURE AUSTRALIA WINTER 1999 >

ullfrogs, like this The ears of b nt Bullfrog south African Gia , (Pyxicephalus adspersus) are tening but used not only for lis o. for talking to

modelled it c�r�'[ully copied il from the ongmal premolar, and gave the tooth il sh�pe through a hot hammenng and folding process. Th prosthesis was then genlly placed in the socket, where bone subsequently grew around it, cementing il in place. JL takes between three and six months for bone lo grow around a tooth implant, although modernden lists opt not lo insert false Leeth directly into the bone because of uncertain success. Minor reactions between the iron tooth and the bone sug­ crestthal the 30-year-old man �as able lo enjoy his dental work for al least a year before he died. The re earchers say that, although chance played a part in the success of the implant, the technical choices made by the dentist were con­ ducive to the bone-integra­ tion process. But how an Iron-Age healer acquired the skill for such an operation, or prevented infection, is unknown. Indeed, Marshall Becker from We t Chester Univer ity believe it wa n't an iron implant at all, but a natural tooth stained with iron oxides. However no iron or metal objects were found associated with the burial and even if they were it i� unlikely they would ' have affected just one tooth. One thing i certain: this early R?man tooth has definitely giyen archaeologist some­ thmg to chew over. -R.S. anatomy. It seems the frog is The lympanic membrane Strangely enough, those no loud-mouth-he just has has always been exclusively other inces ant noisemak­ Blame Big Ears big ears. associated with sound recep­ ers-cicadas-also have By placing a sound-generat­ tion, yet Purgue's results r eardrums that broadcast Bullfrogs can make one ing device inside the mouth reveal bullf ogs not only hear, their calls. There is no e cap­ hell of a noise! During but also talk through their the. of a North American Bullfrog ing the cacophony of sum­ breeding season their (Rana catesbeiana), Purgue ears. By amplifying the sound mer, as the shrill chirping of horu r r � � can be deafening. measured how various parts f om the vocal cord , the Lym­ sweet nothings resonate f om ro�kmg has always been of the body amplify pulses of panic membranes function as millions of tiny ears. fiha�e �� d with the vocal sac sound. Although the vocal loudspeakers for broadcast­ -K.H. at mflates like a balloon sac picked up some vibra­ ing the mating call. This also der �� �he frog's chin. Howev- tions, the overwhelming explain why males of the Oxpeckers and .' AleJandro Purgue, a biolo­ response emanated from the specie have eardrums 50 per st re�e Elephants fhe ar�hing acoustics at ears. Most (70-80 per cent) cent larger than females. The University of California silent female's ears only have re oxpeckers pernickety Lo in of ound output was transmit­ s Angeles, has traced ted through the tympanic to listen, while the male's Awhen picking a tick to so nd projection e � to a differ- membrane-the external ear have to listen plus do all peck? It is often stated, for 11 Part of the bullfrog's skin covering the middle ear. the 'talking'. example, that elephant ticks

NATURE AUSTRALIA WINTER 1999 7 birds, perhaps too weak to object. Rather than being selective, oxpecker may just be opportunists. -B.D. Dinosaur's Supersonic Tail hat's 12.5 metres long and moves faster than theW speed of sound? A dinosaur's tail, according to a recent investigation by Nathan Myhrvold (Microsoft Research) and Philip Currie (Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology). The purpose of the enor­ mous, gracefully tapering tail of sauropod dinosaurs has always been a puzzle. Was it used as a thrashing weapon, or like a scare gun? Myhrvold and Currie believe the latter. Using computer simulation, the researchers created a vir­ tual tail based on measure­ ments from an Apatosaurus specimen. They were able to show that the wispy tip of the massive tail may have been capable of moving at super­ sonic speeds, creating a crack like a bullwhip. A bullwhip cracks because the tip exceeds the speed of sound and creates a sonic boom. It relies on two physi­ cal properties to do this: flex­ ibility and decreasing cro s­ sectional area from base to tip. When the researchers looked at the tail structure of Apatosaurus and other diplo­ docid dinosaurs, not only did they find these two features, but they noticed that, not far from the base of the tail, eight of the vertebrae were elon­ gated, which may have pro­ vided increased stiffness and reinforcement at a point of stre s between the base of the tail and the more flexible whip-like ection. It is inter­ esting to note that the equiva­ lent section of a bullwhip is the first point of failure, end­ Are oxpeckers, such as these Yellow-billed Oxpeckers (Buphagus africanus), choosy about their hosts? ing the fonctional life of the whip. are off the menu. Perhaps the phant's skin? starving and in poor condi­ To have had any impact as common elephant ticks Despite this general (and tion. Peter Mundy of Zimbab­ a weapon, the tail would have (Amblyomma thollonz) are too possibly mutual) aversion, we National Parks and Gary needed to travel at great large for oxpeckers (Bupha­ there have been six sightings Haynes from the University speed . Although this was gus spp.) to comfortably eat. of oxpeckers on African Ele­ of Nevada believe this may be shown lo be possible, if it had But perhaps it's the elephant phants (Loxodonta africana) becau e stressed elephants hit anything at these speeds, that shuns the oxpeckers. in the Hwange National Park are likely to harbour more it would have been damaged. Elephants are known to toler­ of Zimbabwe in the last 15 ticks, of several varieties, and It seems more likely that the ate other birds crawling over years. Most of these rare inci­ so could be more suitable tail was used as a noisemaker, them to find ticks. Do the dents occurred in the dry hosts to oxpeckers. Also, in perhaps to scare away preda­ sharp needle-like claws of season of a drought year their poor slate, the elephants tor lo establish dominance oxpeckers irritate the ele- when many elephants were seemed indifferent to the in i�lraspecific competition,

8 NATURE AUSTRALIA WINTER 1999 p

group discipl_ine to enforce Hypodermic insemination by the ), or even dunng o,erd _ flatworm Pseudoceros bifurcus. courtsh ip. To stab or be stabbed? That is -R.S. the question. penis Fencing parlner is inseminated. How­ ever, in cases where both -rhe 'genital handshake'- partners manage to stab one 1 where Lhe male copulat­ another, the animal that stabs ory orga� enters lh� f�male first has a longer time to re producl1ve lra�l-1�n t the inject sperm, fertilises more only way lo ach1 ve mternal eggs and endures fewer fertilisation. In bed bugs and wound . fleas, for example, the male By trying lo avoid insemi­ simply pierces any part of the nation, these flatworms not female's body wilh his penis only cul the immediate costs and ejaculales just under her of wound repair, but may then :Q skin. His sperm lhen works �ave l�e opportunity of being � its way to her eggs. 1nsem1nated b y better 'stab- � > This method of 'hypoder­ bers', which presumably � mic insemination' is also would lead to more success- � favoured by leeches, flat­ f·ul offspring. z=� worms and sea slugs-ani­ -K.McG. --' mals in which the male and whether or not it was a source hermaphrodites, they act as female organs are found with­ of conflict. According to the males when mating. Sexually Knowing Me, in the same individuals. For rules of natural selection, it interactive animals rear up such hermaphrodites, howev­ would presumably be better and, on contact, evert their Knowing Ewe er, is it better to stab or be to stab than to waste time and penises. Mating then in­ Scottish Sheep farmer I stabbed? energy healing wound after volve around 20 minutes of Aonce knew claimed he ico Michiels and Leslie being stabbed. 'penis fencing', with individu­ could individually identify ewman collaborated at the The researchers observed als striking and parrying­ each of his Sheep by its face. Heron Island Research Sta­ sexual behaviour in Pseudo­ behaviour that is clearly Human , it seems, are very tion (University of Queens­ ceros bifurcus, a polyclad aimed at getting a stab in while good at recognising individu­ land) to investigate this ques­ marine flalworm (see Nature avoiding the stab of others. als, even among Sheep. The tion and to determine Aust. Spring 1997). Although In most matings, only one Sheep themselves, although

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Contact: Max & Phillippa Davidson PO Box 41905 Casuarina NT o8n Phone: (08) 8927 5240 Fax: (08) 8945 0919 emai I: [email protected] Sheep can recognise members of their own flock, but can they tell individual humans apart?

discriminate between the two individual handlers. While it is tempting to suggest that Sheep might just prefer blondes (or brunettes), this is not the case. Apart from the fact that Sheep don't ee in colour, for half the Sheep the blonde was the positive reinforcer and the brunette gave no rewards, while for the other half the roles of the women were reversed. In each ea e the Sheep learnt to associate the positive rein­ forcer with food. I doubt that my Scottish friend would have been much surprised by this evidence of ovine talent. As his Sheep bounded down the hill to greet him (while ignoring me), I'm sure he had no doubts that they knew who he was, just as clearly as he knew them. -D.C.

Frog Bubble Nests neezing on your off­ spring seems a rather strangeS way to ensure their urvival. But two frog biolo­ gists working in the Atlantic they can recognise other reinforcement, by feeding vigorously pressing the hand Forest of south-eastern Brazil members from within their the Sheep after being nose­ of the positive reinforcer, have di covered a small frog, own flock (see Nature Aust.* pressed. The other trainer while turning away from the Chiasmocleis leucosticta, Autumn 1989), are generally offered no reward (even other handler. doina precisely that. thought to be quite poor at though she too held food in It seems that these Sheep Celio Haddad (University recognising individual hu­ her hand). The Sheep rapidly used some kind of individual Estadual Paulista, Brazil) and mans. Some scientists con­ learnt to distinguish between cue-whether visual or a sub­ Walter Hoell (University of clude that Sheep cannot even the two handlers, sniffing and tle olfactory difference-to Vienna, Austria) observed discriminate between male and female humans, or between humans wearing dif­ ferent clothes. Recent research, however, suggests that, when food depends on it, Sheep are quite capable of distingui hing human differ­ ences. Hank Davis and colleagues from the University of Guelph in Canada trained 15 young Arcott Sheep to press their nose into a person's left hand to receive food from the right. Two female handlers conducted the training. They were virtually identical in height and dress, although one was blond and the other brunette and they obviously differed in facial features. One trainer provided positive * Previously ANH A novel approach to parenting: this small Brazilian frog, Chiasmocleis leucosticta, 'sneezes' life-saving bubbles of air onto its eggs.

10 NATURE AUSTRALIA WINTER 1999 'bubble sequence about . g e Oo-s in floating 50 limes, and designed open-top chambers, frog , larg air the Cuckoo's ts n,ade up of . male continued for a which subjected the nes ' d ins1c. Ie a horl while Secret bbles trappe after the female seedlings lo the natural mucus. What left. �l�11 k and sticky vagaries of lhe weather. Half uckoos are famous for i Haddad �nd Hod! The construction o( floating � t�i0o-: ed the chambers were flushed their habit of duping ,n Jloalmg nests nest presumably C waJs tI,at' these volved Lo with double ambient levels of other birds into raising their quite un1·1 , Frogs nonna oxygen-poor ponds. By After a chilly -50 C night, ple, regularly parasitises the 5 n sts u_s n sneezing air bubbles r sii·uct floating � � � onto the f ost damaged 68 per cent of nests of Reed Warblers (Acro­ ir arms or legs lo v1go1 - ego-s and forming a floating leave grown under elevated cephalus scirpac eus), laying a the pro- raft, this ou Sly beat the mucus. species ha opted for carbon dioxide levels, while it single egg into the warbler ced by females du_rn1�· eg�- a novel way of ensuring its damaged only 37 per cent of clutch. After hatching, the du it offspring Ia yino- literally wh1pp111g do not sink lo the I aves under normal condi­ cuckoo ejects its hosts' tiny bubbles. bollom and die of 111_ t o· ;· froth of oxygen tions. The researchers young, yet still manages to How did C. leucosttcta pro- starvation. strongly suspect this in­ get the host parents to deliver duce the Iar?·e air bubb;es for -S.R. creased sensitivity to frosts the same amount of food nor­ their Ooatmg ne _ls. To will apply to most plant mally supplied to the whole answer this queslton the Frosty Warning species. brood. Until now it was archers made careful Given that atmospheric car­ assumed it was the cuckoo's rese nyone observations of nest con­ with a vegetable bon dioxide levels are pre­ large size (up to eight times str uction, both in the lab and Agarden or orchard will dicted to double by late next greater than its hosts) that in the field, and vid o-ta�ed be intimately aware of the century, these findings may stimulates the warblers into an entire nest-mak111g damage frost can cause. ow have serious implications in action. But new research by new findings suggest that a areas of vegetation dynamics, ick Davies and colleagues sequence. r After the female finished plant's sensitivity to f ost will agriculture and forestry. from Cambridge University layino- eggs, the male and increa e with our increasing Foresters, for example, aim has shown that the cuckoo's female pair took a breath and levels of atmospheric carbon for tall, single-stemmed trees, secret is in its call. dived beneath the egg mass. dioxide. while frost-damaged seed­ Blackbird (Turdus merula) With a distinct metallic In a paddock near Bungen­ ling tend to grow multiple and Song Thrush (T philome­ sound, they then bla ted air dor in southern ew South stems. And even if increased los) chicks, which are about fr om their nostril by com­ Wales, Jason Lutze (Aus­ carbon dioxide levels lead to the same size as the cuckoo, pressing their throats. Large b·alian ational University) global warming and fewer fin­ were temporarily placed in bubbles rose into the mucus and colleagues placed six­ ger-numbing mornings, Jack warbler nests. Initially the of the egg clutch, keeping the month-old seedlings of the Frost need only visit once to birds were given less food, eggs afloat. The frog repeat­ frost-hardy Snow Gum (Euca­ ruin an entire crop. but when the researchers ed the gulp, dive and 'sneeze' lyptus pauciflora) in specially -J.M. installed speakers playing the

Snow Gu . levels are up. m seedlings are more sensitive to frosts when car b on d'10 xide 11 NATURE AUSTRALIA WINTER 1999 b because of its large size, and The first stage of the gan­ the fact that it produces the net-luring program occurred vi ual stimulus of only one in December 1997. Local gape. schoolchildren painted 50 -R.S. concrete birds, each weigh­ ing 15 kilograms, and Stoned arranged them on a coastal cliff. To their delight two curi­ Gannets ous gannets landed among ou may have been fooled the decoys within half an Yby the life-like statue of a hour. One even picked up shopfront mannequin. Now ome nesting material and New Zealand gannets are offered it Lo a tony replica. being given a chance to meet Miskelly' experiment is their own stony look-alikes. similar to a program in Life-size concrete replicas Maine, USA, where decoy of Australa ian Gannets Atlantic Puffins (Fratercula (Marus serrator) are being arctica) have encouraged 'released' on the coast of young birds to return to Mana Island (near Welling­ islands that the species once ton) in the hope of attracting colonised ( ee Nature Aust.* the real thing to establish Summer 1991-92). breeding colonies. Gannets Miskelly hopes there will are known to feed offshore, be more interest from the however the nearest major gannet after the full comple­ breeding colony is 160 kilo­ ment of 100 decoys have With the last of its hosts' eggs ousted from the nest, this newly hatched metres away. been put into place. So far at cuckoo chick will now sing for its supper. Colin Miskelly, from the least, it appears that gannets ew Zealand Department of have as much trouble picking cuckoo's hungry cry (a rapid being raised alone, and does Conservation, devised this an impersonator as we do. si-si- i-si) the provisioning not face competition for food, unusual experiment as part of -B.D. rate increased dramatically. it is unlikely that the vocal a program to restore Mana And when the cuckoo's call trickery is used to distract Island's ecology. After 150 Snails' Agony was analysed on a sonagraph, attention from its unusual years of pastoralism, the and Ecstasy it proved to be almost identi­ appearance. Another possibil­ island is now a scientific cal to the noi e made by a ity, suggest the researchers, reserve. Many bird species ..,..-Iiere is a particularly nestful of hungry warbler is that it may compensate for are being reintroduced or I moving scene in the film chick . the cuckoo's reduced beg­ encouraged to the island, "Microcosmos". To the Given that the cuckoo is ging postures, restricted which is also being reforested. sound of an Italian aria, two

jI s I 8 :c §; :i: � I �z z (3 ci: "' �z

UJ

Concrete replicas of Australasian Gannets attract the real things on Mana Island, New Zealand.

12 NATURE AUSTRALIA WINTER 1999 p

eye snails meet, entwin increase the chances of a par­ stalks, and �roceed to wrap ticular shooter's sperm fertil­ emselves smu�u ly around ising the recipient's eggs. th I each other. It 1s trang� � Only a tenth of one per cent mantic, and yet the . nails of sperm ever escapes from ro a subtle, slimy dance_ hide the sperm packet (the rest is gruesome and puzzlmg a�t. broken down by the sperm­ Just before co_µulal101?, digesting organ, the bursa 8;.own Garden Snails (Helix copulatrix), and this is then aspersa) drive mucus-�ov­ stored in the spermalheca for ered, calcareou da�·ts into up to two years before being each other's soft bod,�s. The used to fertilise eggs. Koene darts. up to a centimetre and Chase found that, in the long, mostly fall out, but one Brown Garden Snail, the study howcd about 20 per mucus causes a contraction cent remain embedded. �or in the copulatory canal, clos­ more than a century, c1en­ ing off the entrance to the tists have puzzled over the sperm-digesting organ. At the fonclion of these so-called same lime, the mucus initi­ love dart . Once thought to ates peristalsis in the organ be used for defence, Daniel that receives the sperm pack- Chung from the Univer ity of et (the bursa tract diverticu- � Michiaan proposed that the lum). This increases the 8 dart serves lo deliver a sub­ speed of sperm uptake and � stance inlo the blood that pro­ the chances that sperm will � longs penile e�ersion (see successfully escape its pack­ Nature Aust.* Wmter 1987). If they don't increase mating time, or provide mineral supplements, aging (before the sperm­ The dart ha also been pro­ what function do the love darts of Brown Garden Snails serve? digesting organ opens up posed as a 'nuptial gift',in this again) to reach the spermath­ case of calcium, to help the recently been disputed by cent of the calcium needed to ecal 'holding pens'. All in all, Joris Koene and Ronald form just one clutch of eggs. Cupid's love darts give sperm embryonic nails build better r shells. However this idea has Chase, f om McGill Universi­ Instead Koene and Chase a better chance of hitting ty in Canada, who found the suggest a substance in the their desired target. *Previously ANH dart contains only 1.5 per dart mucus may help -A.T.

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NATURE 13 AUSTRALIA WINTER 1999 b insecticide or even a natural plant steroid, that interferes with normal larval develop­ ment. To test this, an exotic pecies of frog was grown in Minnesota pond water where deformed frogs had been found, and it too developed abnormally, although other workers have not been able to repeat the result. But are we hopping to a hasty conclusion? Deformed frogs have been reported for al lea t 250 years, and some researchers suggest that it may just be that the more we look, the more we find. -A.T. Novel Way to Track a Python aving something eat one of your painstakingly capturedH and radio-collared re earch animals is usually a cau e for irritation, but for Roger Martin from Monash University, the untimely demise of a young tree-kan­ garoo provided a unique An extra helping of legs for the Cane Toad (Bufo marinus). opportunity to study the movements of a little-under­ Frogs' Legs in parasites, which bury them­ ing deformities during meta­ stood python. selves in the hind legs. To morphosis from tadpole to Martin's original investiga­ Hot Water test this, he placed plastic frog. Frog embryos exposed tion was into the dietary and n new that would delight beads, meant to resemble to only 30 per cent of natural habitat requirements of a I the French restaurant parasitic cysts, in the limbs of UVB levels for 24 days can population of Bennett's Tree­ industry, a spate of reports of developing frogs, and found become deformed, as was kangaroos (Dendrolagus ben­ frogs with extra legs is flood­ the limbs would sometimes found in an experiment con­ nettianus) in lowland vine for­ ing in from the United States. split into two. ducted at the Environment e t near Cooktown, Queens­ Dozens of multi-legged and Increased UVB light reach­ Protection Authority's Mid­ land. misshapen orthern Leop­ ing the Earth through a thin­ Continent Ecology Division One morning, when check­ ard Frogs were first reported ning ozone layer could also in Minne ota. ing the position of a juvenile by Minnesota schoolchildren be a culprit. UVB light can A third possibility is a mys­ female tree-kangaroo that in a wetland in 1995, adding cook amphibian DNA, caus- tery chemical, such as an had been fitted with a radio- to the recent declining for­ tunes of the amphibians. The appropriately named David Hoppe from the Uni­ versity of Minnesota in Mor­ ris also raised the alarm after collecting over 200 deformed frogs in the following year, compared to only two deformed frogs collected in the previous 20 years. And Stanley Sessions from Hartwick College in New York has reported an unusu­ ally high frequency of amphibian limb abnormali­ ties among Pacific Tree Frogs and Long-toed Sala­ manders in northern Califor­ nia. Why some frogs are get­ ting an extra helping of legs, or in some cases no legs al all, is now being hotly debat­ ed. Sessions claims the defor­ mities could be caused by One Amethystine Python swallowed and got more than it bargained for.

14 NATURE AUSTRALIA WINTER !999 >

that you are Canada Geese show what you eat. collar 12 days earlier, Marlin -- tead of - noticed that, ins co1�1 ing from som�where up . m the canopy as 1t usually did, the radio signal was_ al a-round level. He lrac cl 1t lo ;n engorged 3.3-melre-long Amethystine Python (Morelia a 111et/Ji sti11a). apparenlly sleeping off its meal under a fallen log, near lhe heavily scratched trunk of a favourite food tree of the local b·ee-kan­ o-aroos. "' Because of the python's narrow pyloric sphincter, the radio-transmitter remained lodged in its stomach, enabling Martin to track the python's movements for 44 days. For more than a week the snake remained motion­ less, probably digesting its meal, but then moved regu­ larly (up to 348 metres a clay) between open and closed for­ est for a fortnight. It came to a halt in a large tree used as a daytime roost by another study animal and her young, which disappeared a short time later (presumably eate n). The snake's poraclic move­ ments make sense, says Mar­ tin, if, like its cousin the Dia­ mond Python (M. spilota spi­ lota), it is an ambush preda­ tor that catches prey by wait­ ing beside frequently used trails and roost . And, although the evidence is largely circum tantial this serendipitous study suggest Amethystine Pythons proba­ bly have a significant effect ?n tree-kangaroo abundance m lowland rainforest areas. -R.S. Goose Growth Island Style the island that's effecting greater bill length, ten per Akimiski; the nesting density anada Geese (Branta goose growth? cent greater skull length), but of Canada Geese is even Ccanadensis) decrease in James Leafloor (Ontario mainland geese grew to their times higher than mainland body size as latitude increas­ 'normal' size. Consequently, populations. Such crowding e Ministry of Natural ResoUI·­ s. However, on an island off ces) and colleagues set about all captive-raised geese, has resulted in increased the coast of Ontario, Canada collecting goose eggs from regardless of origin, grew up competition for food and Ge_ese defy this trend by Akimiski Island and the to be identical in size. habitat degradation. Further­ �emg _unusually small. The researchers therefore more, the persistent ice cover 1 So neighbouring mainland. n_all! lI1 fact, that geese on Forty eggs from each deduced environmental fac­ around Akimiski Island pro­ ':k.1m1ski Island are tors must be limiting gosling motes colder temperatures siz the same location were incubated to e as those in the cold hatching, with all goslings growth on Akimiski Island. than on the mainland, short­ harsh regions ' Interestingly, Lesser Snow ening the growing season 60 of Manitoba raised in a common environ­ 0 kilometres to the north. ment where food was freely Geese (Chen caerulescens) and delaying the onset of �o :-Vh�tmakes the birds on available. also nesting on the island breeding. In effect, Akimiski ki_miski Island smaller maturity the have slower growth rates Island has an environment as �e than On reaching ir_ mainland �ou�terparts? island captives had grown than in ome other colonies. extreme as the far north­ ls there a genetic Both goose species nest in where being small is the or chfference faster and larger than their Perhaps something about wild relatives (17 per cent very high densities on norm. -K.H. NA TURE AUSTRAL IA WINTER 1999 15 Plastic Perils extremely diflicull for Lhe ani­ mals Lo remove Lhe rubbish, for Platypus because Lhe front foot has a nvironmental organisa­ web or skin stretching Etion have raised public between each Loe, effectively awar ne s of Lhe threat posed turningthe fool inlo a paddle. to eabird and marine life erena and Williams say from carelessly discarded reducing Lhe problem is sim­ rubbi h. Bul Lhe problems ple. Manufacturers could are not limited to oceanic incorporate an easily broken wildlife, as Melody Serena weak link inlo Lhe design of and Geoff William found all small Lo medium plastic oul. The Platypu (Ornitho­ loops (wh re il doesn't affect rhynchus a11ati11us) i a victim the function of Lhe product). too. Bul jusl as imporlanlly, con- During the course of nine umer hould Lake Lhe initia­ years observations, the tive and sever all loops or researcher from the Aus­ ring before disposing of A lucky break for the Pilbara Dtella (Gehyra pilbara), but his social tralian Platypus Conservancy them. life is shot. in Victoria found that 10.5 per -R.5. cent of their study animals suffers a reduced reproduc­ females than it does on were entangled in some sort Tell-tail Lizards tive rate. males. A female without a tail of plastic rubbish, including Stanley Fox and colleagues can adopt a subordinate role, elastic bands, sealing rings ike !11any other liz.ard from Oklahoma State Univer­ ecure a poorer-quality home from jars and even an engine pec1es, the Side­ sity tested the force required range and still find opportuni­ ga ket. While these obstruct­ blotchedL Lizard (Uta stans­ to induce tail autotomy in the ties to mate (although fewer ed movement, life-threaten­ buriana) can save its neck by Side-blotched Lizard and than a tailed female). Male ing injuries were caused by losing its tail. When in the found that males lose their without tail , however, have entanglement in fishing line, clutche of a predator, the tail tail less readily than females, very few chances to repro­ with several animals dying as can be safely cast off and left especially after they have duce. And the reason males a result. wriggling while the rest of reached maturity. But when it relinquish their tails much The study, which took the lizard scurries away. come to losing a tail the sec­ more ea ily the second time place in six suburban water­ Although the advantage of ond time around, males are around is because they have ways around Melbourne, this tail 'autotomy' is obvious, as quick to drop it as females, already lost their social stand­ found that affected animals it also has its down sides. For which surrender it with the ing and so, in the literal and most commonly had litter example, until a lizard can same ease all the time. figurative sense, they have far looped around the neck (61 regenerate its tail, it is more Thi is the first demonstra­ less to lose. per cent) or wrapped diagon­ susceptible to predators. tion of exual dimorphism in -K.McG. ally from the shoulder to the And, because the tail also the ease of tail autotomy. But opposite leg (33 per cent). All functions as a status symbol, why does it exist? The Tongue of it was presumably caught a tail-less lizard falls in social researchers believe that the while foraging, during which standing, is unable to main­ fall in social status that comes Transfer the animals wag their bill tain as large a home range as with tail loss has less impact lants have evolved some from side to ide. It is a tailed lizard and, as a result, on the reproductive rates of Pingenious ways of get­ ting pollen to their peers. The red-flowering milkweed Mic­ roloma sagittaturn from South Africa produces packages of pollen with 'bulldog-clip' attachments. These, as Anton Pauw from the University of Cape Town has recently dis­ covered, clamp onto the tongue of nectar-feeding sunbird and get transferred afely inside the bird's mouth to the next plant it feed from. The tongue of the Lesser Double-collared Sun bird (Nectarinia chalybea) is rolled up lengthwise from each edge, forming twin siphons that draw up nectar. The tip of the tongue is forked and frayed. These frayed bil are what the pollen clip onto. Pauw found tl1at seven of eight captured sunbirds had pollinaria attached to their tongue. To confirm their role Carelessly discarded rubbish entangles not only sea-going creatures, but the Platypus too. in pollen transfer, he exposed

16 NATURE AUSTRALIA WINTER 1999 p

south Africa's Lesser Double­ collared Sunbird sipping nectar from a milkweed.

37 unpollinated or 'vir�in' milkweed flowers_ to a captive sunbird for two minute� each. At the end of the expenment, a total of 39 pollinari� had been successfo lly delivered to the flowers. This is the fir t known case of pollen transfer on the toncrues of bird , but it may be "more widespread. ew World hummingbirds and Ausb·alian honeyeaters have similar frayed tongues. Anec­ dotal accounts record Aus­ b·alian honeyeaters sipping nectar from the inlTOduced milkweed Hoya macgillivrayi, and Pauw believes they may also visit native milkweeds. -J.M.

Further Reading Becker, M.J., 1998. A Roman "implant" reconsidered. Nature 394: 534. Becker, M.J., 1999. Ancient 'dental implants': a recently proposed example from France with other spurious claims. lnt. 1. Oral Maxillofacial lmplantol. 14. Crubezy, E., Murail, P., Girard, L. & Bemadou, J.-P., 1998. False teeth of the Roman world. Nature 391: 29.

Crubezy, E., Murail, P., Girard, L. & Koene, J.M. & Chase, R., 1998. Changes Concrete gannets settled on Mana. For­ of the hazard posed to Platypus Bemadou, J.-P., 1998. [Reply to] A in the reproductive system of the snail est & Bird Feb. 1998: 9. Ornithorhynchus anatinus in suburban Roman "implant" reconsidered. Nature Helix aspersa caused by mucus from the habitats. Vic. Natur. 115(2): 47-49. 394: 534. love dart. J. Exp. Biol. 201: Pauw, A., 1998. Pollen transfer on birds' 2313-2319. tongues. Nature 394: 731-732. Davies, N.B., Kilner, R.M. & Noble, D.G., Danielle Clode, Beck 1998. Nestling cuckoos, Cuculus canorus, Leafloor, J.O., Ankney, C.D. & Rusch, Purgue, A.P., 1997. Tympanic sound Dawson, Karina Holden, exploit hosts with begging calls D.H., 1998. Environmental effects on radiation in the bullfrog Rana cates­ that mimic a brood. Proc. R. Soc. Lond. body size of Canada Geese. The Auk beiana. J. Comp. Physiol. A 181: Jason Major, Karen McGhee, B 265: 673-678. 115(1): 26-33. 438-445. Stephen Richards, Rachel Davis, H., Norris, C. & Taylor, A., 1998. Lutze, J.L., Roden, J.S., Holly, C.J., Sessions, S.K., 1998. Frog deformities. Sullivan and Abbie Thomas Wether ewe know me or not: the dis­ Wolfe, J., Egerton, J.J.G. & Ball, M.C., Science 279: 461-462. are regular contributors to crimination of individual humans by 1998. Elevated atmospheric [C02l pro­ Nature Strips. sheep. Behavioural Processes 43: motes frost damage in evergreen tree Serena, M. & Williams, G.A., 1998. 27-32. seedlings. Plant Cell Environ. 21: Rubber and plastic rubbish: a summary 631-635. Diamond, J., Discover 1998. Eat dirt! QUICK QUIZ Feb. 1998: 70-75. Martin, R.W., 1995. Field observation of predation on Bennett's Tree-kangaroo 1. What is an octopus' hectocotylus used for? Fox, S.F., Conder, J.M. & Smith, A.E., (Dendrolagus bennettianus) by an 2. Who is the new Director of the Australian Museum? 1�98. (Morelia amethisti­ Sexual dimorphism in the ease of Amethystine Python 3. Where, in New South Wales, is Australia's largest known ta!I autotomy: Uta stansburiana na). Herp. Rev. with and 26(2): 74-76. population of Green and Golden Bell Frogs? W1th0ut previous tail loss. Copeia 1998(2): 376-382. Michiels, N.K. & Newman, L.J., 1998. 4. What do the introduction of Rabbits to Australia and the Sex and violence in hermaphrodites. publication of Darwin's On the Origin of species ... have in �addad, �J.B. & Hodl, W., 1997. New Nature 391: 647. common? :roduct1ve mode in anurans: bubble the toes arranged in zygodactylous bird feet? n t in Ch,asmocleis_ leucosticta 5. How are h � (Micro­ Mundy, P.J. & Haynes, G., 1996. does a hippophage eat? Y idae). Copeia 1997(3): Ostrich 67: 6. What 585-588. Oxpeckers and elephants. 7. Where in an animal would you find the tapetum lucidum? ise 85-87. �� r, l., 1997. Deformed frogs 8. Name the process that uses the Sun's energy to combine 0 spot leap ;oe nce light at health workshop. Myhrvold, N.P. & Currie, P.J., 1997. water and carbon dioxide to make sugar and oxygen. 278: 2051-2052. Supersonic sauropods? Tail dynamics in 9. What are coleopterans more commonly known as? the diplodocids. Paleobiology 23(4): � n J.M._ &Chase, 10. Which has the smallest penis: a Chimpanzee, Gorilla or human? �� !i elix R., 1998. The love 393-409. • H aspersa MOiier (Answers in Q&A) of ea 1 ci 1. Moll. is not a gift um. Stud. 64: 75-80. Origin Natural History Media, 1998. 1 NATURE A 1 USTRALIA WINTER 1999 17 I/ b way when the first really good rains arrived. Nol only did everyone's tanks fill with free water, but a gross transfor­ mation took place over the entire show­ The earthworm throws its throat through its mouth, off acre of his front lawn. To this clay, after very period of heavy rain, his grabs a chunli of the tunnel face, slides the lump bacli in lawn turns itself inside-out overnight. through the mouth, and swallows. The grass simply disappears under what looks like a Krakatoa blanket of erupted N utri-grain that dries hard and gravely in the sun and makes his whole yard resemble a postcard from Chernobyl. WORMS TO MAKE Although this persistent punishment looks like it could come only from above, the fantastic transformation is in THE EARTH MOVE fact achieved from the bowels below. Earthworm bowel . The knobbly organ­ BY STEVE VAN DYCK ic lumps packed over the lawn are clipping and torturing the hedges and lozenges of night- oil, deftly deposited rose around the borders. outside their burrows by hundreds of A few years ago, when a lawn-lover very clever periscopic burns. moved onto a property in our valley, out The definition of a head encl and a cler­ came the ride-on mower and in no lime riere in an earthworm is probably no the five-acre bush block was sanitised more immediately up-front than it is on and reduced to a clipped-grass wind tun­ a string of dangling vermicelli. But a nel with a horticultural biodiversity to mouth there is, and an anus Lo boot. challenge Death Valley. Our district then According to the species, the mouth HE GRAS LAW1 WAS entered one of the driest periods on might take in fresh leave , dead plant invented in England chiefly for royal record, so this enterprising new neigh­ roots, decomposing plant litter or ani­ familie and Corgis to pose on for the bour bought a water-delivery business mal manure. This in itse1£ is not very Women's Weekly. In Australia, the lawn' and proceeded to fill empty rainwater exciting, unles you happen to be grow­ most u eful function is to cushion the tanks at $40 a pop. Our turn came, and ing a crop of tasty young vegetable fall of husbands having heart attack he pulled up outside and asked us where seedlings. The really crafty thing an from mowing it in mid-summer. he could run the delivery hose to our earthworm can do with its mouth comes Whatever we use them for, the fact tank. When we pointed to the shortest to the fore when it burrows. ormally it remains that lawns absorb more route through a five-metre-wide strip of would force itself through minute resources (phosphates, poisons, labour) ferns and a bit of lantana, he barked cracks in the soil, using the little bristly than just about any other agricultural "We've got better things to do than force tufts ( etae) along its egrnentecl body. indu try in the world. One Australian our way through that", and roared off But when the soil lacks cracks, it must permaculturalist likened the lawn­ leaving us covered with dust and noth­ excavate as it peregrinates. The earth­ gardener to a cross between a chizoid ing to wash it off with. worm throws its throat (inside-out) serf and a feudal lord, slavishly I must admit I did dream of slashing through it mouth, grabs a chunk of the following the mower for hours, then his lyres, but divine retribution came his tunnel face (much as a human fist might

EARTHWORMS Classification Reproduction Phylum Annelida, class Oligochaeta, 12 earthworm families. Hermaphrodites. Sexual reproduction (not necessary in all spp.) Around 4,000 spp. worldwide, 350 named Aust. spp. and 60 by coupling and mutual exchange of sperm. After copulation, a introduced spp. (from Europe, Asia, North and South America, ring of mucus, secreted by the conspicuous light-coloured collar Africa, India and lndo-Padfic islands). (clitellum), slips forward over the head of the earthworm and, on its way, collects waiting eggs and sperm from the separate Identification female and spermathecal pores. Once off the worm, the ring Body divided into small discrete segments, each with a set of hardens, enclosing the fertilised eggs, which hatch in next muscles that contract and expand under the coordination of a moist season. Some adults die during dry months; other spp. 'brain' near the mouth. Small, short bristles (setae) associated may live longer than 2 years; and specimens in laboratory with each segment assist locomotion through soil. Length a few cultures have survived for over 10 years. mm to over 3 m (in Giant Gippsland Earthworm, Megascolides australis). Lack eyes, although photoreceptors present in skin. Regeneration Adult earthworms identified by anatomical details such as If cut in two (by predator, spade or through autotomy), many features of reproductive organs, bristles, shape of mouth etc. spp. will regrow missing part. Regeneration of back end takes place more readily than front end, with regrown tail often Distribution and Habitat having paler and more narrow segments. Head regenerates are Terrestrial burrowing scavengers (mainly of plant material) less commonly encountered as worm lies coiled and dormant in found everywhere except in deserts (hot and cold). Some spp. soil until mouth regrows. It is theoretically possible to get 2 occur in shallow soils and feed near surface; some live deep in worms when an individual is cut in half. They may also soil and form semi-permanent vertical burrows; others live and occasionally grow a head where the tail should be and vice feed in horizontal burrows and rarely come to surface. versa. Survival of such freaks is unlikely.

18 NATURE AUSTRALIA WINTER !999 p

leaves into burrows is just one oragging strategy worms use when feeding.

sand), slides when digging in lhe lump back in through the mouth, and wal- . lows. . , . As every Loddlet !mow, lhere s a ltrn1l can to the amount of sot! you eat before ,ou generate a nappy change.. o too an �arthworm reaches lhe_ point when enough is enough. Whal 1l lhen pa ses as waste is, to gardeners and agncultur­ ists, slow-r�lease gold. _A concenlra�ed pellet o� sot! and org�111c malt�r, �rim­ ming with iron, calcium, magne 1u!11, horus, potassium r and phosp laced with nitroaen f om its urine and mucus, and load;d with beneficial gut bacleria. ome earthworms deposit this a 'cast ' on the surface; others simply drop it as ct1ey go. In Britain, casting earthworms are busy for such long periods that, with­ in the space of 100 years, an original sur­ face might be 18 centimeb·e under­ around! In Ausb·alia, high temperatures :nd dry seasons reduce both worm activity and thi figure to around 1.8 cen­ timeb·es. Not only do earthworms break up and mix organic matter into the soil, but tl1eir burrowing reduces urface run-off and erosion by increasing the water­ holding capacity of the soil. More oxy­ gen and nutrients are made available to plant roots, and microbial activity is accelerated. All this can lead to substan­ tially higher (up to 100 per cent) crop yields. Why then don't wonderful things hap­ pen when I collect a can of worms and throw them around the garden? For a tart, many of the worms we associate w!th are accidental imports that came with potted plants from moist, cool, tem­ perate climates. These worms are uns�itable for most parts of Australia, particularly the monsoonal north. Althoughthere are more than 350native Australian earthworms described (and pro_bably three times a many unde­ scnbed), few are found in the pastoral heap, put them in flour or cornmeal for know hears about this, resident from co�ditions we have created. Of the 60 or 24 hours to purge their guts, rinse them, my area might soon find themselves so 111troduced earthworms, only about a paper-towel-dry them, give them two or lolling on a patchwork rug in the middle �ozen are found commonly. These don't three separate ten-minute boilings in of his luxurious lawns, eating designer hke areas of low rainfall, they fresh water, then cook them immediate­ 'game' washed down with a dry red. The an hate sand d heavy clay, they don't like soils that ly or freeze them for later. combination sounds seductive, but don't e �h regu!arly dug up and turned over, One recipe for a heart-stopping overdo it. If you lie on your back and don t appreciate b er being chopped up omelette appeared 20 years ago in a close your eyes for too long ... the earth Y orks and spades, and can't survive CSIRO publication. Beat together 6 might move.• te mp in eratures over 25° C so they lay dor­ eggs, 1/3 cup milk, 1/4 cup parsley, 1/2 mant deep in soil throughout teaspoon seasoned salt, 1/2 teaspoon Further Reading o the hot dry hl �hs. T�ey_ also require a pepper, some garlic. Put the mixture in a Handreck, K. & Lee, K., 1979. Earthworms-for gar­ g� fairly rich, Discovering Soils No. 5. . , Pi:ote111 diet. Because my water-sell­ medium-hot omelette pan. When almost deners and fishermen. CSIRO neighbour' lives done, add 3/ 4 to 1 cup earthworms (pre­ Division of Soils: Adelaide. l? on a rich creek flat '. � fets �arthworm�, while I, on drie1 pared as above, and unchopped for more h l tde a Mollison, Bill, 1991. Introduction to pem1aculture. , Just get white ants. impact), 1/4 cup chopped celery, 1/3 Tagari Publications: Tyalgum, New South Wales. F or t ose who and 1 can't keep the moisture cup chopped capsicum, 1/4 small m� �h up to the chopped onion, 1/3 cup grated cheese, Sims, R.W. & Gerard, B.M., 1985. Earthworms. E.J. the IS garden, or where 1 �ot_ right, the environmental 1/3 cup chopped mushroom . Finish Brill: Leiden. conJi�/ons 11 be ! Stde the frying pan might cooking. Add 1 drop Tabasco sauce, 1 more_suitabl dash Worcestershire sauce, erve and Dr Steve Van Dyck is a Senior Curator of Prot . e. Earthworms are high­ em, tronman breakfasl stand back. Vertebrates at the Queensland Museum can g material! You where he has worked since 1975. row them in a modest compost If a certain enterprising water-carrier I 19 the plumage, and tr�ctu_ral difference .�ND ANGERED such as wing shape, indicated that the smaller-sized boobook from New Zealand was probably closes�. We found How do you save a population with only one two birds and had them surgically sexed individual remaining? to make sure they were both male (we decided against using this sexing tech­ nique on the Norfolk Island bird because of the small risks involved), and released them on the island in late 1987. ORFOLK ISLAND In October 1988 the Norfolk Island N Boobook laid her first eggs and con­ firmed to our relief, that she was indeed BOOBOOK a fem�le. However, the eggs failed to hatch and it wasn't until the following BY PENNY OLSEN spring that she raised her first brood and eased our concerns about whether we had chosen a genetically compatible partner. My scie�tific objectivity was swept aside by the JOY I felt knowmg_ that Superficially it resembled the_ other this lonely bird had paired up and raised small boobook species that nest m tree a family. cavities in Ausb·alia and New Zealand. Since then we have reached several Indeed, 75 per cent of Norfolk !�land milestones, including 'grandchildren' in had been cleared and the remamder 1993. Molecular techniques, which selectively logged, so th� ext:eme would have been invaluable at the start scarcity of mature trees with su1�able of the program, have become more nesting hollows seemed themost hk�ly accessible in recent years and we can THE RAREST OWL IN THE cause of the owl's plight. Apparent vm­ now use D A from a tiny sample of world was once found on tiny isol�ted dication of this view came when we blood to reliably sex the owls. Norfolk Island in the south-west Pacific. hung several nest boxes in the forest These laboratory techniques have The last survivingbird disappeared, pre­ and the owl began roosting in some of also reassured us that we made the cor­ sumed dead, in 1996, but not before she them almost immediately. rect taxonomic assessment. A spot of had raised two hybrid broods, each of But was the owl male or female? Sev- the blood taken from the original female two chicks, and founded a new popula­ in 1986 showed her to belong to a dis­ tion of owls on the island. tinctive subspecies of the ew Zealand I have been involved in the recovery Boobook (Ninox novaeseelandiae)-N. effort of the orfolk Island Boobook I don't think any of us n. undulata. D A studies have also Owl since 1986 when, with a group of shown that both the orfolk Island and friends, I visited the island to recom­ ew Zealand boobooks are significantly mend some action for the bird's conser­ were prepared to different from the boo books on the Aus­ vation. Although no owls were found tralian mainland, which are now regard­ during a survey conducted in the previ­ accept there was only one ed as a separate species, Ninox boobook. ou year, locals still occasionally heard Thus, our gue stimates of a decade ago the distinctive 'boo-book' call and so we bird left on the island, proved sound and the current owl popu­ knew they were still there. We were elat­ lation on orfolk Island was confirmed ed, therefore, when we captured an owl to be made up of hybrids of subspecies on our first night. After we measured it, but each time we located took a small blood sample and put two (rather than of full species) and thus dots of iridescent nail polish on the tail an owl, two familiar closer to the original population. as a temporary marker, we released it At last count there were about 20 owls back into the night. I don't think any of white dots shone back in on the island. This is an extraordinarily u were prepared to accept there was successful conservation effort, and can only one bird left on the island, but each the torch light. only encourage attempts to conserve time we located an owl, two familiar other severely endangered animals. white dots shone back in the torch light. evertheless, for me, it must be It was the first of many bitter-sweet tempered by the realisation that the experiences working with the Norfolk owls will be dependent on nest boxesfor Island Boobook. era! Norfolk Island owls had been col­ the foreseeable future, and there will How do you save a population with lected for museums in the early 1900s never be sufficient habitat for the popu­ only one individual remaining? In fact, is and, by referring to them and the mea­ lation to return to its former, albeit low, it worth aving at all? Because of our surements of the remaining living indi­ numbers.• desire to preserve some of the owl's vidual, we decided it was a relatively genetic integrity and the islanders' wish large bird and therefore probably a Further Reading for action, we opted for Olsen, P., 1996. Re-establishment of an endangered a low-key recov­ female. subspecies: the Norfolk Island Boobook Owl Ninox ery program. This involved alleviating Museum specimens also helped us the reasons novaeseelandiae undulata. Bird Conserv. lntematl 6: for the owl's decline, and identify the most closely related owl for 63-80. a importing an owl of the opposite sex ii: breeding purposes. For years, there had from a closely related population. But been disagreement over whether the Dr Penny Olsen is a Research Fellow in the � there were problems: the owl was virtu- Division of Botany and Zoology, Australian 1 ally Norfolk Island population was a new unstudied and next to nothing was species of boobook or whether it was a National University, and a consultant to � know� of it� taxonomic standing, its Environment Australia on the Norfolk -- breeding sub pecies of those occurring in New habits, or even how to sex il. Zealand or Australia. Several features of Island Owl Recovery Program. 20 NATURE AUSTRALIA WINTER !999 c:1

mental papers often found a place. WILD THINGS The Paris Universal Exhibition of 1867, for example, featured bark and fibres of Jn the 19th century Australians were enthusiastic about Australian tea trees, palms, figs, kurra­ the prospects of making paper, cloth and rope jongs, stinging trees, "native cotton", rice.flowers (Pimelea species) and Set­ from native plants. tler's Twine (Cymnostachys anceps). Melbourne's Intercolonial Exhibition of 1866-67 presented paper made from 30 different plants, mostly eucalypts, sedges and tea trees.Messmate Stringy­ DREAMING bark (Eucalyptus obliqua) was consid­ ered especially promising for paper. ABOUT FIBRES The enthusiasm of the times shows through in old articles, such as one that appeared in the Queensland Agricultural BY TIM LOW journal in 1919: "From the bark of the eucalyptus trees, which cover millions of acres of Australia, can be produced a including rushes, bark of the Giant fibre which ... will make the Common­ Stinging Tree (Dendrocnide excelsa), wealth independent of Indian jute goods and roots of fig trees (Ficus species).In and New Zealand flax, save millions of South Australia, coar e textiles were pounds annually from being sent over­ made by blending wool with Broad­ seas, and create employment for thou­ leaved Tapeweed (Posidonia australis), sands of Australian workmen ...". The a seagrass dredged from the sea, and article announced that a factory at there was even talk of making paper Footscray in Victoria had produced from freshwater algae drawn from dry­ twine, rope and sacking from eucalypt NDIAN HEMP (CANNABJ SAT/VA) ing swamps. bark. is attracting much interest these days as At colonial exhibitions of promising Men dreamed of making fortunes anI alternative source of fibre,although I new products, native fibres and experi- from native fibres.Alexander Tolmer, a suspect this is mainly because of its rep­ utation as a 'naughty' crop. Other fibre plants that may be better options for farmers, such as Kenaf (Hibiscus cannabinus) and Roselle (H. sabdariffa), aren't receiving much attention at all. In the 19th century, before synthetic fibres were invented and before paper could be made from wood, Australians were enthusiastic about the prospects of making paper, cloth and rope from native plants. Britain was hungry for paper-making materials and Australia seemed an ideal source of.fibre,judging by all the plants used by Aborigines to make nets, bags and fishing lines. Aborigines used both the inner bark of certain shrubs and trees, and the lin­ ear leaves and stems of sedges and grasses and other monocotyledonous plants. These plants had long parallel fibres, made up of long, thick-walled cells, and could be torn into thin but strong strips. Some families abound in suit�ble plants, especially the hibiscus family (Malvaceae), to which Kenaf, Roselle and Cotton (Gossypium hirsu­ tum) belong. Australia has more than 160 plants in this family, including _ (Hibiscus heterophyllus), Nat1ve_ Rosella § �n 11nportant fibre plant of the Aborig­ 1�es, and Sturt's Desert Rose (G. stur­ �.;; tzanum), a close relative of Cotton � _Colonial entrepreneurs experim�nted "" with many of the Aboriginal plant fibres,

The small flowers of Australian Hollyhock show this to be a member of the hibiscus !amily and, like many members of the family, its stems can be used as string and the roots eaten as a vegetable.

22 NATURE AUSTRALIA WINTER 1999 Coast Sword Sedge was both a food and fibre lant of Aborigines along the southern :ustralian coast. The white bases of young leaves were chewed.

colourful police commissioner in South Australia, was camped out on the Coorong one night when a long and leathery lea£, dancing in the wind, jabbed his ear. He grabbed it in annor­ ance but so sharp was the blade that his fino·er was sliced to the bone. Years later Toli11er lost hi job and cleciclecl to make his fortune from this plant, Coast Sword Seelo·e (Lepidosperma gladiatum). He petitioned the �out!: Australian Go�ern­ ment for exclusive nghts to harvest 1t for rope, sail-cloth and paper, but his private bill wa rejected becau e local Aborig­ ines already used the plant for baskets fishing lines. He then patented the and r right to make paper f om the leaves, after having paper samples prepared in England, but clue to poor communica­ tion hi patent lap ed, and in 1876

In the 1920s, after years of experimentation, Australians discovered that paper could be made from eucalypt wood, previously thought to be impossible.

Samuel Ramsden's paper mill in Mel­ bourne began making wrapping paper from the leaves, to Tolmer's dismay. Another plant that excited interest was Australian Hollyhock or Native Marsh­ mallow (Lavatera ptebeia), a small out­ cluction of experimental paper, rope and that paper could be made from eucalypt back plant in the hibiscus family that cloth, but ultimately the supply of wild wood, previously thought to be impossi­ Aborigines used for nets and bags. In plants was inadequate. Corbett realised ble because of the short fibre length, and 18�0 FA. Corbett suggested it might be that suitable plants would have to be cul­ by the 1940s our native fibres had at last an _ ideal fibre source because it grew lux­ tivated, noting that "articles of which the become a major economic resource. • u_nantly_ alongside our greatest navigable consumption is great, such as paper and ivers 111 co�ntry that was otherwise rope, cannot be sufficientlyand uniform­ Further Reading re < use­ ss. Expenmental paper was made ly supplied by the spontaneous action of Corbett, FA, 1860. Indigenous fibrous plants. Trans. t e from h _stems and the fibre was exhibited in nature". Proc. R. Soc. Vic. 5: 205-208. P ans. With development overseas of the Cribb, A.B. & Cribb, J.W., 1981. Useful wild plants in �ike the early attempts 1 to exploit kraft bleaching process, in which fibres Australia. Collins: Sydney. r�\ ve plants for food and medicine, very were chemically separated, paper could e c r � . ame of all this talkand experimen be made f om softwood, a vast, cheap Reminiscences of an adventurous ti - Tolmer, A., 1882. & on. England's mills needed chequered career at home and at the Antipodes. Samp­ a fibre for and consistent resource, and interest in � per �nd sails, but freight costs made alternativefibre crops subsided. Interest son Low, Marston, Searle & Rivington: London. straha uncompetitive. Fibre fell even further when Cotton and syn­ I � c could be P � essed before export to thetic fibres won dominance in the cloth­ Tim an environmental consultant f reig reduce the Low is I ht, but Australian labour proved ing trade. But in the 1920s, after years of and nature writei: His next book, Feral Proh'b·1 itive. There was some local pro- experimentation, Australians di covered future, will be published by Penguin.

NATU RE AUSTRALIA WINTER "' 1999 23 I The largest was still co ered i the arms below the mouth. Further � n_ searching found the tip of another its maroon-coloured skzn and zt 'string' sticking out of a small hole on the was in this skin that the first­ other arm below the mouth. When we ever evidence of the mating excavated around the hole, many more 'strings' were found radiating from the behaviour of giant squids was apparent point of entry. Microscopic discovered. examination of the tissue revealed that these 'strings' were actually cords of nTLE IS KNOWN OF ·1:1-IE ALM?ST sperm, stored in the skin. _ _ octopuses mythical giant squids, wh1c� All cephalopods (squids, belong in the genus Archz­ and their relatives) package sperm in teuthis. They occur in deep elongate waterproof structures known coldL waters of all oceans of the world, to as spermatophores. Males usually have at least one-and-a-half kilometres depth, a specially modified arm or arms used and have never been witnessed alive in during mating to pass spermatophores their natural habitats. It is unknown how to the female. In octopuses, the male many species there are, how abundant uses his special arm (the hectocotylus) they are, or how long they live. The only to place sperm packages in the oviducts clear facts are that Sperm Whales (Phy­ of the female (see Nature Aust. Summer seter catodon) seem to be able to find 1997-98). In some squids and cuttlefish­ them and feed on them (stomach con­ es, the sperm packages are placed in tents frequently include the beaks of special pouches under the mouth of the and that giant squids feed female. To understand how the sper­ C.C. Lu holding one of the two long feeding giant squids) squids. The longest matophores became embedded in the tentacles of a ten-metre-long giant squid, on fish and smaller is 18 metres and the skin of our giant squid specimen, we the first of four caught off Tasmanian waters giant squid record heaviest over 250 kilograms. need to understand the reproductive sys­ between 1996 and 1998. As with most tem of male giant squids. previously reported specimens, the skin was In recent years, deep-sea trawlers pok­ Little is known of male giant squids. lost during capture, exposing the underlying ing around in the dark depths off the white muscle. Tasmanian coast have brought up some The males that have been collected pos­ unexpected finds. Three female giant sess long thin spermatophores (3-5 mil­ squids, ranging from 10 to 15 metres in limetres thick and 11-20 centimetres length, were captured in separate trawls long) and a greatly elongated and mus­ more than half a cular penis (up to a metre long), which kilometre down. can protrude up to 50 centimetres out­ The heavy side their body cavity. They lack the RIVETING Orange Roughy modified mating arms of other squids. trawl nets in Giant squids are also the only which they were cephalopods reported to have a gelati­ captured must nous coating on the outside of the sper­ have struck matophores. The find of numerous sper­ SEX IN THE these giant ani­ matophores embedded in the skin of the mals while they female's arms, radiating around a single were still alive. small enb·y hole, combined with the Most reports of males' attributes, suggest that the sper­ GIANT giant squids in matophores are injected directly by the the past have penis into the skin under pressure, come from car­ much like a rivet gun or pneumatic nail cas es that have gun. The gelatinous coatings on the SQUIDS floated slowly to spermatophores may aid the peneb·ation the surface, rot­ of these sperm stores. BY MARK NORMAN ting and being So, for giant squids, mating events consumed on may consist of short encounters where a the way up. The male shoots a round of sperm packages recently cap­ into the female's skin. One male giant tured specimens differed in that they squid caught off orway in the 1950s is were fresh and largely intact. The particularly unusual in that sper­ largest (15 metres long and weighing matophores were found embedded in 220 kilograms) was still covered in its the skin of several of its arms and the maroon-coloured skin and it was in this mantle. Another male may have acciden­ skin that the first-ever evidence of the tally injected these spermatophores mating behaviour of giant squids was while attempting to impregnate a female, discovered. effectively 'riveting' the co-suitor. Alter­ natively, the male may have litera1ly 'shot LL THREE SQUIDS WERE TRANSPORTED himself in the foot'. Ato the collections of the Museum of Victoria where C.C. Lu, his staff and Mark Norman (left) and Julian Finn myself proceeded to dissect and (University of Melbourne) examining a female describe the animals. In mea uring and· giant squid captured off eastern Tasmania in examining the largest female a one-to­ ' 1996. The skin was missing and both long two�millimetre-thick white 'string' feeding tentacles were damaged. The squid (which_ looked like a parasitic worm) was was estimated as being 12 metres long found in an area of torn skin on one of when alive. 24 NATURE AUSTRALIA WINTER !999 25 NATURE AUSTRALIA WINTER 1999 Tim Stranks (left) and C.C. Lu of the Museum of Victoria dissecting a IS-metre-long female giant squid, the first mated female of these deep-sea squids ever reported. This specimen differed from most other giant squids collected in the past in that the blood-red skin was largely intact.

The female squid in which the sper­ matophores were found was immature. At 220 kilograms, he had a small, poor­ ly developed ovary of only �hree kil?­ grams (the ovary of one giant squid caught off South Africa weighed over 14 es of kilograms). The fema� _ many squids, octopuses and their relatives ea� store viable perm for considerable_ peri­ ods of time with records of up to ten months in �ome species. This strategy may relate to their solitary lifestyles: if you only occasionally come across potential mates, you are best to secure sperm supplies when you can and pull them out of storage when eggs are ready for fertilisation. In the case of the giant squids, a solitary life in deep dark waters may well lead to only a few encounters with the opposite sex. It would therefore be worthwhile squirrel­ ing a supply of sperm away for when it's needed. Giant squids are not the only squids that store sperm in their skin. Some smaller species use a different strategy, storing the sperm supplies in healed elongate wounds on the arms or mantl�. Males in these pecies may use their beak or sharp cythe-like hooks on the tentacles and/or arms to produce these wounds in which small spermatophores are planted. The wound then heal o�er, the scar tissue enclo ing and protectmg GIANT SQUIDS the sperm-embedded packets. As spawning events have never been Classification witnessed for 'skin-storing' squids Family Architeuthidae, genus Architeuthis. At this stage there is little consensus on the (including giant squids), we do not number of species or the appropriate names to use. know how the female accesses the sperm when it's time to fertilise her Identification eggs. She may use her uckers or beak Same shape as other smaller common squids found in Australian waters, with a tube-like to peel open the skin covering the s�er­ body, small heart-shaped fin on rear of body, head with 2 large eyes, 8 arms about same matophores, or hormonal or chemical length as body, plus 2 feeding tentacles. Compared to other squids, giant squidsare much cues may cause the sperm to migrate to larger (longest recorded female was 18 m and weighed 250 kg; males smaller than the skin surface. Alternatively, the females), and have extra-long feeding tentacles, which have numerous matching suckers female's kin might degrade on spawn­ and lugs along the long shafts. These 'press studs' are used to lock the tentacle shafts ing, exposing and activating the embed­ together so that the clubs on the end of the tentacles act as a large snapping claw. ded sperm stores. Distribution and Habitat HE RECE T DISCOVERIE OF FRE 1-1 Mostly collected from deep waters in cool and cold latitudes of all oceans. Probably Tfemale carcasses have provided associated with the sea floor and sea mounts in depths of 500 to 1,500 m. some exciting insights into the lives and biology of these 'krakens' or monsters of Reproduction the deep. At the same time, these latest Males appear to inject spermatophores directly into the female's skin. Females release catche are disturbing in that they millions of small eggs, probably in a jelly-like matrix. Egg masses have never been found. demonstrate the expanding nature of One tiny juvenile was caught in only 125 m of water off Tasmania. Otherwise nothing is human impact . As hallow-wate1� fish­ known of young giant squids. eries reach or exceed maximum exploitation, more attention is being Diet diverted to deep- ea b·awling. Recent Fishes and smaller squids, seized by the 2 long feeding tentacles, probably shot into the interest in deep-water fisheries off South midst of schools. Africa have resulted in the capture of 13 giant squids in two years. Although it i premature to suggest that giant squids may be threatened by

26 NATURE AUSTRALIA WINTER !999 p

n of one lower arm of the (lose-UP sectio em ale giant squid.. The sk. in h as been ma ted f from between the stalked suckers to rem oved ded cords of sperm placed shOW I he embed courting male. there by a activitie , there --sue-, 1 ,,,awuc ling is cl ar . that fisheries. base d I on ong- eVJ de n ee · ]Iv. ec1 deetJ-sea species are no t sus ta111- · e Fishes sue h as O1 ·ange · Roug h y abi . · (mai·Isystematics and biology of squid of the genus Architeuthis based on a study of specimens from Newfoundland waters. Bull. Mar. Sci. 49(1-2): 457--481.

Norman, M.D. & Lu, C.C., 1997. Sex in the giant squid. behaviour. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge. Nature 389: 683-684. Cook University, Townsville. His research interests include the biology, behaviour and Dr Maril Norman is a Research Fellow in Hanlon, R.T. & Messenger, evolution of cephalopods, ranging from J.B., 1996. Cephalopod the Department of Marine Biology, James pygmy octopuses to giant squids.

I _/

El

HAT IS LIFE REALLY LIKE planing and banking backwards and for­ for a young booby wards with bold, sweeping curves over chick being raised on the feeding areas. In an instant, wheel­ one of the remote cays ing around and with their wings hat£ ofW Australia's Great Barrier Reef?At first closed, they plunge, arrow-like, often glance, it seems idyllic: crystal-clear, from heights of 20 to 30 metres, into turquoise-blue waters; gleaming-whit shoals of fish. A system of air sacs coral cays; rich reefs teeming with fish; beneath the skin, and closed external and plenty of other boobies to satisfy the nostrils, offer their only protection need for social interaction. Over the past against the impact as they disappear into ten years, I have a spray of white taken every opportu- water. Brown Boo­ nity to tudy the bies, and probably nesting behaviour of the others too, pursue these large seabirds. their prey by swim­ The result i a fasci­ ming beneath the sur­ nating insight into In an instant, wheeling face using their wings the daily lives of the and webbed feet. booby chicks of the around and with their 171ere are six species Swain cays. of boobies worldwide: Boobies (and gan­ four of these-the nets) belong to the wings half closed, they Masked (Sula dactyla­ family Sulidae, a tra), Brown (S. leuco­ group of large, exclu­ plunge, arrow-like, into gaster), Red-footed (S. sively marine birds sula) and Abbot's Boo­ found throughout the shoals of fish. bies (Papasula abbot­ warm waters of the tz)-occur in tropical world. The boobies' and subtropical Aus­ long slender wings, tralasian waters. At my wedge-shaped tail study sites on the and conical beal< give small, treeless cays of them a ral

such as the Herald Cays in the Coral Sea, are absent. The lack of synchro­ nised breeding means that, throughout the year, there are individuals at differ­ ent stages of the reproductive cycle. Banding and census studies have shown that the number of Brown Boo­ bies nesting in the Swain Reefs has declined significantly. We do not com­ pletely understand the reasons for this, but reproductive success (a breeding pair's ability to raise a chick to maturity) is a major factor in maintaining any healthy population. I have therefore � r___,"""-,.... been looking at the types of things that z influence a chick's chances of survival. � w The b·ials of life begin even before the � chick has hatched. Some eggs fail to § Silver Gulls are major predators of booby :i::llallllllliii� chicks and eggs. This gull is taking advantage c.. -:::&..L���...... ;..i.;;...:_:;::_�,.,,,� �:-'.:..�L of an unattended nest and stealing an egg. 30 NATURE AUSTRALIA WINTER 1999 d hatch because they are not fertilised; people landing on the beach, may cause A pair of courting Brown Boobies. Here the oth�rs because of parental inadequacy, the birds to panic and leave nests unpro­ male booby (with the blue face) presents the accidents, bad weather and predators. tected. The gulls, forever watchful, are female with a gift of dried seaweed. Even the ever-increasing numbers of quick to take advantage of such events. people visiting the reefs takes its toll. On one occasion I saw two gulls stealing a total of four eggs from a group of ten A:ART FROM HUMANS, A D A FEW nests. When there are no major external 1�troduced species, the effect of disturbances to the colony, the Silver re.da�1on On ?OObies is considered to be Gulls can also steal eggs and chicks by sigmficant m most 1� parts of the world. working in pairs. One gull, careful to the Swain Reefs, however, stay afely outside the range of the a a percent- �e_of eggs and very young chicks falls booby's powerful bill, faces the adult sit­ �ctim to a small population of Silver ting on the nest and keeps making faked lls (Larus novaehollandiae). assaults. In response to thi , the booby a� r The gulls h ol the nest areas continually and will sometimes make a jab al the � e learnt to steal from assailant and, in doing so, momentarily b � these powerful r t s. They employ two different tech­ exposes the nest f om behind. The sec­ u r s�q es to rob nests. One method is ond gull then moves in quickly f om the nctly t oppo�tunistic and takes advan­ rear and robs the nest. a of any ?IS�urbance Brown and Masked Boobies ar the s!:11 to the colony. A boat circling the cay, or a group of only sulids that regularly lay two eggs

NATU RE AUSTRALIA WINTER 1999 31 b z s:z � _. w .. �,...,... ,: �

s: i.a....:::t.:J!�-1.Jlllllllllll!�i.li.llC:.Z:f..:.:f.�... £..i;:_,

A male Brown Booby attempts to feed its chick while being surrounded by harassing MASKED BOOBY Silver Gulls intent on stealing the food. Su/a dactylatra (as opposed to one), but they never seem Identification to raise more than one chick. This reduc­ Robust white booby with black flight feathers and tail. Bill yellow in male, dull tion of the brood, however, is not the of the parent but that of the older gr�en-yellow in female; eye yellow; facial skin black; feet grey. Sexes of similar size; adult work weight about 1.5-2 kg. Very noisy, especially in breeding areas: females honk and males sibling (see Nature Aust.* Autumn 1990). whistle. The econd egg serves as a valuable insurance for the long incubation period Habitat and Distribution should the first egg (or chick) fail to sur­ Marine, pelagic and aerial in tropical and subtropical waters around the world. vive. The eggs usually hatch four to five Distribution may be determined by distribution of flyingfishes. days apart and the older chick actively attacks and ejects the younger one from Feeding the nest. The younger chick usually sur­ Feeds mainly on flyingfishes and squids in deep water far out to sea. Can plunge-dive vives for only two to five days, even from 12-100 m. though the parents are able to provide both chicks with sufficient food, at least Breeding at this stage. Breeds _on offshor� tropical is!ands, atolls and cays. Highly variable breeding season Chicks of Brown Boobies are not quite depending on region. Breeds m all months on Swain Reefs. Nest site on open, as obsessed with killing their siblings as unvegetated ground but does not build nests. Both adults share in incubation and care of young. * Previously ANH

Masked Boobies at their nest. Both the male and female incubate the eggs and care for the young when hatched. 32 NATURE AUSTRALIA WINTER !999 --

gulls, but also I once the head wounds or, perhaps, lion against against the are those of Masked Boobies. starvation of Brown Booby chick h al loss, 'because it wa after a particu­ fierce heat the sun and coolness of th observed a younger r small, naked Cay that, judging f om its larly cold and rainy night that I fo�nd the night . The chicks canno� on Gannet lhermoregulate and they may plumage, had managed to urvive for young chick lying dead some chstance die afte badly bat­ from the nest. Although I have become only 20 minutes exposure to the tropicJ four to five weeks. Although chicks larger sibling (with bleeding used to the harsh realities of such inter­ un. Older can regulate their tern. tered by its perature by heat-dissipating head wounds, dirty down and numerous action in nature, I must admit to a feel- behaviours it sur­ such as �anting: bare patches), g la, _ . vived on the food il � fluttering and its par­ wing hanging received from They ents when the older are, however· I never at even greater risk chick slept. than saw the parents the small molest this chick; in chicks under cer­ fact, they always fed tain weather condi­ it and even made ti?ns. On one of my attempts to brood it. tnps to the Swain The older chick, Reefs, a cyclone in when awake, was the Coral Sea was relentless in its c�using strong attacks and never winds and continu­ allowed the sibling al, heavy rains. Not access to the adults. to be discouraged More than once, I by the bad weather saw the larger chick I took advantage of pecking at the head the rare opportuni- of the smaller one ln order to catch enough food for their young, Masked Boobies must spend long periods Ly to gather data on while it was standing of time away. During its parents' absence the fluffy chick can do nothing but wait. what happens to on its prone body. boobies during a ing of sadness when I discovered that The youngerr chick, when temporarily storm. The small chicks were totally pro­ evicted fom its territory by its older sib­ this little battler, in particular, had lost it tected because the parents sheltered ling, was also subject to attacks of the struggle for existence. them under their bodies; in contrast, the neighbouring birds, as are all booby The chicks are naked and helpless large downy chicks became wet and cold chicks in such situations. I'm not sure when they first hatch, and they require as they could only shelter in the lee of what finally killed it. It may have been constant brooding, not only for protec- their parents. At the end of three days in

-�to..,1".AII!\· th0 h bo bi s la two eggs: th�Y only ev�r seem to raise one t �� � � i chick. This is because the older chick attacks its younger sibling and removes rom e nes , t ere y sentencing it 1t to certain death. Here a Brown Booby chick is busy committing siblicide.

34 NATURE AUSTRALIA WINTER !999 >

A male Brown Booby defends his nesting territory from an intruding male. On Swain BROWN BOOBY Reefs, boobies will breed all year round. Su/a leucogaster

these condition , many of the older chicks lay dead. During this period, few Identification adults were able to fish and, conse­ Small dark brown booby with sharp dividing line across breast separating brown upper quently, many of their chicks went hun­ parts from white belly and underwings. Sexual dimorphism: adult 1!1ales_smaller and gry. The lack of food would probably not lighter (average 1 kg), bill bluish grey with deep blue base and fa�ial skin'. feet pale �o have affected them greatly, as research bluish green; adult females larger and heavier (average 1.2 kg), bill greenish, �ellow,sh has shown that booby chicks have an or greyish, facial skin and feet greenish yellow. Less vocal than Masked Booby m the �xtraordinary ability to survive condi­ colony: harsh quack for females, thin sibilant whistle for males. tions of near-starvation. Despite the fact that coral reefs are Habitat and Distribution extrem and ely productive, the tropical seas Marine widespread in (but not restricted to) all tropical oceans. Mainly sedentary th�t surrou markers, nd them are relatively impov­ often e�countered in small groups near land. Often seen perching on channel enshed and food can be difficult to come boats etc. by. The booby chicks need to be resis­ tant to starvation, particularly the Feeding . · Ma�ke h depe d'mg on d Booby whose principal food is mainly on flyingfishes and squids and a wide range o! ot er items, � squid Feeds by and flyingfishes. In order to catch location and seasonal variability. May capture_ high percent�ge of f1sh_ eno u geographic h rghts but gh food to feed a growing chick, the pursuit and will take flyingfishes in flight. Plunge-dives from variable � Paren aerial m shallow � need to forage far from the cays, 10-15 m. Smallness of male may facilitate fishing near the shore and this commonly may entail long absences from waters (mere ems). the nest. Inexperienced parents may not . be able to deliver an adequate food sup­ Breeding . · �ly and cays. H'1g hi Y and their chicks may die of starva­ on offshore and inshore tropical and subtroprca� islands, atolls . ion be Breeds on the Swam � _ cause the timing of their meals is breeding season depending on region. Breeds m all mon_ths _ . irre variable g,_ with n sts ranging i� g�lar. �n contrast, Brown Booby Reefs, but seasonal in the Capricorn-Bunker group. Ground-nest1� � c icks rais 111 adults share m incubation and care [ . ed the Swain Reefs receive from shallow scrapes to substantial structures. Both airly reg ular meals. Flyingfishes, often of young. �aught by aerial pursuit, still make up an bmportant com on nt of their diet but, e � � _ _ cause of their different divmg tech-

NATUR E AUSTRALIA WINTER 1999 35 A male Masked Booby sky-pointing in order In the Swain Reefs, however, only a depend on the location of its nest. On to attract a female. small proportion of the boobies lose several occasions, dead chicks were their catch in this way. found on nests that had been washed nique, Brown Boobies can also catch The Silver Gulls also practise a form of over by ocean swells. Others were found other fish species closer to shore. The kleptoparasitism not previously des­ buried by collapsed sand banks. Even small, light male is able to make succes­ cribed between these birds. A small the wrong neighbours can have serious sive slant dives into the water just out­ number of gulls have learnt to steal fish consequences. I have witnessed a five­ side the breakers of the reef, and can from the gullet of both the Masked and week-old Brown Booby chick die as a catch many fish in a short space of time. Brown Boobies. The gull, attracted by result of being severely mauled by The chicks beg for food by uttering the frenzied begging of a chick about to neighbouring Masked Boobies trying to 'chucking' sounds, thrashing their wings be fed, positions itself so that it can move establish a territory. This type of attack wildly and lunging at their parents' bills. in and quickly snatch the fish from the is uncommon for Brown Booby chicks If food is in short supply, the begging of adult's throat before the gangly chick as they are usually guarded by one of the older chicks becomes increasingly their parents. Masked Booby chicks, on more vigorous, to the point of discom­ the other hand, are often left unguarded forting their parents (not to mention the for long periods of time while both par­ observer!). As with humans, boobies ents are out fishing. Perhaps because of exhibit some individual approaches to this, they have developed a response parenting. While some adults respond Aswith humans, called 'bill-hiding'. If approached by a immediately to the begging of the strange adult, a Masked Booby chick chicks, and feed them as soon as they boobies exhibit some will tuck its bill right underneath its return to the nest, others consistently breast and lie prone. This fear-motivated ignore their offspring for up to an hour individual approaches to behaviour greatly reduces the severity and will not feed them until they have of the attacks. preened, rested and even oiled their feathers. parenting. HE PROPORTIO OF CHICKS SURVIVlNG Not only do boobies have the difficult to fledging in the Swain Reefs varies task of finding adequate quantities of Tfrom year to year and, as discussed, may food, they also run the risk of it being depend on many factors. The lack of syn­ stolen. Some birds practise kleptopara­ can reach in. The gulls are so successful chronised egg-laying has numerous ben­ sitism-the deliberate stealing of food at this that the adult often leaves again efits, especially for the Masked Booby, a that has been caught by others. Least before the chick has received any food. tropical seabird that fishes in an impov­ Frigatebirds (Fregata arie[) may rob In contrast to the documented low erished, blue-water environment and boobies of their food as they return to impact that specialist kleptoparasites, whose small-island nesting grounds are the cay after fishing. The frigatebirds such as frigatebirds, have on the boo­ periodically battered by cyclonic weath­ can fly at greater speeds, accelerate bies, these gulls act as opportunistic er. Food shortages are unpredictable in faster and are more agile in the air than kleptoparasites and are much more like­ timing and duration, and at no time of the boobies. Their pursuit is relentless, ly to cause real stress to the population, year can there be a guarantee that there and the victim is often outmanoeuvred especially when food is in short supply. will be enough for large numbers of and harassed until it disgorges its food. A chick's chances of survival can also growing chicks. Unfortunately, year-

36 NATURE AUSTRALIA WINTER 1999 pt

parents are away, the chick will When the a Brown Booby chick entertains play. Here ng a feat her · in th e a,r· an d 1t. seIf by tossi This game helps the bird to catch ing it. important fish-handling skills it deveI op the adult. will need as an

increase lh i · round breeding does ! vul­ nerability to predators and t? distur- ans. If the boobies 1 bance by hun� were ing the islands f?r only p rt of the /' occupy � year, as would �appen if egg-laymg were synchronised, it would not be worth- _ Gull to dev ' while for the S1lver_ �lop the specialised slalls of nest. robbmg �nd food stealing. A synchromse? breedmg population would also be easier to man­ age, as it could be adequately protec�ed by rigorous, �easonal closur�s dunng the critical penod of the breedmg cycle. The breeding activities of the boobies are charact�rised by considerable vari­ ability in natural mortality, particularly of the chicks. Bad weather and lack of food are the two greatest natural causes of breeding failure, and both can lead to very large losses. Typically, these losses are episodic events that allow popula­ tions to recover their numbers. Human disturbances, on the other hand, tend to Nelson, J.B., 1978. The Sulidae. Oxford University r Further Reading be less severe but occur more f equent­ Heatwole, H., O'Neill, P.,Jones, M. & Preker, M., 1996. Press: Oxford. ly and over a longer time period. Such Long-term population trends of seabirds on the Swain chronic disturbances can have a major Reefs, Great Barrier Reef. CRC Reef Res. Tech. Rep. 12: Myriam Freiler is a marine biologist and impact on the population's ability to 1-50. Ileen wildlife photographer with a strong recover. The continued survival of the research interest in seabirds. She has lived boobies in the Swain Reefs, therefore, King, B., 1990. The sacrificial sibling. Aust. Nat. Hist. and worlled for more than 25 years at may well depend upon sD-ingent man­ 23(4): 278. marine stations on small offshore islands in agement practices that will allow these Marchant, S. & Higgins, P.J., 1990. Handbook of Aus­ both Canada and Australia. Her most recent magnificent seabirds to rear their young tralian, New Zealand and Antarctic birds. Oxford Uni­ studies have tallen her to the remote islands , succe , ssfully. • versity Press: Melbourne. of the sub-Antarctic.

A Masked B the attacks other boobies ooby chick d'1sp 1 ys th e strange be h .av,our f bill- hiding · This behaviour seems to greatly reduce from during th � � e long hours when its parents are away catching food.

NA TURE A UST RALIA WINTER 1999 37

0 Right: Tree-dwelling marsupials, like this N TH E MINDS OF MO I' PEOPLE, RAIN­ the wet tropics 1 a mere 25 kilometres Long-tailed Pygmy-possum seem to share forest e�itomises biodiversity and away, the fauna of arboreal_ mars�pials is the ra111forests of northern impoverished. In the dner ra111forest more than just long tails-they all achieve Queensland certainly contain a scrubs surrounding Mount Finnigan, for high scores in the marsupial intelligence diverseI array of the group of animals I example, ringtails and brushtails are test. Why? am most interested in-the arboreal absent and only five of the ten species of marsupials. In the richest areas, such as arboreal marsupials found farther south apart from a few individuals collected · the misty upland forests of the Atherton still occur there. 1894, it was _largely unknown to scienc: 0 0 Tablelands, up to ten species occur The reason I came to the foothills of Found only 1� the 3, 0 :odd square kilo: together. These include a tree-kangaroo, Mount Finnigan had little to do with me_tres of ra111forest lying between the questions of biodiversity. Rather it was Damtree and nan a brushtail possum, a pygmy-possum, a � _ Rivers,_ it has one of striped possum, and several species of because one member of the local fauna, the smallest d1stnbut1ons of any Aus ringtail and gliding possums. As you pro­ a tree-climbing kangaroo, fascinated me. tralian_ mammal. A� the time I first wen� Bennett's Tree-kangaroo (Dendrolagus there its conservation status ceed north of here, however, this diver­ bennettianus) was doubt­ sity diminishes. At the northern end of was a rare species and, ful. It was by no means common and was seldo1:1 �een, even b_Y the locals. Only in one limited area, 111 the scrubs sur­ rounding Mount Finnigan, did it appear to be reasonably abundant. 911arriv !ng in the ar�a, one of the first thmgs I tned to establish was the local di tribution of the species. Where were tree-kangaroos to be found? The moun­ taintops, the river valleys, all over? I was

I was in the middle of telling him how I had been searching the nearby scrub for evidence of tree-kangaroos when he interrupted and asked whether I'd seen any tigers.

eager to talk to any locals who had seen them or had stories to tell. One day I struck up a conversation with an old man who had spent many years in the area, originally mining for tin. I was in the middle of telling him how I had been searching the nearby scrub for evidence of b·ee-kangaroos when he interrupted and asked whether I'd seen any tigers. "Oh, you mean tiger cats (Spotted- tailed Quolls) ?" � " o, not cats, son. Tigers! The big fel- s! !as!" � I politely steered the conversation off � in another direction. By this time I'd g heard that, even by north Queensland � standards, 'tin scratchers' had been a 6 terrible bunch of drunks and I conclud- 25 Left: A radio-collared Bennett's Tree­ kangaroo. This tree-climbing kangaroo with its spectacular tail and curious lifestyle introduced the author to the mysterious world of longtails and their superior intelligence.

40 NATURE AUSTRALIA WINTER 1999 ed that the old man was probably hallu­ combined h ad-body (HB) length­ neither prehensile nor directly useful to cinating when he saw his tigers. even longer i( you include the tassel. it when climbing, once in the canopy it is Eventually I saw many tree-kangaroos The tail of terrestrial kangaroos, the undoubtedly a great aid to balance and but it was almo t a decade later that I presumed ancestors o( tree-kangaroos, mobility. \"lhile carefully traversing thin cauo'hl my first glimp e of a tiger. ll wa are typically le s than their HB length. branches and vines, the tree-kangaroo in the middle of the clayin a narrow strip For example the Agile Wallaby (Macro­ holds its long tail out sti(lly beneath it of gallery forest beside the Annan. The pus agilis), a terrestrial macropocl and counterbalancing the weight of its uppe; animal was on the ground, just inside tropical neighbour of Bennett's Tree- body. the forest, and I came on it suddenly During the tree-kangaroo work it soon aiter clambering up from the river. It became apparent that not only are these startled and ran flat out, directly away scrubs clepauperate, but the few pecies from me. When it had covered about 50 of arboreal mammals that live there are metres, it tarted to wheel in a broad arc Bennett's Tree-kangaroo thinly di tributed. Sightings were few to my right. I followed it with my binoc­ even after the most diligent efforts'. ulars, catchi1w glimpses as it clashed \"lhen I eventually became familiar with between the wide buttresses of the rain­ does have an all of the resident species, it struck me forest trees, its long, black-tasselled tail that the other two non-gliding marsupi­ streaming out behind. Ah yes, undoubt­ extraordinarily long tail als also possess extraordinarily long edly a 'tiger'! tails. The most spectacular member of and it's the tail that the community, the black-and-white REE-KAJ GAROOS ARE SECRETIVE AND Striped Possum (Dactylopsila trivirga­ ta), Tlargely nocturnal beasts and you everyone remembers. has a tail that is around 25 per cent don't often see tl1em on tl1e ground, par­ longer than its HB length. The exquisite ticularly during the clay. \"lhen you do, Long-tailed Pygmy-possum (Cercartetus you notice that they move with short caudatus) has an even longer tail, a full rapid hops and appear to lope rather kangaroo, has a tail about 95 per cent of 27 per cent more than it HB. Even than bounce along like normal kanga­ its HB length. The tail of the largest ter­ arboreal rats had picked up the trend. roos. Long tasselled tails, speed and restrial kangaroo, the Reel Kangaroo The rare Prehensile-tailed Rat (Pogono­ (Macropus rufus), mys mollipilosus) manoeuvrability are traits usually asso­ is only about 80 per is usually glimpsed ciated with big cats and I realised I'd cent of its HB length. fleetingly as it races along mall branch­ seen tile genesis of the tin scratcher's \"lhile hardly a relationship of pro­ es high in the canopy, but in the hand its tiger story. Perhaps I'd missed a twinkle found biological significance, it caused tail measures out at a whopping 35 per in his eye at the time, but Bennett's me to speculate on why natural selection cent longer than it HB length. Tree-kangaroo does have an extraordi­ has favoured long tails in tree-kanga­ The abiding theme of long-tailedness narily long tail and it's tile tail that every­ roos. The most obvious explanation is as in this fauna of tree-dwelling marsupials one remembers. On average it's about an adaptation for arboreal life. \"lhilethe intrigued me. Enhanced arboreal ability 15 per cent longer than the animal's long tail of Bennett's Tree-kangaroo is is the obvious explanation and, consis-

RELATIVE 'BRAININESS' OF MARSUPIALS

SPECIES NUMBER OF [NCEPHALISATION NEOCORTICAL SPECIES INDEX (El) INDEX (NI)

Longtail group

Striped Possum (Dactylopsila trivirgata) 1 320 1120 Bennett's Tree-kangaroo (Dendrolagus bennettianus) 1 246* Long-tailed Pygmy-possum ( Cercartetus caudatus) 1 266*

Other marsupial groups

Family Pseudocheiridae 5 (ringtail possums) 139 391 Family Phalangeridae 6 533 (brushtail possums) 192 Genus Macropus 4 (kangaroos and wallabies) 193 628

Subclass Marsupialia 151 (marsupials) 194 512

*The Eis prese�ted for Bennett's Tree-kangaroo_ and tlle_Long-tailed Pygmy-possum have been estimated from _t�e cramal volume of the �kull. Fresh bram material has never been collected from either species. Simple defi111t10ns of EI and NI appear 111 the text.

PRINTED, WITH PERMISSION, FROM J. NELSON, H. STEPHAN & G. BARON, IN PREP COMPARATIVE BRAIN RESEARCH IN MAMMALS. VOL. 111. MARSUPIALIA.

42 NATURE AUSTRALIA WINTER 1999 p

The tail of the terrestrial Agile Wallaby may be an impressive sight, but it is nothing compared to the relative lengths of those possessed by the arboreal marsupials living in the dry rainforest scrubs.

tent with this, the tails of all of these small branches, and also as an addition­ assigned a relative measure of 'braini­ smaller animals are also highly prehen­ al hand, the prehensile encl cla sping ness'. This i called an encephalisation sile. An exb·a hand would be a great onto the foliage at the completion of the index (EI) and it is the ratio of the actual advantage, particularly when undertak­ longer jumps. brain size of the animal compared to the ing the longer jumps necessary when I also saw Striped Possums use their brain size expected if it was a member of moving between trees. And these mon­ tail for another, entirely un suspectecl, that most primitive mammalian group, soon forests are very sparse compared purpose. At first I thought, like the tin the eutherian insectivores (shrews, to the upland rainforests. They contain scratchers of old, I'd been spending too moles, hedgehogs and the like, which many deciduous species and, after the much time in the scrub. But after seeing have the smallest brain to body ratio of heavy leaf fall of the late dry season, the the performance a number of times from all the mammal s). Put simply, the EI of canopy can be very thin. Many of the several inclivicluals, I believe it to be con­ the Striped Possum is the ratio of its eucalypts in the surrounding woodland sistent with their broader behavioural actual brain weight to the brain weight are al so deciduous projected for a eutherian insectivore k and this forest is repertoire. Occasionally, when an ani­ eletal in the late dry. mal was first illuminated in the spotlight, with the same body weight a a Sbiped It was difficult to gain insights into the it would stare intently back at the light Possum. Nelson and his colleagues don't rboreal ability o_f t�e Long�tai\ecl before turning away and stalking off up claim that this is an exact measure of rel­ Y�my-possum as and ative intelligence but they do believe ��1 s1ghtmgs of this tmy the branch, its long tail held high m�l were infrequent and its activities lashing back and forth in the manner of that animals with relatively high Eis YPtic. s integration 0 However, I was often able to a 'pissed-off' pus ycat. It was most have greater potential forthe bserve the sensory information. These e larger, black-and-white unpossum-like behaviour but its mean­ of complex b au s s ty on its nightly forays. I was fortu­ ing was acutely obvious. re earchers u e another similarly �t� enough to participate in a detailed Striped Possums do a number of derived index, the neocortical index u of the indicate the relative size of the e/ Striped Possum's ecology remarkable things but I will leave these ( I), to 0 _ by Kath Handasyde before the field­ neocortex, the area of the brain that con­ ver si from the Uni­ for another article. Even �y of Melbourne), and we expected 'Sb·ipeys' to be trols higher mental functions (see table). kee i this involved work began ti �g track of a number of individuals exceptional for, relative to their body What these indices suggest is that the b s of g them with small ra�io-collars. weight (about half a kilogram), they are Sb·iped Possum i by far the brainiest 6rt��tTfollow s all the marsupial and that the other two o ed them a they Journeyed the 'brainiest' marsupial of them all! ut intO the surrounding_ in long-term longtails are well above average. This land eucalypt woocl­ This had been established s s d their arboreal ability studies of the neural anato­ raises the obvious que tion: why is it par:/� in this comparative supials 1'L orest proved to be remarkabl marsupials, carried �ut by Jo_hn that three of the 'brightest' mar ey a . e . my of small area of 'n re ex trem e I Y athletic and traverse Nelson (Monash University), He111z occur together in the same quick! thr Brain remnant rainfore t? from/ ough the canopy, leaping Stephan (Max Planck Institute for ee to tree. In Baron (University I don't believe this is a coincidence. appea: this, their Jong tail Research) and Georg if s to be a great as The rationale underlying Braininess, or memory or intelligence counte set, acting as a of Montreal). length, subject to rbal ance when they run along this work is that each species can be you like, is, like tail

NATURE AUS TRALIA WINTER 1999 43 b 44 NATURE AUSTRALIA WINTER 1999 >

welling Prehensile-tailed Rat has a e tree-d Th t e I·s 35 per cent longer than h I hengt I tail that its body. I of ------1 but investigating U1e na ! ·al selection, n d·1tions1 under which natural selection o . is a difficult area in fcavou 1 s tJ e brainy h to do researcI 1. 1'1 1ose w I1 I0 Sl��ve whic ti circumnavigated ll:e 0� CO� . er ?r: 1_n the relevant ecolog1caho1c�s 1p1!1g111g£ lligence to be t e dI tn bution o tiinte �� cal resources (foo�, shelter etc.) and the intensity of predati?n. Altho1;1gh the members of the marsupial i?ng111 tail group utilise different reso1;1rces, the nort h- ern scrubs all their fo_od . resource appear to be sp�rsely d1stnb�ted an? te mporally unreliable. In orde1 to su1 - vive, all three sp�cies 1:eed to master a range of food-findmg �Jails, to remember locations and recogmse seasonal cues. One would expect the larger-brained individuals to be better at these tasks. As forintense predation, one needs to go no further than(Morelia the Amethystine amethistjna). or Scrub Python This Amethystine Pythons are highly al predator ambushes its prey and efficient predators of tree-dwelling marsupials, able to hunt arbore and strike their prey in total darkness. Could the existence of such potent foes have led to the can strike in total darkness, relying on development of high infra-red sen ors clustered in pits sur­ intelligence in their intended victims? roundingNature the Aust.* mouth to guide its strike see Spring ( 1994). Once work by Thomas Smith from San Fran­ forests have enjoyed a very again, attributes of the brain, such as high profile cisco State University suggests that we over the last decade or so, and a great alertness, memory and ability to learn, should give serious consideration to a deal of effort, o both administrative and would be useful f r prey animals trying rainforest-edge origin. Smith and his col­ scientific, has gone into their preserva­ to counter such a potent foe. leagues worked in the African tion and study. With a few notable excep­ N THE LIGHT OF SOME RECE T WORK IT IS Cameroon on a species of small forest tions the dry edges have been largely bird that occupies the ecotone (transi­ ignored or dismissed as 'depauperate' I interesting to speculate further on the tion zone) between rainforest and savan­ and 'not real rainforest'. Much of evolutionary this history and the origin of na. From their data on gene flow and on area is presently unprotected and in the this long-tailed fauna. The major radia­ near future far-reaching tion decisions about of both tree-kangaroos (ten living its ownership and management will be species) and striped possums (four made. In advocating a reappraisal species) of the occurred in the rainforests of biological significance of this less biodi­ New Guinea and it has long been A1ertness, memory and verse forest I can think of no more assumed that they evolved there. Their cogent an argument than the one put by occur rence in northern Queensland ability to learn, would be Thomas Smith: "If we are to protect bio­ (two species of tree-kangaroo, one diversity, we must also protect the spe�ies of striped possum) had been processes that generate it."• at tributed to limited immigration across useful for prey animals land bridges formed during the lowered Further Reading sea levels of past ice ages. For tree-kan trying to counter such a Enserink, M., 1997. Life on the edge: rainforest mar­ ­ gins may spawn species. Science 276: 1791-1792. garoo�_ , however, the weight of both fos­ sil evidence and serological evidence potent foe. Handasyde, K.A. & Martin, R.W., 1996. Field observa­ (t�eh latter suggesting a s close relation­ tions on the Common Striped Possum (Dacty/opsila ip to_ rock-wallabies) now favours trivirgata) in North Queensland. Wild/. Res. 23: Aust an ralian origin. With the recent dis­ 755-766. �overy of a 20-million a -year-old fossilised i :,v and teeth of a striped Martin, R.W., 1996. Tcharibeena: field studies of Ben­ Ri possum at the morphological divergence between ye_rsleigh in Queensland Australian nett's Tree-kangaroo. Pp. 36-65 in Tree-kangaroos: a ongm an the various populations of birds, they curious natural history, by T.F. Flannery, R. Martin and for this group has �!so tulate been pos­ postulated that it was this rainforest A. Szalay. Reed Books: Melbourne. d. that was the cradle _where n�w � these edge . species did evolve in Australia species arose rather than m the ram­ Smith, T.B., Wayne, R.K., Girman, D.J. & Bruford, M.W., ? it likely that they came orest from deep rain� forests themselves. They believe that 1997. A role for ecotones in generating rainforest bio­ or from dry scrubs on the rainfo source of any diversity. Science 276: 1855-1857. e r­ ecotones are the likely b!iw dge? The close relationship new diversity and that rainforests are b. e �en tree Roger Martin is a Research Associate in the 1 -kangaroos and rock-walla- more a sink for new species rather than s imp 1·ies the latter. gen- Department of Zoology at the University of Su ms r · And striped pos- an area where they are likely to be Melbourne. He is interested in conservation we ,· s it f ortuitous that ll a they are so erated. biology, particularly of arboreal marsupial h _dapted to the sparser forests on of the longtail_s' :nerel_Y a th: rainf Is my 'land populations such as tree-kangaro�s and orest edge, or is it possible that place, or does Smith s radical and in wildlife disease, particularly t Y also whimsical Koalas evolved there? Some recent concept have some practical signiii�anc� in thl impact of sarcoptic mange on 'Previously ANH for Australia's wet tropics? I thmk. it Common Wombat populations. does. The northern Queensland ram- NA TURE AUST RALIA WINTER 1999 45 b

OUSE HUNTlt G CAN BE A 1.'IR�­ roti·uding spines, are a pantry for [at, r _ g f ustratmg expe1 t­ �nd an ingenious strategy for e�capm_ some and . t 1s First you search the ce1·t am death By vigorously wavmg � ence. · 1 otent1al newspapers, notice boards appendage, they can f °? a P . a d1 posable pa1 t andH windows of real estate agencies for a predator into tackling � _ . not, he ti·on that vaguely resembles what of their body; more often than � descnp es<::a�es to hv want. Then you sp�nd days, wee 1

ed patterns, geckos get restlessr and enter a have the good fortune university student. period of f enetic activ­ of being perhaps the ity that usually lasts most charismatic of well into the night. Australia's lizards. They eat (mostly small Unique in both appearance and person­ arthropods, but some larger speci�s _eat ality, geckos are flat len&"thy creatures smaller lizards) drink (water), soc1ahse, with silken bodies, endearing spectacles, and sometimes' engage in sexual activi­ and often bizarre hands and tails. Modi­ ties (but only in spring and summer). fied toes equipped with fine hair-like Then, during the wee hours of the morn­ setae, en�ble many of these small agile ing, they quietly slip home to spend the animals to safely ascend almost any sur­ next daysleeping off the festivities of the face. Their often flamboyant tails, taking previous night. the form of leaves or knobs, some with Before the intricacies of 'home gecko-

LESUEUR'S VELVET GECKO Oedura lesueurii

Classification Family Gekkonidae (geckos).

Identification Pale grey to brown above, with a broad, dark-edged vertebral stripe. Whitish below. The tail is moderately long and markedly depressed. Adults average 80 mm snout-vent length. nomics' are explained, it seems appro­ priate to introduce the main star(Oedura of this Distribution show: Lesueur's Velvet Gecko Widespread lesueuriz). along the coast and ranges of NSW and south-eastern Qld. Although a rather drab-look­ ing beast (compared to some of its spec­ Habits tacular cousins), these lizards are proba­ Nocturnal. Usually found living in caves or crevices, or under bly the most common gecko ridges. rock slabs on large slopes and residing Forages on open rock faces, but more usually among along the coast of New South Wales. rock ground litter at the edge of faces. During the day, they usually laze about under slabs of rock on large outcrops Breeding and ridges. At night, they One mostly fre­ clutch per year of 2 parchment-shelled eggs laid quent one of two venues: aggregate during Nov.-Dec. Up to 20 females ground litter at under the same nesting rock several weeks before the edge of rock faces or n form a communal they deposit their eggs to on the ope nest. Eggs hatch around Feb. rock face itself. For reasons that are not entirely clear, thesegeckos ys Status don't alwa return to their own abode after a night Common. Wholly protected. Perhaps threatened on the in some places by bush rock removal. r town. Perhaps they wander too far f om their residence to make it back in one night, or maybe they return t� find that another gecko has set up camp. They could have exhau ted their local 48 - NATURE AUSTRALIA WINTER 1999 food supply, or it might be time to ven­ dragon lizards, bask in the morningsun­ A Lesueur's Velvet Gecko sheds its skin. These ture more widely to find that perfect shine, warm up, and then go about their geckos shed several times during the summer match. period of feeding and growth. _Also, during late spring, females daily business. But nocturnal reptiles lay their eggs in a communal nest that are faced with a thermal dilemma: how can be located several hundred metres can they become warm enough to be from their home site, and they probably active when there is no sunlight at need t? find temporary daytime accom­ night? The answer is in their choice of modation on the way. For whatever rea­ rock retreat-site. Residing within a shel­ son, Lesueur's Velvet Geckos almost ter that is well insulated and exposed to certainly experience the frustrations of the afternoon sun means that a gecko house hunting many times throughout can warm up in time for the night' activ­ their lives. ities. Thicker rocks take longer to heat up, but they hold the heat better anc! so ( WHAT DOES LEsuEuR's VELVET remain warm later into the night. Thick­ Gecko look for in a potential er rocks are also less likely to overheat h0 �se? Because reptiles are 'cold-blood­ during the day. By selecting a shel_ter ed or ectothermic (that is, they don't that varies in thickness,r a rock-dwelling generate much heat from their own g cko can choose f om a range of_ tem­ �etabolic processes), they simply must peratures within the comfort of its own a�e access to heat if they want lo be home. active. Diurnal reptiles, like skinks and For Lesueur's Velvet Geckos, life can

NATU RE AUSTRALIA WINTER 1999 49 I

I

Geckos come in a variety of shapes and sizes. The large tail of this Southern Leaf-tailed Gecko (Phyl/urus platurus) serves as both a pantry for fat as well as a disposable tool for predator evasion.

be downright unpleasant when mature males attempt to share the same retreat-site, to the point where this situ­ ation rarely, if ever, occurs. Adult males can't stand each other, and they resolve issues of house ownership in a fairly predictable way: by fighting! Two geck­ os battling for the same retreat will firm­ ly grip the tail of their opponent, and lock into a lengthy head-to-tail wrestle. Depending on their competitive abili­ ties, these battles are usually sustained for at least several gruelling minutes. Eventually, tl1e loser releases his grip on the tail of the winning male and retreats to find an inferior shelter. There's at least one more thing that any gecko (not just Lesueur's Velvet Geckos) ought to consider carefully before it selects a home. Several species of snake dine exclusively on lizards, late at night, and inhabit similar reb-eat-sites to many types of gecko. This means that geckos might encounter potential snake predators while assessing a likely retreat, or, worse still, return home to discover they are sleeping wiili the enemy! The good news is iliat many A Bynoe's Gecko (Heteronotia binoe1) emerges from its rock retreat. Nocturnal geckos absorb the heat they need for their Wood Geckos (Diplodactylus vittatus) like to sleep the day away in or under fallen timber rocks night-time activities from their daytime rock or leaf litter. retreat.

50 NATURE AUSTRALIA WINTER 1999

When is a snake not a threat to Lesueur's Velvet Gecko? When it's an Eastern Small-eyed Snake. But how does the gecko tell just which snake is in that rock retreat?

snake specie simply refuse to eat son's organ, a receptor in the roof of the y CREATI 1G A IALL HORIZONTAL gecko. However, it's difficult to distin­ mouth operating in association with the Bcrevice between two slabs of rock, guish between those that do and those tongue. But can geckos use chernore­ and placing a heating wire underneath that don't when the snakes are curled up ception to distinguish between different the bottom slab, I was able to construct a and hidden within a crevice. A brave species of snake? And what should a display home for a gecko that closely gecko might attempt to catch a glimpse gecko do if there are only two potential mimics the temperatures of natural of the snake by briefly entering the retreat-sites exposed to full sunlight. ot retreat-site. But if the retreat contains a surprisingly, when I gave Lesueur's Vel­ gecko-eating species, even a fleeting vet Geckos the choice between a heated inspection would almost certainly spell and a cool retJ·eat-site, they went for the death for the gecko! hot one almost all the time. And this Unfortunately, Lesueur's Velvet Geck­ makes sense, becau e being warm will os are one of the unlucky species that Unfortunately, Lesueur's undoubtedly enhance a gecko's abilityto share their habitat with a ravaging gecko eat, drink and be merry during the predator, the Broad-headed Snake Velvet Geckos are one of night. But a gecko would have to care­ (Hoplocephalus bungaroides). ot only fully consider the benefits of a warm do these strategic hunters prefer the the unlucky species that retreat-site if it is covered with the scent same kinds of retreat-sites, they often of snake. Indeed, in my experiments, stay under a rock for up to four weeks at share their habitat with a 1110 t of the geckos shunned the warm a time just waiting for a gecko to come retreat-site if it had been in contact with along for an inspection. So, as well as ravaging gecko predator, a Broad-headed Snake, and went forthe considering thermal benefits and social cooler, unscented one. Understandably, factors, assessing a potential retreat-site it eems that velvet gecko would much for the presence of a Broad-headed the Broad-headed Snake. rather be cold than dead! Snake is likely to be an important part of The plot thickened ubstantially when the gecko's selection-making process. I added social conflict into the arena. I Luckily, most geckos have come up offered pairs of male velvet geckos the with a safe, reliable way of determining choice between a warm and cold house. whether a potential retreat-site contains retreat-sites to choose from: one is shad­ As expected, in each case, both geckos a snake. By flicking out their tongue, ed, and the other receives sun but is al o bid on the warm option, paying little they can detect airborne smells of poten­ occupied by a snake? Will a dominant attention to the alternative. But, when tial predators and prey. Known as male gecko open his home to another they came face to face, fights erupted chemoreception, this remarkable senso­ male if the only alternative is a shelter and the largest geckos would invariably ry system is mediated largely by Jacob- containing a snake? Let's find out. win, forcing the subordinates to u e the

9 52 NATURE AUSTRALIA WINTER !99 . retreat. It eems that small current retreat-sites that are labelled geckos may be born with the ability to ,nf ·ior of the deal with r s lso ael the rough encl the scent of any snake. This seems detect various scents using chemorecep­ ma e up the warm a afe strategy en f1ie �oclcoevolution in nocturnal J�st like Lesueur's Velvet _Gecko and the body to the tail. But when the rock was rock-dwelling reptiles. Anim. Behav. 55: 1373-1385. Broad-headed Snake, this small black covered with the scent of a Small-eyed elapid spends its days under slab� of Snake, the ame geckos showed a com­ Downes, S.J. & Shine, R., 1998. Heat, safety or soli­ sandstone outcrops and cliff?, parable tongue flick rate but failed to act tude? Using habitat selection experiments to identify a rock on lizard's priorities. Anim. Behav. 55: 1387-1399. and its night out on t!1e _town. But �his out the accompanying anti-predator tail a fussy eater: 1t dmes exclus1ve­ manoeuvres. Also, geckos strongly snake is Krebs, J.R. & Davies, N.B., 1997. An introduction to ly on diurnal skinks and flatly refuses to avoided retreat-sites that contained the behavioural ecology. Blackwells: Oxford. eat gecko. Because skinks are usual�y odour of Broacl-heaclecl Snakes, but fre­ asleep at night, the Small-eyed Snake 1s quently entered those covered with the Schwenk, K., 1995. Of tongues and noses: chemore­ forced toactively seek them from under­ scent of Small-eyed Snakes. ception in lizards and snakes. Trends £col. Evol. 10: neath the logs and rock and between It's difficult to say whether the ability 7-12. in which they to distinguish between the scents of a the cracks and crevices Sharon f. Downes is a graduate student in live. As a consequence, it spreads its dangerous and harmless snake has the School of Biological Sciences at the Uni­ scent widely, providing yet another evolved over time or is learned by the versity of Sydney. Her graduate research dilemma for the Lesueur's Velvet Gecko: geckos during their lifetime. Many wild­ investigates the chemical and behavioural caught geckos have regrown tail , sug­ ecology of predator-prey interactions using what should the gecko do when faced Australian reptiles as a model system. Her with a retreat-site that contains the scent gesting that Broad-headed Snakes may other interests include evolutionary ecology, of this harmless snake? have been lightly off target during their landscape ecology and behavioural One option i to avoid all potential or attempts to obtain a meal. If this is true, approacnes to conservation biology.

A Br oa of this snake in rock retreats makes choosing a d-headed Snake dines on its favourite food-Lesueur's Velvet Gecko. Th e possible presence horne a l'f1 e-and-death decision for geckos.

NATURE 53 AUSTRALIA WINTER 1999 b

_..,,- MAGINE IT'S 18,000 YEAR AGO A D Antarctica has also grown as more a�cl you're approaching the Earth from more of the sea that once lapped its _ r space. From a distance, our home coast f oze against the shore. world is a blue-white disk bathed The Earth has plunged into another inI the light of the Sun. As you fly closer ice age. And it isn't over yet. the globe seems familiar: the supercon­ tinent Pangaea has long since broken HE STORY BEHIND ICE AGES* BEGINS IN up, the continental :fragments having the past. But not too far back; just to drifted across the globe. From space, T _ the last century, in fact. In 1�37, Sw1�s the Earth is easily recognisable ... in all zoologist and palaeontologist LOUIS respects except one: a third of the dry Agassiz published a paper that sug;gest­ land is frozen solid, submerged beneath ecl an explanation for huge cl_epos1ts of giant sheet of ice. boulders, gravel and sand left 111 strange Flying in from the north you can make places over northernEurope and North out the ice-covered north pole, bloated America. This geological debris, called but otherwise familiar. As the world 'till' or 'erratics', included granite boul­ turns beneath, however, you look down ders apparently transported over enor­ in amazement as one after another ice­ mous distances. One explanation, popu­ covered continent rolls into view. With lar well into the 18th century, was that so much of the Earth's water now accu­ the till had been moved by water during r mulated in f ozen masses, the sea level a worldwide catastrophic flood, an idea has fallen, and bridges between previ­ that fitted neatly into the biblical history ously isolated lands allow the migration of the world in vogue at the time.Those of many species, including humans. who believed in this 'Neptunist' theory As you cruise silently southward you were locked in dispute with the 'Pluton­ notice that the lower, warmer latitudes ists' who preferred a volcanic origin for have resisted the cold. But the higher the till. mountain ranges-the Andes and the But both schools of thought were Himalayas-are encased in ice. Glaciers entirely wrong. Agassiz proposed that have ploughed their way through ew ice was the only reasonable way of trans­ Zealand, Tasmania and Africa. Although r porting such huge masses of rock over cut off f om other major landmasses, large distances, and therefore the very * Strictly speaking, ice ages are called existence of till was evidence that long 'glacial episodes', whi:te the times between ago the Earth had entered a period of them are called 'interglacials'. However, I intense cold. This 'ice age' had given have used the term ice age in this story for birth to massive glaciers that gouged clarity, since during any given 'ice age' there the land, ploughing rock and soil before are well documented glacial/interglacial them.The till was left where the glaciers episodes. stopped, in the mid-latitudes of Europe

and North America.The reception of his paper was as cold as its subject, howev­ er. His one-time benefactor and col­ league, Alexander Friedrich von Hum­ boldt, was among the most vocal, telling Agassiz to "return to his fossil fishes" (a subject on which he had gained a repu­ tation as an expert throughout Europe). Fortunately Agassiz endured this attack and went on to complete extensive field­ work in the Alps, Scotland, northern England and Ireland, gathering evidence that supported his ice-age theory. In the encl, the evidence was undeniable: the Earth had been subjected to periods of extensive glaciation, and that meant a global cold climate.

Once thought to have been moved by water or volcanoes, erratics, such as this boulder in western Tasmania, are actually transported by ice. Their existence indicates that, at certain times in its history, the Earth was a much colder place. 56 NATURE AUSTRALIA WINTER 1999 T's Now KNOW THAT THE EARTH HAS circulation; chemical reactions involving Did the evolution of cyanobacteria and I endured a number of ice ages, with the air, land and sea; and the life cycles other photosynthetic microorganisms, similar the mo:'t recent and best studied having of plants and animals. A major factor in to those that make up these stromatolites in b g n in the Quaternarysome 1.6 to 1.8 the regulation of the Earth's surface Western Australia, trigger the Earth's first � � ice age? m1l11on years ago. But so far no-one temperature is the composition of the knows exaclly why ice ages occur. Over atmosphere. The Earth ab orbs heal the years there has been a bizarre array from the Sun during the day and cools al The Earth has a natural recycling sys­ of exp!analions, including volcanoes that night by emitting infra-red radiation tem for carbon dioxide. The primitive, erupt ice, stars that radiate cold and the (heat) back into space. The so-called carbon dioxide-rich atmosphere was, Earth passin)J through altern�tely hot greenhouse gases, including carbon and continues lo be, released through and cold regions of space. As it turns dioxide, limit the amount of infra-red volcanoes. The carbon dioxide reacts out, there seems to be more than one radiation that can escape into space. with rain to form carbonic acid, which in way to trigger an ice age. Jon Luly from Like a quill for the sleeping hemisphere, turn reacts with silicates on the ground James Cook University explains that the the e gases keep us warm al nighl. But to form carbonate rocks. When contin­ �ause varies according to where you are it's a delicate balance: loo much carbon ental plates grind each other below the in the geological lime scale. According dioxide and the Earth heals up intolera­ surface, these rocks are buried deep to Luly, some of the most intense ice bly; loo little and the Earth chills. below the crusl. The carbon dioxide is �ges-those lhal led to mass extinc­ Humans may be guilty of upselling the absorbed into the Earth from where, tions-may well !1ave been triggered by balance by adding excess carbon diox­ millions of years later, it is released back the evolution of life itself. id lo the atmosphere and destroying into the atmo phere through volcanoes The Earth's climate is the result of the forests that absorb it, but the truth is and erosion. This carbon cycle has been ma �y _factors: the level of incoming solar Nature is capable of wreaking environ­ operating non-stop for thousands of mil­ radiation; atmospheric composition and mental havoc on Earth all by itself. lions of years.

NATURE AUSTRALIA WINTER 1999 57 University But when the cyanobacteria and other began. quarie. pointed out that th formation and break-up photosynthetic microorganisms came The theory is far from confirmed, of superco t1� r nents like Gondwana-the m along some two-and-a-half thousand mil­ however. Larry Frakes, f om the Depart­ ass� e• proto-continent from which lion years ago-first in the oceans and ment of Geology and Geophysics at the Austra\Yl Africa, Antarctica and a then later on land-they extracted the University of Adelaide, says that ice ages South Amer•_ea, carbon out of the carbon dioxide to pro­ don't always coincide with low carbon wer� b orn . -1� a eye1. 1c activity. As th contments dnft, the sea duce carbohydrates. What they dioxide levels. Frakes points to geologi­ floor betwe ne returned, of course, was oxygen, which cal and ice-core records of atmospheric them literally tears apart; the resulti� is trnnsparent to infra-red radiation. It's composition during distant ice ages. undersea volcanic ac�ivi�y releases hug! volumes of carbon d10x1de just possible that the cyanobacteria These indicate that, while the carbon replenishin sucked so much of the carbon dioxide dioxide-depletion explanation is con­ that taken ou� of the atmosphere by th! out of the primitive atmosphere that it firmed for most ice ages, it does not plan!s and ram. There are few plac es a took the climate by surprise. The seem to work for others. contment can go on Earth, however, and eventually decrease in atmospheric carbon dioxide Another factor affecting both the start _ they all b_unch up in a sort of allowed the Earth to chill in the cold and progress of an ice age is continental contmental traffic Jam. When they're emptiness of space, and the first ice age drift. In 1990, John Veevers from Mac- amalgamated as one supercontinent, lit-

ICE AGES

2500 2000 1500 1000 500 0

Ar-chaean I Pr-oter-ozoic Phanerozoic

a h s ons of year s, per iods of glaciation. The relative heigh t of the peaks rep resents the extent of the Ear th's !��: �: i :�: ;; : ���� a h a f c

NATURE AUSTRALIA WINTER !999 _ takes place, and eparalion of the southern a fl oo spreading continents recent ice ages the extent of the ice is tie se -_ a one-way from Antarctica ai b0 � cycle becomes . As the break-up of not constant, but advances and retreats the_ � _ � on dioxide levels go Gondwana took place, the ocean and activity. arb over periods of roughly 100,000 years. wed by the surface tem­ atmospheric circulation gradually Times of advancing d Wll · · · follo ice are called o altered until the separation of Drake Pas­ glacials, while the e ature. warmer periods P r . 1 sage (between the tip of South America d"stributwn of land plays anot h e - between are called interglacials. It's now . Th in ice ages: oceans are and Antarctica) allowed the West Wind widely accepted that the advance and nnP0�1 t 1\t role r Drift to develop. This _ � too warm and deep to f eeze ocean current retreat of the glaciers is the result of a gei� 1 a effectively isolated Antarctica from the complex 1 5o�arge areas of ice only form over interaction of planetary cycles soh ' over s ub­ rest of the global climate, or at least the described in 1920 by a Serbian d 0. the shallow water scientist, Ian shelves. Further, oceans, changing the flow of heat Milutin Milankovitch. �ei.ge � continental with large ice around the world. This added to the To understand s nce 1·ce 'ag·es start · r Milankovitch's cycles i continent_. . 1s ref igeration effect in Antarctica, which we need to step depos1·t s at the poles ' a polar · back from the Earth . beg11· 1. D unng in turn helped intensify global cooling. again and consider requ11. e d for an ice age to • . it as a planet hurtling < Perm1an peno d s A completely different (and admittedly through space. First, the Earth tI 1e C 31· boniferou. s · and is a spin­ ) , th a t les popular) explanation for the origin ning globe (320 to 270 mdlt�n. years ago orbiting the Sun once a year. i over the south of ice ages has to do with the fact that Its axis of rotation is tilted with respect mean t Gondwana s tting r f om time to time the Earth's magnetic to its orbit so that sometimes the south­ pole. . . 1_ 1 field, or magnetosphere, reverses polari­ ern hemisphere he break-up of Gon?wana 111 pa t cu is inclined towards the T 1� ty-north becomes south and vice versa. Sun, and sometimes the reverse. It's this Jar may have helped ti·1&"ger yet a�othe ice acres. Continental drift and The Earth is continually bathed in many tilt that gives us the seasons: seen from 1. nd of types of radiation (not just light) from �� mountain building alter the any given place on the ground in either ociated the Sun. The magnetic field that sur­ hemisphere, the Sun appears higher or flow of oceans and abnosphere around as a poss1_ble exam­ rounds the Earth filters out much of this lower in the sky at different times of the the globe. Luly gives Pleistocene Epoch, which began radiation before it reaches the atmos­ year. When the Sun is high in the sky at ple ilie phere. It has been suggested that, if the 1.6 million years ago and laste_d midday, as in summer, sunlight strikes ab out magnetic field weakens during a rever­ the Earth's surface at a steeper angle until 10,000 years ago. Throughout this glaciers alternately _advanced and sal, solar radiation could reach the and so warms the air and the ground time, atmosphere, perhaps triggering the for­ more efficiently; when the Sun is lower retreated across the land 111 response to temperature changes at roug�ly mation of more clouds. Since clouds at midday, as in winter, cooling results. global reflect sunlight, any increase in cloud The tilt of the Earth's axis is not con- 100,000-year intervals. The Last Glacial cover helps cool the Earth. Maximum, commonly referred to as the Eighteen thousand years ago, almost a third of Ice Age, peaked at about 18,oqo years the Earth was covered with a blanket of ice. ago. Luly explains that the Ple1stocene HICHEVER WAY THEY BEGIN, IT'S Explaining how, why and when ice ages occur ice ages may have been presaged by the Wknown that during the most is proving to be a challenge for scientists.

NATURE AUSTRALIA WINTER 1999 59 When the last ice age peaked, and the continents at higher latitudes were frozen under a blanket of ice, Australia turned from a green continent into the giant desert we know today. stant, however, but fluctuates between are problems with the Milankovitch ing. As a result, some people question 21.8° and 23.46° over a 41,000-year peri­ cycle theory, however. For a start, it can­ whether they are truly related. od. The greater the angle, the more not explain the initiation of major glacial Even if the Milankovitch cycles don't extreme the seasons in either hemi­ changes. Also the changes in insola­ alone explain the ebb and flow of glaci­ sphere will be. tion-the amount of sunlight the Earth ers during an ice age, there are many econd, like all the planets, the Earth other subtle factors that amplify their moves around the Sun along an elliptical effects. One is the Sun's variability: not or oval-shaped orbit that carries it some­ only was the Sun 30 per cent dimmer at times nearer the Sun, sometime farther the time the Earth formed, but its output away. As you'd expect, the greater the varies over an 11-year cycle and perhaps difference in distance from the Sun dur­ While much of the longer cycles as well. Long-term olar ing the year, the greater the change in variations have been tied with cooler cli­ heat received. But the orbit alternates northern continents was mates, such as the 'Maunder Minimum', between an elliptical and (almost) circu­ a period of low solar activity that lasted lar shape over a 100,000-year cycle. This buried under ice, Australia from 1645 to 1715 and coincided with varies the difference in distance from unusually low temperature recorded in the Earth to the Sun. and the other middle­ Europe. Finally, the Earth is currently closest Ice itself plays a major role in keeping to the Sun during southern summers the planet cool once an ice age has and northern winters, but this arrange­ latitude lands, including begun. All the planets absorb some sun­ ment won't last forever: over a 21,700- light and reflect the rest back into space. year period the Earth's spin axis wob­ Africa, Asia and South Th Earth currently reflects about a bles like that of a spinning top. In about third of the light it receive from the Sun 10,000 years, the northern hemisphere America, dried out. and ab orbs the rest. But as anyone will be experiencing winter at the time who's been to the now will testify, ice is the Earth is farthest from the Sun. very good at reflecting sunlight so, as These changes in the Earth's orientation the global ice cover increases during an with respect to the Sun are cyclic, and so receives due lo the cycles-are small ice age, o doe the amount of sunlight can be calculated and plotted on a graph. and yet are u eel to explain ignificant reflected. In this way, the highly reflec­ And this is just what Milankovitch did in climate changes within the ice ages. Fur­ tive snow helps keep the planet cool in 1920, and he suggested that the Earth's ther, there's a lag time of up lo 9,000 the ame way a while car left in the sun planetary rhythms match the periods years between the predicted changes in all clay will be much cooler than a black between glacials and interglacials. There insolation and climate cooling or warm- car.

60 NATURE AUSTRALIA WINTER 1999 -

now seems likely tha�, by them- been suggested that, when the Pleis­ period. If our species is unprepared It is enough to Ives , none of these factors. . . tocene ice ages began, the Hadley cells when it arrives, the artefacts of our brief se wor1 nng m umson, intensified, resulting in much more trigo·er an ice age; clay in the Sun may become frozen in ever, they seem to be capable of descending air influencing a lot of the time.• 110: For example, the miclclle-latitucle areas, including Aus­ o-Iobal climate change. mbination of the presen_ce of land and tralia. The high-pressure belts that Further Reading "'o of ice may �ave determine the presence of today's �1e reflective nature Cordell, B.M., 1986. Mars, M1lan­ ?eserts became more intense, resulting Earth, and ice. Sky highlighted the 1_00,000-year. and Telescope 72(1): 17-22. tch cycles dunng the Ple1stoc�ne m extremely dry conditions over most of kovi . at Epoch: the _existence of land h1_gh the Australian continent.While much of snow and ice the northern continents was buried Frakes, L.A., Francis, J.E. & Syktus, J.I., 1992. Cli­ northern latitudes allows_ mate modes of the Phanerozoic. an more 1c means less under ice, Australia and the other mid­ Cambridge Uni­ to accumulate, � � versity Press: Cambridge. sorption of sunlight, leadm� to lo_wer dle-latitude lands, including Africa, Asia ab n temperatures ...an? mo!·e ice. G1vE: and South America, dried out. extent of geolog1cal time, there is So what of the future? When will the Henderson, G., 1998. Deep freeze. New Sci. 14 the Feb. 1998: 28-32. ample oppor�unity fo�· these cyclical phe­ next ice age occur? If you'll pardon the nomena to !me up hke the hands of a pun, ice ages are a matter of degree. clock at midnight.And when they do, Luly points out that, compared with the Institute for Ice Age Studies: the Earth shivers. Tertiary, we are already in an ice age. http:/lwww.insticeagestudies.com/ Frakes agrees, adding that, despite the ICE AGE ME FOR LIFE UT WHAT DO name change from Pleistocene to Williams, M.A.J., Dunkerley, D.L., de Decker, P., Bon Earth? Were they simply geo­ Holocene (10,000 years ago to the pre­ Kershaw, A.P. & Stokes, T., 1993. Quaternary physical anomalies that life muddled sent), we never really left the last round environments. Edward Arnold: London. of Pleistocene ice ages and are simply through, or did they have a greater f impact? The best studied and most between cold snaps.And so we're in or another ice age any millennium, but now Geoff McNamara is a freelance science recent ice ageoccurred during the Pleis­ writer based in Sydney and a frequent con­ ene Epoch.The glacial episodes that there's a new, unknown factor affecting toc tributor to Nature Australia His first book, occurred during this time period result­ global climate change-industry. Just how the Earth responds to this new phe­ Ripples on a cosmic sea, co-authored with ed in almost a third of the planet being David Blair, was published in 1997 by beneath a thick blanket of nomenon, to whatf degree, and on what submerged Allen & Unwin. He extends sincere thanks ice. The latest Pleistocene glacial time scale, is dificult to know.Whatever happens, one thing seems likely: the to Larry Frakes and Jon Luly for their help episode peaked around 18,000 years ago. in preparing this article. It may not have been the most severe, Earth will some clay enter a new glacial but it led to two extraordinary events. One was that it literally paved the way for humans to migrate in large numbers from Siberia to Alaska, and from there into North America.The second was a sudden and global mass extinction, nowhere more pronounced than in North America where 32 genera of mam­ mals died out in just 2,000years. Was it mere coincidence? No-one knows for sure, but it seems reasonable that large mammals living in North America at the time that humans made their appearance would have been total­ ly unprepared for this new-and to them, no doubt, puny-intruder.But the new arrivals were skilled and well­ equipped predators. And to survive they had to slaughter the existing animals. That was up north, but what about down.south? The Australian ice-age exp�nence was startlingly different from contments at high latitudes. While the �orthern continents were smothered in tee, the once-green Australian continent tu_rn�d into a giant desert. How? �irdlmg the Earth like a giant inner tube is an atmospheric current called the �adley cell.This current rises at low lat­ itudes (resulting in low air pressure) and �fscen?s at mid-latitudes (resulting in _gh air pressure).As a general rule, high pressure means little rain. It has

Su nnse over the Simpson Desert in South A ust�alia. The Earth has a complicated elat '. ,onship with this hot star and the ter \� �lay between the two has led to many eo nes as to what triggers an ice age.

NAT 61 URE AUSTRALIA WINTER 1999 -I

' I '• .

62 NATURE AUSTRALIA WINTER J999 A courting pair of Masked Boobies (Su/a dactylatra).

PHOTO ART

BOOBIES BY KATHIE ATKINSON

Left: A male and female Brown Booby (Su/a leucogaster) perched on a sign.

NATURE AUSTRALIA WINTER 1999 63 p H O T O A R T

A Red-footed Booby (Su/a sula) calling for a mate.

64 NATURE AUSTRALIA WINTER J999 Brown Booby parents with their chick.

NATURE AUSTRALIA WINTER 1999 65 -

An adult Red-footed Booby.

66 NATURE AUSTRALIA WINTER !999 .. -;�-- - . ,._.., '·

Masked Boobies.

NATURE AUSTRALIA WINTER 1999 67 A Masked Booby sits on its eggs.

68 NATURE AUSTRALIA WINTER 1999 Masked Boobies courting.

P H O T O A R T

NATURE AUSTRALIA WINTER 1999 69 these beliefs again. If we do, il is normal­ ly lo pay allenlion only lo evidence that ls our preconceived b suppor_ �liefs. Psy­ Belief in anything is a powerful addiction; once it talies �old, chologists tell u lhal we lhmk with a most of us are unwilling to objectively examine these beliefs again. mind-set lhal begin lo harden by the lime we are five, an age when we were comfortable believing in lhe reality of a staggering amount of mental fluff from the Easler Bunny lo Santa Claus, ideas often encouraged al this formative age IMMUNISING by well-meaning parents. Wl1y is il important lo be able lo dis­ AGAINST FLIM­ tinguish gobbledegook or flim-flam from reality? Does il matter if we believe in aliens or San la Claus? In most cases, per­ FLAM VIRUS haps not. Bul some beliefs can lead to decidedly unplea anl consequences. BY MICHAEL ARCHER Consider the Heaven's Gate cull. Its members believed every word of chari matic leader Marshall Applewhite. He advised them lhal an alien spaceship, hidden in the tail of Comet Hale-Bopp galvanometer can 'clear' your mind, which arrived in our inner solar sy tern enabling you to travel through space. in 1997, had come lo take them to a bet­ Telekinesis is real and minds can bend ter life. All they had lo do was shed their AIRIES ARE REAL. ALIENS ARE forks. Tarot cards accurately predict the mortal bodies. Fired with faith, 39 true abducting and sexually experimenting future. Levitation is real. Crystals heal. believer committed suicide after pack­ on human . In a former life, hirley Big Foot stalks. Elvis lives! ing their suitcases for the expected inter­ MacLaine lived in Atlantis and today Many people believe these and much stellar jow·ney. Only slightly less suicidal, 'channels' the thoughts of a now thor­ tranger things to be true. Belief in any­ cigarette adverti ements encourage us oughly decomposed Atlantean. ear­ thing, from astrology to gods, is a power­ death experience prove there is life ful addiction; once it takes hold, most of A postcard from Heaven's Gate leader Marshall after death. Holding the terminals of a us are unwilling to objectively examine Applewhite after his departure from Earth?

70 NATURE AUSTRALIA WINTER 1999 >

e mil!ion because embracing the belief . e to join the thre means ln'.e believer. Conclu e� it's OK mg­ ignoring evidence lhal they sion: unfortunately to beh 1 eady die from smok do not sur­ fot those of_us who eat wI 0'alr Na�ure Aust. would like lo believe er y �ive (�cc Aulumn 1997), that Thy\acm�s survive, d causes. · ou 111clud111g their absence from formerly the FiLCHeRS Pre I a te . least most be 11ef t turn lest pr_ov1cles ltllle comfort. At the vet or pay thc preferred habitats and complete e f1v e '(p�ss the plate · Obvi�usly il'� important to keep b e exp ns capac1 t .y absence of even a single hair of material e an to d some damage our honest r o� n mmcl parl1cularly when confronted s ·) an Jones evidence. ls it an claim, f ee of will; �owr e!. . 1 thinking. Rhondda new_ evidence and new ideas. If we ct it found th�t s�u­ self-deccplion? This would be hard lo don l, science io e �iok University) won't progress. But we s C • defend, considering Lhe number of (lam 1 1 taught Creat10111st have lo be careful; 1 0 1 ad, been a mind that is too d e ts w 1 c lasses melhodical yet always unsuccessful op_en can ! !. . lfr,h-school soence allow the brain to fall out. For belt� � 11 for searches since the 1930s on fool and �his � a 7-emarkablc tendency reason, i_l's equally important lo be exh1h1t in which they using Lrip-set camera . AILhough the mocula�ecl with an �louble-think'- replicability a close of scepticism as ·�rwe i d completely requiremenl for is also not prolect1on against 1 1 eously embrace Ilim-flam virus. You sin ulta! . · of Creationism and met, this tesl is not really suitable for can g t one from the Australian c 11c t01 y asp' ects � Skeptics contra examining Lhe credibility of sighlings. webs1te, n excellent and ce. oes sufficient _ � fun place to Scien how d one c 1t· - Finally, is Lhe evidence to beg111 facmg the ghosts of childhood. sum1·n ,,o· we carer • . • Pre realtty.? The n?v- support Lhe belief? Paraeidolia ('other . cruish Oirn-flam f om Dick suggested th�t 1�eaho/ mind') is a Lerm used Lo describe what Further Reading �/[;t Philip K happens when we 'see' things, such as Australian Skeptics Homepage. when you stop behe,vmg m is that which. t work familiar shapes in clouds, Lhat are not http://www.skeptics.com.au . n't "'cro away! If that· doesn r 1t does d b Y really there. When conf onted by incom­ r •. , try the checkltst propose . Lett, J., 1990. A Skepti­ iot you . t y plete or ambiguous sensory evidence, field guide to critical thinking. s Lett (Indian Ri vcr . C ommun1 cal Inquirer 14: 153-160. Jame anse�l by the our brain, without being asked, tries to College, Florida), summ F1L�HeRS: help by filling in the missing informa­ capital letters o� the word Jones, R.E., 1987. Evolution and creationism: the con­ Logic, Comprehens_1veness, tion. ightings of a creature under less sequences of an analysis for education. Interdisciplinary Falsifiability, Science Reviews Replicability a�d Sufficiency. than perfect conditions in terms of, for 12(4): 324-332. Honesty, and time for detailed cie ntif:ically sound ideas should be example, lighting falsifiable. They �hould also examination, are grand opportunities for Michael Archer is the Director of the testable or Australian Museum, Professor of Biological logical, with valid conclusions drawn paraeidolia to make us believe we are be comprehen­ that is not actually Science at the University of New South from ound premise , and eeing something sively similar paraeidolic effect occurs Wales, and recipient of the 1998 Australian con icier all available evidence, _not there. A Skeptic of the Year award. His major the conclusion. when we read the 'foggy-speak' of astro­ just the bits that support honesty, research interests are the fossil faunas of They hould involve rigorous logical horoscopes-their vagueness Riversleigh, north-western Queensland. free of self-deception. Supporters of ESP enables them to seem tailor-fit to any (extrasensory perception) claim that it exists de spite repeated failure to demon­ strate it in controlled experiments. Ideas should also, derived from research replicated where possible, be based on experiments or observations to minimise the situation of chance producing mis­ Sufficiency Get a life. leading results. refers to the nature of the evidence required to pro­ a Holiday,! vide adequate support. For example, I r : -� :ff\!IW..lf':a! would need far less evidence to convince omeone I had seen a live kangaroo than I would need to convince them that I had seen a werewolf. How could we apply the FiLCHeRS tes�? Try the widespread belief that Thy­ lac111es still exist. Recall the currently ?erstood f11 �isdom of science. Thy­ ac111es on mamland Australia were gone 0 0 �Y 4, � years ago, about the same time �at D_1t1goes were introduced. They sur­ �d ;;v 111 Tasmania because rising sea lev- s isolated Tasmania about 10 000 years o. ;i Then along came Europ�ans with · er, and the last undoubted ct � Thylacine 111 the H?bart _Zoo in 1936. th�s Despite fr ' many still believe, on the basis of �q e t 111 u � and long-term sightings that Yl acmes. surviv· as,} O e m· Tasmania, as well mamlancl Australia. vvou]d t falsifica on h'is beltef . stand up to - li ? U fortu nately not. Although we can't rat do ex �t· the possibility that they ist ' eit - can ings : � we test personal sight­ a vt nee _for belief lo 1 � lhi belief. ls the ea/. ot tf lhe logic of nient is� the argu- 1'hy · people have reporte lac1· ne d seeing Th l . ' s· the ·t er ore Thylacm e est o com pre h ensiveness. es exist f also fails NATU RE AUSTRA a LIA WINTER 1999 REVIEWS

or family and a box of key at the front is a quick refer­ ate that the book would be overly long if too much detail fact -number of genera and ence chart, o in a situation species, large t and smalle where would-be carers ar was included but there i a bit st r of a bias towards the 'fluffy' and threatened species. Th� conf onted with an unfamiliar book concludes with two event or animal, they need to animals. All in all a very useful book page of further r acling and just run down the chart u_ntil an index to scientific names they get to the appropnate to have on the shelf, or in the subject matter. This gives glove compartment of the car, and bird groups (for example them a page number to turn for anyone with an inter st in choughs, keas). The com­ to. For each animal there is a helping out some fellow Aus­ mon names of individual seclion that deals with useful tralians clown on their luck. birds are not included in the equipment and how to use it, -Martyn Robinson index, nor i there a ubject methods of picking up the Australian Museum index. animal without damage to it A wealth of information has or you, and how to transport been condensed into 240 it. Throughout the book pages without sacrificing lit­ there are practical tips to erary style, and the text i help make the care job easier illustrated with numerous Caring for on both carer and 'patient'. colour photos supplemented Australian For example, feather dusters by painted portraits. I recom­ Wildlif e: A make ideal artificial mothers mend this book for reference Practical Guide to for bird chicks, and record­ centres and naturalists who e the Management keeping is both useful and interest in birds extends of Sick, Injured essential to compare past beyond Australia. and Orphaned attempts and to check -Elizabeth Cameron Native Animals progress (a blank record Australian Museum By Sharon White. Australian sheet i provided to photo­ Geographic, NSW, 1997, 152pp. copy). There are also various $19.95rrp. handy tables. One, for exam­ ple, charts growth in baby This is a 'how-to-do-it' type Common Ringtails and gives Encyclopedia of book designed with the ani­ relative weights, ages, Birds mal carers in mind. It appearance (features), and Second edition by Joseph M. includes a glossary, commer­ food and housing require­ Forshaw. UNSW Press, NSW, 1998, cial products for wildlife, a list ments. This enables you to 240 pp. $49.95rrp. of wildlife authorities, and guess the age of your young covers two broad areas­ possum (by its features), Encyctopedia of birds is an principles of wildlife care, and establish the weight it should overview of the world's avi­ wildlife rehabilitation. The be at that age, and decide fauna-numbering about various chapters are colour­ what to feed it. This is all use­ 9,000 species-so you might coded for easy reference. The ful stuff to a carer. wonder how relevant it would 'principles' part contains Some of the charts and rec­ be to Australia (which has chapters on, among other ommendations, however, are only eight per cent of the things, the effects of humans, a little too generalised to be fauna). In fact, Australian first.aid and emergency care, of use. Take the feeding table examples are well represent­ captive management, release for lizards, for example. A ed in illusb·ations and text, into the wild and ethics of carer who ends up with a thanks to an Australian edito­ wildlife care. The 'wildlife' Burton's Legless Lizard (one rial team and many Australian part deals with the specific of our more widely distrib­ contributors. groups of animals and their uted species) and tries to An inb·ocluctory section of A Photographic requirements (birds, po - feed it on any of the "Natural six chapters summarises the Guide to Trees of s characteristics of birds, their Australia ums_ and gliders, bats, rep­ food in captivity" listings is tiles, frogs etc). The book is doomed to failure as it will evolutionary history and clas­ By Denise Greig. New a�companied throughout by only take smaller lizards or sification, and endangered Holland Publishers, NSW, either colour photos or line snakes. The housing for species. It includes diagrams 1998, 144pp. $16.95rrp. illustrations. frogs also suggests loose soil of external features, feather Initially I thought the book in the floor of the tank. I've structure and skeleton, and a To undertake a photo­ �ight end up being very sim­ found that this can often lead list of orders and families of graphic guide to trees of Aus­ ilar to another I'd reviewed to a rapid bacterial build-up birds. The remaining 48 chap­ tralia in a format that will fit some years ago (Sue Hand's and that washed sand, gravel, ters describe the different into your pocket would seem Care and handling of Aust­ sphagnum moss, or some­ kinds of birds in a taxonomic an impossible task. Especial­ ralian native animals, 1990) thing else that is relatively sequence based on the Check­ ly when there are roughly but it is sufficiently different inert (even clamp kitchen list of birds of the world by 900 pecie of eucalypts to be of value even if you have towelling is OK if changed Peter et al. (1931-1987). alone! However, Denise the other book as well. It is every few days) is better for Each chapter opens with a Greig has carefully selected quite a practical book. Right preventing disease. I appreci- distribution map for the order eye-catching species that are

72 NATURE AUSTRALIA WINTER 1999 p

like the This companion to Encyclo­ fields. A fundamental I 1er so striking, focus eit of ht e FI am pedia of birds has a imilar for­ of this debate ·illiant orange � has been or so dom1- mat and sequence of intro­ whether bird tee in llower, , llight started that people ductory chapter . These are from the trees nan( ·,n an area, down or from · arouse d. SI,e I ,as followed by taxonomic the ground up. curiosity is This discus­ Pl·ovided the book that account occupying nine sion is itself intricately con­ t I 1en . · ,e chapters-one each for the fies this cunos, t!' - TI nected with the larger debate I satis h ]ear amphibian order (caecilians, n mat is excellent, w,t_ � � the origin of birds, in par­ for salamanders and newts, and t,cu lar holographs, descnpt,ons the hypothesis that l as well frog and toad ) and ix for they evolved Pnc I distribution maps,. from dinosaurs. a . t on reptiles (turtle and tortoises, Pat Shipman 0 interestmg s111ppe s addresses ECl·IIONA fe, taxono- lizard , snakes, amphisbaeni­ these and ��rticulture, wildli other related topics $17.00 usage, and an or worm-lizards, the in her wide-ran 111'y Aboriginal ging book. d us s. Tuatara, crocodiles and alli­ She introduce timber products at: � her story with trees are placed 1� fa1:nt1y gators). More than 20 boxes a review of the history of the . I The ­ scattered through the book o-roups and these are 1�d1cat finding of Archaeopteryx, rep­ explain intriguing a pects of �d by a small symbol m the resented by some of the most biology and behaviour, such top right-h�nd _corner of e�ch beautiful fossils ever found page, makmg ,t easy to fhck as how geckos stroll across and accepted by most work­ through the bo?k to find the ceilings and chameleons er as the earliest known catch their food. tree you're lookmg_ for. . bird. From thi starting point This compact, lightweight The illusl.ralion have been she launches her narrative and informative guide is ideal chosen to emphasise diversi­ acros a wide range of topics, for the interested traveller ty of colour and form, and touching on the question of 111 and would fit perfectly into capture many subjects bird flight. This often the glove box of a car or the action (for example, Frilled includes side trips into areas side pocket of a backpack. Lizards kick-boxing, and a such as the flight of insects, -Tracey Armstrong Cane Toad devouring a frog). bats and pterosaurs, and Royal Botanic Gardens, Mount Annan The index includes common early human attempts to take THE LIFE OF BIROS names of individual species to the air. $49.95 and numerous subject This is a timely book for, in also 011 video $69.95 entries, as well as scientific its compilation, the author and group names. has incorporated recent stud­ Wildlife Photographer -Elizabeth Cameron ies that have not yet made it of the Year Australian Museum into textbooks. As well she Fcro,;1rd6vSNO'lKl'

NATURE AUSTRALIA WINTER 1999 PAGE SOCIETY which exist to further the cause of the subject that you hold dear large and small, local and national, a for you. Australia there is a network of active societies, or a particular group of animals, there's society Get involved! Across birds, science, national parks, bushwalking Whether your special interest is conservation,

EDUCATION Launceston Field Naturalists PO Box 97 Club ANIMAL WELFARE CSIRO's Double Helix ANZFAS (Animals Australia) St Lucia, Qld 4067 PO Box 1072 Science Club 37 O Connell St Pb: (07) 3870 8076 Launceston, Tas. 7250 ' PO Box 225 orth Melbourne. Vic. 3051 Contact: Dawn Muir Ph: (03) 6344 1076 Dickson, ACT 2602 Ph: (03) 9329 6333 ••• Contact: Dr A Pegler Membership: $30.00-$35.00 Ph: (02) 6276 6643 Contact: Glenys Oogjes ordinary; $20.00 student; Contact: Lynn Pulford ••• $35.00-40.00 family Membership: $15.00 single; Membership: $30.00; $20.00 $20.00 family concession Membership: $25.00 CO NSERVATION MICRO-LIFE FAWNA Australian Plants Society Science Teachers' The Postal Microscopy Club PO Box 218 PO Box 744 Association of NT PO Box A1017 Wauchope, NSW 2446 Blacktown, NS\,V 2148 PO Box 41809 Sydney South PO, SW 1235 Pb: 0500 861 405 (24 hr duty); Ph: (02) 9621 3437 Casuarina, T 0811 Contact: Michael Dingley (02) 6553 9658 Contact: Mary Lou imons Ph: (08) 8948 0811 Contact: Sue Emerton •• • Contact: Stephen Zander • Membership: $35.00 single; ••• MUSEUMS Membership: $20.00 sino-Je- $40.00 double; $28.00 •• Membership: $45.00 TAMS, The Australian $25.00 double; $30.00 fa�1il� concession Museum Society Science Teachers' Wildcare Inc. Friends of the Platypus 6 College St Association ofVictoria PO Box 464 PO Box 84 Sydney, NSW 2000 PO Box 190 Palmerston, T 0831 Whittlesea, Vic. 3757 Ph: (02) 9320 6225 Richmond, Vic. 3121 Contact: Mio-non McHendrie Ph: (03) 9716 1626 Contact: Michelle Ball • • Contact: Geoff Williams Ph: (03) 9428 2633 ••••• Membership: $20.00 full; $10.00 •• ••• Contact: Dianne Hayes Membership fee : $55.00 single; associate; $7.00 junior; $50.00 Membership: $30.00 adult- •• $70.00 household; $40.00 corporate $45.00 family; $20.00 stud;nt Membership: $90.00 primary; student/pensioner $100.00 secondary WRIN (Wildife Rescue & National Parks Association REPTILES & Information Network Inc.) ofNSW ENVIRONMENTAL AMPHIBIANS 30 Collins St EDUCATION Level 4, 83-87 Castlereagh St Cape York Herpetological Kangaroo Flat, Vic. 3555 Gould League of NSW Inc. Society Imperial Arcade Pb: (03) 5441 3211 or (03) 5432 PO Box 16 PO Box 848M 2315 after hours Sydney, NSW 2000 Gladesville, SW 21ll Manunda, Qld 4870 Contact: Rob Schrieber Ph: (02) 9233 4670 Contact: Kristi MacDonald Ph: (02) 9817 5621 Ph: (07) 4054 7317 •• Contact: Cath Hitchcock Membership: $15.00 ••••• e-mail: Membership: $43.00 adult' • [email protected] $48.00 household; $23.00 Membership: $40.00 Contact: Michael Anthony BIRDS concession Queensland Ornithological ••• ENVIRONMENTAL Membership: $25.00 Society Inc. National Parks Association Greening Australia / Earth Keepers of Qtd Newsletter/Journal Are you a PO Box 1040 State Tree Centre • Monthly meeting Club Secretary? Milton Centre, Qld 4064 Brookway Drive • Bi-monthly meeting NATURE AUSTRALIA's Annual meeting/conference Ph: (07) 3367 0878 Campbelltown, SA 5074 Associate Society Scheme is • Weekly meeting Ph: (08) 8207 8757 designed to help your club or Website: • Quarterly meeting society with free publicity www.bit.net.au/-npaqld e-mail: [email protected] • Field outings/Tours • Conservation/Working programs funds and member benefi�s. Contact: George Haddock Contact: Sheryn Pitman or • Discounted Goods Call Robbie Muller on (02) Rebecca Royle ••• Magazine 9320 6119 for more details. Membership: $40.00 single· •• Social/Education Activities $57.00 household; $25.00 ' Membership: $25.00 single· • Nature Australia magazine student $55.00 family • Seminars

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I WANT TO INVfH WITH CON�IDfNG Natural AUSTRALIAN History tours our 1999 program includes ethical outback by Air Agribusiness vs 8-2OJune reafforestation. TRUSTS Eyre Peninsula and Nul/arbor Mining vs whale-watch, S.A. recycling. Investors 22 June - 14 July can choose Exploitation vs The Galapagos and Amazon sustainability. Through the AE Trusts you can invest your savings 4 - 28 August Greenhouse gases vs and superannuation in Highlights of Alaska solar energy. over 7 5 different 29 Sept-16 Oct Armaments vs enterprises, each expertly W.A. Wildflowers community enterprise. selected for its unique September/October combination of earnings, Flinders Island, Tasmania environmental Late November sustainability and social � responsibility, and earn a For more information competitive financial or to go on our mailing list return. For full details phone ro�J 9670 6988 make a free call to fax ro�, 9670 6185 1800 021 227 or write to: BRO NZ DISCOVERY TOURS lntes1m ems m the Aus tra1· ian Eh·I • ust PO BOX 83, WEST COLLINS ST th rou .eaI Tr s can only be made gh the current ,,,os"" p ect us MELBOURNE VIC. 8007 S reg1Stered wuh the Australian ecuruies and Inves Travel agent licence no. 32134 tments Commission and available from. USTRA � UAN ETHICAL INVESTMENT LTD anberra Busmes s Centre Bradfield S1, Downer ACT 2602. 77 Readers please mention Nature Australia when replying to advertisements increasing size until they t�e pupate. After pupation,r adult beetle emerges f om its pupal case and undergoe� no further moults. There 1s a Q misunderstanding common that a small insect is a young one that will simply grow big­ ger, however in most cas�s this is not so. A small fly will not grow into a larger .fly, nor a small butterfly into a larger one. Without having seen A your "empty shells", I would gue s these are the pupal cases from which the adult ladybirds emerged. If, howev­ er, they looked just like the probably Ladybird, Lady­ adults, they were bird ... just dead adults. -Margaret Humphrey Last week while I was • Australian Museum Q • pruning a hibiscus plant I came across more than 20 lady­ bird beetles on the one bush. I Whistling Wings do the wings of also found what looked like the . Why Pigeons make a empty shells of what I think were • Crested A range of birds, including once ladybird beetles. Do lady­ whistlingQ noise? primaries. It is not certain Crested Pigeons, have sound­ bird beetles moult? -Catherine McGahey why these pigeons make this -Steve Wynniatt St Ives, NSW sound, although it may func­ producing wings. Victor Harbour, SA tion lo maintain contact bet­ . The distinctive ring­ ween members of a flock dur­ Winter Basking Ladybirds, like all • ing or whistling noise ing flight. Sound production . A On several sunny but • beetles, hatch from heard when Crested Pigeons by modified feathers is . A • cold days over this past eggs and progress as larvae (Ocyphaps tophotes) fly is known in a range of different winterQ I noticed an Eastern Brown through several tages called caused by a modified primary birds from around the world. Snake (Pseudonaja textilis) bask­ instars, which are separated flight feather, the third In some of these, the sound is ing on the ground just outside its by moulting. The external inwards from the end of the produced during courtship example skeletons of insects limit wing. The tip of this feather is displays. hole. The most extreme of this 'sun-baking' occurred at their growth, so larvae must notched, giving it a different -Walter E. Boles r 1 0am after a frosty morning in moult to accommodate their shape f om the surrounding Australian Museum early July when the temperature was only 3.5° C. This behaviour intrigues me as I had been led to believe that snakes hibernate. Also I understood they only bask in the sun to raise their body tem­ perature in order to hunt and then digest their prey. Do snakes in south-eastern Australia nor­ mally hibernate or undergo some form of torpor over winter, or do they simply become less active? Do they feed at all during this period? -David Wakefield Strath Creek, Vic.

. In the more temp�r­ A • ate parts of Ausb·alta, snakes generally become dormant during the autumn and winter. They will, how­ ever, occasionally bask on s�nny days. The purpose of wmter basking is unclear, becau e not much is known about how winter dormancy a_Hects important body func­ ltons uch as feeding and reproduction in Australian snakes. Do the snakes treat it A newly as simply any other cool spell emerged adult ladybird beetle sitting on its pupal case.

78 NATURE AUSTRALIA WINTER 1999 Why do Eastern Brown Snakes bask in winter? Answers to Quiz in when their body temperature that winter dormancy invol­ falls temporarily and their ves some seasonal adjust­ Nature Strips (page 17) activities are briefly cur­ ment in physiology. If so, 1. Mating tailed, or does their physiolo­ winter basking may still 2. Michael Archer gy change in some more per­ serve some useful functions, 3. Homebush Bay, Sydney manent way, preventing them such as preparation of the 4. Both happened in the from carrying out certain reproductive organs and activities, such as digestion, energy stores for the next same year (1859) even if short warm periods activity season. Brief periods 5. Two toes forward, two occur? Given that keepers of ba king may also provide back sometime notice their the snake with ome clues 6. Horse meat snake reduce feeding with about its internal physiologi­ 7. In its eyes the approach of winter, and, cal clock and where it is in 8. Photosynthesis indeed, even reproduce bet­ the annual cycle. ter after being put through a -Allen E. Greer 9. Beetles winter dormancy, it is likely Australian Museum 10. Gorilla

p C T E A E R Do you recognise this? If you think you know what it is, then send your answer to Pie Teaser, Nature Australia Magazine. Please don't forget to include your name and address. The first correct entry will win a copy of The Graham Pizzey & Frank Knight field guide to the birds of Australia from the Aust­ ralian Museum Shop. Autumn's Pie Teaser was the burrow entrance of a wolf spider (Lycosa sp.) that had been disguised with soil and covered with a silk mem­ brane.

NATURE AUSTRALIA WINTER 1999 79 destabilising her. Others, to�, for cutting drains through her and sett111g the dry­ ing process in mot}on: Farmers for planting pasture spec1�s 111 the peat, fu�­ . in history as ther hastening the drymg pro�es�. Resi­ of Wingecarribee SwamP wi"ll ff�down dents and land holders for ennc_hmg her The loss inability. . . a classic example of our collec!ive stupidity and when she did not want the nutrients. All action. of us for knowingly and unknowingly to read the signs and take introducing exotic weeds to the area. Sydney Water (the build�rs of Winge­ carribee Darn) for drownmg more than 100 hectares of peat on her western WINGECARRIBEE flank and, as landlords, for failing to spend any money on her welfare-even though she provided a priceless w ater­ SWAMP-GONE! cleaning facility. The Environment Pro­ tection Authority and Department of BY GEOFF SAINTY Land and Water Conservation for not comprehending the critical state she was in-they now have to deal with the coffee-coloured water flowing down the Wingecarribee River into Sydney's water supply. And National Parks, which, rather than focussing on the big picture, dillydallied on single rare­ species issues, including one plant (Yel­ INGECARR!BEE low Loosestrife, Lysimachia vulgaris) Swamp-the largest mont�ne p e t � e swamp on the Ausb·alian m a111land-1s that is far from ndangered and possibly gone. Originally more than 500 an introduced weed! hectares, she lay between Robertson Then there are those who approved and Moss Vale in the ew South Wales the seven-hectare extension to the peat· outhern Highland . For those who mining pool, accelerating her destruc­ were privileged to see her and walk tion; the State mining authority for across her broad expanse, she was believing you could continue to mine something special-even though signs her and get away with it; and those con­ of her demise were already obvious. She sultants and scientists who, by being was loaded with history going back paid to concentrate on isolated issues, more than 20,000 years. She was a living failed to report the obvious desperate entity. If you go there now, you will not state she was in. They all to varying believe your eyes. degrees helped in her death. When Europeans arrived in Botany The loss of Wingecarribee Swamp is a Bay in 1788, the area surrounding this disaster of monumental proportions. It magnificent peatland was covered in will go down in history as a classic rainforest. The fertile land was quickly example of our collective stupidity and cleared and subsequently used to grow inability to read the signs and take potatoes and dairy cattle. From then on action. There must be a full inquiry into everyone took from her. Slices were cut who said what about her welfare-who through her surface to deflect water flannelled the tnith-so that the unin­ a a w y from the fledgling peat-mining volved public can see how environmen­ indu try, to improve grazing and to sup­ tal care and science is lost in the quest ply water. In 1997 close inspection of her for dollars. surface showed signs of drying, with Top: Wingecarribee Swamp as it used to be Wingecarribee Swamp cannot be blackberries a a nd other dry-loving pl nts when viewed from the south, showing the restored; small bits may survive, but becoming common. The signs were extent of the peat area. Wingecarribee Dam, most of it is now subject to desiccation there but no-one was watching. Then on part of Sydney's water supply, can be seen at and death. 8 August a a 1998 m ssive deluge took the bottom left edge of the photo and the peat­ The maelstrom as she broke up (and advanta ge of her weakened state. mining area is visible as the waterhole in the the more than two million cubic metres The 20-hectare, four-metre-deep top right. Bottom: Taken above the peat-min­ of her body as it was washed into Winge­ pool-created by mining peat from the ing area and looking west towards the dam, carribee Dam) must have been a sight to swamp-had recently been enlarged fol­ this picture shows the area that was once see. Although she went out with a bang, lowing approval to harvest a further Wingecarribee Swamp. The peat-mining water­ she did it in style, under the cover of rain seven hectares of a pe t. This extension hole is now filled in and the dam is filled with and mist, with no-one there to witness e Y a the mud, soil and dead organisms that once ����:.:�� her last stand. • j �d�� ��fhtp��fa �� �/:��� made up the swamp. A creek now cuts through :t the he a vy rains came, huge chunks of the centre and the lines on either side are Geoff Sainty is a wetlands consultant work­ § peat broke a a w y and floated to the down­ crevasses about two to three metres deep. ing in Sydney. He has worked on wetlands � stream edge, forming a temporary clam. since 1961, and is co-author ofWaterplants � Eventually the force of the rising water and floated downstream into Wingecar­ of NSW (1981) and Wa terplants in Aust· 8. became so great that (1994). it ripped through ribee Dam. The before and after pho­ ralia ! the barrier, t aking with it a l;2 . dredging tographs show it all. � m ach me" a nd cuttmg a five-metre-deep So who is to blame? All of us really, The Last Word is a11 opi11io11 piece channel through ai1d does not 11ecessarily reflect the views � the peat. Thereafter but particularly the mining process for il: l arge areas of a e of the Australian Museum. pe t b came undermined digging that gaping hole in her guts and

80 NATURE AUSTRALIA WINTER 1999 Moreton Island and experience the wonder of hand f · ·diny t h(· wild drJlrJh1r1', Spend a night on

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