Journal of the Royal Society of Western Australia
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Journal of the Royal Society of Western Australia Vol. 42 Part 3 Rottnest Island: The Rottnest Biological Station and Recent Scientific Research Edited by E. P. Hodgkin and K. Sheard Foreword The Rottnest Biological Station is an institu- the Wildlife Survey Section of C.S.I.R.O. It is tion of which the State of Western Australia our desire, however, that as trained personnel should be truly proud. To Professor H. Waring become available, some part of the research and Dr. E. P. Hodgkin of the Department of programme of the Fisheries Department will be Zoology. University of Western Australia, and undertaken there. Dr. K. Sheard of the Division of Fisheries and I am particularly happy that as chairman Oceanography, C.S.I.R.O., belong the credit for of the controlling committee I am able to keep bringing it into being. They deserve the thanks, my Department in such close touch with the not only of scientific workers but also of the work as well as the progress and development people of the State as a whole, for their timely of the station. In a State the size of Western recognition of the need and for the enthusiasm Australia, with myriad scientific problems but and vigour which they brought to bear in its only a small population and somewhat slender fulfilment. financial resources, it is of paramount import- The station was established primarily to en- ance that the most economical use be made of able research to be carried out on the marine all available personnel and finance. The only and terrestrial fauna and flora of Rottnest real way of doing this is by the closest co- Island, and for the training of undergraduate operation between all agencies engaged in simi- and post graduate students in essential field lar kinds of research. I believe that in the disciplines. Rottnest venture this desideratum is being Until now all research has been directed by achieved. University personnel, with the exception of cer- A. J. FRASER, tain quokka population studies undertaken by Director of Fisheries , W.A. 9.—Introduction Broadly speaking, biological advance comes The various interim reports in this series show from either development of new techniques how such a station has been established and with which to attack classical problems or the indicate the number and kind of programmes exploitation of a previously inaccessible fauna that have been set in motion on ecological and using classical and other techniques. In the physiological themes. These reports not only latter case the developments usually proceed concern the work that has been attempted on a well-defined pattern. The forerunners < chiefly on the marsupial, Setonix brachyurus . are the collectors and taxonomists who move the quokka) but outline also a number of fields in to catalogue and list the animals in the where detailed work is worth while. The marine hitherto unknown field problems are little touched at present, a limita- ; this is a continuing- process which broadens into ecological studies of tion in this regard being the absence of sea- various kinds. It is a phase of describing what water aquaria for fish and crayfish work; so there is and what occurs. Sooner or later far these have been beyond our financial re- people want to know “why?” and “how?" Then sources. the physiologists and biochemists of various The choice of the quokka as a subject for sorts take up the story. intensive multipurpose research was a logical The potential attraction of academic biologi- one. I had come to Australia with the express cal work in Australia is its rich, little explored purpose of working on marsupials, but quickly fauna. This potential has never been fully realised the rarity within easy reach of the realised, chiefly because the distances to be metropolitan area of the numbers of individual travelled from central laboratories to field areas animals necessary for modern biological work. are prohibitive, particularly to University staffs In this context Rottnest Island as a research tied to teaching and administrative routines. area was a gift from heaven. As can be seen The existence of a local site such as that on from these reports, its large population of Rottnest Island with its attractive fauna, free quokkas provided not only a simple opportunity from predators and protected by statute from for introducing techniques of modern biology to man’s destructiveness, offers a way out from this students, but some very worthwhile problems in frustration if living quarters and simple labora- vertebrate biology. The opportunities presented tory facilities are available. by the Island for work in many other biological 65 fields are also evident, so that the Department The form of these reports has been dictatec of Zoology is in the happy position on the one by the necessity of fitting a large amount of hand of being able to cater for a wide range of different- kinds of information into the one smal. specialist activities, and on the other of main- Journal part. Accordingly all references con- taining varied and worthwhile field courses for cerning Rottnest Island have been collected ir its students. a separate Bibliography and only those outsido Students and staff have reacted to these this scope, but necessary to a particular report opportunities with enthusiasm. At this point it have been included with that report. Also, is important to emphasize that the station and information with regard to individuals named ir its facilities were not taken over ready-made these reports has been given separately. There1 for research workers to walk into and use as a has been some duplication but only where this base. Credit is given elsewhere to those who is necessary for clarity. Perhaps some helpeic translated an idea into a site and buildings. may have been overlooked in the rush of pre- There were many others whose enthusiasm and paration. If so I tender my apologies ir labour made the building usable in the early advance. stages of the Rottnest studies. The present In conclusion I would like to offer my per- day student and research worker likewise helps sonal thanks to all who have co-operated ir where he can, but he should be aware that this most rewarding venture. Elsewhere tho there were others before him. A list of workers financial contributions of the University, State* contributing to Station activities 'research and Fisheries, and Australian Academy of Science* otherwise) is given at the end of these reports. are acknowledged. It is pleasing to me person- Of these the following tin alphabetical order) ally to here acknowledge the moral support ano were forerunners who should be doubly men- generous financial backing of the C.SXR.Ot tioned: J. Barker <nee J. Buttle), S. Barker, Executive in the carrying out of our marsupiaj George, Hodgkin. Lee, Littlejohn, Main, Mal- research programme. colm (and Mrs. Malcolm), Milward, Rudeforth, H. WARING, Sharman, Shield, and P. Woolley. Professor of Zoology. 10. —Rottnest Island as a Location for Biological Studies The choice of Rottnest Island as a research species of mammals apparently became extinc centre arises from certain obvious advantages, before settlement was extensive and certain!?; e.g., the ease of access and the abundance of before foxes and rabbits were present. The the quokka, the marsupial around which so suspicion that European man with his associ much of the research has centred. The titles of ates was not the sole agent of extinction i: the accompanying papers could suggest that strengthened when one studies the cave deposit: there is nothing further to be said on the along the Western Australian littoral. Here, in problems inherent in an insular situation. This extensive deposits (mostly originating from ow may be so. yet. as will be mentioned below, the pellets though there are many remains of large: solutions of problems attacked on Rottnest have animals), are an immense number of specimen: a potential application to continental situations of species which are either no longer found in which would not usually be considered as hav- the vicinity or are entirely extinct. ing anything in common with an island fauna. Glauert was (1910, 1912, 1914. 1948) the firs It thus seems desirable to give the general back- to work these deposits and more recently ground and aspirations of the research a little Lundelius has surveyed caves over a much wide: more discursive treatment than will be given in geographical area and, although this latte: other papers of this series in order that the worker has as yet published no C14 dates, then full implications of the work can be appreciated. is every indication that faunal changes have Even a superficial acquaintance with the proceeded throughout the deposits to the super- terrestrial fauna of the western portion of Aus- ficial zone and these must be considered tralia poses a number of problems all of which within historical times. Many of the bone.0 centre around the distribution of animal species collected by Glauert and Lundelius '1957) art* at the present, during the historical, the pre- con-specific with species now restricted to the historical and geological past. Many of the wetter south-east of Australia. The pre-historio extant terrestrial animals especially the mam- and geological evidence thus suggests that envir- mals have disjunct or restricted distributions onmental factors, as opposed to man-made which give every impression of being relicts of habitat changes, have perhaps played an im- wider ranges. Perusal of the records of occur- portant part in the range reductions and rence in the historical past confirm their relict extinctions witnessed in the past 100 years or nature for one soon discovers not only the wide so.