-_r_/ 2J�J iJ_rJsJ l)J_J �� __rJ lJlJ_f LANDED! VOLUME 2 - RAPTORS TO PRATINCOLES

In 1990 Oxford Univer sity Press published Volume One Over 70 colourpl ates illustr ated of the Ha11dbook of Austra­ by JeffDavies feature nearly lia 11, New Zeala11d a11d every species. Antarctic Birds to widespread acclaim. Now Volume Two, VOLUME2 covering Raptors to Pratin­ Contains vultures, hawks and coles, has been completed. eagles, falcons, galliformes and quail, Malleefowl a11d megapodes, Four more volumes are to be cranes,crakes and rails, bustards, published making this the the Australian and New Zealand most detailed and up-to-date resident waders, a11d plovers, reference work of the birds of lapwi11gs a11d douerels. Australasia. COMPREHENSIVE Each volume exami11es all aspects of bird lifeinc luding: • field i£Jentiflca1ion • dis1ribu1io11 and popula1io11 • social orga11iza1io11 The Handbook is the most ex­ • social behaviour citing and significant project •movements in Australasian ornithology to­ •plumages day and will have an •breeding • habitat enormous impact on the direc­ • voice tion of future research and the •food conservation of Au stralasian and Antarctic birds.

_ • AVAI�!�! BER t�n�r? Volume 2 $250 RAOU Volumes 1 & 2 $499 -- m! CJOlltlllllCOIIIIYIOOI ORDER FORM Place your order with Oxford University Press by: cgJ Reply Paid 1641, Oxford University Press, D Please send me __ copy/copies of the Handbook of GPO Box 2784Y, Melbourne3001 Aus1ralia11, New Zealondand A111arc1ic Birds Volume 2 at the 11 (03) 646 4200 FAX (03) 646 3251 special pre-publication price of $250 (nonnal retail price $295) plus $7.50 for po stage and handling OR D I enclose my cheque/money order for$ ______D Please send me set/sets of Volumes I a11d 2 of the D Please charge my Visa/Mastercard/Bankcard no. Handbook ofA1is1ralian, New Zealand and Amarclic Birds at .---,...---,---, the special price of $499 (normal retail price $590) plus $7.50 L...... J,______,__,11 I I I 11 I I I II 1 _, for postage and handling. Expiry date:_/_)_ S ignature: ______

Pre-publication offer ends 15 October J 993. 93060467 BE TEMPTED Up Front TO /sLANDS NEAR AND FAR OF SPECTACULAR UNTOUCHED BEAUTY STEEPED IN HISTORY, CULTURALALLURE AND UNCLUTTERED LIFESTYLES - MATCHED In the future . . . will there be ONLY BY THE PEOPLE dinosaurs? Could we really recreate THEMSELVES "' dinosaurs from samples of their DNA? It CHOOSE YOUR ONN seems to belong more to the realm of SoUTH PACIFIC fantasy but could the novel Jurassic Park PARADISE AND ENJOY by Michael Crichton become a reality? AN AFFINITY WITH With the release in Australia of the movie NATURE. "Jurassic Park", dinosaurs are receiving John Long looking for fossils. massive publicity and its important we realise that they don't just LORD HOWE ISLAND 'belong' to the Northern Hemisphere. In fact, Australia boasts its own A World Heritage Area quite unique dinosaur fauna. We asked Dr John Long of the Western Australian Museum to help us shed some light on the "Dinosaurs NORFOLK ISLAND Downunder". He shares with us the excitement of finding his first Historical - Picturesque dinosaur bone, explains why some of our dinosaurs are challenging current scientific thinking, and profiles the best Australian dinosaur KINGDOM OF TONGA finds to date. And, to show you what one of our best-known dinosaurs The Friendly Islands might have looked like, we invited scientific illustrator Peter Schouten to create a reconstruction WESTERN SAMOA The Cradle of Polynesia of Muttaburrasaurus langdoni based on the most up-to-date COOK ISLANDS fossil evidence available. After Visit Heaven on Earth some helpful advice from palaeontologists our front UNIQUE - NATURAL - cover was 'born'. We are so UNFORGETTABLE proud of this magnificent illus­ EXPERIENCES! tration that we have decided to Peter Schouten working on the give you the chance to win the FOR INFORMATION Muttaburrasaurus illustration. AND BOOKINGS CALL original framed artwork. To be eligible to win, all you have to do is be a current subscriber on 17 December 1993! � Still on fossils, you may have followed the plight of Eric, the opalised 163 Eastern Valley Way pliosaur. For a while it looked like he would be heading overseas but, Middle Cove NSW 2068 P.O. Box 755 � with the helpof Quantum, Akubra Hats and thousands of enthusiastic Willoughby 2068 PH: (02) 958 2799 z� and generous people, Eric's permanent home is now the Australian < FREECALL: 008 244336 � Museum. As a special thankyou from ANH we have included a bonus :;;; (free outside Sydney area) � poster of Eric in this issue. FAX: (02} 958 2079 L.H.1. FASTBOOK VACATIONS PTY LTD UC: 2TA003131 ACN: 003926369 -Jennifer Saunders

ANH �NHSpring 1993 Volume 24 Number 6 Published by The Australian Museum Trust 6-8 College Street, Sydney, NSW 2000 Phone: (02) 339 Sill Fax: (02) 339 8313 Trust President: Robyn Williams Museum Director: Desmond Griffin EDITOR Jennifer Saunders, B.Sc. SCIENTIFIC EDITOR Georgina Hickey, B.Sc. PHOfO RESEARCHER Articles Kate Lowe ART DIRECTION OVERCOMING A PRICKLY Watch This! Design PROBLEM TYPESETTING Sex echidna-style means Keen Permofilm playi.ng trains, digging in, PRJ TING Excel Printing Company, head-to-head scuffles, Hong Kong broadside attacks, stroking MARKETING AND SALES spines and getting out of a Mike Field rut! Discover all this and more Phone: (02) 339 8331 when we exposejust what goes SUBSCRJPTIONS on in the Aussie bush. Mary Pollinger BY PEGGY RISMILLER Phone: (02) 339 8119 Toll-free (008) 028 558 22 Fax: (02) 339 8313 A MARK IN TIME Annual subscription (4 Issues) Since the time of first Within Australia SA30 European settlement, people Other Countries SA42 have been leaving their mark Two-year subscription (8 issues) at Aboriginal rock art sites. Within Australia SA58 When should this graffiti Other Countries SA 78 constitute vandalism and when Three-year subscription (12 issues) should it be considered part of Within Australia $A81.00 Other Countries $AI08.00 our cultural heritage? New subscriptions can be made by credit BY MIKE MORWOOD & card on the ANH toll-free hotline GRAHAME WALSH 008-028 558 or use the form in this magazine. 40 If it has been removed, send cheque, money order or credit card authorisation to the DINOSAURS address abovt:, made payable to the i\ustralian DOWN UNDER THE MAGNIFICENT Museum' in Australian currency. 1% may not have a WARATAH All material appearing in ANH is copyright. Tyrannosaurus rex, but From red through to white, Reproduction in whole or in part is not Australia is able to boast a large to small, our best permitted without written authorisation from known floral emblem displays the Editor. growing number of unique and Opinions expressed by the authors are their fascinating dinosaurs. Here we a diversity that would surprise own and do not necessarily represent the introduce you to some of the most Australians. policies or views of the Australian Museum. most interesting so far. BY CATHY OFFORD ANH is printed on archival quality paper suitable for library collections. BY JOH LONG 46 Published 1993 30 ISSN-0004-9840

Australian Natural History is proud winner of the 1987. '88, '89, '90. '91 & '92 Whitley Awards for Best Periodical. Front Cover Discovered in Queensland in 1963, Muttaburr­ asaurus langdoni is a plant-eating ornithopod dinosaur. Here the male is shown displaying both visually and verbally in order to attract the attentions of a female. lllustration by Peter Schouten. (Subscribe to ANH and you could win this magnificent original artwork.) 2 ANH VIEWSFROM THE FOURTH DIMENSION ECOTOURISM IN A BRAVE NEW LAND THE BACKYARD NA TURALIST More tourists, substantially larger wilderness areas and PIES FROM THE SKY increased economic gain . . . just the thought of Magpies in together these could provide spring can make school Australia with a future that children and pasties run for would be the envy of the rest cover. Yet the Magpie's high of the world. profile and aggressive nature BY MICHAEL ARCHER QUIPS, QUOTES & may mask a life much tougher CURIOS than we might imagine. 60 Frogs that Talk with their BY STE VE VA N DYCK Feet; The Time for Birth; 14 Drunken Bees; The Science of Kissing; New Whale for Peru; The Case for Female Promiscuity; Warning: TR END S IN SCIENCE Cannibalism is a Health Hazard; A Good Year?; ANIMAL IQ: SHOULD IT Newcastle Earthquake; Red MAKE A DIFFERENCE? Crabs Hold their Fort; The As brightness is a very iffy Zebra and the Tsetse Fly; and likely unprovable Plants that See; Quick Quiz. justification for protection, 6 should we allow our perception ofan animal's RARE & ENDA NGERED intelligence to bias us in our conservation efforts? THE LA ST WO RD REVIEWS GOLDEN SUN MOTH The. Proteaceae of the Sydney Despite being a robust BY ROBYN WILLIAMS FILLING THE LIFEBOATS: Region; Parrots: Hand survivor, the Golden Sun 20 ENDANGERED SPECIES Feeding and Nursery Moth is now restricted to only FIRST Management; Guidebook to ten sites in the ACT It has What sort of efforts should Pecten Shells; Earth Island become endangered because conservation biologists direct Easter Island; Our the native grassland it towards rare species? Are they Rainforests and the Issues· inhabits is itself endangered. worth>; of more, or less, Review of Parrots and Pig�ons BY TED EDWARDS attention and funding than of Australia; Densey Clyne's any other species? Small Worlds; Eyewitness 16 Explorers; The Miracle BY JOHN C.Z. WOINARSKI Planet. WILD FOODS 72 THE CURIOUS FOODS 62 OF TASMANIA'S ABORIGINES One group of Tasmanian Columns QUESTIONS & Aboriginal women share with ANSWERS Fish Circles; Pie Teaser· Tim their memories of the ' wild foods they ate as Moths in the Cellar; children. As Tim was to P H O T O A R T Caterpillars Unmasked; Fish discover, a number of these Facts; Answers to Quiz. were introduced weeds. Jn 'BUG' ART contrast to Europeans a A closer look at some of the 70 l!lillingness to taste wild plants more unusual insects found is a feature of Aboriginal in Australia and South-east culture. Asia. BY TI M LOW BY PAVEL GERMAN 18 54

LETTERS Protecting Coral Reefs; Getting it Right; Talk Turkey· Examining the Aye-aye; ' Tough Game.

ANH 3 quate coral growth, and so LEI I ERS impeded recovery from the in­ creased grazing pressure. The forum for readers to Thankfully, Ningaloo Reef is now a marine park with several air their views about their sanctuary zones protecting 20 concerns, past articles and per cent of the inshore waters, Interesting personal events. and the Western Australian Fisheries Department has in­ troduced restrictive bag limits to protect the fishery. The tak­ ing of predatory reef species Protecting Coral numbers of visitors spend the by spearfishermen is also Reefs winter months camping along banned. B11t only time will tell I was stimulated to write this the coast and fishing every whether these measures are letter after reading Tim Flan­ day. It is estimated by Western sufficient to have an impact at nery's article "The Diversity Australian Fisheries that this late stage. Enigma" (ANH Winter 1992). 100,000 kilograms of fillets are -Geoff Taylor In it, Tim draws analogies be­ removed annually. In the last Exmouth, W.A. tween infertile heatWands and ten years there has been a coral reefs, pointing out the progressive decline in fish Getting it Right impressive species diversity of stocks, and the coral reef has I began to read with great in­ both ecosystems that seems to suffered severe destruction­ terest Tim Low's article result from very low nutrient ostensibly from a plague of the "Italians and Birds, Kanakas levels. The heathlands of marine snail Drupella cornus. and Yams" in the Summer south-western Western Aus­ While it is difficult to establish 1992-93 issue of ANH. My tralia exist because they were a direct link to the cause of the interest increased as I read the too infertile to be considered Drupella plague, the pressure first and second paragraphs. for farming, and were there­ from fishing may have con­ However, as I read on to para­ fore never cleared. However, tributed, and the Drupella graphs three and four my even in the more fertile soils plague may not be the sole (Italian) temper began to rise. that we do farm, yields would cause of the destruction. First, "Bamberoo", my old be very poor if we did not We only catch the predatory home township, should be add copious amounts of fish of the reef-they are the Bambaroo. Second, Bambaroo nitrogenous fertiliser before ones that take the bait. These was populated by Italian growing our products. are also the ones that normally migrants long before the Kana­ We accept that we must feed on molluscs and coral­ ka trade ended and, if Mr Low regularly replenish the soil's grazing fish. Hence, with their made enquiries, he would find nutrients, yet we allow people removal, we allow proliferation that many descendants of to fish our coral reefs without of the coral grazers and there­ these early migrants still lived any consideration for the con­ fore greater destruction of the in Bambaroo and the Ingham Does the survival of feral herds of sequences of removing huge coral. This much is fairly obvi­ district. I am a descendant of Water Buffalo indicate Aborigines amounts of protein from the ous. There may, however, be these early migrants and lived were not efficient exterminators of reef system. another factor in the equation. in Bambaroo from my birth un­ large game? The Ningaloo Reef area of By removing huge amounts of til 1959, and am still in touch Western Australia has in the protein from the reef food with the locals. of lived in luxury compared to past enjoyed a reputation as chain over many years, we may I would like to point out to the early Italian settlers, but one of the prime fishing areas have depleted the ecosystem Mr Low that it was not the the wild birds spoken of by of the whole continent. Large of sufficient protein for ade- general practice of the Italians John and Toni Truffa, except in the area to eat the species for the duck and 'scrub turkey', mentioned by John and Toni were not an important food Truffa. This may have been source. their practice but not the -Bruna Gugenberger general practice of Italians who Boondall, Qld lived in the area long before Talk Turkey Mr and Mrs Truffa did. The male brush-turkey builds I can recollect that 'scrub a mound turkey', duck and wild pig were By raking up leaf eaten but this was mainly as a litter, result of someone's sport, that His harlot hen just hangs _.ll is shooting, not from necessi­ around ty. Meat was plentiful and was Inspecting his bed- railed from the butcher at sitter. Yuruga to Bambaroo three Should she approve this base times a week. abode As for his statement "Times To boost heir population, were tough for the first gener­ A brisk, three-second ation, and wild birds were an episode important food", I can only say Takes care of copulation. that the generation he speaks She shoves him off then digs a hole Heavily grazed coral that has Inside his leafy bower, survived a plague of the marine Then lays an egg, this snail Drupe/la cornus. rigmarole 4 ANH during an expedition into the still remote East Alligator Val­ ley, he had just run out of fresh meat when he met six Aborigines with fresh buffalo. He writes: "W hen I asked them how they got it they said they'd speared it. I knew their shovel spears were deadly weapons-and looked it-and I had heard of them spearing buffalo but was always doubt­ ful. They said they'd found tracks and followed them for a day, coming up with a buffalo half-asleep under a tree just before sundown. They got two spears into it before it galloped away. They tracked it until dark, camped on its tracks and started at first light. They caught up with it about mid­ day, got two more spears into it and picked one up that had fallen out, which was import­ ant-they had to conserve their ammunition. They caught up with it again about mid-after­ noon and got another spear into it. This time it didn't gallop away but bailed up, trying to charge its tormentors. They were all behind trees and didn't have much difficulty dodging it. Eventually it went down; it had taken ten spears to kill it and I imagine it had dropped from loss of blood." Even with helicopters and marksmen it has proven im­ Ta kes scarcely half an hour. digit as a resonating device, to Tough Game possible to exterminate Water The hapless chap has not a explain how it locates grubs in In his article "Who Killed Buffalo, especially when num­ clue the hollow chambers of tree KirWpi?", Tim Flannery sug­ bers are reduced by control That missus does philander, limbs. Every medical student gests that Aborigines played an programs to very low levels. And that this egg, her knows that the four modes important part in the extinction Surely the difficulty current doodle-doo of physical examination are of marsupial megafauna (ANH land managers have in exter­ Is of another gander. inspection, palpation, percus­ Summer 1989-90). However, I minating the feralmegafauna of He pecks and belts her on sion and auscultation. Percus­ believe the evidence from northern Australia indicates the head, sion is used to elicit physical northern Australia does not that Aboriginal people could Then sends his pick-up signs of dullness or resonance support this view. not have been chiefly responsi­ packing, in various body cavities, prin­ For example, tribal Aborig­ ble for the extinction of the To find another male, misled, cipally the chest and abdomen. ines did not exterminate the marsupial megafauna. As once more she gets Have you ever wondered what original feral herds of Banteng Aridity during the ice ages is cracking. the doctor was doing when he and Water Buffalo soon after a far more probable primary Pop tends the incubation tapped the back of your chest these domesticated stock be­ cause of the marsupial mega­ mound, during a respiratory examina­ came feral. These feral bov­ fauna extinctions. He doesn't mind the waiting, tion? The tone of the taps can ines have subsequently be­ -D.M.J.S. Bowman For though he's more or less be used to elicit dullness or come an important source of Wildlife Research, Conservation housebound, resonance and indicate basical­ meat in the diet of Aborigines Commission of the NT There's lots of chooks for ly whether there is fluid (dull) throughout northern Australia. mating. or air (resonance) in the cavity The custodians of Kakadu ANH welcomes letters for -Dr Len Green being examined. Surely, the National Park insist on the Vaucluse, NSW Aye-aye is practising similar retention of some buffalo in the publication and requests that they be limited to 250 words techniques in locating the hol­ park to serve as a supply of and typed If possible. Please low chambers in which grubs meat. supply a daytime telephone are to be found. The real ques­ The survival of the feral Examining the number and type or print Aye-aye tion remaining is whether the herds may indicate that tribal The QQC item "Knocking on Aye-aye represents the pri­ Aborigines were not efficient your name and address clear­ ly on the letter. The best let­ Wood" on the Madagascan mordial medical student or the exterminators of large game. ter In each Issue will receive Aye-aye (ANH Spring 1992) first deviation of doctors from This view certainly tallies with a $20 gift voucher from the was fascinating. However, I do the rest of the evolutionary the recollections of the famous Museum Shop catalogue. The tree! buffalo hunter Tom Cole. In not believe it is necessary to winner this issue is Dr Serge the book Hell west and crooked evoke cutaneous sense, or the -Dr Serge Lubicz Lubicz. use of the Aye-aye's middle Melbourne, Vic. (1988), Cole recounts how, ANH 5 alternative method of attract­ ing mates in these environ­ QUOTES & CURIOS ments. More recently, however, zoologists Stephen Richards Games Cook University) and rJJ Christina James (University of Queensland) have observed c. four more Australian frog spe­ cies (all tree frogs of the genus Litoria) that use their feet to - communicate, but it now seems that the foot-flagging behaviour is not what it was originally thought to be. For a start, all observations served in a Bornean rainforest were of interactions between Frogs that frog. And since then another male frogs, and so it appears Talk with three species, including the the behaviour is related more COMPILED Eungella Torrent Frog (Taud­ to male-male aggression than BY their feet actylus eungellensis) fromAus­ to any form of courtship. Also, he most common way frogs tralia (see ANH Winter 1986), foot-flagging can no longer be GEORGINA Tcommunicate with each have also been reported to HICKEY other is vocally. A unique se­ communicate visually. All four quence of croaks, ribbets and species were reported to live plonks identifies the caller and alongside noisy rainforest attracts mates of the same streams and it was suggested Foot-flagging in species. In the early 1980s, that foot-flagging evolved as an frogs is not however, another formof com­ munication, this time involving Litoria genimaculata: new-found restricted to foot-flagging signals, was ob- member of the foot-flagging frogs. the hard-of- hearing.

thought of as being unique to noisy rainforest stream habitats. One of the frog spe­ cies in which the behaviour was observed (the Eastern Dwarf Tree Frog, L. fallax) is a common inhabitant of open forest. In the light of these ob­ servations, the researchers strongly suspect that the previously reported cases of foot displays in frogs may also prove to have an aggressive rather than a courtship function. -G.H.

The Time for Birth he source of the signal that initiates birth in mammals Thas long eluded scientists. But, in recent experiments on sheep, researchers have iden­ tified a minute part of the foe­ tal brain that seems to be crucial to the process. In sheep, the 'birth signal' is so precise that gestation varies little from 147 days between in­ dividuals. Scientists have un­ derstood for some time that labour is preceded by a hor­ monal chain of events-the release of a hormone known

6 ANH as ACTH from the foetal pituitary gland leads to an increase in the hormone cor­ tisol from the foetal adrenal gland, which in tum alters the chemical balance in the mother's uterus and starts contractions. Investigating the trigger for ACTH production, Thomas McDonald and Peter Nath­ anielsz, from Cornell Universi­ ty in New York, performed brain surgery on nine foetal lambs when their mothers reached 118-122 days gesta­ tion. In five lambs, they re­ moved the tiny region known " as the paraventricular nucleus on both sides of the brain. The remaining four lambs were used as controls, the research­ ers performing the same oper­ ations but leaving the nuclei intact. The control foetuses were delivered on time. However, after 157 days, the other five Who determines when it's time to to start producing ACTH and animals were still not born and be born: the mother or the baby? initiate labour. so were delivered by caes­ Understanding the timing arean section. of foetal organs throughout controls underlying pregnancy The researchers believe this pregnancy. It is thought that at could ultimately have enor­ region of the brain continually the correct stage of develop­ mous implications for reducing receives and assesses mes­ ment, it transmits a hormonal premature human births. sages about the development message to the foetal pituitary -K.McG.

Fermented nectar can present a problem for beekeepers.

pollen than those fed fresh syrup, and resulted In lower populations of adults. This was due to decreased egg laying by the queen, decreased brood rearing by the worker bees and shortened life spans. Alcohol In the syrup Is also suspected to disorient bees returning to the hive and cause rejection by guard bees due to their DRUNKEN BEES peculiar behaviour. eeping bees for honey syrup is that It often ferments Work Is currently under way Kproduction or pollination before It Is utilised. to find out just how much of crops requires careful Effects of alcohol and other fermentation can occur before management. To prevent bees products of fermentation on normal growth and develop­ from wandering when local Honey Bees (Apls me/1/fera) ment of the Honey Bee colony nectar supplies become were Investigated at the Is affected and honey produc­ scarce, for example, beekeep­ University of Queensland Gat­ tion reduced. ers feed them with artificial ton College by Errol Hassan -Andrew Kahenya nectar (sugar syrup). But one and me. Bees fed fermented University of Queensland problem with feeding the bees sugar syrup consumed less Gatton College

ANH 7 Red lipstick mimics sexual arousal. but relatively little is known about its members. Most in­ red echoes sexual arousal. If formation comes, as it has you grasp your lip between done for its latest addition, thumb and forefinger, you can from carcasses washed up on feel blood pulsing through. beaches. Lips become bright red during Beaked whales have sexual arousal as they fill with reduced numbers of teeth, and even more blood, an effect the genus Mesoplodon is mimicked by red lipstick. charactersied by adult males Cherry asked if other having only two functional animals kiss like us. The an­ teeth located on the lower jaw. swer: our fellow primates do. The new species is the In fact, as one surprised zoo smallest so far described for keeper found, Pygmy Chim­ the family. The longest adult panzees or Bonobos are well specimen measures 3.72 versed in the art of French metres. All ten specimens had kissing! One theory about the uniformly gre)' bodies that origins of the human kiss is lightened slightly towards the that it began as a ritualised underside. Other key charac- version of mothers passing chewed food to their offspring by mouth-to-mouth contact. Only four new Effie concluded by saying that, while we "may be the whale species only species to have evolved have been the office party ...we are not the only creatures to be ob­ described in the sessed with our mouths during last 50 years. courtship". -C.A. The Science of Kissing n one of the wacky Christ­ mas issues of New Scientist, "agonyI aunt Effie Petting" an­ swered readers' questions about the dangers and delights of smooching. One reader, Rosie, was wor­ ried about the diseases she might catch from fellow wor­ kers at the office party. Saliva, reassured Effie, contains chemical weapons to fend off foreign microbes by dissolving their cell membranes and dis­ rupting their metabolism. (This might also be the reason­ ing behind the idea that kissing Peru's new whale species. a sore makes it better.) In one New Whale test, only one out of 13 people teristics include a small skull caught a cold from kissing an for Peru and relatively smaJI teeth infected partner. arine scientists have iden­ (31-65 millimetres long). Ruby wondered why she was M tified a new whale spe­ This is only the eleventh subjected to an "endless cies, the first for nearly three new whale species to be stream of slobber" when aJl decades. Mesoplodon peruvia­ described this century, all of she wanted was a "dry dutiful nus was described by Julio which are toothed whales. peck". Effie explained that Reyes of the Peruvian Centre Seven are the elusive beaked that's partly because the aver­ for Cetological Research and whales and six of these are in age mouth generates enough colleagues, from ten dead the genus Mesoplodon. Alth­ saliva to fill two milk bottles a specimens washed up on the ough the number of new spe­ day! Also, it is pretty difficult Peruvian coast. Drift gill nets cies of whale being described to swallow when you have your set for sharks were responsi­ has definitely slowed in the last mouth open. Enthusiastic kiss­ ble for six and perhaps seven half of this century (only four ing partners need to be en­ of these. The other three new species have been couraged to stop for a rest now resulted from strandings. described in the past 50 and then. Mesoplodon peruvianus is a years), marine scientists still Rufus confessed to buying member of the family do not consider that aJl species his girlfriend red lipstick for Ziphiidae-the beaked whales. have been discovered. They Christmas every year. Effie's This family accounts for nearly believe, for example, that comment on his colour choice: a third of the toothed whales there is at least one more spe-

8 A N H cies of Mesoplodon to be took detailed measurements of described. This stems from a their offspring. number of sightings of a dis­ The female snakes were tinctive and unrecognisable found to mate with an average GNE THE GIFTTHAT SAYS species of beaked whale in the of three different males each eastern tropical Pacific. season. The researchers -K.McG. found no relationship between 't. �--r the number of matings and lit­ The Case ter size or the size of individual .fldr;pgje yoiv- for Female offspring. But they did find a clear relationship between the Promiscuity number of mates and the num­ ales in the animal kingdom ber of stillbirths in litters. have, in the evolutionary The snake population stud­ sense,M a pretty good excuse ied by Madsen and his col­ for promiscuity: frequent mat­ leagues was small and isolated, ings offer them greater with a high potential for in­ reproductive success. It has breeding. The resultant low not been as simple, however, genetic variability within the to explain female promiscuity, population was responsible for which is common in some spe­ a large proportion of stillbirths. cies. Because it only takes one The Swedish study found that sperm to fertilise an egg, mul­ this proportion was "strongly tiple partners are unlikely to reduced" by promiscuity in fe­ improve a female's reproduc­ males, suggesting that multiple tive success. matings benefited the genetic ow, results from a ten-year quality of offspring. field study of Adders (Vipera The forces of natural selec­ berus), led by Thomas Madsen tion, it seems, play a powerful of the University of Lund in role even within the walls of Sweden, provide the first ex­ the female Adder's reproduc­ perimental evidence that fe­ tive tract. Madsen and his World's best male promiscuity can improve coworkers believe that multi­ the survival of offspring. ple matings would result in in­ selling compass with Each year throughout the trauterine competition bet­ study, the researchers inten­ ween sperm from different the world's best selling sively monitored a small Swed­ males, with only the fittest ish population of Adders during achieving fertilisation. map and compass book. the three-week spring mating -K.McG. 1. Silva 1ST Ranget;the highest quality liquid filled compass period, collected the pregnant fromthe world's best selling compass name. Shockproof, females in mid-summer, main­ Carrie Arklnstall (education waterproof and luminous fornight use. Sighting mirror for tained them in the laboratory officer at the Australian Muse­ !0 pinpoint accuracy. Finest Swedish steel magnetic needle on until they delivered, and then um) and Karen McGhee (free­ sapphire jewelled bearing. Inch, mm, 1:25,000 and 1:50,000 lance science writer living in romer scales. Baseplate with non-slip frictiongrips and lanyard For a female Adder, one male is Newcastle) are regular contribu­ with adjustable slider. Handsome presentation giftbox. not enough. tors to QQC. Instructions booklet. Five year warranty. $90 plus $6 p/p 2. Be Expert with Map & Compass. Undoubtedly the 'bible' of map and compass use. Over 500,000 copies sold in 4 languages! The A-Z of outdoor navigation frombeginner to serious outdoor adventurer level. Clear and concise terms. Fully illustrated. With a new section on Orienteering. How to join in an Orienteering event, etc. etc. Fullcolour practice map in back cover. $2 7 .50 plus $6 p/p 3. Special offerto ANHreaders. Silva !ST compass and Be Expert with Map & Compass book. $99 plus $10 p/p • When ordering compass foroverseas use please indicate country, as compass needle has to be specially balanced to allow for magnetic dip. Toorder send coupon or phone (03) 489 9766 for tei. credit card orders. ORIENTEERING SERVICE OF AUSTRALIA 44 Alexandra Pde, Clifton Hill, Melbourne Vic 3068. Fax (03) 481 5368

Please forward: Compass only D Book only D Compass and book D. If compass is foruse overseas, which country? D My Cheque/Money Order is enclosed, OR please charge my D Bankcard D Mastercard D Visa I I I I I I I I I I Card holder's Name .... Cardholder's Address ...... Signature ...... Expiry Date .... .

ANH 9 Warning: Cannibalism is a Health Hazard annibalism is one culinary taboo that transcends most humanC cultures and animal species. Even in animals facing limited food supplies, the be­ haviour is very rare. The reason is probably a combination of several factors. Following recent experiments with Tiger Salamanders (Am­ bystoma tigrinum), zoologists are adapted to only one host The study of Tiger Salamanders David Pfennig, Michael Loeb species, it is thought that can­ may help explain why cannibalism and James Collins from the nibalism could lay a direct path is such a rare behaviour. Arizona State University be­ for transmission of pathogens lieve pathogens (disease­ from infected individuals. The nibals and non-cannibals. causing organisms) may be one US researchers chose Tiger In the laboratory, cannibals of those factors. Salamanders to test the theory were shown to readily prey Because many lethal because they occur naturally in upon diseased members of viruses, bacteria and parasites two distinct forms-as can- their own species, but many of these predators later died from diseases. Dissections also rev­ ealed that cannibals tended to have more bacteria and para­ sites than the non-cannibals. A GOODYEAR? 87 'champagne style' bottles, When Pfennig and his col­ n 1841, after striking a rock with their liquid contents in­ leagues investigated wild Tiger Iin Port Phillip Bay, the tact. Just what sort of bever­ Salamander populations in ten William Salthouse sank to the age was being imported into different lakes, they found the bottom of the sea· with its car­ the early Australian colonies? presence of disease seemed to go. In 1983, more than 140 In collaboration with Carlton relate to the distribution of years later, the wreck was ex­ United Breweries, forensic cannibal and non-cannibal cavated by a team of archaeol­ scientist Margaret Baron ana­ ogists from the Victoria lysed the samples by looking Archaeological Survey's Mari­ at alcohol content, depth of time Archaeology Unit. Among colour, pH range and mineral the artefacts in the cargo were content. The results were more suggestive of wine than Cannibalism may beer but they weren't conclu­ prove to be a sive. What was needed was a final test that would tell exact­ route for ly what the liquid was. Paper chromatography is a disease relatively simple and cheap transmission. technique used to separate the components of a solution on special paper. The individual components appear as bands on the paper with the most soluble components moving types. Lakes with lower bac­ the farthest. Margaret used terial levels had more can­ this method to compare some nibals, while lakes with higher of the William Salthouse sam­ bacteria had less cannibals. ples with those of standard This implied that, where dis­ wine and beer, and confirmed ease was more prevalent, can­ that they were, in fact, wine. nibals succumbed more easily While paper chromatography than non-cannibals. was used successfully to ana­ Human case studies also lyse these historic alcoholic suggest that cannibalism pro­ beverages, human taste alone vides a route for disease trans­ must decide whether or not mission. Kuru, normally a very 1841 was a good year! rare human brain disease, is -C.A. found widely among New Guinea highland tribes in which the women sometimes eat the brains of defeated ene­ mies. The fact that the inci­ dence of the disease is higher ANH 10 among the women of these tension, where the rock is be­ tribes than the men supports ing pulled apart, molten rock the theory that cannibalism is may erupt to form a volcano. If responsible for its trans­ the heat meets layers under mission. compression, where the rock -K.McG. is being pushed together, the pressure build-up may cause rock to move and break, caus­ Newcastle ing an earthquake. Volcanoes and earthquakes form as the Earthquake Australian plate moves slowly ustralia often gives the illu­ north over the hot spots. Asion of being an ancient To find out where the hot and quiet continent-relatively spots are now, Lin looked for untroubled by the sometimes chains of old volcanoes along devastating natural disasters Australia's east coast. He that plague other regions. That found three chains of volca­ illusion was shattered on 28 noes that end at the southern December 1989 by the New­ part of the mainland, indicating castle Earthquake. It took there are three main hot spots; almost everyone, especially other evidence points to their Newcastle residents, com­ likely sites as being under pletely by surprise, as related north-western Ta smania, by Cy nthia Hunter in her book north-eastern Ta smania and on earthquakes in the Hunter the Ta sman Sea. These in turn Valley. are possible sites for future Dr Lin Sutherland, a senior earthquakes or volcanoes. geologist at the Australian Which brings us back to Red Crab consumimg a Giant Museum, was not as surprised Newcastle. How does Lin's Red Crabs African Land Snail. as some. He and other geolo­ work help us to understand gists already knew that New­ what happened on that fateful Hold their troduction of the island of the castle is in a 'suspect' earth­ December day in 1989? After (Achatina fulica), a successful quake area. But the Newcastle the earthquake, Lin looked Fort opportunistic colonist with a Earthquake made them step north of Newcastle for evi­ he spectacular annual mass generalised diet, which has al­ up their research to find out dence of a hot spot. Sure breeding migration of Chri­ ready become well-estab­ what the ancient and quiet enough he found it-a weak stmasT Island's Red Crabs from lished, and indeed a pest, on continent was doing. line of past volcanic activity the rainforest to the sea has most tropical mainlands and Australia is on a slab of the heading south. But the hot earned these crustaceans a many lndo-Pacific islands. Earth that is moving north. It spot near Newcastle is only a reputation for tenacious deter­ Two Australian researchers, moves very slowly, about small one. That was why the mination. That tag now seems Sam Lakeand Dennis O'Dowd, seven centimetres per year, earthquake wasn't so easy to even more deserved than was from Victoria's Monash Uni­ over the Earth's mantle. The predict. first thought. versity, recently investigated mantle is made of dense rock. As more evidence is unco­ Christmas Island is a tropical the distribution of the invading Sometimes heat from the vered, Lin and other geologists paradise located south of Java snails and the Red Crabs on deeper mantle rises up will be able to get a much in the Indian Ocean. Except the island. They found an in­ towards the Earth's surface. clearer picture of what's hap­ for pockets opened up by verse relationship between the This upwelling is called a 'hot pening under our feet. That phosphate mining and human distribution of the two species, spot'. If the rising heat melts will make future rumblings of settlement, it is covered by with Red Crabs dominating the an area of mantle that is under our 'ancient and quiet' conti­ tall, dense rainforest. The en­ rainforest, and land snails the nent much easier to prepare demic Red Crab (Gecarcoidea disturbed sites. Damage caused by the Newcastle for. natalis) dominates the forest One likely reason for the Earthquake. -C.A. floor. This is despite the in- snails' failure to successfully colonise the rainforest became clear when the researchers tethered the large molluscs in experiments. When tied up in rainforest, most of the snails were quickly killed and eaten or removed to burrows by the omnivorous Red Crabs. There is a widely held view that biotic resistance to inva­ sion on oceanic islands is weak, mainly because island life forms are not as well 'steeled in competition' as their mainland cousins. The so-far successful resistance by the Christmas Island Red Crabs to the Giant African Land Snail in­ vasion proves this is certainly not the case on all oceanic islands. -K.McG. ANH 11 Is there more to the Zebra's stripes than meets the eye?

don's Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine. In a Zimbabwean valley, well populated with game animals (including Zebras) and two species of tsetses (Glossina pallidipes and G. morsitans), Gibson set up five different tsetse 'targets' made of cotton cloth and terylene netting. These were coloured with black, white, grey, vertical stripes and horizontal stripes. Flies were attracted to the tar­ gets by a mixture of carbon di­ oxide and acetone designed to simulate the odour of herding game animals. Gibson found that horizon­ tally striped targets attracted less than ten per cent of the number of flies caught by any other target, and that tsetses actually appeared to avoid horizontally striped objects.

Do the Zebra's stripes protect it from the bites of blood-sucking flies?

The lower portion of a Zebra is horizontally striped, as is much of its head when the animal is bent over and grazing. And at least one species of tsetse is known to feed preferentially on the lower portions of cattle. Gibson concluded that Zebra's stripes might well have evolved to limit tsetse attacks. However, it remains unclear whether relief from fly bites is the only factor that maintains the stripes in a Zebra popu­ lation. -K.McG.

They spread disease among The Zebra cattle and the deadly sleeping Plants that and the sickness among humans, and few mammals are safe from See Tsetse Fly their attacks . . . with the o many of us, plants are he relationship between notable exception, it seems, of Tthose passive green things TZebras and tsetse flies Zebras. that die if they are not wa­ evokes thoughts of Aesop's Fa­ In 1930, a theor y was raised tered. But the microscopic bles. The Zebra (Equus bur­ that the Zebra's stripes some­ plant Chlamydomonas rhein­ chelli), with its strikingly how protected it from the bites hardtii is challenging our view precise body markings, is one of blood-sucking flies. Support of plants by having a view of its of Africa's most beautiful crea­ for this intriguing hypothesis own. That is, it can see. tures. In contrast, the vora­ comes from a recent field Chlamydomonas is a single­ cious blood-sucking tsetses study coordinated by Gabriella celled plant (algae) less than are among Africa's villains. Gibson, a biologist from Lon- one-hundredth of a millimetre

12 ANH across. If exposed to a bright McDonald, T.J. & Nathanielsz, P.W., QUICK QUIZ flash of light, it propels itself Suggested 1991. Bilateral destruction of the foe­ away using its two whip-like tal paraventricular nuclei prolongs 1. In which body of water Reading would you find flagella. Two German biolo­ gestation in sheep. Amer. J. Obstet. Christmas Island? gists, Hartmann Harz and Baron, M., 1991. Alcoholic beverages Gyneco/. 165: 764-770. 2. Name the Fellow of the Peter Hegemann of the Max from the wreck of the William Salt­ Australian Academy of Planck Institute for Biochemis­ house. News/. Vic. Archaeol. Surv. No. Petting, E., Keep a stiff upper lip. New Sciences who was killed try, have provided an explana­ 10: 7. Sci. 21-28 Dec. 1991: 32-33. in 1992 in a plane tion for the plant's response accident Gibson, G., 1992. Do tsetse flies 'see' 3. What is a gastrolith? with the discovery of a light­ Pfennig, D.W., Loeb, M.L.G. & Collins, zebras? A field study of the visual 4. In which State of sensitive eyespot, containing a J.P., 1991. Pathogens as a factor Australia does the response of tsetse to striped targets. similar photoreceptor (rhodop­ limiting the spread of cannibal­ world's largest Physiol. Entomol. 17: 141-147. sin) to that found in humans ism in tiger salamanders. Oecologia freshwater crayfish exist? and other animals. 88: 161-166. 5. To the nearest five When light falls on the eye­ Harz, H. & Hegemann, P., 1991. million years, how long spot, the chemical nature of Rhodopsin-regulated calcium cur­ ago did the dinosaurs the rhodopsin changes. This rents in Chlamydomonas. Nature 351: Reyes, J.C., Mead, J.G. & Van Waere­ become extinct? 489-491. beek, K., 1991. A new species of 6. What is a monotreme? produces a faint electrical cur­ 7. At approximately what rent in the cell, which in turn beaked whale Mesop/odon peruvianus sp. n. (Cetacea: Ziphiidae) from Peru. rate is the world's causes the flagella to beat and Hunter, C., 1991. The earth was human population the organism to move away raised up in waves like the sea ... Mar. Mamm. Sci. 7(1): 1-24. increasing each year: 10 from the light. The biologists Earthquake tremors felt in the Hunter million, 100 million or were able to detect the faint Valley since white settlement. Hunter Richards, S.J. & James, C., 1992. 1,000 million? current less than one millise­ House Publications: Newcastle, Foot-flagging displays of some Aus­ 8. Is Pangaea the name of cond after the plant was illumi­ NSW. tralian frogs. Mem. Qld Mus. 32: 302. an Old World scaly mammal, or an ancient nated, a response that's about landmass? 100 times faster than occurs in Lake, P.S. & O'Dowd, D.J., 1991. Red Sutherland, F.L., 1992. Late thermal 9. What is an EIS? the human retina. crabs in rainforest, Christmas Island: events---fle New South Wales­ 10. 'Yellow rain', once This fascinating discovery of biotic resistance to invasion by an ex­ se Queensland-links to Sydney Basin thought to have been an a visual system in plants sug­ otic land snail. Oikos 62: 25-29. seismicity? Pp. 1-8 in 26th Newcastle agent of chemical gests that seeing may be much Symposium on 'Advancesin the study warfare, was later found older than we thought, dating Madsen, T., Shine, R., Loman, J. & of the Sydney Basin; 3rd to 5th April, to have less toxic origins. What is it? from before the time the plant Hakansson, T., 1992. Why do fe­ 1992. Department of Geology, and animal kingdoms split. male adders copulate so frequently? University of Newcastle: Newcastle, Answers in the Questions -C.A. Nature 355: 440-441. NSW. & Answers Section.

Meet Eric. You may have seen him already on ABC TVs Quantum. He·s 110 million years old - an opalised fossil of a pliosaur - and thanks to the generous support of thousands of Australians, together with Akubra Hats, he's now at home at the Australian Museum. You can visit Eric at home prior to his national

campingavailable. tour of major centres. Bookingsand brochure: I I Pb: (070) 971411 AUSTRALIAN Fax: (070) 97145-0 Sponsored by A LavaLod&e, I MU SEU M I P.O. Box6268, 6 College Sr, Sydney Cairn•, Qld. 4870. I M Open 7 days, 10am ro 5pm I ------

ANH 13 old Maggie is so much sweeter than the reality.In truth, life for most Magpies is ... hell. This is because of the nature of life in The Magpie is so determined to the collective. In order to defend a sell you an impression of power, 2-18-hectare home base that provides all it is prepared to beat you over the good t!tings of life (shelter, food and the head to help make the point. nursery facilities), Magpies may band together into a uniformed security firm. As many as 24 birds might pool their ef­ forts into the flying squad, which is fledged for high-profile visibility, and PIES FROM pledged to sell the impression of strength by much loud singing, fighting and the oc­ casional postman's scalp. THE SKY But even with all this brawn, in large groups most of the babies die young, BY STEVE VAN DYCK most of the males only get to feedgaping mouths and not to father them, and usual­ ly only one female in the group gets to time, is trying to sell you something, see her eggs hatch. Evidently the effort whether it be religion or cosmetics.Ta ke of defending the territorial border, stoking the Magpie and you find a bird designed the individual boilers and maintaining the in total defiance of camouflage, striking status quo of the in-house hierarchy enough to be seen anywhere on a golf doesn't allow for too many personal com­ course, and so determined to sell you an forts.And then, if the average of one sur­ impression of power, that if the colour viving young per group per year scheme doesn't work, it is prepared to (perhaps) finally outgrows its welcome in beat you over the head to help make the the group, it faces the dismal prospect of point. either being hit by a car, eaten by a cat or HERE ARE TWO BLACK-AND-WHITE Whether it be on the nun, DJs shop as­ having to set up its own territory. If it life forms I've always found a little sistant or Magpie, the colour scheme avoids the first two but can't manage the intimidating . . .nuns and employees of seizes the senses of the observer and last, it may join the scruffy flock of non­ David Jones. When I was young, nuns creates a striking impression of unity in land-holding celibates that make life a were a mystery as befittingly inexplicable the ranks. Members of this black-and­ misery for the rest. as the Virgin Birth, and people who white fraternity make an all-round But Mother Nature sheds few tears for worked in David Jones as predatory as the sacrifice of personal identity for an ulti­ the individual, and a breeding strategy nuns were pure.But until I was asked to mate impression of corporate strength that may mean a life of hell for one, write this essay about.Australian Magpies and purpose. Muscle, purpose, power results in such a success for the species (Gymnorhina tibicen) I'd never bothered and success have for so long been as­ that our lucky country almost overflows to consider what these birds and their hu­ sociated with Magpies that there is hardly with Magpies. man analogues might share, apart from a town in Australia without a football team So common are they that we often fail just a habit of wearing unambiguous named after them. to appreciate their incipient influence on black-and-white coats. This vision of the Magpie seems a long Australian culture.Somebody has recent­ The common thread, it would seem, way from our romantic notion of it piping ly hinted that Ned Kelly's armour was lies in what the uniform, with its flagrant mellow warbles across frost-crusted pad­ really constructed to protect him from contradiction of colours, does for both docks. But the romance that goes with Magpie bombings, and it is said that the wearer and onlooker. Take the nun or the Johnny-come-lately legislation on wearing retailer and you find someone who is go­ Masters of the skies but not of disguise, bicycle helmets was finally precipitated ing out of their way to radically stand out Magpies are dressed to be seen by all but more by threats of the impending spring from the crowd and who, at the same worms and weevils. nesting season than by any worry from cars. Even the name 'Magpie' has become so entrenched that, in our thrust toward republicanism and a national identity, we forget that 'Magpie' is just a copy of the name of an unrelated Magpie (Pica pica) from Europe. The 'mag' bit came from that bird's constant prattling of "Mag, Maggie, Margaret" and the 'pie' from the Latin pica for a jay. The great Australian naturalist Crosbie Morrison once commented on the cold reception met by early attempts to change our Magpie's name to something more exclusive. Zoos, for example, tried to promote the name 'Piper' to distinguish it from its European namesake. One of the baked enamel labels in a major Aus­ tralian zoo proclaimed the 'Black-backed Piping Crow', but visitors looked into the aviary and remarked, "There is only an old Maggie in there. I suppose the piping crow's dead!"

14 ANH It really is unlikely that our Maggie will Early days for a head count! The success of a ever be known by any other name as long Magpie pair or group is not measured in eggs as there are wooden fence posts, misty laid and hatched, but by the number of these mornings and bleeding heads. And for as little peckers that grow up to feed young of long as baby Maggies continue to fall out their own. of nests there will always be squawking mouths for our own children to fill. On this matter, a sweet letter to Wild Life magazine in 1944 from Miss H.E. Pawsley mentions Magpie feeding. One day while she was sitting and reading on a garden seat, she was suddenly aware of a large insect close to her face and found that her pet Magpie was trying to thrust If Magpie evolution had selected birds to be a cricket into her mouth. Not wanting to literate or gullible, springtime in Australia hurt the bird's feelings, she turned her would not be nearly so exciting for school head aside and, after various attempts, children and posties. Maggie climbed down and up the other side to see if that would be better. As she without ceasing. Affable cousins of Heck­ refused to accept the choice morsel, ell and Jeckell suddenly become the ap­ Maggie looked puzzled and thoughtful, palling brothers Hyde, and mag-proofed and finally ate it herself. 'fu1other day, children go off to school looking like Bill finding my brother flat on his back on the and Ben. Still it puts a little mystery and lawn, she tried very earnestly to put a fat a little danger back into the bush we like worm into his mouth. When he gently but to think made Aussies tough. So enjoy the firmly refused the gift, Maggie stuffed it spring for its paradoxes; it's probably the in his ear as the next best thing:' only time of the year when the issue of But now is the season of conundrums, Magpies really is a shade off black and anticipated by hormone-inspired Magpies white. • and cringing wildlife officers around Aus­ tralia. It's time for carols without Christ­ Steve Van Dyck is in charge of the Mammal mas, bombings without explosions, Section of the Queensland Museum where he umbrellas without rain and complaints has worked since 1975. 15 ANH do so unless frightened and then they R A R E A E N O A N G l R E D only fly for a short distance. In this respect the species is unique in its family. The adult moths have no mouthparts Introduced plants rapidly and so cannot feed or drink. They do not displaced native grasslands, live long and probably die within a few destroying the animal days of emergence. All the feeding is done by the caterpillars which, after communities they supported. hatching from the eggs, tunnel in the soil feeding on the underground parts of the wallaby grass. How long they remain caterpillars is unknown but two years is the most likely period. When fully grown GOLDEN they prepare a vertical tunnel to the sur­ face through which the pupa travels just before the moth emerges. SUN MOTH At the time of European settlement BY TED EDWARDS suitable grasslands inhabited by Synemon Plana were found from Bathurst (New South Wales) through central Victoria to the South Australian border. These grass­ lands were prime areas for agriculture and were quickly occupied. Fortunately wallaby grass was one of the native grass­ es most resistant to heavy grazing by in­ ancient family of moths, the Castniidae or troduced stock and the grasslands sun moths, which are day-flying and, like survived, although probably in an altered butterflies, have well-developed clubbed state. antennae. Adult Golden Sun Moths have a In the 1950s the use of chemical fer­ wingspan of about five centimetres and tilisers and more vigorous introduced are active in the hottest part of sunny pasture grasses and clovers became days between mid November and mid De­ almost universal in the areas where suita­ cember. They inhabit grasslands dominat­ ble Danthonia grasslands grew. These in­ ed by certain species of wallaby grass troduced plants rapidly displaced the (Danthonia spp.). In Canberra this is grasslands, destroying the animal com­ Short Wallaby Grass (D. carphoides). The munities they supported. Synemon Plana males patrol the grasslands flying rapidly was once very common in the grasslands PAST DECADES E DANGERED and searching for females. When a patrol­ but today is known from only ten sites in species conservation has concen­ ling male flies over an unmated femaleshe the inner urban areas of the ACT, and two trated heavily on vertebrates. Inver­ flips her cryptic dark grey forewings for­ sites in Victoria. The largest known sur­ tebrates were poorly understood and ward exposing her golden orange hind viving site is the Belconnen Naval Station knowledge about them was lacking. To ­ wings to which the male responds by in Canberra, an area of some 100 hectares day, for a very few, information is becom­ alighting beside her. After mating the fe­ now under imminent threat of develop­ ing available that indicates many are in males scuttle from tussock to tussock in­ ment, but some of the sites are no larger danger of extinction. serting their eggs deep into the bases. than a few hundred square metres. One such species is the Golden Sun The wings of the females are reduced in The Golden Sun Moth is a robust sur­ Moth (Synemon plana). It belongs to an size so, although they can fly, they rarely vivor and can be common in these tiny

16 ANH areas, some of which have been isolated and at their present size for several de­ cades. Nevertheless the moth is endan­ gered because the grassland it inhabits is endangered. None of the known sites is in a national park or part of a large reserve, and all are vulnerable to various threats. Housing and office development in Canberra threaten some of the surviving sites and invasion by introduced weeds is another major threat. Danthonia carphoides grassland survives best where it is lightly grazed or occasionally subject to high mowing. Without grazing or mowing the low-growing natives can become shaded and eventually choked out by taller exotic plants. Clearly at least two adequate reserves are necessary, and these would need to be carefully managed with mini­ mum disturbance except for grazing or mowing, if the moth is to survive. Much

The female's wings are reduced in size so, although they can fly, they rarely do.

more needs to be known of the biology of the moth and the characteristics of the grassland if they are to be successfully conserved. The Golden Sun Moth is a species of some scientific interest. It was once an extremely successful moth, common over a large area of south-eastern Australia. It has the advantage of being relatively resistant to grazing and mowing, and pos­ sibly also resistant to fires. It has the dis­ advantage of being confined to a single plant community suited to and vulnerable to modern agriculture. It has the further disadvantage of being unable to recolonise an area distant from an inhabited site be­ cause of the relative immobility of the fe­ male. These characteristics have brought it to the edge of extinction. Although this article is about one con­ spicuous species, it is important to stress that it serves as a figurehead or focus for the many invertebrates as yet unstudied that are also confined to these grasslands and also in danger of extinction. All these Please send me your free information package about invertebrates play an essential role in the Aboriginal-operated tourism in the Northern Territory: balance of the grassland. While many of the individual plant species in the grass­ land are not yet endangered, the grass­ me: ...... Address ...... land community itself is. • ·················································································································· Ted Edwards is a scientist at the Australian National Insect Collection in the CSIRO's ABORIGINAL TOURISM IN THE NORTHERN TERRITORY, Division of Entomology in Canberra. He has GPO BOX 1155 DARWIN NT 0801 OR FAX (089) 811539 NH been studying the taxonomy of moths for the A last 23 years.

ANH 17 WILD FOODS rubiginosa), "prickly box" (African Box­ thom, Lycium ferocissimum), dandelions (Taraxa,cum officinale or Hypochoeris A willingness to taste wild radicata), dock (Rumex species), and Watercress (Rorippa nasturtium­ plants, including weeds, is a aquaticum) are introduced weeds. Rose feature of Aboriginal culture. hips, dandelions and Watercress were settlers' foods, but I have not heard of anyone eating thistles or Kikuyu Grass. Pat Troman confided that "scotch this­ tle" petals were her chewing gum. THE CURIOUS FOODS Another woman said she had never tried thistle petals, but ate the little green "bulb" at the base of the flower, structural­ OF TASMANIA'S ly equivalent to the heart of an artichoke (a cultivated thistle bud). I was baffled by the lack of consistency in the way these ABORIGINES weeds were used. Leonie Leffler, the BY TIM LOW only one who mentioned eating dock, ad­ mitted she had discovered this food her­ self, simply by boiling up the leaves and humifusum), native cherries (Exocarpos tasting them. cupressiformis, E. strictus), Cheese­ I think what happened is this: the Bass berry (Cyathodes glauca), Kangaroo Ap­ Strait communities were poor. To supple­ ple (Solanum laciniatum), ''Kanegong" ment a plain diet, the children munched (Carpobrotus rossii) and "currants" (Leu­ on local plants, including weeds, and dis­ copogon parviflorus). Also remembered covered their own snack foods. Their par­ was the eating of Bracken rhizomes ents gathered some of the weeds (Pteridium esculentum), bulrush inner themselves, making jam and chutney stalks (Typha species), Coast Wattle from boxthom berries, syrup from Sweet seeds (Acacia sophorae) and grasstree Briar, vegetables from Watercress and N LAUNCES'TDN LAST YEAR I ENJOYED "bread" (Xanthorrhoea inner trunk). These dock, and medicines from dandelion flow­ a meal of kangaroo-tail soup and are all well-known Aboriginal foods. ers, thistle heads, a wild garlic (Allium damper with people once rudely dis­ But other plants told to me were not of missed as "extinct". Only recently has the same heritage. Thistles, Kikuyu Cheese-berry was a snack food remembered by white Australia realised (with some guilt) Grass (Pennisetum clandestinum), rose Veris van Eckert, who grew up on Barren and that Ta smanian Aborigines are still among hips (presumably from Sweet Briar, Rosa Lady Barren Islands. us. The Launceston community traces ancestry to women who settled with seal­ ers in the Fumeaux Islands of Bass Strait. Tasmania's Aborigines are striving to redefine and reassert their identity in the 1990s, and they welcomed my request to interview the older members about foods and medicines. At the lunch I rushed about with pen and paper and pictures of plants, scribbling down the remem­ brances of the older women. Their test­ imony was remarkably detailed and full of surprises. One of their most fondly remembered foods was the "shoke apple". It took some head-scratching before I realised they were referring to the young cone of a she­ oak (Allocasuarina species). Pat Troman (among others) told me she used to "Boil that and eat with sugar. That'd be like a fruit to us . . . At lunch (at school) we used to go up to the she-oak trees and take a bag of sugar. You could eat 'em raw but you had to dip 'em in sugar:' Others said the sour-tasting cones were usually boiled before eating, and that they tasted "beautiful". Another informant, Te rry Maynard, remembered eating "twirly things on top of she-oaks, a bit like a flat curled snake". These oddities, presumably galled ;,: branchlets, were chewed for an hour or so ; until the taste went out of them. ;:: The women remembered eating a num­ � ber of wild fruits that thankfully, were � easier to identify: Cranberry (Astroloma 18 ANH Rose hips, almost certainly from Sweet Briar (a common weed in Tasmania), were boiled down with sugar into a syrup. ampeloprasum) and other plants. As well, some Aboriginal foods were remembered from past generations, and these too were harvested, although not always in traditional ways. Some of the latter are very significant. "Kanegong" (a type of pigface) is unique as the only plant food remembered by its Aboriginal name, suggesting it was especially significant. This is confirmed by the journal of French explorer Labillardiere, who in 1798 observed that "This fruit is a delicacy among the New Hollanders, who seek for it with care, and eat it as soon as they find it". Pat Troman has charming childhood memories of eating not only the fruits of kanegong, but the leaves and parts of the flowers: "We used to take a little bag of sugar to school. We'd eat the kanegong leaves with sugar. We'd be late for school because we'd be going around having a feed". The broken leaves were also rubbed on ant stings as a remedy. Bracken was probably a staple food in Ta smania, but its starchy underground stems were mentioned by only one infor­ showed admirable adaptability, and thistle Spear thistle (Cirsium vu/gare) was probably mant, Maureen West, who admitted it chewing gum and boxthorn chutney one of the thistles eaten by Tasmanian was no longer eaten. "They reckon if you should now be accepted as part of Aborigines. The base of the bud tastes fryit, it tastes just like peanuts", she told Ta smanian Aboriginal culture alongside delightfully like artichoke. me. kanegong and Bracken. • An archaeologist could argue that the weeds remembered by these women are Suggested Reading not Aboriginal foods, and as such are not Labillardiere, J., 1800. Voyage in search of La worth documenting. I disagree. Aborigi­ Perouse. Stockdale: London. nal culture is changing, has always been changing, and has every right to change. Roth, H.L., 1890. The Aborigines of Tasmania. A willingness to taste wild plants, includ­ F. King & Sons: Halifax. ing weeds, is a feature of Aboriginal cul­ ture, and contrasts strongly with the West, I., 1985. Bush food. Aboriginal Health traditional phobia of poisoning shown by Worker 9(4): 20-23. Europeans. Many Australian explorers and pioneers suffered pointlessly from Tim Low is a Brisbane-based environmental scurvy because they were unwilling to try consultant and the author of four books on wild foods. The Tasmanian Aborigines wild foods and medicines. ANH 19 other Orcas. Could this be the cetacean TRENDS IN SCIENCE equivalent of Madonna's Sex book? The discovery of Killer Whale 'reading' was accidental. The follow-up of its impli­ Brightness is a very iffy and cations will join the list of other mysteries likely unprovable justification of cetacean cognition and intelligence. for protection. Whenever I hear debates about protec­ tion of whales based on their special 'brightness' I remember the Vancouver Aquarium. Should we make a particular case of ANIMAL IQ: whales and dolphins because they may be clever? They certainly have big brains, as you'd expect in large mammals with com­ SHOULD IT MAKE plex constant movement. That their cerebral cortices, the seat of intelligence, are also large leads many to believe there A DIFFERENCE? may be undiscovered brain power to match our own. BY ROBYN WILLIAMS But Dr Margaret Klinowska, a psychol­ ogist working on dolphins in Cambridge, says that the cetacean brain is, kilo for kilo, often smaller that you might expect, depending on species, for such large mammals. She also notes that dolphins, despite their large cortices, do not have rapid-eye-movement (REM) sleep-that component needed to 'clear' brains so that more information may be processed. The big brain may be required to make up for lack of dreams and be based on the same need as hefty old-generation computers: comparative primitiveness. So the sheer size need not be a direct indicator of IQ. Dr Klinowska points out that echidnas seem to be overendowed with cerebral AVE YOU SEE WHALES cortex, but we don't praise these Aus­ reading books? The last tralians for their quick-wittedness. So time I was in Vancouver I visited their why whales? And if their behaviour is not magnificent aquarium, set among the much more complex than many less trees of Stanley Park. There were two celebrated herd animals, does this mean purposes in going there: one was to en­ we should be less protective of them? tertain my kids, although their reluctance We ll I don't think it's useful to make in being dragged to yet another museum comparisons between creatures and peo­ or wildlife park was unrelenting, and I ple. We find whales and dolphins to be wanted to talk to Dr John Ford about his delightful in many ways. That their intelli­ studies of Killer Whale (Orcinus area) di­ gence may be about that of a dog is no alects. insult-my own dog (a border collie) per­ The aquarium, as ever, was irresistible, forms intellectual feats of astounding even for the Williams grumps. After cleverness. But I want her to be doggish, watching the Killer Whales cavort in the not human. I have enough contact with thrice daily show, and being squirted with humans! water aimed right between my eyes by a Whales can be admired, and protected, cheeky Beluga Whale, we repaired to Dr on their own merits, whatever the intelli­ Ford's office in the basement. gence or doltishness of any particular It was below ground for a very good Should the Killer Whale's suspected species. Besides, there is no compelling reason. One wall was entirely made of intelligence be the driving force for its economic reason to hunt them. Hunting strong glass. Through it we could see the conservation? causes obvious distress, both to them and enormous Orea tank in which the three us, and the products can easily be ob­ Killer Whales, between acts, glided there for some minutes with his eye just tained elsewhere. The Japanese excuse of gracefully. I began my interview for radio, inches on the other side. "What's he doing 'scientific' whaling is an insult. and my son and daughter stood by the over there?" I asked my interviewee, tape Brightness, as such, is a very iffy and glass and watched the huge beasts swim. still rolling. likely unprovable justification for protec­ I was learning all about the population "Oh, he's reading a book. When he tion. Whatever the animal, it should be of hundreds of Orcas along the coast of wants the pages turned, after five treasured for its zoological uniqueness North America and how their 'songs' had minutes or so, he'll give a squeak." and studied accordingly. Any decisions � been recorded. These vary subtly with "Hang on", I objected, "you are on na­ about protection should be a combination � location and are passed on through fami- tional radio, cut the whimsy, what's he of scientific knowledge and a regard for 15! lies. They can also be quite different in really doing?" our positive feelings for them. • g other habitats a long way away-just as "No really", says Dr Ford, and he took � languages vary between countries. me over to the glass wall, "here are four Robyn Williams is Presenter of Radio Na­ � It was at that point I noticed that the books we have open and he reads them, tional's Science Show. His work brings him largest Killer Whale, weighing 6.5 tonnes, or looks at the pictures". The books were constantly in contact with the changingtrends had paused by the glass. He'd lingered all about whales. There were pictures of in science.

20 ANH WILDLIFEOF GONDWANA

23 beauti­ detailed descriptions of fully eve:rys�es in the repro­ worTd, giving distinctive duced features, disfiibutionand historical habitat� cultivation and draw­ methoas of propagation ings and R.R. P. $45.00 engrav­ ings Reed from ord published by botanical a part of William Heinemann journals Australia -- RBBD Available at All Bookshops

OW DO ECHIDNAS MAKE LOVE? THE across Australia use this technique in vari­ H standard half-joking answer has ous ways (see article on echidna hiberna­ always been, "very carefully". Yet the tion, ANH Summer 1990-91). Before truth of the matter is that, until tracking can begin, however, the first task recently, no-one had reported this obser­ is finding the secretive echidna. At the vation on wild, free-ranging echidnas. Pelican Lagoon study site we search on The elusive echidna has been known foot. and studied for 200 years, yet we do not Echidnas are quiet and reclusive. They know how many there are, or if popula­ have highly sensitive hearing and a good tions are stable, growing or diminishing. nose. In mallee country most echidnas Fascinated by these inconspicuous spiny become motionless and silent at the snap egg-layers, I decided to live in the field of a twig underfoot or the scent of a and observe Short-beaked Echidnas human. The natural camouflage of their (Tachyglossus aculeatus) in their natural spines and body-form blends in with the environment, from conception to adult. bush. Some use the powerful front dig­ To date, the thousands of hours invested ging claws in a rotational movement to dis­ searching thick bushland, following echid­ appear straight down into the ground. A nas day and night through winter hail and flick of the spines places dirt and leaf summer heat, have been rewarded with litter on top and the vanishing act is magical glimpses and new insights into complete. Finding an echidna means the cryptic lives of these ancient battlers continually listening, looking and being in of the bush. the right place at the right time. Volun­ Echidnas and echidna researchers can teers can become discouraged after be found throughout Australia (there are, spending hundreds of hours walking in however, comparatively fewer of the lat­ areas of known echidna activity, without ter). The Pelican Lagoon Research and finding any. But when one is found, the Wildlife Centre on Kangaroo Island (off thrill of discovery is so great, that en­ the coast of South Australia) was chosen thusiasm is quickly regained. as my long-term study site and home. Each echidna is weighed, sexed and The island offers field biologists unique given an individual ID using small and valuable opportunities. It is free of coloured tubes. These tubes are slipped many introduced pests and predators, over one or more spines on a selected such as rabbits and foxes. There are still body part. Hence, echidna YBC is 'Yellow Back Centre' and RTR is 'Red Tail Right'. A small tracking transmitter is attached to the back spines of some animals. Each transmitter has a specific frequency, like a radio station, and can be dialled up on a receiver. Marking and recapture of animals is a way of determining population size. Radiotracking is used to unobtru­ sively find and then observe and record activities of individual echidnas on a rou­ tine, round-the-clock basis, 52 weeks of the year. spurs is often used to distinguish a sexu­ Volunteers were having difficulties ally mature male from a female echidna. Adelaide_.....- remembering an animal's colour code and However, I have found that 25 per cent of frequency, so they started christening the mature females have at least one 'well­ echidnas as they were found. Some of our developed' spur, and 25 per cent of males longer-known males include Casey, have lost one. Nonetheless, the spur is a Casanova, Canon and Wurm. Among the good indicator of sex during the breeding females are Big Mama, Nikki, Zoey, Fluff season. At this time a thick, sticky excre­ and Olive. tion oozes out around the base of spurs in Kangaroo Island Determining the sex of an echidna is sexually mature males. No female or not a simple task. The sexual organs of subadult with spurs has shown this trait. both females and males are internal. All At other times of the year there is a solid that can be seen on the furry belly side is talc-like mass at the spur base. Platypus the cloaca, the single opening through researchers report a secretion from the which digestive, urinary and reproductive male Platypus spur during the breeding products all pass. There may or may not season that correlates with increased lev­ be a pouch. Both male and female echid­ els of the hormone testosterone. At nas can form one by contracting the lon­ present we can only assume it is the same large areas of nearly pristine habitat as gitudinal muscles around the belly region. with echidnas. Still, just why and for what well as human-altered terrain surrounded The spurs on the inside of hind feet are purpose the echidna has spurs remain to by native scrub. The echidna occupies the most common characteristic used to be learned. most of these habitat types. Mike McKel­ sex echidnas, but this also has its draw­ Outside of the breeding season I find vey, wildlife photographer and biologist, backs. All juvenile echidnas (both males the best way to determine the sex of an became my coworker in the quest to and females) have spurs. These are non­ echidna is by 'palpation' (feeling). When research echidna population dy namics venomous, in contrast to Platypus spurs, an echidna is partially curled in a ball the and document photographically 'the which are venomous and found only on stomach muscles are pulled together echidna story' from egg to adult. males. In theory, the female echidna forming a 'pouch'. The animal is uncurled Radiotracking has been a standard tool loses her spurs at maturity, whereas the just enough to reach and feel inside the for field mark-and-recapture studies for male spurs change slightly in form and are pouch at the cloaca! end. In males, the many years and echidna researchers retained. Hence, presence or absence of penis lies along the side of the pelvic bone

24 ANH and is detected as a slight bulge. This Echldnas are quiet and reclusive animals with technique takes some practice, but has highly sensitive hearing and a good sense of proven to be very accurate! smell.

OR MOST OF THE YEAR AN ECHIDNA IS Fa loner, but survival of the species demands that even loners get together! CSIRO monotreme expert Dr Mervyn Griffiths determined that echidnas all over Australia 'get together' and breed during the winter months. It's at this time that we observe sexually active male echidnas going beyond their normal home ranges in search of females and forming what is called a 'train'. In 1975 Dr Mike Augee from the University of New South Wales reported finding a group of six echidnas together in Victoria. Only one The presence of a spur on the hind foot is not was a female. And in his classic book, The a reliable indicator of gender as previously biology of the monotremes, Griffiths believed. describes five incidences from different parts of Australia of echidnas walking animals following are males. The small "lnclianfile nose to tail» fashion. All obser­ echidna bringing up the rear is often a vations were made during the months of subadult male. The formation of a train July and August. actually signalises the beginning of court­ An echidna train looks like a family out ship and the breeding season. for a walk. On Kangaroo Island, the lar­ The number of males in a particular fe­ gest animal is in the lead and the smallest male's train ranges from one to ten (the animal brings up the rear. The firstanimal maximum reported so far on Kangaroo Is­ in the train is a female and all other land), and may vary day to day. Males

ANH 25 often join several trains during the court­ far as two metres away from the female, ship period and spend time on their own all became restless and began moving 'between trains'. Volunteers found around. Some years ago Griffiths specu­ Casanova with Zoey on two consecutive lated that olfaction (smell) may help to days before his tracking signal suddenly bring echidnas together during the breed­ disappeared. He showed up three days ing season. Observations made in recent later two kilometres away, with Nikki, and years support the theory that echidnas another ten days and a further two use pheromones for attracting the oppo­ kilometres away he was found with Big site sex, although their actual nature, Mama. During Casanova's six weeks of composition, dispersal and effective range courting he lost 800 grams, nearly 25 per have yet to be determined. cent of his body mass. He then returned On Kangaroo Island we have recorded to his old territory but did not fuJJy regain trains and other courtship behaviour last­ his old body weight until summer. ing between 14 and 36 days. During this Just how the female attracts males and time the males follow, rest and pursue the exactly how long the courtship period female, making advances by nudging her lasts is not clear. Throughout the year side or tail with their nose. An unrecep­ echidnas have a distinctive odour that can The four-headed echidna penis, well tive female either completely ignores the even be detected by the human nose, but documented by 18th-century field biologists, is male or simply curls up in a spiky ball. during the breeding season females still a mystery today. To wards the end of the courtship period, sometimes emit an additional scent. In however, the female becomes receptive 1894 Richard Semon, who was working in Between 1988 and 1991 I was in the and mates with one of the individuals in Queensland, firstrecorded that both male right spot on three different occasions to her train. and female echidnas gave off a pungent have the chance to smell this distinctive During mating the female lies flat on odour during the breeding season. Re­ 'other echidna odour'. One time, while ly­ her stomach, often with her head and cently, Lyn Beard (University of Queens­ ing on the ground and observing a train of front legs partially dug in at the base of a land) reported a "musty smell" from a echidnas at rest, I suddenly noticed a shrub or small tree. The male or males female dug out of her hibernation burrow pungent musky smell coming from the begin digging along either side of the fe. in the Snowy Mountains during the month direction of the female. The four males, male. If more than two males are present, of August. who were positioned to one side and as they push each other aside, digging not only along the female, but also arnund the vegetation. At some point one of the males will turn to his opponent and begin a head-on-head pushing contest until only one remains in the dug-out trench around the female. This male continues to dig on one side of the female, stroking her spines and attempting to lift her tail end with one of his hind feet. He finally suc­ ceeds in raising her enough to be able to place his tail under hers while lying on his side. This 'foreplay' may take up to four hours. Once in position the male extends his penis (which may be up to seven cen­ timetres in length) out of his cloaca and into hers. The unusual echidna penis has a cauliflower-like head with four openings. Radio telemetry helps researchers follow the activities of individual echidnas The function of this bizarre structure has both day and night. yet to be discovered; it may be important for directing sperm into the female's inter­ nal reproductive passage. During the ac­ VOLUNTEERS AND ECHIDNAS tual mating process, both animals push their tails against one another, tensing Earthwatch volunteers joining echidnas are only active by day, and relaxing the spines. Coupling is com­ the 'Echldnas On Kangaroo but when animals start moving at pleted after 30 to 180 minutes and the Island' project come from many night, so do the trackers. Without animals go their separate ways. All that different countries and occupa­ the aid of volunteers, 24-hour ob­ remains after the mating activities is the tions. They share a common in­ servations on moving animals 'mating rut' which can be doughnut­ terest in nature, enthusiasm to would be impossible. shaped, if more than one male was in­ learn something new, and a will­ Earthwatch provides opportuni­ volved, or a simple straight trench. The ingness to work. Field teams ties for people from all walks of deepest mating rut measured so far was receive days of intensive training life to become constructively in­ 20 centimetres. in orienteering, map reading, use volved in scientific field projects. Echidna researchers have yet to ob­ of radio telemetry equip­ Contact Earthwatch Australia, serve a female mating more than once in ment and animal observation Level 1, 457 Elizabeth Street, a season, although this cannot be dis­ techniques. Melbourne Victoria 3000. Tele­ counted. We do know that within a day or Volunteer tasks include search­ phone: (03) 600 9100. Earth­ two of mating, all males have left the fe­ ing for animals, conducting forag­ watch is an ANH Associate male. She goes back to a solitary lifestyle, ing transects, tracking and Society. while the males may join another train. observing individuals. Sometimes Several researchers have reported that the gestation period, the time between mating and egg-laying, is about 21 to 28 days.

26 ANH A female echidna may be followed by a train of up to ten suitors as part of the pre-breeding courtship behaviour.

O-ONE HAS ACTUALLY SEEN AN echidna laying her egg. One bit of echidnaN lore is that the female retires to a 'maternity burrow',lays her egg and re­ mains there for ten days until it hatches. I had been tracking Yellow, a very blond female echidna, which kept coming and going from the same burrow. During the 1960s Griffiths determined that the incu­ bation period of an echidna egg was 10 to 10.5 days. So on day ten, when Mike and I spotted Yellow at the entrance of her burrow, we decided to pouch check her for an egg, 'just in case'. I had become quite adept at quickly and gently checking the pouch, which is usually dry and warm. To my surprise the pouch was wet and sticky. We uncurled her further and were amazed to see a minute, wriggling, pinkish blob clinging to the hairs in the pouch. The egg shell was still there too. Few researchers have witnessed the wonder of a freshly hatched echidna in the wild. This was our first chance to docu-

uring Casanova's six weeks of courting he lost 800 grams, nearly 2 5 per cent of his body mass.

ment the phenomenon so, after carefully returning Yellow to her burrow, we went to confer with Griffiths. Twenty-four hours later, acting on Griffiths' advice, we weighed and meas­ ured the tiny translucent 'puggle' (pouch young echidna), which now had milk in its stomach. It was 13 millimetres fromsnout to tail (about the length of my little finger nail) and weighed 0.322 grams (about one sixth of an Australian five-cent coin). The front legs were well developed with tiny claws, whereas the back limbs were merely buds. The newly hatched young must pull it­ self from the deep pocket of the pouch at the cloaca! end up to the milk patch for its first drink; a distance six times its own body length! Echidnas have no teats on to which the puggle can attach. Instead it must grasp onto the hairs in the mother's pouch. The milk is secreted by glands that open at the base of specialised mam­ mary hairs where the puggle suckles. Griffiths was the first to measure the ex­ traordinary growth rate and shown that

ANH 27 Hatchling echidnas weigh less than 0.5 grams. away from the nursery burrow. Studies To stay in their mother's pouch they use well­ from various areas in Australia report that developed front feet to hold onto the soft belly echidnas are weaned at about seven fur. This wild hatchling is one of several being months. What happens then remains to studied from conception to maturity. be learned. The years between weaning and sexual maturity probably pose the the puggle can increase its body weight greatest survival challenge for an echidna. over 500 fold (from 0.32 to 178 grams) in Although we now know how echidnas in the first 45 days of its life! At this time the the wild make love-an event that has hair and spines begin to appear above the provoked the imagination of many people skin. The puggle is soon too large and for many years-it is only one small part of prickly for the female to carry, so she digs the animal's lifecycle. We still need to find a nursery burrow in which to place it. out when an echidna becomes sexually During the 1980s at Tidbinbilla (ACT) mature, how often females reproduce, Griffiths observed that a female echidna how many young are hatched each year, returned to the nursery burrow only ev­ and how many survive to adulthood. ery five to ten days to suckle the young. Researchers around Australia continue to On Kangaroo Island we find that mother address the diverse mysteries surround­ echidnas visit the burrow young every ing the Short-beaked Echidna. Under­ five to six days, carefully closing the en­ standing the ecology of this ancient and trance each time she leaves. At about six hardy species may give insight into the months of age we have seen young echid­ history of others that have not made it in nas begin their first short expeditions our changing world. •

28 ANH Suggested Reading Newgrain, K., 1988. Observations on free­ living, lactating echidnas, Tachyglossus acu/ea­ Augee, M.L. (ed.), 1992. Platypus and echidnas. tus (Monotremata: Tachyglossidae), and sucklings. Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales: Mos­ Aust. Mammal. 11: 135-143. man, Sydney. Rismiller, P.D. & Seymour, R.S., 1991. The echidna. Augee, M.L., Ealey, E.H.M. & Price, I.P., 1975. Sci Amer. 2: 96-103. Movements of echidnas, Tachyglossus aculeatus, determined by marking-recapture and radio­ Rismiller, P.D., 1991. Echidna research 100 years tracking. Aust. Wild/. Res. 2: 93-101. ago and today. Aust. Sci. Mag. 4: 16-22. Beard, LA., Grigg, G.C. & Augee, M.L., 1992. Born in Ohio, USA, Dr Peggy Rismiller Reproduction by echidnas in a cold climate. Pp. studied and received her biology degrees in 93-100 in Platypus and echidnas, ed. by M.L. Au­ Gennany. She immigrated to Australia in gee. Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales: 1988and, as an environmental physiologist, Mosman, Sydney. is currently a visiting research fellow at the Department of Anatomy and Histology, Griffiths, M., 1978. The biology of the monotremes. University of Adelaide. Together with biolo­ Academic Press: New York. gist/wildlife photographer Mike McKelvey Griffiths, M., Kristo, F., Green, B., Fogerty, A.C. & she lives and works full-time in the field, studyingand documentinglife history, ecology Despite being studied for 200 years, many and whole-animal biology of the Short­ This 45-day-old echidna is changing colour aspects of the Short-beaked Echidna's life still beaked Echidna on Kangaroo Island, South from pink to grey as hairs and spines begin remain a mystery. Australia. to grow.

AN H 29

'LL NEVER FORGET THAT DAY AS LONG (now officially known as Apatosaurus), fe­ beginning of the Age of Reptiles, in the as I live-the day I found my first rocious Tyrannosaurus, or even the Triassic Period (about 230 million years dinosaur bone. It was a blustery day three-homed Triceratops spring to mind. ago), Australia formed the eastern ex­ inI November 1978. My cousin Tim Flan­ Interestingly, one thing all these share is tremity of Gondwana, the great southern nery, Rob Glenie and I headed down to that they lived in North America. We supercontinent, consisting of Antarctica, the Gippsland coastline to hunt for usually always regard dinosaurs as crea­ Australia, New Zealand, India, Arabia, dinosaur bones. Within ten minutes of tures that are dug up from other coun­ South America and Africa. During the climbing down the cliffs I found a small tries, not Australia. Yet the land Triassic, Gondwana lay in close proximity bone in a rock. We were amazeC: at how downunder does have its dinosaurs, and to the northern supercontinent of Laura­ quickly we had found the fossil and, wi­ very interesting ones at that. They sia, containing Europe, Asia and North thin a few hours, we had found another represent an until recently unknown an­ America. three bone fragments. This was the first tipodean dinosaur fauna, some forms of The first dinosaurs appeared about this dinosaur bone to be found in Victoria which actually lived within the Antarctic time in South America. Land bridges ena­ since the tum of the century and, it was Circle, surviving long annual periods of bled dinosaurs to migrate freely into all to spark off a number of major discover­ cold and 24-hour-a-day darkness. continents. By the early part of the Juras­ ies, resulting in hundreds of dinosaur Although Australia has only a few large sic Period (about 200 million years ago) bones being uncovered from the coastal and spectacular dinosaurs, our many Gondwana began to drift apart. South cliffs of southern Victoria. small dinosaurs, and their footprints, are America and Africa had left Gondwana Whenever we think of dinosaurs, im­ filling the gaps in the story of dinosaur and by then many of the major dinosaur ages of the giant lumbering 'Brontosaurus' faunas of the southern continents. At the groups had evolved. By early Cretaceous times (about 100 million years ago) dinosaurs reached their peak of diversity, and only Australia and Antarctica re­ mained joined to form the last remnant of Gondwana. Dinosaur groups that ap­ peared late in the Cretaceous in the orthern Hemisphere, such as the

'II never forget the day I found my first dinosaur bone.

duck-billed hadrosaurs, couldn't migrate into Australia because the continents were then separated by the newly formed oceans. However, dinosaurs undoubtedly reached Australia through Gondwana sometime between the late Triassic and early Jurassic. Evidence for this migration comes from Antactica, where the remains of a large carnivorous ( meat-eating ) dinosaur, among others, have recently been discovered.

AUSTRALIA HAS AN INTERESTING � history of dinosaur discoveries. Some of our larger specimens were unco­ vered in Queensland during the 1920s. The Queensland Museum did not have funding to send scientists into the field, so the large bones had to be packed up and sent in by graziers. This is how Rhoetosaurus-our largest dinosaur known from a partially complete skeleton-was found. Fifty years after the original bones were forwarded from :E Durham Downs Station to the Museum, a ,g :E team of scientists revisited the site, and < 3i to their amazement, uncovered a nearly -0"' � John long makes a rubber latex cast of a stegosaur footprint. The fossil trackway from j Broome is so far the only evidence of ::,,., 8 Stegosaurus-like dinosaurs in Australia.

32 ANH MAJOR DINOSAUR GROUPS

Saurischia Ornithischia

(lizard-hipped dinosaurs) (bird-hipped dinosaurs with horny beak for cropping plants)

THEROPODA STEGOSAURIA* MARGINOCEPHALIA Bipedal, agile, carnivorous Quadrupedal, paired bony plates or Frill structure developed around dinosaurs with relatively large spines along the back, four tail back of head. Includes: heads and long, sharp teeth, large spikes, large legs, small arms, legs, small arms, e.g. Tyrannosau­ small head, leaf-shaped teeth, rus**, Rapator, Al/osaurus, Kakuru, plant-eaters, e.g. Stegosaurus�* Tyrannosauropus tracks, Megalosauropus tracks, Skartopus tracks.

PACHYCEPHALOSAURW•-bipedal forms with thick bony skulls and ANKYLOSAURIA weak frill, e.g. Pachycepha/os­ Quadrupedal 'armoured' dinosaurs aurus�* having thick bony plates or denti­ SAUROPODS cles set into the back, often with Quadrupedal with elephantine legs, clubs developed on tail, e.g. large bodies, long neck and tail, Minml. small head, peg-like teeth, plant­ eating, e.g. Apatosaurus**, Brachiosaurus**, Rhoetosaurus, ORNITHOPODA Austrosaurus. Bipedal plant-eaters with large legs and smaller arms. Includes Wintonopus tracks and the following groups: CERATOPSW-quadrupedal horned dinosaurs often with large bony frill, e.g. Triceratops**.

HYPSILOPHODONTIDA�mall and agile, e.g. Fulgurotherium, Leaelly­ nasaura, Atlascopcosaurus.

IGUANODONTIDAE--farge forms with sharp thumb spikes, e.g. Muttaburrasaurus.

HAOROSAURIOAE-•�uck-billed dinosaurs, e.g. Edmontosaurus.

•Groups possibly present in Australia (evidence scarce). ••Groups not found in Australia.

ANH 33 At Lark Quarry the flat beds of Cretaceous complete footof the same beast as well as sandstone, approximately 100 million years several other pieces of bone. Rhoetosau­ old, have preserved more than 3,000 dinosaur rus belonged to the long-necked group of footprints belonging to three different species. dinosaurs known as sauropods (see box on major dinosaur groups) and is estimat­ ed to have been 15 metres long and up to 20 tonnes. Another giant sauropod, Austrosaurus, was described from some isolated ver­ tebrae sent in from Clutha Station, near Maxwelton in northern Queensland. More material thought to belong to Aus­ trosaurus was later found near Winton. The forelimbs were relatively long and slender, most like the older Jurassic sauropods from North Africa. It seems likely that Austrosaurus was a late sur­ vivor of a primitive family, the Cetiosauri­ dae, and was of a similar size to Rhoetosaurus. But what was Australia's biggest dinosaur? The answer lies in one frag­ mentary neck bone found near Hughen­ Scenic view of the outback Queensland den, Queensland. It closely resembles landscape around Lark Quarry, near Winton. It that of the well-known gigantic African, was here that herds of small dinosaurs once American and European sauropod stampeded to escape the jaws of a large Brachiosaurus, and suggests that the predatory dinosaur. Today, only their fossilised Australian monster was up to 22 metres footprints are left to tell the tale.

34 ANH But what was Australia's biggest dinosaur? The answer lies with one fragmentary neck bone found in Queensland.

long. However, as the neck vertebrae of Austrosaurusare not well known, this find could possibly have come from Austrosau­ rus rather than a brachiosaur. More Australian dinosaurs came to light during the opal-mining fever of the early 20th century. During the early 1900s the British Museum of Natural History ob­ tained a small collection of opalised dinosaur bones from the 100-million-year­ ' . . . old white sandstones of Lightning Ridge, .:,,:-1 -·-"rI.· I : New South Wales. Included was a thigh ;-� i ,._ � ...i . _/i- . .. bone (femur) from a small (one to two : ."'. · ....' � �·..;u�. , metres long) plant-eating hypsilophodont dinosaur named Fulgurotherium australe (meaning 'southern Lightning beast'), and crane. It was named Kakuru kujani from A large long-necked sauropod like this· one left a hand bone (metacarpal) from the car­ the Aboriginal myth of the rainbow ser­ its huge footprints in the sandy river sediments nivorous theropod Rapator ornitholest­ pent and the name of the local tribe, the near Broome approximately 100 million years oides. Rapator, which means 'predator', Kujani. The original bones were not do­ ago. Some of the individual prints measure 1.2 was probably a large animal of eight or nated to any museum but were sold at metres in length, suggesting the owner was a nine metres length. auction and have tragically been lost to gargantuan creature of 20 metres or more in In the late 1970s fragments of opalised science. Fortunately, casts of the speci­ length. dinosaur bones were also foundnear An­ men were made which are now held in the damooka, in South Australia. The bones South Australian and other museums. were from a new type of slender, bird-like Australia's most spectacular dinosaur theropod dinosaur, probably about three skeleton emerged in 1963. Large bones metres long, whose shin bone (tibia) was were found in a cattle yard on the Thomp­ of similar proportions to that of a heron or son River, near Muttaburra, Queensland.

ANH 35 The new skeleton of Minmi found near These turned out to belong to a plant­ famous dinosaur footprints. A spectacular Richmond, Queensland, is one of the best eating ornithopod dinosaur named Mut­ findof many thousands of dinosaur track­ dinosaur skeletons ever found in Australia. taburrasaurus langdoni, measuring ap­ ways was discovered near Winton in the Minmi was a small plant-eating ankylosaur that proximately ten metres in length. early 1900s. Careful excavation of the bed lived about 100 million years ago. The bony The skull of Muttaburrasaurus bears a revealed nearly 3,300 individual prints be­ scutes that protected the back can be seen balloon-like expansion of the snout. One longing to three kinds of dinosaurs (see preserved intact between the ribs. suggestion is that this may have support­ ANH Summer 1979). One set of tracks, ed a fleshy organ for making sounds. Its named Wintonopus latomorum, was made teeth are unusual in that the tooth crowns by a small to moderate-size ornithopod appear to have all erupted together, with a stubby asymmetric three-toed differing from the normal dinosaur condi­ footprint. Another, named Skartopus aus­ tion in which teeth erupted sequentially. tralis, was made by a small predatory The jaws could shear food like scissors, dinosaur with sharp claws on each of its and there were large jaw muscle attach­ three toes. The third was from a large ments giving great strength to the three-toed carnivore of gigantic size, leav­ animal's chewing ability. As in other mem­ ing footprints up to 58 centimetres in bers of its family (Iguanodontidae), Mut­ length and aptly named Tyrannosauropus taburrasaurus probably possessed a (meaning 'foot like Tyrannosaurus'). sharp thumb spike thought to have been The Winton trackways give us a fas­ used in defence against attackers. cinating glimpse into prehistory, telling One dinosaur sticks in everyone's the story of what happened in ten se­ memory. It is Minmi, a small armoured conds of time about 100 million years ago. ankylosaur dinosaur with a delightfully It appears that the two herds of small short name, taken from its discovery site dinosaurs were coexisting harmoniously. near Minmi Crossing, southern Queens­ The ornithopods may have been feeding land. The first specimen was found in on plants while the small predators caught 1964 and includes a series of vertebrae, the insects and animals that fled from the part of the foot, and several hundred disturbed vegetation. Suddenly the two small round, bony platelets that were set dinosaur herds were interrupted by a gi­ in the skin around the belly. Also found ant meat-eating monster. In desperation were unusual struts linking the processes they tried to escape but were cornered in on the vertebrae, perhaps necessary to a closed valley and had no choice but to support the weight of the belly. In early run past the big predator. The tracks 1990 a new, nearly complete Minmi show Tyrannosauropus closing in on the skeleton was found near Richmond in desperate, stampeding pack. Estimates of Queensland (see ANH Spring 1990). the speeds of the dinosaurs are 20 Queensland is home to Australia's most kilometres per hour for the swift ornitho- 36 A N H pods, 12 for the small predators and seven for the big meat-eater. There was no record of dinosaurs from Western Australia until the 1950s when Left: Dinosaur Cove, western Victoria, was dinosaur footprints were reported on a discovered in 1983 and has been the site of rocky beach near Broome. The three­ many exciting dinosaur discoveries. toed footprints, named Megalosauropus broomensis, were up to 37 centimetres Below: Skull roof of Leaellynasaura long and belonged to a theropod about six amicagraphica, a small plant-eating metres long. Many new types of dinosaur hypsilophodont dinosaur from Dinosaur Cove, footprints were discovered in the Victoria. The bone covering the brain case has mid-1980s by a local naturalist, Mr Paul been lost, exposing a cast of the brain cavity Foulkes, who walked the rocky beaches and revealing enormous optic lobes. The large during low tides. At least six different eye sockets and optic lobes suggest that this kinds of dinosaur species are represent­ dinosaur may have been able to 'see in the ed, all of which once inhabited the ancient dark'. river valley around Broome. These in­ clude two forms of gigantic sauropods (the largest footprints are just over a metre wide); large predators like Megalosauropus with footprints up to 53 centimetres long (indicating a beast of around nine metres); small ornithopod dinosaurs, including Wintonopus; and a possible stegosaur-the firstrecord of this group of dinosaurs in Australia. The stegosaur trackway is characterised by stubby, asymmetric five-fingered hand prints associated with a robust three-toed footprint. Such a combination is unique among dinosaurs and is only found in some stegosaurs. Perhaps the most exciting of all recent dinosaur finds in Australia are the ex­ traordinary discoveries from southern Victoria, where Ors To m and Pat Rich (from the Museum of Victoria and Monash University) have unearthed 3,000-4,000 bones over the last decade. But what led to these finds? How did the scientists know where to dig for these dinosaurs? AT THE TURN OF THE CENTURY A � small claw from a carnivorous dinosaur ,vas found near Cape Patterson in Gippsland. Then no further finds were made until 1978 when Tim, Rob and I found more bones at the same locality on that unforgettable November day. Later field work by Tim, the Riches and others led to the discovery of many new sites along the coasts in Gippsland and the Ot­ way Ranges (western Victoria), including the discovery in 1983 of 'Dinosaur Cove'-a rich site that has so far yielded many good dinosaur bones of late-early Cretaceous age. Most belong to small hypsilophodonts-agile dinosaurs that ate plants and had no specialised features for defending themselves apart from their ability to run fast. So far there are at least four different types, including Ful­ gurotherium australe, also found at Lightning Ridge. Leaellynasaura amica­ graphica, named after the Riches' daugh­ ter Leaellyn, is the most complete hyp­ silophodont dinosaur known from Australia. It was probably up to a metre in length. Large eye sockets and enormous

Footprint of a small carnosaur, approximately two metres long, found in the Cretaceous rocks on the south coast of Victoria. ANH 37 Several different species of hypsilophodont dinosaurs have been recovered from the coastal rocks of southern Victoria. These dinosaurs must have been adapted to life in a polar climate at a time, approximately 100 million years ago, when southern Australia was well within the Antarctic Circle.

metres in the Jurassic Period of North America. The Aussie Allosaurus was smaller (around five or six metres long), yet more robust. Luckily, although only one bone was found, the astragalus is perhaps the best small bone from the whole skeleton for identifying these dinosaurs, and proves beyond doubt that they survived in Australia for at least 50 million years later than in the Northern Hemisphere. One of the most unexpected finds from Victoria is the bone of a possible horned dinosaur (a ceratopsian). These dinosaurs, which include the large rhinoceros-like Triceratops, were thought to have lived exclusively in the late Creta­ ceous in places such as North America and Asia . However an arm bone (ulna) found in the Strzelecki Ranges appears to be close to that of a small, primitive cer­ atopsian, and comes from Lower Creta­ ceous rocks! Although it is currently regarded with suspicion by its finders To m and Pat Rich, they have suggested the possibility that the group could have had origins in Gondwana and only after­ wards migrated to the orthern Hemisphere. The most fascinating aspect of the Vic­ torian dinosaur story is that these dinosaurs lived within the Antarctic Cir­ cle. How did they cope with these cold 0ess than 5 ° C) and dark polar condi­ tions? One theory is that they were warm-blooded and could generate the necessary heat from within their own bodies. However, in order to keep warm, they would probably have required some specialised body covering, such as down feathers or even fur or possibly, as the Riches have suggested, a layer of fat. ow did Victorian dinosaurs, living Some pterosaurs (ancient flying reptiles) are known to have possessed hair or fur, within the Antarctic Circle, cope with the so other archosaurians (the reptile groups including crocodiles, pterosaurs, cold and dark polar conditions? dinosaurs and birds) may have already had the ability to develop this sort of covering. optic lobes of the brain suggest it The last known giant amphibians might have been able to 'see in the dark' (labyrinthodonts) have also been found in during the three months of the year that the deposits containing the Victorian po­ Victoria was in darkness due to its close lar dinosaurs. As modern amphibians are proximity to the South Pole (within 75 ° not warm-blooded, it suggests that S). Another hypsilophodont, Atlascop­ enough sunshine might have come into cosaurus loadsi, was named after the the area to sustain cold-blooded life, or al­ Atlas Copco Corporation, which gener­ ternatively that the animals were specially ously donated mining equipment to help adapted to cold conditions like some excavate the bones. It was probably about present-day cold-blooded creatures that two or three metres maximum length, survive in polar climates. Examples of and its teeth were well adapted, perhaps these are Antarctic fishes that have anti­ for slicing up the tough coniferous plants freeze enzymes in their blood, or the gi­ that grew in the ancient cold river valley. ant Japanese salamanders that survive One footbone (an astragalus or ankle­ winters in near frozen streams. bone) from the Gippsland coast has been A number of scientists who have identified as belonging to Allosaurus-the studied dinosaur physiology from their same large predator that grew to 12 skeletons believe many were most proba-

38 A N H . '- ·-

�

>� z::::,

<� % 0 ::;:

bly 'warm-blooded', in that their body the fantasticstory of the type of dinosaurs Finer extraction of fossil bones is performed temperatures remained high despite low that inhabited Australia. This not only with the use of a hammer and chisel. environmental temperatures, but the heat satisfies curiosity about such things, but necessary for this was not generated continues to fuel the growing industry from internal sources (as in true en­ that dinosaur-mania has spawned. dotherms). The larger the animal is, the Dinosaurs are now a multimillion dollar in- less energy it requires to maintain high dustry around the world. Books, films, temperatures. A special term-'giganto­ museum exhibitions and travelling dis- thermy'-has been coined to explain this plays, robotic dinosaurs and theme type of heat regulation in large animals parks-they all start with the palaeontolo- (see ANH Autumn 1992). It explains how gist digging up the bones and carrying out a large, supposedly 'cold-blooded' repWe research. Let's hope that Australia con- like the Leatherback Turtle can survive in tinues to reveal more dinosaur discover- cold Arctic waters while maintaining a ies each year-it could be just the thing body temperature of over 25 ° C. In other we need to boost an ailing economy! • words, a gigantic dinosaur may have re­ tained a high constant body temperature Suggested Reading without having the same in-built en­ Long, J.A., 1990. Dinosaurs of Australia and dothermic generator as mammals or birds other animals of the Mesozoic Era. Reed Books: do today. Sydney. Still, smaller dinosaurs would have had Molnar, R.E., 1991. Fossil reptiles in Australia. a hard job managing their constant body Pp. 605-702 in Vertebrate palaeontology of temperature in such cold climates. Unlike Australasia, ed. by P. Vickers-Rich, J.M. Mona­ the bigger dinosaurs or large amphibians, ghan, R.F. Baird and T.H. Rich. Pioneer Design they would have required a much higher Studio: Melbourne. metabolism to generate and maintain Vickers-Rich, P. & Rich, T.H., 1991. The enough body heat to survive the cold, dinosaurs of winter. Nat Hist. April 1991: dark polar winters. Thus there is a strong 32-39. argument for at least the small Victorian dinosaurs being true endotherms. Dr John Long is Curator of Vertebrate The mystery of how the Victorian Palaeontology at the Western Australian dinosaurs of the twilight zone managed to Museum. His main research is on the keep warm may never be fully resolved, evolution offishes, but he has also described but at least we are slowly piecing together Western Australia's firstdinosaur bones. ANH 39

When does graffiti at Aboriginal rock art sites become vandalism and when does it become part of our cultural heritage? A MARK IN TIME BY MIKE MORWOOD & GRAHAME WALSH

HE WORD 'GRAFFITr COMES FROM the Greek 'graphien' meaning to T mark, draw or write. Put simply, graffiti are drawings or words written on walls. The urge to leave such personal marks for posterity. appears to be a basic human trait. In fact, studies have shown that this was one of the motivating factors when Australian Aborigines decorated the walls of rock shelters. Aboriginal artists are known to have used hand stencils at a site to record a visit, and such 'signatures' could serve as a memorial to be mourned over after the artist's death. Writing on walls also has a long history. For instance, archaeologists have found many inscriptions on the walls of the city of Pompeii, which was buried by a volcan­ ic eruption in 79 AD. In some cases these graffiti were names. Others expressed sentiments like "Romula tarried here with Staphylus". They present a real insight into ancient Roman life, values and hu­ mour. Such graffiti is also one of the main types of deliberate damage by visitors to Australian Aboriginal rock art sites, and therein lie the roots of a problem. Australia is a signatory to the Interna­ tional Council on Monuments and Sites Charter, which stipulates that, in taking steps to conserve a site, all aspects of cultural significance should be taken into account and that the contribution of all

Black's Palace, In central Queensland, has suffered extensive vandalism since the time of first European settlement. So when does graffiti become vandal­ ism? Where should the line be drawn in deciding what graffiti should be left and what removed? Are examples older than 50 years significant, or should 100 years Where should the line be drawn in be the minimum age? With ever­ increasing pressures being placed on cul­ tural heritage managers, these questions deciding what graffiti should be left and are important. All manner of people have visited or lived in rock shelters since Eu­ what removed? ropean settlement, including explorers, convicts, bushrangers, camel drivers, hermits, miners, stockmen, Dingo trap­ pers, possumers, local identities and the periods of site use must be respected. At Aboriginal stockmen and station workers destitute. Many of these people recorded the practical level this is impossible, for added in charcoal. But in one day, mem­ their presence on the walls-in some often there are conflicting priorities by bers of an organised local pony club ride cases with considerable flair and skill. which steps taken to conserve one aspect effectively destroyed the rock art panels These records are of historical sig­ of cultural significance have damaging ef­ with their graffiti. Such defacement of nificance. Some warrant preservation. fects on other aspects. Graffiti at Aborigi­ Aboriginal sites is now illegal in all States, It could also be argued that all graffiti nal rock art sites provide a good example with heavy penalties prescribed for are potentially informative and, at the of such conflicting priorities. offenders. very least, they should be recorded be­ Removal of graffiti from defaced rock But some graffiti at rock art sites are fore removal is contemplated. This is be­ art sites is now a standard practice used themselves of historic importance. For in­ cause such defacement at rock art sites by all Australian State authorities. Such stance, most people would agree that can provide a range of information useful basic restoration work enhances the visi­ graffiti left by the explorer Ernest Giles in their long-term management. tor experience and facilitates respect for and his party in central Australian rock art In a recent review of the impact of the site and Aboriginal culture. Removing galleries in October 1872 are culturally tourists on places of cultural significance, graffiti also minimises the risk of 'copycat' significant and should be preserved. Fay Gale and Jane Jacobs, of the Universi­ behaviour, which has potential to escalate Similarly, in central Australia the graffiti ty of Adelaide, noted that information on and bring about the rapid destruction of left by Aboriginal stockmen at rock art the way people use rockart sites is an es­ rock art at a site. The famous Kenniff sites are important indicators of both sential prerequisite for planning the con­ Cave art site, in Mt Moffat ational Park cultural continuity and the disruption that struction of facilities such as boardwalks. (Queensland), is such an example. Until has occurred since European settle­ These researchers also list a range of 1967 this site had only a few names of ment. techniques for measuring visitor pressure on sites. The techniques include counting of visitors, observation of their behaviour, questionnaires and interviews. All provide information on visitor impact and atti­ tudes, but only over a fairly limited time period. Changes in visitor impact and attitudes over a longer time period also need to be taken into account, otherwise measures taken may be a response to past rather than present patterns of visitor behaviour. For instance, progressive stages in the 'public awareness' of a site tend to attract different types of visitors, each with their own management problems. At many sites graffiti appear to date largely from a time when visitor numbers were low and attitudes to Aboriginal rock art were different. In such cases, graffiti may no longer be a problem, even though previ­ ous defacement may still be very evident and obtrusive. Over the past 20 years there has un­ doubtedly been a shift in community atti­ tudes towards conservation of cultural and natural resources, some of which may have stemmed from legislative changes by the States and some of which led to legis­ lative changes. Clearly, methods for monitoring the long-term effectiveness of conservation procedures would be useful. Comparative studies undertaken at specific sites at regular intervals have provided such management data, for ex-

Defacement of Aboriginal rock art sites is illegal in all States. Dave Lambert removes graffiti from Kenniff Cave in Mt Moffat National Park, central Queensland. 42 ANH ample, in the way visitor numbers have in­ creased at Camarvon Gorge, Kakadu and Uluru National Parks. Unfortunately, no Australian study was ever undertaken for the important period from the mid-1950s, when visitor numbers expanded signifi­ cantly, through to the 1970s, when all States passed laws protecting Aboriginal sites and the State agencies responsible for overseeing these laws were estab­ lished. One possible method for monitoring long-term changes in social attitudes towards Aboriginal art sites is to make use of dated graffiti; ascase studies from the central Queensland Highlands and New South Wales illustrate.

HE CENTRALQUEENSLAND SANDSTONE TBelt is widely known for its large number of Aboriginal rock art sites. Un­ fortunately, the soft sandstones are easily marked and many of the sites have been defaced by vandalism. This has been oc­ curring almost since the time of first Eu­ ropean settlement in the region. For instance, at Black's Palace, which is prob­ ably the most heavily vandalised site in Queensland, one of the first official reports was by Staff Surveyor W.G. Drane, who wrote to the Queensland Surveyor-General in 1918: "I am forward­ ing per parcel post a painting of a hand". This had been literally cut from the wall. Later in 1935, J. Bergin, Ac ting Land Commissioner, complained that at this site: "Visitors persist in defacing the work by carving their names over the drawings, and worse still by scattering the bones out of the caves". When dated graffiti were recorded from Black's Palace and other sites on the up­ per Barcoo, Warrego and Comet Rivers on the western side of the Highlands, a close fit was foundbetween the frequency 0 of vandalism and the history of European I0 land use in the region. Specifically, from ::,: European contact until the last recording .·,r.::-.r,li! __..;.:. ______..;... _ ____.._ _,..;;...�--.....;...,;.�.a:,&:_.;,,a:i' in 1982, the rate at which sites were van­ dalised can be related to general changes ly increased, as did the number of reports Has this graffiti left by explorer Ernest Giles in population mobility and attitude. on local Aboriginal rock art sites. This become as culturally significant as the Huge pastoral holdings in the central period is not well represented in dated rock a rt itself? Queensland Highlands were first taken up graffiti. Possibly the high rate of illiteracy in the early 1850s and from this time Eu­ among station workers at the time was a ropeans must have encountered Aborigi­ factor. Elsewhere in the central Queens­ nal rock art sites during stock work. land Highlands, graffiti in Aboriginal rock However, apart from T.W. Parrot, who in art sites date to the massive man-hunt 1888 wrote of his discovery of a rock art through the region for the notorious Ken­ site in the Expedition Range in 1864, very niff brothers, who murdered Police Con­ few of such early encounters were ever stable Doyle and Mr Dahlke, manager of published. The earliest dated graffiti Carnarvon Station, in 1902 and then went recorded are by J. Hunt who carved his bush. The Kenniffs and the influx of peo­ name at a number of art sites in the ple associated with the man-hunt are Black's Palace region between 1890 and represented in local graffiti. 1893. Local tradition records that Hunt From 1908 there was a definite peak in was a brumby runner and, judging by the graffitiat rock art sites as the country be­ occurrence of his name inscribed in a came more densely occupied. This peak number of rock art sites over a wide area continued through World War 1. To the of the central Queensland Highlands be­ east the earliest evidence for European tween 1890 and 1919, he must have knowledge of rock art sites in Carnarvon ranged extensively as part of his occu­ Gorge comes from this time. "E. Ward pation. 22/2/1918" is inscribed at Cathedral Cave To wards the end of the 19th century and is said to have resulted from use of European knowledge of the region steadi- the rock shelter by two local draft dodg-

A N H 43 The urge to leave personal marks for ogoa River. His paintings, which were posterity appears to be a basic human trait. signed and dated as 13 March 1912, in­ cluded pairs of figures boxing; a five­ pointed star, common to Star tobacco tins of that period; and a man riding a bucking horse, which was a trademark of the North Queensland Register newspaper. Some examples of early European graffiti in central Queensland are also ac­ companied by depictions of horses, cattle, saddles, station brands and other images important to the lifestyle of this fascinat­ ing period of local history. A similar range Early European graffiti often ·consisted of of motifs are found in rock art sites of the images important to the lifestyle of the time. Victoria River District in the Northern This cattle brand was from Babbiloora Station Territory, painted by Aborigines living in a on the upper Warrego River, central traditional state, but observing the intru­ Queensland Highlands. sion of European goods and stock. On the basis of their graffiti/art on rock shelter ers, the Ward brothers, who were of Ger­ walls, early European settlers and the last man extraction and went bush to avoid the traditional Aborigines in central Queens­ proposed conscription. A depiction of a land during this transitional period seem World War 1 type airplane with German to have shared many aspects of lifestyle, markings at one Aboriginal rock art site in as well as aspirations. western central Queensland is likely to The second peak in dated vandalism date to the same era. coincides with the Great Depression of Some names foundinscribed in central 1929-1939 when many Europeans sur­ Queensland rock art sites from the early vived on incomes gained from bounties 1900s are those of well-known Aboriginal paid on Dingoes, and from the trapping of stockmen of local descent, indicating that possums and Koalas for their skins. the traditional significanceand respect for Queensland was the last State to have an rock art sites had been lost by this time. open season on Koalas: 584,738 skins While many examples of post-contact were gathered in the one-month season Aboriginal graffiti feature only names, of 1927. Possum hunting continued until dates and simple statements, such as the last legal season in 1936, and proved

0 "Remember the happy days", others are to be a very lucrative industry, supporting i more interesting. A well-known Aborigi­ many families through the lean depres­ o nal Stockman, named George Fraser, sion years. In the one-month season of � painted images in red ochre at a tradition­ 1926, a total of 2,485,876 skins were "' al Aboriginal rock art site on the upper taken, with the price range, from 60 cents

44 ANH to $30 per dozen, reflecting a quality general trends in the Sydney-Hunter range from 'red rumpers' to 'Carnarvon region of New South Wales closely mirror blues'. Scalpers, 'bear' hunters, pos­ those from the central Queensland High­ sumers and

ANH 45 When in full bloom, the dripping nectar polishes the already glossy flowers to a startling brilliance. THE MAGNIFICENT WAl

HE MOST MAGNIFICENT PLANT a drink. At the time of European settle­ which the most prolific soil of ment Waratahs were numerous in the ''Tof New Holland affords is, by common Sydney region and feature prominently in consent both of Europeans and Natives, the recorded histories of Australia. The the waratah;' So wrote Sir James Smith, flexible, new-growth branches were used President of the Royal Society in 1793. by early European settlers for basket Since that time botanists, gardeners and making and by blacksmiths to wrap artists have continued to enthuse on the around their implements when working grandeur of the Waratah, which has be­ with hot iron. come arguably the most famous and Waratahs are depicted in paintings, on recognisable of Australia's flowering pottery, incorporated into furniture, com­ plants. pany logos and architectural ornamenta­ Waratahs feature in Aboriginal legend tion. There have been towns, steamships (see box) and lifestyle. Early colonial ac­ and even football teams named after � counts say that the Aborigines were often them. In fact the Waratah's iconic sig- li; seen sipping nectar directly from the nificanceis so strong that around the turn � flowers or soaking them in water to make of the century there was a bitter cam- !::!

From Aboriginal legend, through early European writings, to Its present-day position as the New South Wales floral emblem, the Waratah has become one of Australia's most recognisable flowering plants.

46 ANH

Although once abundant in many areas of Sydney, the Waratah now owes its existence to national parks, reserves and inaccessible areas of bushland. paign to instate the Waratah bloom as the floral emblem of Australia. However, despite its obvious aesthetic and symbolic qualities, the natural distribution was con­ sidered too limited. The widely distribut­ ed Golden Wattle (Acacia pycnantha) instead became Australia's floral emblem and the Waratah is now firmly and ap­ propriately entrenched as the State em­ blem of New South Wales. Waratahs belong to the botanical family Proteaceae, named after the Greek god Proteus who could change his shape at will, referring to the varied and remarka­ ble flower types found in this family (others include grevilleas and banksias). Aboriginal Australians endowed the Waratah with its common name meaning, simply, 'red-flowering tree'. There is, however, more than one species of waratah. The Waratah, used as New South Wales' State emblem, is known botanically as Telopea ('seen from afar') speciosissima ('most beautiful') and it cer­ tainly deserves these epithets. It is to most people 'The Waratah' and it may come as a surprise to learn there are others. The other 'waratah species', which all grow on Australia's eastern seaboard and have smaller and less spectacular blooms, are the Braidwood Waratah (T mongaensis), the Gippsland Waratah (T oreades) and the Tasmanian Waratah (T truncata). Telopea speciosissima grows naturally in patches of sandy loam on ridges and plateaus in the Sydney geological basin, the Central and South Coast districts, and in the Blue Mountains of New South Wales. It was once abundant in many THE LEGEND OF areas of the Sydney metropolitan area, THE FIRST WARATAH and the species survival is now due to its existence in national parks, reserves and Long ago there lived a beautiful would be taught what to do in war. relatively inaccessible areas. A subspe­ Aboriginal maiden named Krubi. The day of the battle, Krubi stood in cies of T speciosissima, distinctly differ­ She made herself a cloak of the red the sandstone cleft and watched for ent to the type that occurs around skin of the wallaby, and ornamented the return of the warriors. She Sydney, grows in the Gibraltar Range, in it with the redder crests of the heard the yells of war. In the after­ north-eastern New South Wales. After Gang-gang Cockatoo. It was said to noon she saw her scattered tribe of isolation for millions of years, this popuJa­ be the only cloak of its kind in the men return, but no lithe young tion is now so different thatit may be clas­ world. figure stepped out from the others sified as a separate species. Krubi knew a young man who was to greet her. The closely related tree waratahs far enough removed in blood to be Krubi stayed tor seven days wait­ (Alloxylon species, known until recently encouraged in his love tor her. She ing, and her tears formed a little as Oreocallis), which occur in eastern always chose a cleft between two rivulet Then Krubi went back to the Australia and New Guinea, are similar in great weathered sandstone rocks on camp, but it was deserted and the appearance to the Telopea waratahs, the top of a ridge to await the return ashes were cold. Krubi returned to differing mainly by their larger size and of her man from the hunt The red the ridge, and willed herself to die. absence of the distinctive petal-like bracts figure was the first object to strike She passed into the little cleft of surrounding the flower head. Other close the eyes of the returning hunters weathered sandstone, and up came relatives live in South America, namely and the red cloak was the only ob­ the most beautiful plant The stalk the Oreocallis species in Peru and Ecu­ ject looked tor by the young man. was firm and straight, without a ador, and Embothrium coccineum in One night Krubi's heart was sad­ blemish, just like the man Krubi Chile. All these species are so closely dened. She learned that men from died tor. The leaves were serrated related that at one time they were taxo­ another tribe had been seen in the and had points like a spear. And the nomically grouped within the one genus valley and there was to be a great flower was red, redder and more Embothrium. The current orthodox view corroboree, during which her man glowing than any other in Australia. is that 135 million years ago, Australia and Antarctica and South America were part of one large continent, Gondwana. The

48 ANH The Tasmanian Waratah grows in shrublands and wet sclerophyll forests from sea-level up to sub-alpine regions and can easily survive temperatures as low as -28 ° C. ancestors of the modern species evolved during this period, probably in what is now Antarctica, which formed a bridge between the other two land masses. The continents have since drifted apart and new species have evolved in relative isola­ tion, although they retain similar features. These days T. speciosissima is impor­ tant as a horticultural plant and, although commercial interest in the species is rapidly growing, there is much to learn about its biology and cultivation before it can truly take its place in the garden with roses and camellias. Waratah blooms make an excellent cut flower; they have a long vase life (about two weeks) and make a spectacular central feature in floral dis­ plays. Many blooms are exported, partic­ ularly to Japan, the USA and Europe. Although there are some commercial operations, many blooms available on the market today are picked from the bush, under strict licence from the New South Wales National Parks and Wildlife Service. The blooms of the Gippsland Waratah are less Bush picking is a practice that should not compact than the New South Wales Waratah be encouraged. On a large scale it and their flowers open from the centre depletes natural seed reserves and often outwards.

ANH 49 The 'Wirrimbirra White' Waratah was cultivated the blooms are of poor quality compared to a short time before flowering. There is from a rare, naturally occurring white form. with those from well-grown cultivated a commercially available white variety plants. known as 'Wirrimbirra White', which is not true white but a creamy yellow or green­ ARATAHS FLOWER OVER A SIX WEEK ish colour. Wperiod in Spring (September to Waratah flowers produce copious October in the Sydney region), but there amounts of nectar and, when in full are differences between areas due to en­ bloom, the dripping nectar polishes the vironmental variation, with flowering already glossy flowers and leaves to a generally occurring later in cooler cli­ startling brilliance. Birds are the main pol­ mates. Size and shape of T speciosissima linators of Waratahs, being attracted to blooms may vary considerably, from deli­ the nectar and bright colours. cate flattened blooms through to enor­ There are reports of individual Waratah mous cones, and the floral bracts shrubs producing up to 200 blooms in one surrounding the flowers may also vary in year but usually the figure is much less. size from barely visible to whorls like din­ The blooms are actually a composite of ner plates. between 90 and 250 individual flowers. The flowers come in a range of naturally These flowers are arranged in whorls on occurring colours, although the majority the flowering stem and open sequentially are red and pink. There have been many over a period of about two weeks. Seed reports of white flowering Telopea pods take about six months to mature at speciosissima occurring naturally in the which time they turn brown and split Sydney region. To my knowledge only two open. The seeds inside are winged for of these reports have been substantiated wind dispersal and there may be more and other sightings may be due to the than 250 seeds on one flower head in a pale colour of the developing bud, even up good year. 50 ANH Waratah blooms make excellent cut flowers and many are exported, particularly to Japan, the USA and Europe.

Birds, such as this New Holland Honeyeater ( Phylidonyris novaehollandiae), are the main pollinators of waratahs.

Waratahs have some special adaptations that enable them to survive in their natur­ al environment. They are large, long­ lived shrubs that can regenerate from a lignotuber. This contains dormant buds, at or below ground level, which become active after some damage to the plant. The plants usually grow to about three metres tall, but may reach five metres in the absence of fires that are common in their natural habitat. Ta ller plants have fewer flowers and set less seed. Cultivat­ ed waratahs therefore require pruning to produce numerous flowers (see box). Found naturally in well-drained sandy loam, Waratahs dislike having 'wet-feet'. If the soil around the roots is too wet, there is not enough aeration and the plants be­ come susceptible to root rot diseases. Paradoxically, Waratahs also love water and need regular watering in cultivation. A water deficit can predispose plants to root rot diseases to the same extent as too much water. The sandy loam soils that Waratahs enjoy have a clay content that, coupled with organic matter in the ANH 51 sow AND GROW The easiest way to propagate Waratahs is from seed, the fresher the better but it is also possible to strike Waratahs from cuttings. See­ dling plants take about five years to flower, while cuttings may take only two. Sow seeds in a pot filled with a well-drained seed raising mix; cover with a fine layer of mix and water well. Tr ansplant the seedlings into a freely draining potting mix that does not contain any added nutrients. Add some slow-release low-phosphorus fertiliser several weeks later. Keep the potted Waratah in partial shade off the ground for at least one year, ensur­ ing it is watered regularly. Tr ansplant in autumn, to an area protected from the wind. A partially shaded position with morning sun is best, although they will grow in full sun. Waratahs grow particularly well in the dappled shade of eu­ calypt trees. Plant at least one and a half metres apart or into very large pots. Mulching the soil with composted leaf mulch helps to stop the roots from drying out Water regularly and ensure that water is draining freely from the root zone. Fertilise with a low-phosphorus slow-release fertiliser or 'blood and bone' in late winter or early spring but not immediately after trans­ planting. Waratahs are susceptible to many pests and diseases. The most dam­ aging are the root rot diseases, caused by the introduced Phyto­ phthora fungus. This disease is characterised by desiccated light brown leaves and a withered stem. Over- and under-watering and ex­ cessive use of fertiliser can predi­ form of humus, helps to keep the right Six months after its formation a seed pod turns spose plants to these diseases. amount of moisture around the roots. brown and splits open, revealing seeds that are Destroy affected plants immedi­ A specialised root system enables winged for dispersal. ately. Waratahs to live in nutrient-deficient soils. Be vigilant for insect infestations. After spring and summer rain, they de­ Suggested Reading Moth-borers, which bore into the velop structures on the main root system Armstrong, J.A. (ed.), 1987. Waratahs: their flower buds and destroy the de­ known as proteoid roots. These are tight­ biology, cultivation and conservation. Australian veloping flowers, are most active ly clustered balls of short roots that great­ National Botanic Gardens Publication No 9. during the autumn and winter ly increase the root surface area and. are Australian Government Publishing Service: months. White Palm Scale efficient in absorbing nutrients (especially Canberra. (Phenacaspis eugeniae) is active phosphorus). In fact, poisoning may oc­ during warmer times of the year. cur when plants are fertilised because the Nixon, P., 1987. The waratah. Kangaroo Press: Ask at your local nursery for a proteoid roots absorb excess phosphorus. Sydney. suitable treatment Waratahs remain an elusive plant for Wrigley, J.W. & Fagg, M., 1989. Banksias, waratahs Waratahs must be pruned once a many gardeners. The special adaptions and grevilleas. Collins: Sydney. year, preferably within one month that make them hardy in the wild can after flowering finishes. Cut them make then difficult to grow in domestic Cathy Offord is the Horticultural Research back very hard, usually by about situations, unless conditions are just Officer for the RoyalBotanic GardensSydney three quarters. Leave some short right. The future of the Waratah depends and is based at Mount Annan Botanic vigorous stems intact as these often on the development of a range of depend­ Garden (south-west of Sydney). She has bear next years blooms. Pruning off able varieties for horticulture and, more worked on the cultivation of Waratahs for the any weak stems will stimulate importantly, on the conservation of natur­ past eight years and continues lo be involved vigorous re-shooting. al populations, freed from the effects of in conservation and horticulture of urbanisation.• Australian plant species.

52 ANH Recent research has shown that some small predatory dinosaurs had brains of comparable size to birds or some small mammals.... Read all about it in the latest issue of Oviraptor, an egg-eating dinosaur Dinonews magazine

ll ESTER\' 1 l'STRM,/, \ ( ational Headquaner ) THE DINOSAUR CLUB The Dinosaur Club We tern Au tralian Museum Scientists at the Western Australian Museum formed THE DIVOSALR Francis St CLL'B three years ago to provide information on dinosaurs and other Perth. W.A. 6000 SOL'TH,\ l'STRM,/,\ prehistoric creatures in an easy to read, enjoyable format. Since then we The Dinosaur Club have joined nearly 10,000 members, and through our popular magazine cl- Dr. Fran Parker DINONEnS you can read about the latest discoveries from Australia and Eanh Science Resource Centre for School around the world, and help provide scientists with funds to continue University of Adelaide re earching our fascinating prehistoric past. orth Terrace Adelaide. S.A. 5000 Simply copy and fill out the form and post with your cheque SEU SOL TH nALES The Dino aur Club or credit card details to your local Dinosaur Club Branch. cl- Dr. Alex Ritchie JUNIOR members (primary school age) -receive l>/\0\/n S magazine twice a year and a fun The Australian Museum starter kit with information sheets. dinosaur games and activities. sticker and puzzle ($12 year). PO Box A285 Sydney South. .S.W. 2000 SENIOR members receive l>/\0\/ n S twice a year. charts on dinosaurs. information sheets and a C t \BERRA I 0% discount off WA Museum bookshop purchases (also interstate mail orders). The Dinosaur Club The ational Dinosaur FAMILY membership includes everything from both junior and senior kits plus two copies of each Mu eum (Mike Durant) new D/\0\FWS issue ($15 year). Banon Highway SCHOOL or GROUP membership includes everything from both junior and senior kits. backissue s Gungahlin A.C.T. 2912 of Dl\0\/- irs /-5. plus five copiei, of each new D/\0\l n S issue ($25 year). l'/CTORI 1 The Dinosaur Club please copy and cut out cl- Dr. Pat Vicker -Rich Name ______Membership Type______$_ _ Dept. of Earth Sciences _ Monash Univer icy Clayton. Viet. 3168 1 Address ______(cheques co Monash Uni.) I I Ql'EEXSLA VD The Dino aur Club c/-The Queensland Mu eum , Credit card payments are preferred: VISA c=J M/CARDc=J B/CARD c=J PO Box 300 I Bri bane Sth. Qld 410 I .\'ORTH QLEEN.SLASD Credit Card Number ______Expiry date ______& NORTHERN TERRITORr The Dinosaur Club , s· 1 gnature ______cl- Greg Mc amara I Geology Dept. 1 I would al o like to receive all the back issues of Dinonews magazine James Cook University : (I sues 1-5) @ $2.50 each and enclose an additional $12.50. Total enclosed ____ of North Queensland Townsville. Qld 4811 Text. design. graphics and artwork by J.A. Long. Western Australian Museum Mt Kinabalu, Borneo.

PHOTOAR t 1

Diamond Beetle (Chrysolopus spectabilis), eastern Australia.

54 ANH The jewel beetle Stigmodera variabilis, Australia.

'BUG' ART BY PAVEL GERMAN

n the past, Pavel German has spent much of his time photographing mammals throughout the South Pacific for the Australian Museum. Recently, however, he has found himself becoming interested in the insects of the region. By mastering the con­ straints of macro-photography, Pavel is able to capture on film many rare and unusual insects.

ANH 55 Fiddler Beetle (Eupoecila austra/asiae), eastern Australia.

56 ANH Orange Lacewing Butterfly (Cethosla penthesilea), northern Australia. 'BUG� ART

The longicorn beetle Euryphagus lundi, Malay Peninsula.

-p H O l O A R l I I

ANH 57 PHOTOART

'BUG" ART

Grass Blue Butterfly (lizina labradus), Australia.

58 ANH The stag beetle Odontolab/1s femoralls, Mt Kinabalu, Borneo.

Blue Triangle Butterfly (Graphium sarpedon), eastern Australia.

ANH 59 such as low soil fertility) is that this island VIEWS. FROM THE FOURTH DIMENSION is too small to provide a robust sanctuary for mammal populations threatened by natural disasters, or too small to allow Australia could become speciation processes to offset extinctions. the environmental Riviera A severe contraction of the rainforests of for an overpopulated and Queensland's wet tropics about 17,000 years ago diminished mammal diversity in devastated world. these otherwise floristically rich forests. And the lack of monotremes and other ar­ chaic mammal groups in New Zealand may similarly be accounted for by the se­ vere 'squeeze' these islands had around ECOTOURISM 30 million years ago. For furries, at least, all of these areas appear to be death IN A BRAVE traps-unable to support mammal popula­ tions for long periods of time. Now consider Australia's terrestrial NEW LAND reserves. Few are anything like the size of New Caledonia. Key reserves such as the BY MICHAEL ARCHER wet tropics and Kakadu are significantly smaller. It seems probable that each generation of humans will watch lineage after lineage of mammals in these reserves grey with age and vanish without replacement. Lacking sufficient genetic resilience because of reduced and/or fragmented populations, extinction may be their only future. Although small reserves can sustain plants and many kinds of other animals, for mammal line­ ages to survive on a long-term basis, HE LOGARITHMICALLY EXPAND­ speciation processes must be able to ing phenomenon called hu­ replace extinctions-and our reserves are manity has preened itself in the sun for almost certainly too small to allow this less than one of Earth's 4,500 million key step in the conservation of mammals. years. Yet in that short time it has The solution to this problem may be the managed to suck more life out of the same that unlocks the vast potential of Earth than any previous natural disaster. our tourist industry, which is already the Dangerously late, we begin to measure fastest growing industry in Australia. Our the wobbles of our weakening world and unique environments and beasts are our skin prickles with unease. At­ recognised around the world as prime mospheric composition is changing (as it tourist attractions. No other continent has did once before in Earth's history with a remotely comparable arkful of weird and gruesome consequences), the protective beautiful things. Other continents have ozone layer is disintegrating (has this ever worked hard and often successfully to happened before?), world temperatures wipe out their natural tourist attractions are rising, polar ice caps are melting, for short-term economic gain. As this complex ecosystems are being tom apart vandalism continues, the expanding hu­ to make room for monocultures of wheat Could ecotourism be the answer to Australia's man populations are rapidly outstripping and cattle, and at least 50 per cent of the environmental and economic problems? the capacity of the world to provide world's biological diversity is racing pell­ tourist destinations for people who have mell for the garbage can. Left unchecked, changes in the environment: speciation, forgotten what the word 'forest' means. there's a tiny possibility that the outcome evolutionary adaptation, extinction. All If clever, we will anticipate this crisis­ will suit corals and cockroaches but for us three must be able to operate, forever, if and its financial opportunities-with a it can only become awesome. conservation efforts are to be successful. continent-wide banquet of wild, beautiful But rather than join many other biolo­ The problem is that we have a very and underpopulated places. Basically, we gists gloomily measuring the growth of poor idea about how big reserves need to could become the environmental Riviera this disaster, I want to focus on a survival be to conserve, on a long-term basis, all for an overpopulated and environmentally path that may be open to Australians the biological diversity they originally devastated world. alone, a strategy that could return a fu­ contained. As a springboard for this con­ For most of Australia's natural environ­ ture to Australia's environments and flood cern, consider the Pacific Island of New ments, beasts and places that the rest of .,; the financial coffers of this 'clever' Caledonia. Although covering an area of the world will soon pay dearly to share, � country. 18,650 square kilometres with many old there is time to reverse destructive � This survival path starts with consider­ endemic plant and invertebrate species, it processes that otherwise doom them to � ation of the effectiveness of environmen­ hasn't a single old endemic mammal line­ the dump. If we accept that our current � ta! conservation-the setting aside of age. Its current furry occupants are reserves are too small to be fully effective � enough chunks of natural habitat to en­ closely related to contemporary species long-term conservation areas maximally � sure that the organic world will continue in nearby lands. In short, although New attractive to tourists, we should immedi­ � to bumble along as it has for the last 3.5 Caledonia has undoubtedly had many op­ ately begin to resume as much as possible � billion years, business as usual. What is portunities to be a long-term host for an­ of Australia's leasehold land. These areas "' this business as usual? Basically a three­ cient lineages of mammalian invaders, it should then be added to the nearest i fold, endlessly repeating process that does not appear to have done so. Why? reserves to make vastly bigger reserves. has, until now, enabled life to adapt to One explanation (there may be others, Resident lessees and staff, those most

60 ANH familiar with the leases, could be re­ educated and employed as permanent custodians of the healing land, aiding and taking pride in its return to natural, com­ pletely viable bushland. There would be additional economic benefits beyond those generated by POSTERS! ecotourism. With the expansion of natural habitats, free-ranging native herbivores such as kangaroos and wombats could be culled on a sustainable basis as an alterna­ tive to using destructive non-Australian herbivores like cattle and sheep. The na­ tive herbivores have had millions of years to develop efficient, environmentally friendly ways to convert Australia's sun­ shine and plants to healthy, fat-free, yummier-than-sheep meat. Professor Gordon Grigg of Queensland University has long promoted this notion, which is, at long last, being taken very seriously. We should also face the fact that the mining industry does not pose a serious threat to the restoration and expansion of Australia's natural environments-it has al­ ways been the marginal and frequently subsidised agricultural and grazing indus­ ANH's superb, tries, particularly in the dry lands of Aus­ colourful posters are tralia, that destroy these environments on a wholesale basis. Mining alienates a one of the most popular features minuscule fraction of this continent's land of the magazine. Now you can get flat, unfolded copies of our and yet returns an enormous profit. In posters, in pristine condition and suitable for framing. principle, with care, there is no reason We hold a limited stock, and are making them available at the why a viable mining industry couldn't coexist within a continent of vast environ­ low price of $5 for the first poster, $3 each additional poster, mental parks. postage and handling inclusive. Choose from the list below: But for this strategic economic overhaul Reference Photo or to work, we must not mimic the mistakes Poster Name Number From Issue Illustration of other continents. In particular, we can­ Australian Sea-lions 245 Winter '93 24/ 5 Photo Banksia Beetle Spring '88 22/ 10 Photo not allow Australia to become over­ 2210 Crabs 2310 Spring '91 23/ 10 lllust. populated-or the game is up. At present, Cuttlefish 222 Spring '86 22/ 2 Photo principally because of immigration, we Dingo 236 Spring '90 23/ 6 lllust. Eastern Blue Tongue Lizard 233 Summer '89/90 23/3 lllust. have one of the world's highest rates of Eastern Pygmy Possum 216 Spring '84 21 /6 Photo population increase. If this increase is not Emperor Penguins 244 Autumn '93 24 / 4 Photo "Eric" the Pliosaur Spring '93 24 / 6 Photo stopped, more private land will be needed Fish; 246A for more people, and environmental a) Soldier fish 231 Winter '89 lllust. b) Bullseye fish 23/1 reconstruction and its economic spin-offs Fish of Norfolk Is. will be impossible. a) Yellow-green wrasse 238 Autumn '91 lllust. If we do meet the challenge, and en­ b) Sandager's wrasse 23/8 Harp Shells vironmental reserves and their economic 237 Summer '90 / 91 23 / 7 lllust. Honey possum 241 Winter '92 24 / I Photo opportunities expand, we will also need Insects of SA 235 Winter '90 23 / 5 lllust. to take a hard look at our society's atti­ Koalas 243 Summer '92/ 93 24 / 3 Photo Lemurold rlngtalld possum Summer "87 /88 22 / 7 Photo tude to wild places. As a legacy of ances­ 227 Lesser long eared bat 223 Summer '86 /87 22/ 3 Photo tors who stared numbly at the teeth of Moths on their 225 Winter '87 22/ 5 lllust. tigers, we are quick to build fences native food plants Muttaburrasaurus Langdon! 2468 Spring '93 24 / 6 lllust. around environmental reser ves-humans Northern spiny-tailed Gecko 228 Autumn '88 22 /8 Photo outside, beasts inside. A measure of this Red & Green Kangaroo Paw Autumn '87 22/4 Photo Red Kangaroo 224 alienation is the backpacks we take into 232 Spring '89 23/ 2 lllust. Scarlet Banksia 234 Autumn '90 23/ 4 lllust. the bush, swags filled with things to sur­ Sea-horse and pipe fish 2312 Autumn '92 23 / 12 lllust. vive the experience. The size of these Spiders, Mygale, Phryne, Scorpion 239 Winter '91 23/ 9 lllust. alienation sacks has almost certainly in­ Post to: ANH, FREEPOST AAAlO, Australian Museum, PO Box A285, Sydney South 2000 creased with each more urbanised gener­ (or phone 008 028 558 toll-free) ation. As our reserves grow and Please send me Poster No. __ @ $5 (overseas $8) strengthen, it would be nice to think that Posters Nos. ______@ $3 each we will discover how to tear down the Name______fences and how to reintegrate or at least Address ______intertwine the daily lives of humans and their born-again furry friends. • Suburb/Town.______Postcode______Payment by D Cheque D Money Order D Bankcard D Visa D MasterCard Professor Michael Archer lectures in biology I I I I 11 I I I 11 I I I 11 I Exp. Date.__ and geology at the University of New South Cardholder's name. ______Wales. Most of his non-teaching hours are Signature.______devoted to the study of the fossil faunas of Cheque or credit card authorisation must acccompany order. Riversleigh. Please make cheques payable to "Australian Museum". ANH Use a photocopy If you do not wish to cut this page. vation purposes, hand-rearing such as Australia, the lack of techniques have appeared to this data makes finding a sub­ REVIEWS be, until recently, something of stitute difficult. On the same an art with a modicum of hard note, an appendix listing fact thrown in. Individual avi­ products mentioned and their culturalists have established manufacturers or distributors their own theories and proce­ would have been useful. dures through personal ex­ Sadly, it appears that a sig­ perience and experimentation. nificantnumber of the birds ac­ In some instances ideas con­ quired for hand-raising have flict and, with no sound factual been taken as chicks from the explanations to call upon, we wild, with no apparent are clear and provide wonder­ are left none the wiser. Many remorse or concern for the ful detail. They have obviously breeders have done remarka­ ramifications this is having on been taken in order to mini­ bly well considering the lack of wild populations. Paradoxically, mise confusion caused by poor direct research on the natural the authors begin by stating resolution and to highlight the formulas fed by adult parrots that as aviculturalists one of features described on the fac­ to their chicks. Considerably their goals is to breed birds for ing page. more attention has been given conservation and assist in The life-size paintings of to understanding the structure relieving the pressure on wild fruits and seeds are beautiful of milk formulas fed to a varie­ populations. and I am sure they will be a ty of mammal young and to the On the credit side, the decisive element for people development of suitable artifi­ authors continually emphasise using the book to identify cial substances. the importance of detailed Sydney's Proteaceae. observation and individual This is the best book I have assessment as the best guara­ seen of its type, and it covers ntees for successful hand­ all of the Proteaceae known to As aviculturalists, rearing, and not to those methods that rely upon strict The Proteaceae grow in the Sydney area. Its nomenclature is up to date and one of their adherence to charts and tables of the Sydney it is as equally informative to of weights and similar para­ Region the professional as to the goals is to meters. By Alec M. Blombery and Betty amateur. Anybody could iden­ This book is a natural pro­ Maloney. Kangaroo Press, NSW, tify any Proteaceae with this breed birds for gression from the authors' 1992, 216pp. $49.95. book within minutes of picking volume on parrot incubation it up. conservation. procedures and is essential for The Proteaceae of the Sydney The only misgiving I have is all parrot breeders. In fact all region is a wonderful book. that the geological map of the aviculturalists will findit a valu­ The introduction is succinct Sydney region found in the In­ The authors have drawn able reference. and informative. The subfamily troduction is not in colour and upon their wealth of ex­ -Judith GIiiespie morphology and accompanying is confusing because of this. perience from working with a Taronga Zoo, Sydney key are well laid out, and the Nevertheless, this book is a multitude of species including line drawings enable swift must for any Sydney-based Australian cockatoos and GUIDEBOOK differentiation between the flora enthusiast. smaller parrots. The large subfamilies and genera. -Andrew McGahey volume of birds that has PECTE SHELLS The general descriptions are The Total Earth Care Company, NSW passed through their hands very detailed and appear ac­ has enabled them to establish curate. These descriptions protocols with a degree of may be laboured through by statistical fact. the botanically fluent pedant, The chapters cover a com­ or scanned for historical and prehensive list of topics begin­ more general information on ning with the initial setting up genera by the amateur bota­ of a nursery followed by brood­ nist. ing, diets, feeding and diges­ The strength of this book is tion, monitoring of chicks, and its presentation of each health and disease. The chap­ species-one double page is ters on brooder environment, dedicated to each plant. The digestion and health of the history of its description is chick are highly informative. given and the morphological Frequently, lack of attention Guidebook to differences between similar and care in these three key Pecten Shells. varieties are made clear. areas results in problems for Recent The botanical outline for the breeders. The text is aided Pectinidae and each plant includes: form, Parrots: Hand by useful photographs of how height, bark type and distinc­ to handle chicks and birds in Propeamussiidae tive growth features. Leaf, in­ Feeding and various conditions of health of the World florescence and fruit descript­ Nursery and disease. By A. Rombouts. Crawford House ions are extensive and ac­ Management A significant omission, Press, NSW, 1991, 157pp. $39.95. curate. The cultural notes are By Howard Voren and Rick Jor­ however, is an ingredient also helpful. dan. Osborne Editions Interna­ breakdown of the Primate There have been very few All of this information is ac­ tional, Qld, 1992, 202pp. $70.00. Chow Biscuits, the major con­ books devoted to bivalve companied by between one stituent of their hand-feeding molluscs and yet they include and three colour photographs Whether breeding parrots formula. In countries where some of the tastiest and hence of each plant. The photographs forthe pet trade or for conser- this product is unavailable, some of the most commerc- 62 A N H ially important and best-known terest in pectens, as they will mighty statues would be might be a useful addition to invertebrates. Everyone knows now be able to identify their pushed over, warfare endemic later editions. all about oy sters and scallops­ specimens. However, readers and people forced to live in The layout of exercises and or do they? How many people fascinated by the diversity of caves. Starvation was almost background to the dynamics realise there are about 400 nature will also find the book of universal and wood had be­ and function of rainforest living species of scallops, or interest, as it is one of the all­ come a synonym for wealth. ecosystems is concise and pectens as they are otherwise too-rare published examples of The cause of this decline was visually stimulating. The known? Rombouts' Guidebook invertebrate diversity at the obvious-too many people had figures and illustrations exceed to pecten shells illustrates most species level with a worldwide asked too much from a limited the coverage given in many of these species. coverage. land. Sounds familiar? The sad rainforest publications of much This group has long been a -Winston Ponder thing is that Easter Island is larger size. The activities are popular one with shell coll­ Australian Museum not unique in running that extensive and field orientated, ectors because of the extrava­ course, for history is littered covering an introduction to gant colour and delicate sculp­ with the remains of civilisa­ pollen types, humidity and ture of many species, and yet tions that have wanted to grow temperature, seasonal changes the last comprehensive cover­ forever. Perhaps if they had in the nature of soils, effects of age of the group was published this book there would have light gaps and density on plant just over 100 years ago, in been a few less. growth, nutrient cycling and 1888! This latest book, as its -Tim Flannery disturbance impacts on popula­ title indicates, is not a scientif­ Australian Museum tions and community struc­ ic revision involving new work, ture, uses of rainforest mat­ but rather an illustrated compi­ erial, and conservation and lation of the species as they political issues. are presently understood- However, several minor modifications could be made. Rainforest is not necessarily confined to regions of high rainfall and some rainforests (for example 'dry' rainforest) are subject to pronounced Earth Island, seasonal variation in rainfall. Easter Island: For a book with an Australian A Message from emphasis, I was surprised to see a photograph of a south­ our Past for the eastern Asian Troides butterfly which is not very well in many Future of our and a neotropical bromeliad. cases. Each species is illustrat­ Planet The flowering bromeliad was ed in colour and is accompa­ By Paul Bahn and John Flenley. also used to illustrate that nied by a brief description and Thames and Hudson, Vic., 1992, Our Rainforests "bright colours attract polli­ a summary of its distribution. 240pp. $49.95. and the Issues nators" -most rainforest flow­ Rombouts' untimely death in By Beryl Morris, Tony Sadler and ers are not brightly coloured 1985, just as the manuscript This is a very timely work. Graham N. Harrington. CS/RO but still manage to attract polli- was completed, could have It is also fascinating and well Publications, Vic., 1992, 60pp. spelled disaster for the project written. Within its 240 pages it $14.95. but some colleagues at the manages to tell in fine detail Most rainforest Zoological Museum, Amster­ the story of the most isolated This is another title from the dam, took up the challenge and inhabited speck of land on the expanding list of publications flowers are not through their efforts the work planet. Settled, probably from produced by the CSIRO. was completed. the Marquesas, some 1,400 Although the book covers brightly coloured In all such works faults can years ago, Easter Island was a most of the rainforest types in be found, but perhaps the temperate paradise for the first Australia, the emphasis is on ut still manage to most disappointing aspect of settlers. Forests provided northern tropical rainforest. this book is that it is totally seemingly endless timber, fer­ Our rainforests and the is­ attract oollinators. lacking any information on the tile soils produced abundant sues is essentially a source and biology, anatomy, behaviour, crops, and rivers watered the activities book for higher nators. The function of inver­ harvesting, farming, or other countryside. This Arcadia primary and early secondary tebrates in rainforests receives commercial aspects, of scal­ nourished an extraordinary school grades. Some of the ac­ good coverage but, of the eight lops. The commercially impor­ culture. Wa rfare was uncom­ tivities require classroom soil animals photographed on tant species are not even mon, and groups competed by equipment and teacher or page 27, five are mites and the identifiedin the text. I was also raising mighty statues to their parental guidance, but many of remainder are thrips. The a little disappointed that the ancestors. They also deve­ the exercises need little more comment that bats pollinate opportunity was not taken to loped what appears to be a than enthusiasm and access to rainforest flowers is generally illustrate more living scallops, written language-the only one rainforest-or something ap­ true of blossom bats and tropi­ there being only one such pho­ known from the Pacific. proaching it. In the event, the cal rainforest, but is doubtful tograph in the book. Nor is There were sufficient re­ lack of access to native vegeta­ for the majority of subtropical there a key, or even a brief sources to support this culture tion may be the book's only plants and southern flying­ diagnosis of the two families for around 1,000 years but, by shortfall. This could partly be foxes (Pteropus spp.). (Pectinidae and Propeamussi­ the time the first Europeans remedied by the establishment These last comments aside, idae) included, although genera sighted Easter Island, the peo­ of small rainforest planting the authors have produced a are briefly diagnosed. It is ple were in trouble. By 1722 projects on school grounds, an stimulating book that deserves simply a guide to species, no there were no or few trees, activity that many New South extensive placement on library more, no less. the rivers had dried up, and Wales north coast schools have shelves. This book will be welcomed most sources of protein had undertaken. A chapter on rain­ -Geoff Williams by shell collectors with an in- vanished. Within a century the forest plant establishment Australian Museum 63 ANH as some of the photos show birds of different plumage or Parrots engaged in interesting activi­ _ & Pigeons ties. In spite of these blemish­ - Ill A.-SIR\IIA es, it is the illustrative material � ';- -::C � that would make me buy the book. ,?. ,,- The styles of the two I authors are easily distinguish­ -- -f(;_-_ A,I . . ed. The parrot text is chatty with numerous direct quotes from early Australian ornithol­ ogists, while the pigeon text is r�!_:-/ i!·' more synthesised. I found the t,l_,_f, text long-winded but, if you I,,, , • •1tt/,.��l , enjoy a narrative style, the ap­ : , - . ... , :,n·ljcl ,. - ,, ... , , , proach will be to your liking. Embedded in this eloquent Densey Clyne's adult's point of view, they are Review of Parrots matrix of text is much of the Small Worlds: attractive, with a good combi­ and Pigeons of available information on the bi­ Cicada Sing­ nation of text and some stun­ Australia ology of pigeons and parrots, ning photographs. By Francis Crome, James Shields as well as interesting snippets song; Catch Me Collins has produced some and The National Photographic about early ornithologists, if You Can!; wonderful material recently in Index of Australian Wildlife. Col­ nomenclature and changing Plants of Prey the field of natural history for lins Angus a Robertson, NSW, attitudes towards wildlife. By Densey Clyne. Allen and children. The Eyewitness Ex­ 1992, 318pp. $95.00, Habitat destruction and frag­ Unwin, Sydner, 1992, 33pp. and plorers (Birds, Insects, Weather mentation have been, and still $8.95 each. and Flowers) series follows the Apart from sharing the are, the major threats to the same format as the Eyewit­ honour of having the ugliest persistence of these birds, but Eyewitness ness Guides-large, impressive young of any animal yet the book also documents some photographs interspersed with described, what do parrots and alarming accounts of the at­ Explorers: text and diagrams. My young pigeons have in common? traction these groups have to Flowers by David Peruse this book and you may shooters and poachers. Even Burnie; Insects be surprised. Perhaps you in the late 1960s a single shoot by Steve Parker; weren't aware that, like the resulted in the death of 100 Weather by John parrots, pigeons dress flam­ To rres Strait Pigeons. boyantly. Both groups have If you want to get straight to Farndon; Birds fleshy -ceres around the nos­ the specifics, there is a half- by Jill Bailey trils, both feed primarily on and David fruits and seeds and, phylo­ Burnie. genetically, they are probably Collins Angus a Robertson, NSW, more closely related to each 1992, 61pp. and $12.95 each. other than to any other group. This is the seventh book in a The Miracle series by the National Photo­ graphic Index of Australian Planet: Planet Wildlife documenting the biolo­ Earth; Life on gy of Australian birds with Earth comprehensive photographs By Robert Hillman. Collins Angus and user-friendly text. And a Robertson, NSW, 1991, 68pp. what groups could be better and $19.95 each. reviewers gave this a ranking suited to colour photography of OK. They felt that it looked than parrots and pigeons? I think that children's books like the kind of book you would Every species of parrot page synopsis of each species should be reviewed by chil­ use when you were doing a (which include cockatoos, including names, descriptions, dren. Adults tend to look down project. However, they felt lorikeets and true parrots) and voice, habitat, food, habits, from lofty heights and make that, although there were quite pigeon (which include doves) breeding and distribution. The pronouncements about what is a lot of words, there wasn't is represented by, on average, book is a useful reference but 'good' in books-layout, graph­ enough information for three colour photographs and its value in this respect is limit­ ics, text accessibility and ac­ researching a project. Unlike one-and-a-half pages of text. ed in that the sources of infor­ curacy. So, I thought I would Densey Clyne's Small World With 54 species of parrots and mation are mostly not get a couple of children to series, they didn't think they 27 species of pigeons, the referenced in the text. comment on these books. would borrow these books just result is a spectacular publi­ Overall, if beauty and Densey Clyne's Small to read. To me though, the cation. knowledge enrich your life, Worlds (Cicada sing-song, Eyewitness books take a topic Photographs by 56 pho­ then this book should be on Plants of prey and Catch me if and seem to open up a world tographers are included, many your coffee table. Finally, for yvu can!) series received the with a magnifying glass. of which are outstanding ar­ lovers of Monty Python, the thumbs up (excellent was the Maybe you need to be 'into' the tistically. A few of the species Night Parrot scene is a must: ranking for this set of books). subject, or a little older than photos are, however, inferior "the Night Parrot may not be The photographs were great my helpers were. These books to those in some other compi­ on the verge of extinction - and the information was easy give ideas of things to do, lations of bird photographs and simply very hard to find"! Let's to understand. The content branch off into related fields, the cropping of some photos is hope it's true. was really interesting and the and take the reader into differ­ poor. I wouJd have preferred -Richard Major kids felt they would read these ent levels of the worlds they more comprehensive captions Australian Museum books just for fun. From an explore.

64 ANH Just Published September Reptiles and Amphibians of the South Pacific By Harold Cogger and Ross Sadlier. Reed Books, NSW. $24.95. Curious Creatures By Carson Creagh. Angus & Robertson, NSW. $24.95. Quarry: Closing in on the Missing Link By Noel T. Boaz. Maxwell Macmillan Publishing, NSW. $36.95. The Reverse Garbage Garden By Sandra Clayton. Hyland House, Vic. $24.95. The third group of books we I could quibble over the text October looked at was The Miracle in some places and wonder Australian Beetles Planet series (Life on Earth why the Cherry Nose Cicada, By John Lawrence and E.B. Britton. and Planet Earth). These for example, "looks as though Melbourne University Press, Vic. $39.95. books also received an OK rat­ it was drinking alcoholic sap''- Systematic and Applied Entomology ing (lots of information and why not something within the Ed. by Ian Naumann. Melbourne University Press, Vic. suitable for children over ten experience of a child? The $44.94. years old). The scope of these difficulties adults have in writ­ Cousteau's Australia two books is phenomenal: ing non-fictional text is often By Jean-Michel Cousteau. Reader's Digest, NSW. $45.00. from the origins of life, through perplexing. We try to use Bottlebrushes, Paperbarks and Tea Trees the ages of Earth history and words kids might understand By John Wrigley and Murray Fagg. life on Earth, to the issues of and find entertaining ('gobbled Angus & Robertson, NSW. $89.95. global warming, extinctions up) on the one hand and then Ferns and endangered species. This use words like 'forage', 'stri­ By Glllean Dunk. Angus & Robertson, NSW. $39.95. series would be a useful refer­ dent' and 'opaque' on the other. Palms and Cycads of the World ence to own. Although the in­ But then maybe these are real­ By Lyn Stewart. Angus & Robertson, NSW. $45.00. formation is quite detailed, it is ly meant to be fun books for amply illustrated with maps, adults. Why should kids have November diagrams and photographs. I all the fun anyway? Field Guide to Crustaceans By D. Jones and G. Morgan. Reed Books, NSW. $24.95. feel children could use these at -Anne Skates a number of different levels. Australian Museum

LOOKING SOMETHI NG UNUSUAL?

unique and unusual gifts waiting to be dis covered at the Austr alian Museum Ch ild rens' Sh op.

educational products, to ys, books, games, and a host of surprises th at you wo n't find anywhere else. Truly a sight fo r sore eyes! Open 7 days per week 1 0am · 5pm Phone (02) 339 8150 AUSTRALIAN MU SEU M

ANH 65 THE DIRECTORY AUSTRALIAN SAFARI Skylink Australia is a long-established wilderness air safari operator and offers exclusive "away from the crowd" journeys throughout Australia, using a unique combination of personalised twin-engine aircraft, boats and land­ vehicles. Of Course Not! Enjoy travelling with a friendly, pro­ Because it's traveling aboard incognito, cleverly disguised as two fessional Skylink pilot to remote places Our Four Wheel Drive Expeditions pieces of luggage. The amazing rich in wildlife, exotic birds, flora and take you to - rolBOT, from 2 bags to a rock natural beauty, and benefit from our steady 272kg capacity touring experience and knowledge acquired Helena Spring - The Diamond of kayak in less than 20 min. Proof over the past 18 years. Small groups. the Desert positive that you can take it with BEST HOTELS MOTELS, you ...... ANYWHERE WILDERNESS LODGES AND OU TBACK STATION Princess Parrots in the Canning 1 WEEK OUTBACK AND DESERT SAFARI Stock Route If your paddling pleasure is limited (FLINDERS RANGES. LAKE EYRE. by where you can take your boat - WILLIAM CREEK. GOOBER PEDY. you've got the wrong boat! Call or AYERS ROCK OLGAS, SIMPSON DESERT. The Magnificent Sand Ridges of COOPER CREEK. STURT NATIONAL PARK.) The Simpson Desert write to learn more about this 2 WEEKS NORTHERN WILDERNESS remarkable craft. (MIGHTY KIMBERLEY COUNTRY. BROOME. Rugged Gorges in the Kimberley DARWIN, KAKADU NAT. PARK, and Bungle Bungle (02) 809-5849 GULF COUNTRY. AYERS ROCK OLGA$. AND MUCH MORE. 1r In NZ (06) 751-0572 FROM SYDNEY. MELBOURNE, The Amazing Wildlife of ADELAIDE OR CAIRNS. Cape York Setist,ctlon I• f �;::;;;;:--:::-----___/ Guaranteed! over 250,000 sold since For detailed information write to - 1933

NORTH WEST SAFARIS PO BOX 211 EAST KEW VIC 3102 fOIBOT or phone Barbara AUSTRALIA (03) 859 6655 (Melbourne) P.O. Box 357 or Gayle and Bruce Gladesville, NSW 2111 (08) 232 1514 (Adelaide)

REBOUND INTO LIFE WALKING FULL OF ZEST BOUNDING WITH ENERGY BE TRIM, TAUT, TERRIFIC 20 MINUTES DAILY-THATS ALL IT TAKES! HOLIDAYS Start with 500g weights to tone and strengthen while you jog, walk or bounce adding more as you get STRONGER AND FITTER. Start NOW! REBOUND RECHARGE REJUVENATE • Strengthen your heart • Increase your stamina • Improve lungs and circulation! • NO stress on joints or bad backs! • Work within 70 · 80% heart rate to burn fat and increase your metabolism! • Full instructions on tape • Beginners or advanced • 20 minute workout for all ages to 65 plus! ONLY $24.90 A VIDEO FOR ALL • CASSETTE $24.90 • CASSETTE/BOOK $29.90 • VIDEO & BOOK $29.90 • BOOK ONLY $6.00 • BOOK INCLUDES CHILDRENS PROGRAMS

• OXYGEN DROPS for clean waIer 60ml $25.00 • SUNDIALS sunblock renewal deeper $55.00 • PULSE MONITOR checks pulse rate during exercise stay within your aerobic range $99.00 • BLOOD PRESSURE MONITOR $189.00 • NEGATIVE IONIZER clean pollutant free air $60.00 • RUNNERS WATCH: counts laps. calories, distance, umer, stop watch, date and ume $50.00 • ELECTRONIC FLEA COLLAR: for your dog. and a flea monI1or for the home. TOTALLY CHEMICAL FREE $45.00 SHERPA EXPEDITIONS • BOOKS fPu/uri ul<.!:tlt �r.41\ IT,I) • • • OXYGEN THERAPIES $30.00 r \£!'41 l\DH � Jl. THJ..\l£RJ \ J"d EA...'if\F • OXYGEN BREAKTHROUGH $20.00 • OXYGEN & HEALTH $10.00 '3'(03) 670 7252 '3' R TR \ MJOfder D Chq D 8/Ca,d D M/Card D Visa D ALL PRICES INCLUDE POSTAGE t \1 me RKL MARKETING PO Box 975 Tweed Heads NSW 2485 Ph (075) 363 367

Please mention ANH when replying to adve rt sements The HALLS CREEK AND Au t BUNGLE BUNGLE TOURS SAFARI TOURS Inve�ts BUNGLE BUNGLE KIMBERLEY GOLD FIELDS Managed Trust CANNING STOCK ROUTE

Derby Broome Wyndham Kununurra Halls Creek Geikie Gorge If you want your Windjana Gorge superannuation and other Fitzroy Crossing investments managed on a PH (091) 686217 conservative basis and if you A/H (091) 686092 HJ4C,ui,.� also want to know that your FAX (091) 686222 �� ks money isearning profits without compromising your social and environmental TYRRELL'S values PAJINKA make a free call to BOOKSHOP WlLDERNESSLODGE•CAPEYORK 008 021227 Antiquarian Books, PlllNKAis nesried 400 metres from the northernmost Australiana, Historical Work tip of the Australian continent- where the Indian Ocean TheAIMTrustismanagedbyAugust \'atural Hi tory, Science, meets the Pacific. A traditional hunting, comping and Financial Management Ltd, ACN Biographies, Tra\'el Books. fishing spot for the Aboriginal people of Cope York, who 003 188 930, which was established ore now settled ot lnjinoo, PlllNKA,offers o in 1986 to pool investor savings to \\'ed - Fri comfortoble base to soak up the manifold unique create a more fair and sustainable 10am -6pm wonders of Cope York. society. Investment can only be made Saturda\'S Featuresf., ... ,.,, \.., ,,,. on the application form bound into .•.··· 10am -4pm • (omfO!lable cabm style occomodotion. the lodged and registered prospectus • Informative n�ht walks and �ide presentations with resickat noturolrst. dated 1st April, 1993, available from: • Spe

Please mention ANH when replying to adve r tisements Win an original dinosaur!

ANH has commbsioned Peter Schomen. superb quality limited c.:dition life-�ize print of the paint­ described by Tbe A11stralia11 newspaper a� "one of the ing. :'lccurntely reproduced onto hc3vywt:igh1 cartridge best scientific illustrators". and illustrator of "Prehistoric paper, individually numbered and �igned by the artis1 . Animal� of Australia" (publishers - Australian J\luseum) All you ha\'C to do i� send in a new. renewal and "The Possums" (Lansdowne Press) 10 create an or gift subscription before Friday 1-111 December 199�. original painting of ,ll11ttab11rrasa11r11s langdo11i for the That's the clo�ing date for our �pecial �ub�cribers · draw magazine'; front cover and poster. in which the first name "out of the hat" will win thb • ow you have a once-only opportunity to magnificent painting . win the actual painring. a unique and exciting complete So don't delay! Subscribe by December 1 -,th original . A1tractively framed. the painting measure� and win approximately 65cm x -15cm, and is beautifully coloured yourself an and �cientificall r accurate. original A.VD there are 50 runner�· up prizes of a dino�aur!

CONDITIONSOF ENTRY 1 Compe:l1t1on entryis a

ANIMA WEL ARE National Parks Association DUCATIO USEUMS ANZFAS, Aust & New Zealand of NSW South Australian Science TAMS, The Australian Museum Federation of Animal Societies PO Box A96, Sydney South NSW Teachers' Association Society '51 O'Connell St, N Melbourne. Vic 2000. Phone: (02) 264 7994 SASTA Office, c/o Plympton High Australian Museum, PO Box A285, 3051. Phone: (03) 329 6333 Contact: Carol Davies, Office School, Errington St, Plympton Sydney South, NSW 2000. Phone: (02) 339 8225 Contact: Glenys Oogjes. Director Coordinator SA 5038 Phone: (08) 293 2733 Contact: Susan Bridie An umbrella organisation for over The NPA is a non-profit, community Contact: Judy Morton, Society members enjoy free 40 animal welfare / rights societies. organisation working for a system Office Manager admission to the Museum, their own Lobbies State. Te rritory and of reserves that protect the magazine, lectures, seminars, field ·ational Governments for reforms. complete range of habitat, Publishes newsletter and journals. trips, films, excursions and Detailed written submissions on features and cultural items. Science Teachers' Association expeditions. most welfare issues. of the Northern Territory PO Box 41809, Casuarina, Darwin Queensland Museum Association NT 0811. PO Box 3309, South Brisbane, BOCA, Bird ObserYers Club of The Australian Bush Heritage Phone: (089) 82 1224 Australia Fund Qld 4101. Contact: Ken Squires, Treasurer PO Box 185. Nunawading. Vic 102 Bathurst St, Hobart, 'las 7000 . Contact: Virginia Enright 3131. Phone: (03) 877 5342 Phone: (002) 34 3552 or Science Teachers' Association Contact: Mrs Zoe Wilson. (002) 95 1748 of Queensland Royal Society of SA Inc. �1anager Contact: Victoria Templeton, Brisbane Education Centre, c/o SA Museum, 1 orth Terrace, ational Coordinator 36 Rose St, Wooloowin, Qld 4030. Branches and representatives Adelaide SA 5000. Australia wide; Information on Public donation to buy land that is Phone: (08) 223 5360 request. �lonthly magazine the home of threatened species, or Deloraine Field Naturalists Contact: R.H. Fisher, contains information on bird high conservation value to Hon Secretary identification. behaviour. places to Australia, to permanently protect. Group Inc. The Society promotes knowledge visit. garden plants, projects. The non-controversial choice. PO Box 28, Deloraine, Tas. 7304 in the various fields of the atural conservation of bird habitat. Phone: (003) 68 1313 Sciences by means of regular Queensland Consen•ation Contact: Jim Nelson, Secretary NSW Field Ornithologists Club meetings and a broad range of Council The DFNG is involved in gathering PO Box C436. PO Clarence St, publications. PO Box 12046, Elizabeth St, and sharing knowledge of local Sydney. NSW '.2000. Brisbane, Qld 4002. natural history. We participate in REPTILES Phone: (02) 960 1552 Phone: (07) 221 0188 research, education and South Australian Herpetology Contact: Robyn I !ill, Contact: Ms Nicky Hungerford, conservation projects. Visitors Group I Ion Secretary Project Officer welcome. c/o SA Museum, North Terrace, Monthly meetings in the Hallstrom Adelaide, SA 5000. QCC is a non-profit, non Geelong Field Naturalists Theatre, Australian Museum. 2-3 Phone: (08) 267 5241 government group. We coordinate Club Inc. Field outings per month-also Contact: Ralph Foster, Secretary conservation groups throughout PO Box 1047, Geelong, Vic. 3220 pelagic trips & campouts. Queensland and work on Phone: (052) 45 2222 ewsletters & Journal. environmental issues and campaigns. Excellent environmental Contact: B. Lingham, RAOU, Royal Australian Hon Secretary reference library open to the public. EARTHWATCH Australia Ornithologists Union Level One, 457 Elizabeth St, 21 Gladstone St. Moonee Ponds. GEOGRAPHIC Ryde Hunters Hill Flora & Melbourne, Vic 3000 Vic 3039. The Royal Geographical Fauna Preservation Society Inc. Phone: (03) 600 9100 Phone: (03) 370 1422 25 Ross St, Gladesville, NSW 2lll. Society of Queensland Contact: Matilda Leone, Phone: (02) 210 2142 112 Brookes St, Fortitude Valley, Contact: Michelle Rice. Operations Manager Development Manager Qld 4006. Phone: (07) 252 3856 Contact: Frank Breen, Secretary Join EARTHWATCH and support Contact: Kath Berg, Administrator Please help birds: Join Australia's The society promotes & supports vital scientific research on one of leading bird conservation environmental issues, particularly The Society organizes an interesting 160 projects worldwide. Annual organisation; receive colour conservation & restoration of urban program of lectures and trips; main­ subscription $45. Expeditions newsletter packed with information; bushland. tains a library; publishes a news­ include preserving cultural participate in conservation and letter & journal; supports diversity, endangered species, observatory courses; discounted Tasmanian Conservation Trust geographical education and research. sustainable development. optical equipment. 102 Bathurst St, Hobart, Tas 7000. Phone: (002) 34 3552 ARE VOlJ A CLUB BUSlfWALKI G Contact: Michael Lynch, Director The Australian Entomological SECRETARY? ANH's Associate Society Mt Druitt Bushwalking Club Statewide voluntary organisation Society Inc. Scheme designed to help your Inc. working on protecting our historic c/o Dept of Crop Protection, 28 Grand Flaneur Dr, Richmond, and natural heritage; threatened Waite Campus, University of lub or society with free NSW 2753. species; saving soils. coastline; Adelaide, PO Glen Osmond, SA 5064. blicity, funds and member Phone: (045) 78 2668 cleaning up rivers, beaches and air; Phone: (08) '570 2987 b• nefits Contact Mike Field at Contact: Kath Layton, Secretary and scientific research. Contact: Dr P. Madge, Secretary ANH for more deta:ls. QUESTIONS & ANSWERS

The larvae of the Old Lady Moth have never been discovered. Fish Circles Where do all the fish Moths in the •. go when Lake Eyre driesQ up? Cellar -R. Doig I have noticed a spe­ East Roseville, NSW .• cies of moth becoming veryQ numerous in my wine cel­ A Different species of lar. Initially there were only a • fish have different salt few, but now there are almost tolerances and as the lake 100! Could you please tell me � dries up it gets saltier, result­ what the moths (or their lar­ � ing in distinctive rings of fish vae) feed on and why they � bodies moving concentrically congregate in such large num­ � in towards the centre of the bers? Even when I go to my � lake. Eventually, only the most cellar late at night they are still :g salt-tolerant species sur vive. If there. Shouldn't they be out­ � the lake dries completely, all side flying around? Is my wine g the fish will die. In either case, at risk? Should I drink it all � when the rains finally return, now? � the lake will be recolonised by -Peter Vaughan :;; fish swimming with the flood­ Newcastle, NSW ffi waters from other areas and by � eggs that have been capable of c surviving the dry period. A . T�e moth is Speiredo­ -Martyn Robinson • ma spectans, some­ Australian Museum Southern end of Lake Eyre. times known as the Old Lady Moth. Adults are often found sheltering in dark corners of houses and caves but the rea­ son for this is unknown. P I C T E A S E R Although the adults have a fully developed proboscis and are Do you recognise this? If you therefore capable of drinking and feeding, exactly what they think you know what it is, then feed on is unknown. And, yes, they should be outside at send your answer to Pie Teaser, night, as it is unlikely that ANH Magazine. Please don't for­ there would be a food supply for them in your cellar. So, get to include your name and either they are leaving at some stage to feed, or the next address. The first correct entry generation will not survive for lack of food. This is a common will win a $20 gift voucher from moth occurring from northern the Museum catalogue. Winter's Australia south to Wollongong. The larvae have never been Pie Teaser was a preying mantis discovered, although that of a closely related species feeds from Malaysia. on wattle. Should you be for­ tunate enough to find the lar­ vae, your cellar could become quite famous within entomo-

70 A N H logical circles. While there is content than the surrounding no danger from the moths at­ sea water and, by the process tacking your wine, visiting en­ of osmosis, water tends to tomologists could be a worry. diffuse outwards, especially -Max Moulds across surfaces such as the Australian Museum gills. To replace the water they're losing, fish drink sea Caterpillars water almost continuously. Unmasked Specialised cells in the gills ac­ While pruning my tively excrete the salts they Q •. grapevine I found unavoidably take in with the three caterpillars that were not water. Most of the fish's familiarto me and certainly, in nitrogenous waste is excreted my opinion, not usually found as ammonia through the gills, on the vines. They were semi­ therefore only a small quantity confined and fed on grape of urine is produced by the kid­ leaves until the leaves dried brown; the different colour A caterpillar of the Grapevine neys and so little water is lost up. At this stage, the caterpil­ forms are often mistaken for Hawk Moth. in this way. lars disappeared-probably different species. They only -Vicky Tzioumis into the ground as I could not feed on the leaves and, when Fish Facts Sydney University locate a cocoon. Could you mature, descend to ground level to pupate in the leaf litter. I often find myself Answers to Quiz In Quips, please identify the caterpillars • using the expression for me? The moth that emerges some g • Quotes & Curios {page 13) weeks or months later is light ' s like a fish' but -Norm Scott wondered-do fish actually 1. Indian Ocean Jeparit, Vic. brown in colour with silver 2. Ken Myer stripes on the forewings and drink? How do marine crea­ This beautiful caterpil­ tures filter out the salt if they 3. A stone swallowed to A . bright pink at the base of the aid digestion of food • Jar is that of the Grape­ hind wings. By the way, there do drink the water? 4. Tasmania vine Hawk Moth (Hippotion -Colin Jones are several other hawk moth 5. 65 celerio). It is often found on species whose caterpillars Mosman, NSW 6. An egg-laying mammal grapevines in warmer climates feed on grapevines, plus those 7. 100 million but rarely is it a serious pest. of some day-flying or agaristid A The body fluids of fish 8. An ancient landmass The caterpillars come in sever­ moths. • have a salt content of 9. Environmental Impact al colour forms from bright about one per cent. Therefore, Statement -Max Moulds 10. Bee faeces green to dark chocolate Australian Museum marine fish have a lower salt

I i i ! l I �

1 x4.SV Stdbulb17houra I.5 1 X 4.1V QH bulb I hours 3 X AA Stdbulb 8 houra MEGA I MICRO I ZOOM ; Available from

3 X C QH bulb11houra Better Outdoor Stores 2 X AA...... ,. bulb 5 houra 3 X AAQH bulb 2h41'

ANH 71 ing, or which may soon disturb, whole LAST WORO suites of species and broad environments. Examples would include the Peregrine Falcon and DDT, global decline in frogs, Rarity is a varied phenomenon, and research on the endangered Maia, and by no means necessarily which has demonstrated the devastating the prelude to extinction. impact of introduced predators on Aus­ tralian wildlife and the management im­ portance of an Aboriginal burning regime for arid Australia. There is also more urgency to the FILLING THE study of endangered species. We aim to hold the line with what we've got now, and not watch unconcerned as species vanish LIFEBOATS: forever. More than 40 per cent of the cen­ tral Australian mammal fauna has disap­ peared since European occupation, some ENDANGERED species as recently as 20 or 30 years ago. Their loss is a terrible one to our heritage, and especially to the Aboriginal SPECIES FIRST It people linked to them. could possibly have been averted if a few scientists had BY JOHN C.Z. WOINARSKI monitored and studied them. We don't now have the chance. In some cases, there is hope that spe­ cies endangered or declining in a now versely, rare species may be naturally at flawed environment can be re-introduced low numbers (such as top-order carni­ successfully when that environment is vores) but happily sustain this low popula­ healed. Such recovery demands the pro­ tion density over many millenia. tection of breeding colonies (in situ or ex Admittedly rarity may sometimes be a situ) of endangered species. Also in­ predisposing factor to endangerment, but dividual endangered species may provide it is endangerment per se that we should critical resources for an unexpectedly be worried about. wide array of other, dependent species. ITH EAR RELIGIOUS Conservation biology is neither the There are many celebrated examples of fervour, David Bow­ study of endangered species nor the the inevitable extinction of invertebrate man and Peter Whitehead look to the study of ecological processes in healthy species following the demise of their host words of Charles Darwin to provide the landscapes. It is, and indeed must be, plant species, or of parasites gone with priorities for conservation biology (ANH both. There are clear functional (biologi­ the extinction of their hosts. Winter 1993). This is inappropriate. Dar­ cal) links between these extremes. There Finally much of the philosophy, and me­ win was not especially keen on conserva­ is also financial support for the study (and ans to financial health, of conservation or­ tion. He found extinctions interesting. conservation) of both extremes, and also ganisations such as World Wide Fund for Indeed the evidence of loss of species for midway points on this gradient. In pur­ Nature is based on the marketing of the was a major plank in the demonstration of suing their argument, Bowman and plight of individual endangered species. his grand argument, and the process of Whitehead criticise the $4 million allotted Endangered species can be readily ap­ decline and extinction was the operating to endangered species programs. They preciated by a public anxious to support force he posited to be behind natural don't mention that substantially more conservation in some form. selection. Since Darwin, society's values funding has been allocated to whole-area Bowman and Whitehead seem con­ and perceived responsibilities are much conservation (protection of biological cerned that funding for endangered spe­ changed, we have a far greater under - diversity and maintenance of ecological cies is a waste, with an inevitability of the standing of ecological relationships and processes and sy stems) through sources depressing outcome that the beasts don't the ability to manage habitats, but most such as National Rainforest Conservation cooperate any way and more or less go ex­ especially we are degrading natural values Program, Save the Bush Program, One tinct out of spite. There are some at a rate that would probably have greatly Billion Trees Program and National Soil failures, and have been some misdirected surprised and horrified Darwin. In the Conservation Program, to mention only monies. But neither should discredit the space of a few years, we can witness far some of the more specific federal initia­ general aim of studying, and trying to more extinctions than Darwin could have tives. But even endangered species fund­ conserve, endangered species. The studied in a lifetime. ing need not be as insular as Bowman and failures tend to have been when the Bowman and Whitehead erect a straw Whitehead suggest, for much of its budg­ research effort was made too late. Finan­ man, in presenting a dichotomy in et has been allocated to research on feral cial investments in research and conser­ research (and funding) focus between the predators, especially foxes, and how vation of endangered species are now study (and conservation) of rare species these disturb ecosystems functioning. reasonably tightly targeted and priori­ and that of reasonably healthy landscapes Perhaps they are trying to say that tised: there is a carefully considered list­ in general. Their argument is not served money spent on endangered species is ing of Australian endangered vertebrates, well by Darwin's coupling of rarity and ex­ misdirected because these focus on the and applications for funding are competi­ tinction. Rarity is a varied phenomenon, losers and goners. This is too simplistic tive and tightly assessed. Research into, and by no means necessarily the prelude and wrong. There are many reasons for and protection of, endangered species to extinction. Very common species may focusing, at least partly, on endangered and habitats should continue to be an im­ disappear extraordinarily rapidly, with the species. Species heading towards extinc­ portant component of our national and most celebrated example being the North tion may be readily identifiable examples, State conservation efforts. • American Passenger Pigeon presumed to symptomatic of a malaise pervading the be the most common bird in the world in environment they inhabit. Study directed Dr John Woina�ki is a Research Scientist the 19th century but extinct within the at such species may be the most effective with the Conservation Commission of the first few decades of this century. Con- way of identifying factors that are disturb- Northern Territory. 72 ANH SUBSCRIBE! GIFT SUBSCRIP I ION Save Time and Money by having I WOULD LIKE 10 SHARE PLEASE SEND AN ANH GIFT SUBSCRIPTION FOR ANH delivered to your door! MY FASCINATION FOR NATURE 0 Three-years for S81 (overseas SA108) YES! WITH SOMEONE El5E. D Two-years for SSS (overseas SA78) 0 One-year for $30 (overseas SA42) and GET 2 FREE POSTERS! TO 0 Start this subscription with ______,· ,ssue First-time subscribers using these ADDRESS cards will receive two of ANH's beautiful posters - unfolded and SUBURB/TOWN POSTCODE ready to frame - Absolutely FROM FREE! ADDRESS

SUBURB/TOWN POSTCODE In the next issue Payment by D Cheque D Money Order D Bankcard D Visa D MasterCard 0 American Express • Bulmer's Fruit-bat My card number is 0 Please send renewal notice to me I rediscovered I EXPIRY DAT.______• Return of a tiny predator: I the Phascogale I SIGNED CARDHOLDER'S NAME (Print) I Cheque or card authority must accompany order. Make cheques payable to 'Australian Museum'. ANH is a quarterly magazin� with issues released in March, June. September and December. Please allow up to 12 weeks for delivery of first issue (unless backdated). Prices valid • Pearls I to December 1993. a (02) I PHONE THROUGH CREDIT CARD ORDERS ON (008) 028 558. SUBSCRIBE BY FAX 339 8313. • Photoart: Australian Parrots : ,... NHAustralla � 's Leading Nature Magazine J �------1 Summer Issue NEW SUBSCRIBER on sale 0 Three-year subscription to ANH for $81 (overseas SA108) YES! Please send me 0 Two-year subscription to ANH for $58 (overseas SA78) Early December D One-year subscription to ANH for $30 (overseas SA42) 1993 0 Start my subscription with ______,·ssue NAME

Subscribe ADDRESS

using the attached forms OR SUBURB/TOWN POSTCODE u Call our Toll-Free Payment by D Cheque D Money Order D Bankcard D Visa D MasterCard D American Express Subscription Hotline on My card number is EXPIRY DAT.____ _ (008) 028 558 SIGNED CARDHOLDER'S NAME (Print)

Cheque or card authority must accompany order. Make cheques payable to 'Australian Museum'. ANH is a quarterly magazine. with issues If all forms have been released in March, June. September and December. Please allow up lo l2 weeks for delivery of first issue (unless backdated) Prices valid removed, see the contents to December 1993. PHONE THROUGH CREDIT CARD ORDERS ON a (008) 028 558. SUBSCRIBE BY FAX (02) 339 8313. page for subscription details ,... NHAustralla � 's Leading Nature Magazine ------,1 ------I Coming soon I NEW SUBSCRIBER • Humpback Whales I D Three-year subscription to ANH for $81 (overseas SA108) I YES! Please send me 0 Two-year subscription to ANH for SSS (overseas SA78) • Snake Sense I 0 One-year subscription to ANH for $30 (overseas SA42) I D Start my subscription with ______,·.ssue I • Antarctic Warming I NAME I ADDRESS • Storms I I SUBURB/ TOWN POSTCODE • And Much, Much More ... I I Payment by D Cheque D Money Order D Bankcard D Visa D MasterCard D Amencan Express I My card number is I I EXPIRY DAT.______I

I SIGNED CARDHOLDER'S NAME (Print) SEE: REVERSE FOR I Cheque or card authority must accompany order. Mak, cheques payable to 'Australian Museum'. ANH is a quarterty magazine, with issues DETAILS OF BACK I released in March, June. September and December. Please allow up to 12 weeks for delivery of first issue (unless backdated). Prices valid ISSUES I to December 1993 PHONE THROUGH CREDIT CARD ORDERS ON a (008) 028 558. SUBSCRIBE BY FAX (02) 339 8313. I I I ,... NHAustral � la's Leading Nature Magazine I BACK ISSUES & SUPPLEMENTS

SEND THIS CARD AND PAYMENT Available at $5.00 each 23 / 6 • LindRlthb & Coo..... alloo (Including postage and • Pompolls In U.. l'l

IS$Ulrds • Ntght P1rrot Rtclbcowred P.O. BOX A285 I • St1rflsll • Mt,au.s&an Mouttn SYDNEY SOUTH 14u!Mykt 23 / I O • Is Auslrallo O..,_..t,d? I 22/8' • r blood N.S.W. 2000 • 1-Ani OWis • Matplt GttH & M1-, I • Mtttortta • ChrlH D1rwln In THIUnbl AUSTRALIA • Lt V.lllool's Parrots I 22/9' • Boob TrttS I • MollllSUll'I Ttttll 23 /II • Gooldloo Fl1Kh • Indutrlous Flus • l.ut Rock Painton of Kobdu I • Coral Rttfs 22/10 • S.Ylog Willits • Mttu I • Sltt:Hitt TRddttt • Spitfire De.fl'nct • 1111..... 1 Colltdlon I 23 / 12 • Mtpmoolh Sllark ---1 22/ II • Croc.odlle Sotctry • Tutlra of Ml • EllubtU, & • Lt1tMrNttS- Hum1t1 boktlioA- 1 look at our orlfins Frltod o, Fot? O $7.95 uch (lndudlnt ,oslatt and lliodll. . J

______T ______BACK ISSUE ORDER FORM Post to: ANH Back Issues, FREEPOST AAAlO, PO Box A285, Sydney South 2000 (or phont 008 028 558 toll-free)

Qty. Issue/ Supp. No. Prlct S SEND THIS CARD AND PAYMENT POSTAGE FREE TO:

Total S Name Address Suburb/ Town ______Postcode

FREEPOST AAA 10 Dtblt my 'l Bankcard [l Visa D MasterCard D Amtx AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM EX� DAT..__ __ P.O. BOX A285 I I I II I II I I l�I ��� SYDNEY SOUTH CARD NUMBER N.S.W. 2000 C.rdholdtr's N1mt (print) ______AUSTRALIA S1tn1turt ______Cheque or cord authorisation must accompany order. Please make cheques payablt to 'Auslrallan Museum'. ANH BACK ISSUES & SUPPLEMENTS

Australian Australian Natural History Natural History ARST R1£T FOODS -�­ -��-­· -··-·�--.--- aii�

22/5 22/6 22/7 22/8 22/9

22/10 22/11 23/1

FERDINAND- 1' , �.!:'21-

23/3 23/4 23/5 23/6 23/7

Mitt � - � -- l'�- -- � � ..--,,_ �\ �� -- Stinging L"'°"'

23/8 23/9 23/10 23/11 23/12 24/1

SUPPLE ME NTS

S1 S2 24/2 24/3 24/4 24/5 Pieces of Tracks Paradise Through Time tm O\l\}OS\te 10 Qll\et USe \\\e io • • e 1ns1 -

Something One thing happened in the is for certain the year 1904 that quali ty will turned a small remain. hat factory on From a its head. A tradition young man like this called Stephen with real Keir started en deavour working for Benjamin and the true Dunkerley. You're probably asking who is Stephen Keir. We'll come to that in a Akubra, it's no minute. wonder we are Benjami n renowned for Dunkerley, his wife very fine hats Harriet and daughter worldwide. Ada ran a hat making Naturally, business in Sy dney. it's Australia's Benjamin was a technician most famous who had an eye for a good product hat, just ask any and Stephen Keir had an eye for his Akubra owner an d they daughter. Following his marriage to Stephen Keir I died in 1957, are sure to have their own story to tel l. Ada, Stephen was promoted to his sons including Stephen Keir II Akubra hats available from General Manager. In 1918 when proudly continued the business. leading department stores, hat shops Benjamin died Stephen steered the Today the name goes on an d saddleries nationwide. Compan y on to greater things; with Stephen Keir In at the helm and moving the factory to larger yes, his son Stephen, like all premises, increasing the production those before him is an d branding the hats 'Akubra'. learning the trade of This great part of our felt hat making, AKUBRA Australian history was now taking from the factory shape. floor up. Who Large contracts were won knows what new for the supply of Slouch hats during heights he'l l both World Wars and in the more reach an d what peaceful times of the early S0's new hats will take Akubra obtained the prized licensed shape to join the long list of manufacturing ag reement from favourites such as, 'The Down Under' Stetson of America. an d the 'Snowy River'.

B&B 004