Australian Natural History Papua New Guinea · and Lrian Jaya
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Australian Natural History Papua New Guinea · and lrian Jaya A Unique Cultural Tour Into Tribal Melanesia OT A RUGGED TREK.This is an exploration for the discerning adventurer wishing to participateN in Melanesian tribal life. To canoe the waterways of the SepikRiver is to travel through a living gallery of tribal artistic expression. Trek back into time through the Baliem Valley of Irian Jaya where the Dani people wear little but penis gourds, preserve their dead and will welcome you as a long lost relative. Departures • 24 March, 1990 • 19 May, 1990 • 9 September, 1990 Itinerary Day 1: Fly to Wewak in Papua New Guinea. Day 2-4: Canoe on Sepik River. Day 5: Fly to Jayapura, Irian Jaya. Day 6: Fly to Wamena. Air Niugini Day 7-10: Baliem Valley hike. c) Day11: Fly to Jayapura. Day12: Fly to Mount Hagen, Papua New Guinea. Two night Highland stay. Day14: Returnto Australia. There will be only 12 places on each de parture. For details and to reserve your place on this trip or other small group cultural adventures, contact: IUGlnl TOURS�;; wwer Ground 100 Clarence Street Sydney 2000 Phone: (02) 290 2055 Inwatts (008) 22 1757 Fax: (02) 267 6118 Telex: 122179 Lie2TA001455 ANHAustralian Natural History ONUS ON Spring 1989 Volume 23 Number 2 BY FIONA DOIG EDITOR Published by The Australian Museum Trust 6-8 College Street, Sydney, NSW 2000 Phone: (02) 339 8111 UR PLANET IS IN CRISIS. RESOURCES trol is not the solution. Perhaps that just raises the standard of living and consump Trust President: Robyn Williams 0 are fast dwindling; at our present Museum Director: Desmond Griffin rate of growth, we will soon run tion rate. Either way, we simply cannot EDITOR out. The Earth simply cannot support our keep taking. We cannot afford the ecologi Fiona Doig growing population. cal cost. SCIENTIFIC EDITOR Recently I returnedfrom a trip to central Were it any other species, we would be Georgina Hickey, B.Sc. Africa. What started as an interest in ob advocating culling programs and attempt CIRCULATION serving some of this continent's unique ing to manage the population by· some Cathy McGahey fauna ended up as a lesson on the destruc means. It would be very simple to set up an ART DIRECTION tive capabilities of one species in particular. effectiveprogram to reduce our population. Watch This! Design That species is our very own Homo sapiens. It would just be totally unacceptable to our PRODUCTION ASSISTANT Of all the large mammals that I saw, none moral principles. We are so tied up in our Jennifer Saunders occupies such an enormous niche. You can own survival that we forgetto look at it in a TYPESETTING not tum around for the people-and this is global sense. Importance is placed on the ExcelImaging PtyLtd in the rural areas. Jn countries like Rwanda, individual. For what other species do we do PRINTING every available square centimetre of land is this? What makes us so unique? Do we Dai Nippon Printing Co., Tokyo, Japan under cultivation. Yet people in Africa are really think we are above the laws of natu ADVERTISING dying from the effectsof hunger. ral selection? Fiona Doig I suffered not so much from culture Like it or not, we will be the cause of our Lisa Rawlinson shock as population shock. I already knew downfall. If we don't act now to reduce our (02) 339 8234 the planet was overpopulated. But coming own population, it will occur automatically. SUBSCRIPTIONS from a relatively uncrowded place like Aus Much sooner than we think. Evidence for it Annual subscription (4 issues) tralia it was disturbing to see the reality of is appearing right now. Live. Here on Within Australia $A 16.00 the situation for myself. planet Earth. Starring the ozone hole, Other Countries $A20.00 In talking to the Africans I got a sense of greenhouse effect, pollution and a host of Two-year subscription (8 issues) their culture. Possessions and ownership other environmental disturbances. I just Within Australia $A30.00 take far less precedence than the number of Other countries $A36.00 wonder how much we will take with us For renewal or new subscription please children they have. This is their greatest when we go. forward credit card authority or cheque value. And that worries me. Because the So what to do? Should we all go around made payable to: more people there are the more stress that wearing signs that say 'hazardous to the en The Australian Museum is placed on the Earth. vironment?' P.O. Box A285 Sydney South But is it just the numbers alone that cre If humans can only think in terms of the NSW 2000, Australia ate ecological crises? Tim Flannery, in the individual, then the onus is on each of us to Subscribers from other countries please article on page 148, tells us that the aver take responsibility for our future. It is what note that money must be paid in age Australian consumes 60 times the re must be done. If we want to survive. Let's Australian currency. sources of a person in the poorer countries. put our so-called survival instinct into AJImaterial appearing in Australian Perhaps simply advocating population con- action.• Natural History is copyright. Reproduction in whole or in part is not permittedwithout written authorisation from the Editor. Opinions expressed by the authors are their own and do not necessarily represent the policies or views of the Australian Museum. The Editor welcomes articles or photographs in any field of Australian natural history. Published 1989 ISSN-0004-9840 111111111 Australian Natural History is a dited by the Audit Bureau of � _ _aDc Crrculat1ons. Front Cover The net casting spider, (Deinopis sztbrufa), ensnares its prey in a silk net. SEM photo by Geoff Avern using the Australian Museum's Cambridge 120 Steroscan, l0KV, specimen uncoated. VOLUME 23 NUMBER 2, SPRING 1989 93 C 0 N T E N T 5 lk- , , f �I, ·, %�, Articles J � �• , , ,1 I , · IN THIS ISSUE BY GEORGINA HICKEY SCIENTIFIC EDITOR PICKIN(i UP THE THREADS Spiders are generally considered USTRALIAN MUSEUM'S VERY OWN to be consummate spinners of silk. Yet many hunting spiders spiderman, Mike Gray (pictured), use little or no silk to capture discusses the various types and uses of prey. The study of spider silk Aspider silk against an evolutionary backdrop allows scientists to trace the evolutionary shiftfrom web (page 112). This information comes to us after building to hunting behaviour. BY MIKE GRAY much crawling around in caves searching for 112 primitive species. And in Quips, Quotes & Curios, Mike reports, for the first time ever, an PRE(iNANTMALES & extraordinary piece of jumping spider behaviour, witnessed from the HORSES' TALES What has a prehensile tail, no comfort of his lounge room. No clues will be given here, though-find teeth or stomach, a head like a out for yourself on page 102. chess knight and is usually pregnant? A male seahorse, of Suzanne Hand is another contributor who has spent many hours course! crawling around in caves. But the caves she's particularly interested in BY AMANDA VINCENT are the multi-million-year-old remains of those once home to ancestral 122 bats. At the Riversleigh Cattle Station in far north-western Queens ON THE WINDS OF land, Sue collects about 20 tonnes of fossil-rich limestone, which is then FORTUNE processed to reveal the perfectly preserved bat material within. Com The rich Riversleigh fossil deposits in north-western parison with overseas and other Australian fossil and modem bats has Queensland have enabled scientists to formulate a moving enabled Sue to formulate the most likely origin of Australia's diverse picture of what Australia was bat fauna (see page 130). like 20-25 and 3.5 million years ago and the likely routes of origin Amanda Vincent, fromCambridge University, is one of the very few for many of Australia's faunal people in the world studying seahorses. Amanda is privy to many inter elements. The bat storyis told here. esting facts about seahorses and their relatives, particularly their BY SUZANNE HAND amazingreproductive behaviour (page 122). 130 In the last issue of ANH, Tim Flanneryintroduced us to what is now referred to as the 'Human Plague'. In this issue, with Telford Conlon, possible strategies that could help vaccinate against this plague-or, at the very least, buy us some time-are suggested. And to ensure that some of these points are driven home, Tim elaborates on his personal feelings towards the sensitive issue of wilderness in The Last Word (page 180). No doubt these articles will receive healthy comment from ZOOS: FROM A MODERN concernedreaders. PERSPECTIVE Whatis the justification for Also in this issue we look at the changing role of modem zoos; holding animals in captivity? The answer depends on an exchange in cultural or symbolic property in the Lower Sepik River; understanding of the underlying the once-respected, later-despised pastime of egg-collecting; the issue roles and philosophies of modern zoos. of palaeontology as a 'real' science; the nature of mutations; and some BY JOHN D. KELLY amazingSEM photography. 140 94 AUSTRALIAN NATURAL HISTORY WI L D FOODS ANYONE FOR 1SPINAGE1? If the boom in wild foods continues, 'Botany Bay Greens' LETTERS and other native 'spinaches' Zieria Saved; Passion for should regain their popularity as Passions; A Lizard's Lunch?; vegetables. Probe; Expressed Disgust; BY TIMLOW Solecism; Cactoblastis; Maps Please; Congratulations; 108 Out of Line. RARE & ENDANGERED 96 THE TASMANIAN A VACCINE FOR THE GRANULATEDSNAIL PLAGUE A low fire frequency and respect Given the current human for its rainforesthabitat should population growth pattern, bythe ensure survival of this 'most year 2100 there will be over 50 peculiar' snail.