Memoirs of the Queensland Museum | Culture Volume 8 Part 1 Goemulgaw Lagal: Natural and Cultural Histories of the Island of Mabuyag, Torres Strait. Edited by Ian J. McNiven and Garrick Hitchcock Minister: Annastacia Palaszczuk MP, Premier and Minister for the Arts CEO: Suzanne Miller, BSc(Hons), PhD, FGS, FMinSoc, FAIMM, FGSA , FRSSA Editor in Chief: J.N.A. Hooper, PhD Editors: Ian J. McNiven PhD and Garrick Hitchcock, BA (Hons) PhD(QLD) FLS FRGS Issue Editors: Geraldine Mate, PhD PUBLISHED BY ORDER OF THE BOARD 2015 © Queensland Museum PO Box 3300, South Brisbane 4101, Australia Phone: +61 (0) 7 3840 7555 Fax: +61 (0) 7 3846 1226 Web: qm.qld.gov.au National Library of Australia card number ISSN 1440-4788 VOLUME 8 IS COMPLETE IN 2 PARTS COVER Image on book cover: People tending to a ground oven (umai) at Nayedh, Bau village, Mabuyag, 1921. Photographed by Frank Hurley (National Library of Australia: pic-vn3314129-v). NOTE Papers published in this volume and in all previous volumes of the Memoirs of the Queensland Museum may be reproduced for scientific research, individual study or other educational purposes. Properly acknowledged quotations may be made but queries regarding the republication of any papers should be addressed to the CEO. Copies of the journal can be purchased from the Queensland Museum Shop. A Guide to Authors is displayed on the Queensland Museum website qm.qld.gov.au A Queensland Government Project Design and Layout: Tanya Edbrooke, Queensland Museum Printed by Watson, Ferguson & Company The terrestrial vertebrate fauna of Mabuyag (Mabuiag Island) and adjacent islands, far north Queensland, Australia Justin J. WATSON and Garrick HITCHCOCK Watson, J.J. & Hitchcock, G. 2015: The terrestrial vertebrate fauna of Mabuyag (Mabuiag Island) and adjacent islands, far north Queensland, Australia. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum – Culture 8(1): 35-54. Brisbane. ISSN 1440-4788. Until recently, relatively little was known about the vertebrate fauna of Mabuyag and surrounding islands. This paper presents the results of terrestrial vertebrate surveys undertaken in 2008-2009, and a review of previous literature and museum records, which have added considerably to our knowledge for the area. Ethnotaxonomy, the role of terrestrial vertebrates in the traditional diet, and the importance of birds, mammals and reptiles in Goemulgaw culture are also discussed briefly. The terrestrial vertebrate fauna as presently known comprises 106 species: three frogs; 18 reptiles; 77 birds; and eight mammals. Mabuyag (Mabuiag Island), Torres Strait, fauna, terrestrial vertebrates Justin J. Watson Gondwana Ecology Group PO Box 5353, Kenmore, QLD 4069 [email protected] Garrick Hitchcock School of Culture, History and Language The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 0200 Memoirs of the Queensland Museum | Culture 8 (1) 2015 | 35 Justin J. Watson and Garrick Hitchcock FIG. 1. Mabuyag and surrounding islets. 36 | Memoirs of the Queensland Museum | Culture 8(1) 2015 Terrestrial vertebrate fauna of Mabuyag (Mabuiag Island) MABUYAG AND SURROUNDS Terrestrial vertebrate specimens were also collected in the course of the 1898 Mabuyag (Mabuiag Island) (9˚57’S, 142˚10’E) Cambridge Anthropological Expedition to is a granitic, continental island, situated in Torres Straits. During a trip to the nearby Torres Strait approximately mid-way between islet of Pulu, expedition member C.G. the mainlands of Australia and New Guinea. Seligmann collected the Coastal Sheathtail Together with Badu and Mua (Moa Island), Bat (Taphozous australis): ‘under another rock it forms the Central Western group or cluster got a couple of bats Ap [Goemulgaw2 name of Torres Strait islands. The island is roughly for this species]’ (Seligmann, 1898: 69). It is triangular in shape, and has an area of 6.38 not known what became of these specimens. 2 km . Mabuyag is surrounded by numerous Expedition leader A.C. Haddon deposited uninhabited islands, islets and rocks (Figure 1). reptile and mammal specimens collected As at the 2011 census, there were 260 people on Mer (Murray Island, 201 km to the east) living on the island, the majority of whom at the University Museum of Zoology, The are Goemulgal, the people of Mabuyag University of Cambridge and the British (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2012). The Museum of Natural History, London. No Goemulgal speak Kala Lagaw Ya, a dialect of specimens from Mabuyag are among the the Western-Central Torres Strait Language former collection, and it is not known if any (see Mitchell, 2015). specimens from Mabuyag are in the latter3. Like the other islands in Torres Strait, the The Australian Museum sponsored a major mammal and herpetofauna assemblage (and herpetological expedition to the region in the to a lesser extent, the avifauna) is not well 1970s (Cameron et al., 1978). As part of this documented, with little research having been research, Mabuyag was visited in August undertaken (see Cameron et al., 1978: 193; 1975, with four reptile species collected Ingram, 2008: 619; Lavery et al., 2012: 180; from the island: Striped Snake-eyed Skink McNiven & Hitchcock, 2004: 107; Strahan, (Cryptoblepharus virgatus), House Gecko 1995: 444). This research dearth is surprising (Hemidactylus frenatus), Translucent Litter- given the attention Torres Strait has received skink (Lygisaurus macfarlani) and Spotted in the past as a faunal bridge or barrier (e.g. Tree Monitor (Varanus scalaris) (all collected Heinsohn & Hope, 2006; Kikkawa et al., 1981; 3 August 1975, see Table 1). Schodde & Calaby, 1972). The only bird specimen from the island in Australian museum collections is a Buff-banded EARLIER SURVEYS Rail (Gallirallus philippensis) in the Queensland The German naturalist and traveller Otto Museum (O.13856, unsexed dessicated skin), Finsch visited Mabuyag in November 1881 collected on 3 November 1972. during his 1881-1882 voyage to the Pacific (Howes, 2015). While on the island, he collected METHODS three specimens of Spotted Monitor Varanus( scalaris) and five bird species: Olive-backed Between 2008-2009 we conducted a number Sunbird (Nectarinia jugularis), Spangled Drongo of surveys of vertebrate fauna: on Mabuyag, (Dicrurus bracteatus), Pied Imperial-Pigeon Pulu, and surrounding islets in June and (Ducula bicolor), Whimbrel (Numenius phaeopus) November 2008, and April 2009 (Hitchcock and Silver Gull (Chroicocephalus novaehollandiae)1 et al., 2009; Watson, 2009); and on Mabuyag (Finsch, 1884; Howes, pers. comm., 2013). in May 2009 (Conics, 2009). Memoirs of the Queensland Museum | Culture 8 (1) 2015 | 37 Justin J. Watson and Garrick Hitchcock Standard systematic survey techniques were FAUNAL HABITATS employed in suitable habitats to provide an understanding of the terrestrial vertebrate For terrestrial fauna, seven broad habitats fauna of Mabuyag. These surveys were were identified on the island, following supplemented with further active searches, Stanton et al. (2008) and Stanton and Fell incidental observations and consultations (2015): Welchiodendron dominant closed to with the Goemulgal with regard to their open forests and woodlands; vine forest and traditional ecological knowledge. A review of thicket; Melaleuca dominant and Pandanus previous literature, databases and museum dominant shrublands and woodlands; records was also undertaken. grasslands; shrublands/shrubland complexes and rock pavement/pavement complexes; Standardised survey techniques included: mangroves; and modified environments pitfall traps and associated drift fences including built and disturbed areas. Detailed (buckets placed in the ground with directional descriptions of these vegetation communities fence) for amphibians, small mammals and are provided in Stanton et al. (2008) and reptiles; Elliott (aluminium live) Type ‘E’ Stanton and Fell (2015). and ‘B’ traps baited with an oats and honey mixture for small mammals; hair traps (traps Welchiodendron dominant closed to open forests baited with an oats and honey mixture and and woodlands. This is the most extensive adhesive tape) for hair samples of small habitat on Mabuyag, with around 32% of land mammals; funnel traps (collapsible live trap) covered by forests and woodlands in which for small mammals, reptiles and amphibians; yellow box penda (Welchiodendron longivalve) and deployment of an AnaBat bat recorder is the dominant species, with wattle (Acacia (recording of ultrasonic echolocation calls of polystachya), scrub turpentine (Canarium microchiropterans). Other methods employed australianum) and Terminalia subacroptera included roost searches (flying-foxes and also present. It is also the habitat that is the birds); vocalisation recording (amphibians most species rich on the island. It occurs on and birds); spotlighting and active diurnal footslopes to hilltops, gully lines and other and nocturnal searches for all fauna groups. sheltered locations across the island. The understorey ranges from sparse grass cover Working with the Mabuyag rangers and in some locations, to well-developed vine other community members, we were able to thicket in others. ascertain many of the Kala Lagaw Ya names of species, through interviews using field Vine thicket: There are a number of small guides (Pizzey & Knight, 2007; Wilson, 2005), vine thicket patches on Mabuyag, covering approximately 2% of the total land area. This as well as direct observations of species habitat is restricted primarily to gullies on the during collaborative field surveys (Table 1). upper slopes of the island and lies within a