I just travelled to the Wet Tropics region
with my brother Andrew to have a look around, to see what Far North
Queensland looks like a year after Cyclone Larry. The first stop was Paluma.
This town is around 60km north of Townsville, and around 1000m above sea
level. The rainforest in the area is superb, and home to an incredible
variety of animals, especially birds. Bowerbirds and riflebirds abound, as
well as all sorts of smaller rainforest birds right up to cassowaries. Most
of the birdlife is active around dawn and dusk, we arrived well after dark
to look for quolls, nocturnal birds and frogs. The full moon made it a
little tricky to sneak up on the many frogs calling in the rainforest. My
aim was to record their calls, which wasn't hard to do- I just need a way to
put the calls in the email! The Common Nursery Frogs and the Robust
Whistling Frogs were the loudest. These come from a family of frogs which in
Australia are restricted to wet tropical forests- known as
Microhylids. They have a remarkable way of breeding only possible in
the perpetual damp of the forest floor- they lay eggs in the leaf litter
that hatch into sub-adult frogs - totally bypassing the tadpole stage!
Microhylid frogs such as these are tiny - most species are around
2.5cm, many are under 2cm.
The Robust Whistling Frog (Austrochaperina
robusta.) Its call is
a series of about 6 fast double-whistles
The Common Nursery Frog (Cophixalus
ornatus) sits with its
clutch of eggs. The call is like a distant
car horn. They are common,
but try finding one!
Luminous fungus (yes, glowing mushrooms!)
lit up the forest floor, along with glow-worms but the bright moon and
strong wind meant no photos. However, here is one I prepared from an earlier
trip (ok, maybe the word "trip" should be changed to "expedition.")
We planned to camp within the rainforest at
Lake Paluma, but the road through the forest was closed. Instead, we camped
at Jourama Falls.
In the morning, a hatch of Mayflies filled
the spider webs.
Mayflies, or Dayflies are insects that spend
the vast majority of their lives underwater as a nymph- feeding on algae or
other insects. When it is time to hatch (sometimes after 2 years!) the nymph
swims to the surface, its back unzips and it pops out, sitting on the
surface for a few seconds while it pumps up its wings before flying away.
Normally they have two or three hairlike "tails" but the one in the picture
has lost them. As an adult they cannot feed, but have anywhere from half an
hour to a day (depending on the species) to breed and die.
Next to the road was an odd beetle. So far
unidentified it was totally iridescent and had enormous hind legs. No idea
what purpose those huge legs had. It certainly didn't jump.
On the way through Ingham, I stopped to
photograph Australia's only native starling- the tropical Metallic Starling.
Quite a striking bird, tinted in shiny purple and green hues, it has glaring
red eyes. They nest in massive colonies in trees, weaving nests from grass
and rubbish. They are fruit-eaters.
We finally arrived at Tully, Australia's
wettest town with rainfall of over 6m recorded annually! Tully itself is a
typical quiet cane town but the rainforest that still stands after Cyclone
Larry is amazing. Around dusk, large numbers of Birdwing butterflies
emerged. These enormous insects have a wingspan of 15cm (6in) for females,
males are 13cm. Females are fairly drab black, red, white and yellow but
males are black, yellow, blue and iridescent green/bronze. They were way to
high up for photos. Since the cyclone, their numbers have jumped up- it
seems that the vine they feed on thrives after patches of rainforest fall
down.
A closeup of the Stinging Tree. This also
thrives in cleared areas. A careless touch of the plant will cause sudden,
intense pain as the venom laced silica bristles break off under your skin.
Symptoms may persist for a year or more. The leaves are large and heart
shaped, with a "saw tooth" edge.
A Pandanus Pandanus monticola.
This appears to be a Hamadryad butterfly.
Can't confirm that because my butterfly book went for a swim a month ago in
the floods we have had.
Andrew and I went spotlighting and a large
bird took off from the roadside and flew into a large tree. I had a look and
saw that it was a Papuan Frogmouth Podargus papuensis. This
uncommon bird is normally found in rainforests and mangroves in the far
north of Queensland. It was the first I had seen.
It differs from the Tawny Frogmouth by the
patterns on the chest, the long tail and the red eyes. Quite a big bird. It
is not an owl, but from a group thought to be nearest to the Nightjars -
swallow-like nocturnal birds that feed on flying insects.
Also found was the tiny Creaking Nursery
Frog Cophixalus infacetus. This frog is only 17mm or so, but has a
very loud call that consists of a single creaky-croak.
The next day we drove to Paluma on the way
home, stopping at the town to find that our destination was closed for the
day (Ivy Cottage - a cafe which is famous for close and frequent sightings
of Victoria's Riflebirds, one of four Australian Birds of Paradise, males
are decorated in intense iridescent feathers.) Also at the cafe are several
bowerbirds and loads of other rainforest animals.
White-Cheeked Honeyeater
Angiopterus- the King Fern. This
plant is the largest fern
in the world and grows in rainforest creeks.
Fronds can be up
to 5 metres long!
We drove back down the mountain for a swim
in Crystal Creek.
Andrew enjoying a natural water-slide:
Well, that was the end of the trip. I just
thought I'd share the beauty of what is left of the Wet Tropics. This area
covers 1/1000th (0.1%) of Australia's land area, but development and poor
farming practices have torn massive sections out of this amazing region -
and it still continues. Vast sections of rainforest are now small pockets,
small natural disasters are enough to wipe out entire species in these small
fragments. Introduced diseases have already totally killed off many of the
animals and plants. Most of the damage has been done. In the future I think
we will see many more species in this area vanish due to inbreeding because
of the loss of so much habitat.
-Nathan Litjens
