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Low on the Food Chain

When we chose 'low on the food chain' as a theme for our Winter 2006 issue, we weren't expecting a cyclone. However, there's nothing like 290km/hour wind gusts plus mini-tornadoes to flatten a swathe of forest and make us thing about where food comes from.

Rainforests are great nutrient recyclers where animals feast on everything from detritus to leaves and fruits to other animals while making their own contributions to this fertile and complex network.

The striped possum, which lives in cyclone-prone rainforests in Papua New Guinea and north Queensland feeds mainly on tree burrowing beetle larvae. What happens to the wildlife when a cyclone flatterns that rainforest?

Cyclones are a part of life in Queensand's wet tropics. Larry, however, was particularly severe and struck a relatively populated and accessible area. Researchers are monitoring issues of concern to look at the long term impacts and recovery rates at various sites.

Various researchers and writers share their observations and thoughts on this natural event.

An interview with Professor Norman Myers

A multidisciplinary environmental scientist shares some thoughts on perverse subsidies, climate change and what you, as an individual can do.

Can one person save the planet? Prof Myers believes that an informed and active individual can make a huge difference. On a recent visit to Australia, he took a few minutes from a busy schedule to share some thoughts with Wildlife Australia.

By Antoni V. Milewski

In this feature, Antoni Milewski takes a comparative look at large reptiles of three southern continents, and tries to understand - 'what do we mean by large?'

Australia is a land of reptiles, and a land of 'greats', but is there a world-class Great Australian Reptile? It's a massive, perhaps even inflammatory question, and it may need a female perspective...

By Kayley Usher

Not exactly handsome, she was still large, sleek and healthy. But how did she acquire her primitive companion?

'Primitive, voracious predator seeks photosynthesising cyanobacterium with a view to long-term relationship.' It's an ancient and effective arrangement, but how does a silky rocksponge meet its live-in partner? An investigation uncovers a case of symbiosis heresy ...

By Kristen M. Parris

Night falls on one of Melbourne's famous inner-city gardens, but it brings neither darkness nor silence. Lamps lining pathways cast an orange glow. The noise of traffic rumbles from nearby roads. To the surprise of passing football fans on their way to the MCG, southern brown tree-frogs (Litoria ewingii) begin to call from a pond.

In this article, Kristen reports on the good and the bad of life as a frog in an urban landscape.

By Dr. Scott Burnett, WPSQ's Wildlife Manager

Platypus occur in five Australian States and Territories; Tasmania, South Australia, Victoria, New South Wales, ACT and Queensland. With the exception of South Australia, where the species is classified as endangered, platypus are not considered to be threatened and are listed as common wildlife. Pretty amazing considering the antiquity and highly specialised nature of this species.

But just how secure is the platypus population? PlatypusCare's dawn patrol of volunteers have been helping to establish some very basic information on the conservation status of the world's oddest animals.

• Worldchanging
• Autopia
• Bulimba Creek Catchment

Editorial, Comment, City Animal, NatureWatch, Books Reviews, Winter Skies, Young and Wild, Scratchings and Rustlings, WPSQ in Action, Letters, Swamp Cartoon and our regular environmental crossword.

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