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Movement - Room to Move

We start our features this issue with a multiplicity of movement: bottlenose dolphins that swim, spy-hop, tail-slap, 'walk', travel around South Australian and Kangaroo Island waters in patterns still being investigated; and inspire community participation in observing and protecting these engaging animals.

In far north Queensland, animals once ranged through continuous rainforest cover. What happens now? And, in some areas of FNQ, carnivorous plants demonstrate the ultimate skills of ambush predators by waiting, with full pitchers, as their prey moves towards them.

Welcome to a moving issue of WAM - and, please check out our subscription promotions. Give a gift – to a special friend, a school, a library, an interest group – and get a gift pack of beautiful cards to enrich your holiday season.

By Phyll and Tony Bartram

We didn’t expect to learn that dolphins can 'walk' backwards on their tails and, apparently, teach this behaviour to their calves. But we’re not surprised.

Although oceans cover 71 percent of Earth’s surface, we know remarkably little about our planet’s marine environment. Even the popular and iconic common bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus), in spite of its supposed familiarity, is listed as Data Deficient by IUCN.

By Katrien Geurts

Do corridors help small mammals move from one rainforest patch to another? With the aid of peanut butter and rolled oats, a researcher gathers evidence.

Viewed from the air, the Atherton Tablelands region is a mosaic of towns, roads, fields, farms and lakes north-west of Cairns in Queensland’s wet tropics. Scattered through this landscape are remnants of what was once extensive and continuous rainforest cover. How do animals survive now in these isolated rainforest patches?

By Robert Whyte

Want to hunt for some of our most successful terrestrial predators? Start here ... How hard can it be to identify one or two apparently common spiders?

Becoming a naturalist in later life changes you. With the awe and wonder you felt as a child, you scoop up shrimps and water beetles in a jar. You peer through a microscope at intricate structures you never dreamed possible. You begin to see connections and networks all around.

By Gary Wilson

Showy, intriguing, dangerous – these little-known species invite our interest.

The idea of plants trapping and digesting live prey has intrigued us for centuries. Linnaeus described one genus, Nepenthes, but was dismissive of the concept. Erasmus Darwin, grandfather of Charles, was equally unimpressed by it. However, Charles Darwin ruminated long on the subject and, in 1875, published Insectivorous Plants. He was enamoured of the Venus flytrap and considered 'This plant … one of the most wonderful in the world.'

By Steve G Wilson

Take one wetland. Add water and warmth. It’s a recipe for action. After a spell of drought-induced dormancy, Doctors Swamp is back with a bubbling broth of biodiversity.

Droughts are tough on rural communities – and also tough on wildlife populations. The mosaic of integrated supporting ecological processes goes dormant. Opportunities to breed, recruit and re-colonise habitats are limited until conditions improve.

By Kay Griffiths

A plucky chick adds a chapter to the work on endangered black-cockatoo species.

On a lovely, sunny September morning at our home in the hills east of Perth, we listened to the noisy 'creee-creee' of forest red-tailed black-cockatoos (Calyptorhynchus banksii naso). The sound was familiar but this year, the behaviour was different. While a male looked on, a female with juvenile in tow was intent on inserting herself into the upright end of a broken branch, chewing the edges of what was an obviously much too small space. The pair returned several times over the next month, perhaps hoping the space had enlarged.

By Lee K. Curtis

Burrows are effective shelters for a diversity of animals: terrestrial and aquatic, vertebrate and invertebrate.

From Spiders to Crabs, Skinks to Birds, Frogs to Mammals, many Australian animals rely of burrows of all different sizes and shapes.

• Before It's Gone
• The Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society
• Creepy Crawly Curiosity

Editorial, City Animal, Considering, In Our Hands: Wildlife Art, NatureWatch, Books Reviews, Spring Skies, Scratchings and Rustlings, WPSQ in Action, Swamp Cartoon and our regular environmental crossword.

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