| WILDLIFE AUSTRALIA Magazine - Summer 2011 |
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Weather Proofing
In the Spencer Gulf, we get giant cuttlefish, and we hope we continue to get them. We know so little about the conditions in which they flourish. But we’re learning. In the Wet Tropics, insectivorous bats may help us understand how a changing climate affects wildlife. On a rocky plateau in Idalia National Park, yellow-footed rock-wallabies rarely go out for a drink – a useful adaptation in a land with more predators than fresh water.
If your idea of a good time is salt, wind and more salt, you’ll love our visit to the colourful mosaics of Tasmanian salt marsh communities. Back in arid outback Queensland, a rare fish benefits from recent rains. Unfortunately, so does a threatening invasive species. Maybe the best weatherproofing is to fly to the weather you prefer, like shorebirds on the East Asian-Australasian Flyway – but it’s a difficult trip and, by destroying their stopovers, we’re making it more difficult.
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| FEATURES |
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| Number crunching: the giant cuttlefish of Spencer Gulf |
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By Saren Starbridge
Cuttlefish have a remarkable capacity
to learn and adapt; can this population
survive our own capacity to alter their environment?
The largest known breeding aggregation of giant cuttlefish in the world gathers at Point Lowly, a rocky reef in an industrial area of the Spencer Gulf. You’d hardly see a single one and then in May, overnight there’d be hundreds of thousands. Until around 1997-98, when commercial fishing removed thousands of the animals.
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| Storm tide to mean high water: Tasmanian salt marshes |
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By Alan Barton and Phil Watson
Want to be soaking wet, drenched in salt, battered by wind – and having the time of your life? Don’t waste money on a yacht. Visit a salt marsh. Get down. Lower. That’s it. Now look across the horizon. Yes, I know. The plants in these salt marshes don’t get very high – rarely more than 30-40cm – but are they tough and can they throw out some colour! Yes, there are little pesky, buzzing noises and the odd bite from a sand-fly or mosquito. |
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| Nowhere to go but up: microbats and climate change in the Wet Tropics |
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By Tamara Inkster
So tiny they are often overlooked, microbats make up 60 percent of Wet Tropics mammal species and offer insights into climate change, altitude and biodiversity.
Birds yodel their last few notes before roosting. Light fades, a few frogs and insects call tentatively before launching their choruses. And, just as the last of the day’s light disappears, dozens of microbats begin their swooping search for prey. Where did they come from? The answer could be: anywhere. |
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| Follow the yellow-foot road |
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By Jeremy Ringma
It’s a hard road but, at the end, Australia’s most beautiful macropod is the highlight of a field trip to Idalia National Park.
Like cheetahs and tigers, yellow-footed rock-wallabies use their attractive markings as camouflage. Although no longer hunted for their skins, they still face many challenges. |
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| Friends and enemies: floods and the future of the redfinned blue-eye |
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With Dr Adam Kerezsy
The good news is, more water. The bad news is, more gambusia. The strategy is, keep two steps ahead of the game.
Rain changes everything in inland Australia,’ says aquatic biologist Dr Adam Kerezsy. ‘When it rains in the west – properly rains – it’s as though everything resets.’ |
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| Dark days for summer birds |
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By Nick Murray
Like the surfers in the classic Bruce Brown film, migratory shorebirds spend their years following an endless summer – but the journey is getting more and more difficult.
Security is a big issue for long distance travel, and for shorebirds, flying from summer to summer, the security of stopovers is crucial. |
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| Six Species Series - Dasyurids |
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By Lee K. Curtis
Australia's 'Marsupial Mice' and 'Native Cats' are neither mice nor cats. They are dasyurids, a family of carnivorous marsupials found only in Australia and New Guinea. The Tasmanian devil is the largest of the living dasyurid species. |
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| Wildlife Australia CyberJungle |
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| Also in this edition |
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Editorial, City Animal, Considering, In Our Hands: In Our Hands - Wildlife Artists, NatureWatch, Books Reviews, Summer Skies, Scratchings and Rustlings, WPSQ in Action, Swamp Cartoon and our regular environmental crossword.
Subscribe to Wildlife Australia today - your subscription helps many worthwhile wildlife projects and contributes to a successful education campaign that has been an effective voice for Australian wildlife since 1963. |
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