High Living; above the treeline: #1

This is another in an irregular (and hitherto informal) series on habitats. Earlier ones were on intercontinental habitats mangroves and sandstone, and a uniquely Australian one, the mallee. I have ideas for future ones on rainforests (probably with separate offerings on tropical and temperate rainforests and cloud forests), deserts, woodlands, grasslands and wetlands, but any other suggestions welcomed!

Today however I'm starting at the top, as it were. 'Alpine' is a term used often just to refer to mountains (originally specifically referring to European mountain ranges, though the etymology, from Latin, is unclear), but ecologically it has a more precise definition. It is that area above the treeline, where conditions are too harsh - specifically with insufficient solar energy - to support trees. It is defined around the world as the elevation at which the mean temperature of the warmest month is below 10 degrees Celsius. Below that there is simply not enough available solar energy to build and maintain the massive trunks and supporting root systems that define a tree. The line is often quite abrupt, though locally the altitude will vary locally depending on the landscape; trees might grow higher in sheltered situations on sunny slopes. And of course it is lower towards the poles and higher in the tropics, so some of what follows on the treeless zones in the far south of South America does not necessarily relate to high mountains. 

Treeline at 1800 metres above sea level (masl from here on) in the Australian alps
in Kosciuszko NP, far southern NSW, at 36.5 degrees south.

Across the Pacific and much further south at 52 degrees of latitude, the treeline at
Puerto Natales in Chilean Patagonia is at only 1200masl. 

However nearby in Torres del Paine National Park, the influence of constant winds from the huge Southern Patagonian Ice Field, the second largest ice field in the world* outside the polar regions, brings the tree line down to 500masl. (*The only larger one is in south-eastern Alaska.) The vast grassy and heathy plains there are part of the Patagonian Steppe, most of which is found in Argentina.

The spectacular Torres del Paine skyline from the south.

These lakes at Torres del Paine are less than 100masl; the forest doesn't extend far above
them on the Horns. 

This spectacular range however is not in the Andes chain. It is instructive (and equally, I hope, attractive!) to look at some Andean mountains up the chain from Tierra Del Fuego to northern Ecuador, almost on the equator, noting how the treeline rises as we go north.

Here near Ushaia in Argentinian Tierra del Fuego at 55 degrees south, the world's longest 
(and second highest) mountain range ends - or rather rather disappears under the ocean 
to reappear briefly as Cape Horn. The treeline here is at 500-600masl.

Volcano Calbuco, in the Lake District of northern Chilean Patagonia at 41 degrees south
 (a little further north than Hobart). Here the trees end at approximately 1300masl.

Nearby, above Lago Llanquihue ('yahn-KEE-way') is the perfect volcanic dome of Orsono.

This is not a particularly high mountain by Andean standards at 2600masl, and 
as we'd expect from the situation on Calbuco, the trees only go about halfway up.

Then we go much further north, deep into the tropics in Ecuador (I'll show some landscapes in between soon, but they mostly don't involve specific mountains). 

Volcano Chimborazo, in the centre of the Ecuadorian Andes, a truly mighty mountain and
the highest in Ecuador. It's snowy peaks are 6300masl, and the clearly delineated treeline is
 here at 3500masl (much higher than the highest point in Australia, on top of Mt Kosciuszko),
as it is for the next two Ecuadorian volcanoes, not much further north.

Volcano Cotopaxi, a 5900m active volcano clearly visible from Quito; this however was
taken from Papallacta Pass about 80km away, while heading east over the Andes to the Amazon basin.

Sunrise on Volcano Antisana, 5800masl, from the deck of the lovely Wild Sumaco Lodge
on the eastern slope of the Andes, 70km away. It is only 50km from the equator.

And before we take a much closer look at the ground on some very high mountain ranges, here are three more tropical mountains that I feel privileged to have seen as well, on a couple of other continents. 

The spectacular mass of Mount Kinabalu in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo, 6.5 degrees 
north of the equator. It's peak is at 4100masl and the clear treeline is 3400masl.

Mount Kenya (for which the country was named, incidentally) is less than 20k south
of the equator, which actually runs across its lower slopes. A fraction of the original
glaciers can just be seen in this somewhat murky photo; the Kenyan Wildlife Service
predicts that they will disappear by about 2050. The treeline is at 3500m and 
with a high point of 5200masl, only one African mountain is taller...

Young Cheetahs playing in front of magnificent Mount Kilimanjaro, in fading light
in northern Tanzania (taken from Amboseli NP, to the north across the border in Kenya). 
It is 3 degrees south of the equator, rises to 5900masl (4900 metres above the plains)
and the treeline is at 3800 metres - two vertical kilometres above Kosciuszko's
highest Snow Gums!

Treelines themselves are interesting, as a transition zone from forest or subalpine woodland to treeless heathland or grassland (or a mix of the two). Generally up here the trees are sparser and more stunted as they struggle at their ecological limits. The understorey here includes species that are shared with the true alpine zone above it, though up there are also plants which specialise in the harsh treeless zone. 

Elfin forest at Acjanaco Pass at about 3800masl on the Manu Road from Cusco to
the Amazon basin in the southern Peruvian Andes.

At the upper edge of the elfin forest we can just see the start of the high altitude 
treeless grasslands of the Puna in the mist.

Within the elfin forest though is a wealth of flowering plants, especially orchids, and birdlife. 

Epidendrum ardens, endemic to the Peruvian cloud forests.

Odontoglosssum (or Cyrtochilum) mystacinum, another cloud forest specialist,
also found in Ecuador and Bolivia. 

In some places bamboos form part of the highest forests.

Bamboo Chusquea sp. just below the treeline at 3400masl in the Talamanca Range
in central Costa Rica.

In El Cajas National Park near Cuenca in southern Ecuador there is an interesting situation. The treeline in general is around 3300masl as we'd expect in the tropics, but there is an exception. The remarkable Queñoa trees Polylepis spp. (family Rosaceae) can form thickets far above the treeline, to over 4000masl, at the highest elevation of any tree in the world. 

Polylepis thicket high in El Cajas NP.

Polylepis growing above the otherwise treeless boggy páramo in El Cajas NP.

In Australia the trees that form the treeline are Snow Gums - Eucalyptus pauciflora on the mainland and E. coccifera in Tasmania. Beneath them are plants which continue upwards to grow on the harsh treeless alpine heaths.

Old gnarled Snow Gums at 1770masl at Charlottes Pass, Kosciuszko NP, 
only just below the treeline.

Daisies growing among the Snow Gums at about 1700masl on Mount Ginini
in the Brindabella Ranges above Canberra. This is below the Kosciuszko treeline,
but in addition this is a bit north of Kosciuszko so we'd expect the treeline to be a bit higher.
There is very little true alpine habitat in the ACT.

Pineapple Grass Astelia alpina (actually a lily, family Asteliaceae) growing
under Tasmanian Snow Gums at Mount Field NP, Tasmania. It is a common
plant in alpine bogs in Tasmania. The treeline here is at 1200masl, which
matches that of mountains at the same latitude in Patagonia.

So what does it look like above the snowline where the trees can't survive? I can only offer photos from South and Central America and Australia - I've not been that high in either Borneo or Africa. (I was planning to include Ireland but have realised that the landscape has been so cleared of trees over the last couple of millennia that the original treeline does not exist.) 

Mat plants and 'cushions' - opposites to a tree - reduce wind resistance and enable shoots to be protected inside the foliage. 

Hard cushions of Azorella sp., Family Apiaceae, are prominent in the landscape around
Chivay and the Colca Canyon, at over 3600masl in the southern Peruvian Andes.

In the Australian Alps (and elsewhere in the world) many unrelated species form dense mats across
the ground and rocks. This is Snow Beard-heath Leucopogon montanus. 
Most other Leucopogons I know grow as shrubs.

In the central-southern Andes of southern Peru, Bolivia and Patagonia (ie Chile and Argentina) the puna comprises vast areas of dry grasslands.

Puna as far as we can see, at 4000masl in the Andes above Cusco, southern Peru.

Puna below the Horns, Torres del Paine NP, Chilean Patagonia.

Further north (from northern Peru), the páramo is boggier and with a more heathy/shrubby vegetation.

The view from 4200masl of El Cajas NP, páramo and ponds.

Páramo at 3400masl in the central highlands of Costa Rica, dominated by low shrubs.

Eventually there are altitudes where very little grows at all. I'm no mountaineer; the highest I've been on the ground is 4900masl (by vehicle!) at Patapampa Pass in southern Peru, where the landscape is as barren as anything I've seen, beyond which is a magnificent vista of volcanoes on the horizon. I am fortunate in not being particularly susceptible to altitude sickness, but the short walk from the vehicle to the little lookout was a bit of a struggle! Needless to say, the local women selling crafts by the roadside were entirely unfazed by it.  

This is far from the upper limits of plant growth, which is over 6000masl in 
the Himalayas, and I think that this is literally a scorched landscape 
from past eruptions by the nearby volcanoes.

Volcanoes Ampato, Sabancaya and Hualca Hualca, between 10 and 20km away from
Patapampa Pass. Sabancaya is very much an active volcano and erupts constantly
(part of the cloud just above it is actually smoke), but I don't know when lava last flowed this far.

And finally some Australian alpine landscapes, which provide less than 0.1% of the continent's landmass; it is a very old and eroded continent and the mean altitude is only 300masl. 

Looking east from near the summit of Mount Kosciuszko, the highest point of Australia (not
including the sub-Antarctic territories) at a mere 2228masl.

Looking across the granite landscape to Lake Cootapatamba, the highest lake in Australia.
It is a cirque lake, gouged out by glaciers in the most recent glaciation, 
some 15,000 to 20,000 years ago.

The brief summer flowering is spectacular; here is a field of snow daisies Celmisia sp. on the
Main Range of Kosciuszko NP.

Along with the adjoining Victorian Alps, the only other Australian alpine areas of significance are in Tasmania to the south, where its higher latitude compensates for the lower altitudes.

Granites and heath on kunanyi / Mount Wellington above Hobart.

Cloud, granite and heath on Ben Lomond NP, a spectacular mountain plateau
in north-eastern Tasmania.

Wombat Moor on Mount Field, west of Hobart.

And that might be enough of mountains for one sitting. Next time I'll conclude this blog with a post on some high altitude plants; I'd been planning to do a joint post on plants and animals, but it would have been a long one, perhaps testing your patience unreasonably. So two posts still to come on this topic. Thanks for staying with me, despite the cold and the thin air.

NEXT POSTING THURSDAY 23 JULY

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An Alphabet of National Parks; #3 O to Z

Here is the last of this somewhat monumental series, which began here. (The hyperbole in that sentence refers only to length of the series!) I got a sense from the readership numbers that the interest - or perhaps stamina - shown for the first episode was flagging by the second, but I'm committed to completing it so hopefully you'll accompany me for this last lap. Again we briefly visit some special parks here, 35 of them across six continents. (And despite the post title, I'm afraid I can't offer a Z park, or indeed an X.)

 O 

Male Golden Whistler Pachycephala pectoralis in the shadows of a tree fern in a wet gully
in the Otway NP (part of Great Otway NP) in southern Victoria, south-west of Geelong.
I was introduced to this park many decades ago and loved its shady wet forests and creeks.
Since then it has been expanded to cover over 100,000ha of the Otway Ranges and
the eastern end of the Great Ocean Road and its hinterland.

 P  

Early morning on Paradise Pool in the Paluma Range NP north of Townsville
in north Queensland. This is just behind the Big Crystal Creek campground where
we stayed; it's a nice place but you need to know that there are no defined camp sites,
unlike most Queensland parks, so it can get very crowded. The park is at the
southern end of the Wet Tropics World Heritage area, and protects a fairly modest
17,000ha of forested range, including important Southern Cassowary habitat.

Noisy Pitta Pitta versicolor right alongside our camper trailer as we were about to pack up to leave. 
It was a special moment and allowed us to leave feeling positive about our brief stay.

Slender Anole Anolis limifrons, Piedras Blancas NP, in far southern Costa Rica,
almost on the Panama border. The park protects 14,000ha of rainforest and coastline,
but as is often the case in Costa Rica, the situation is more complex than that,
with adjacent private reserves adding to its value and an Austrian foundation buying private
land within the reserve and handing it to the government to include in the park.
We stayed at the excellent and conservation-focused Esquinas Lodge which is
within the park. This acrobatic little lizard entertained us one afternoon by leaping 
between leaves when we were restricted to our cabin, fortunately with a good verandah, 
by a heavy and protracted rain storm.

Mating Hourglass Tree Frogs Dendropsophus ebraccatus, seen on a night walk
from the lodge. We can just see the hourglass shape on the back of the female,
but this male is lacking it.

 

Bottlebrush Hakea H. francisiana, Pinkawillinie CP on the northern Eyre Peninsula
of South Australia. This park is not well-known but covers 130,000ha, mostly of sandhills, 
and I enjoy detouring through it when I'm in the area.
Most eastern Australian hakeas have white flowers, but not this sandplain beauty
which is found from the Eyre Peninsula west to the Indian Ocean.

 

Karri Eucalyptus diversicolor, Porongorup NP north of Albany, WA. The towering Karri 
forms magnificent forests in the wet south-west corner of the state, but this is an isolated 
eastern outlier. Porongorup is a small park, only 2600ha, but is rich, comprised of granite domes 
and wetter forest than the surrounding plains. From the park we can see the better-known 
Stirling Ranges NP (see below) across the plain, a very different sandstone reserve. 

Q  

Uganda Kob Kobus thomasi; the Ugandan national emblem crossing the vast grassy thorntree savannah 
Queen Elizabeth NP (QENP henceforth) in the far south-west of the country. This is a huge park
and a very rewarding one, protecting 200,000ha of dry grassland and woodlands, and big lakes.
Like the rest of Uganda it has largely recovered from the horrors and ravages of the Amin years.

Euphorb woodlands, here featuring Candelabra Trees, dominate much of the park too.
This is a beguilingly rich habitat.

Pied Kingfisher Ceryle rudis battering an unfortunate fish into submission alongside
the Mazinga Channel between the small Lake George and the huge Lake Edward. 
We took a memorable boat ride along the channel one afternoon. 
This is a common and widespread bird, but always a pleasure.
For much more on this wonderful park, start here.

R

View over the forests of Ranomafana NP in the south-eastern highlands of Madagascar.
At over 40,000ha it is larger than many Madagascan parks, and protects a range of 
forest habitats, and their inhabitants.

Scaly Ground-roller Geobiastes squamiger on the forest floor of Ranomafana.
It is the only member of its genus, and the ground-roller family is endemic to Madagascar.
Like nearly all the Madagascan fauna it is threatened with extinction but is apparently
a little more secure than many others. 

Satanic Leaf-tailed Gecko Uroplatus phantasticus. What a name, but more importantly,
what an extraordinary animal even in this veritable land of the extraordinary! Madagascar
has well over 100 gecko species (and still counting), a remarkable number for
such a relatively small area.

 

Steam issuing from a fumarole in Rincón de Vieja NP, in far northern Costa Rica,
on the slopes of the active volcano of the same name. This is a fairly small national
park at just 14,000ha, but it is part of a much larger complex of parks, the 160,000ha
Guanacaste Conservation Area. Rincón de Vieja NP protects cloud forests on the upper
slopes and dry forest lower down.

Turquoise-browed Motmot Eumomota superciliosa in the drier forest of Rincón de Vieja.
This stunner is quite common in north-western Costa Rica, and is the national bird 
of neighbouring Nicaragua.

Brown-throated Three-toed Sloth Bradypus variegatus, in a classic sloth pose.
These, along with the anteaters and armadillos, are the only living descendants
of the original South American mammals; more about them here.

Very large deciduous kurrajongs Brachychiton sp. growing near our camp at 12 Mile Lagoon
on the Normanby River in Rinyirru (Lakefield) NP north of Cooktown on 
Cape York Peninsula in tropical Queensland. It is vast - some 540,000ha - and
utterly magnificent, with grassy plains, woodlands, rivers and numerous wetlands.
We camped there for the first time recently (I'd been there decades ago) and loved it.
I'm not sure of these trees; my instinct definitely tells me Brachychiton but the only
two species listed for the park are both 'small trees'. Any help gratefully received!

The Nifold Plain is a grassy expanse in the north of the park, studded with hundreds
of large fluted termite mounds. It's a mesmerising drive.

Comb-crested Jacana Irediparra gallinacea doing its 'lily trotting' thing, just in
front of our second camp on Sweetwater Lake in the north-west of the park.

S

Scott River Spider Orchid Caladenia thinicola, Scott NP in the far south-west
of WA. Despite being only 3200ha of sandy heath and wetland, this is botanically 
one of the richest parks in the region. Needless to say I was especially interested
in the orchids! This one is only found in the south-west corner, on deep sand.

And from a tiny and little-known park to a famous and huge one.

Big male Leopard Panthera pardus on a huge rocky outcrop in the vast plains of
Serengeti NP in northern Tanzania. Visiting this park was another highlight of my 
natural history life, as was this beauty. The Seregeti alone covers 1.5 million hectares, but 
with the adjacent Ngorongoro Crater and the Masai Mara system, that area is doubled.
More on the fabulous Serengeti (including more cats) here.

Chestnut-bellied Sandgrouse Pterocles exustus coming to drink, in wave after wave, at a small pool
in the Serengeti; we watched them for ages. The ones with the complex patterns are the females.
Sandgrouse intrigue me, highly adapted to nomadic desert living and famously carrying water in
their absorbent belly feathers for long distances to the chicks in nests on the baking plains.

Greater Flamingo Phoenicopterus roseus with buffalo skull. I'm not sure why this
image appeals to me, but I'm sure it's nothing deep!

Dramatic dry volcanic landscapes help define Shaba National Reserve in central Kenya.
While it only covers 24,000ha it connects with two other reserves to increase the protected area.
I introduced one of these, Buffalo Springs National Reserve, in the first post of this series.

Cheetah Acinonyx jubatus seeking daytime shade under a thornbush in Shaba. 
We saw our first ever Cheetah earlier in this trip in Tarangire NP in Tanzania, and this is
the third park where we encountered them; we were very fortunate.

Male Southern Gerenuk Litocranius walleri, a species I'd long wanted to see.
It is a remarkable antelope which appears to be evolving towards a giraffe
form. To further supplement its long legs and neck it will stand erect on
its hind legs to reach high into the canopy to browse. 
More on Shaba here.

A wet day from a viewpoint in the Stirling Ranges NP, north of Albany in south-west WA.
This is a magnificent park, covering 116,000ha and stretching for 60km from east to west. 
It is botanically of world significance, with over 1500 flowering plant species recorded,
some 90 of which are found only within the park.

White Spider Orchid Caladenia longicauda, Stirling Ranges. This one is widespread
in the south-west, but the presence of an actual flower spider on the flower
convinced me to use this photo.

Western Yellow Robin Eopsaltria griseogularis in the park campground. This species is
almost endemic to the south-west, but there is also a population on Eyre Peninsula
in SA. It's a good story and I've summarised it here.

Jump-up country in remote Sturt NP in furthest north-west NSW. It's a local term for 
capped plateaus that are often referred to as mesas elewhere. Sturt is huge - until recently it was
the second-largest in NSW (after Kosciuszko), with 325,000 splendid arid hectares. (However in 
2023 the government purchased Thurloo Downs station to the east along the Queensland border
and its 437,000ha bumps Sturt into third place.) Still, it's vast!
In addition to the jump-up country there are extensive plains of sandy Mulga woodland
and chenopod (saltbush) shrubland, plus gibber plains of wind-polished pebbles
eroded from the jump-ups.

Wedge-tailed Eagle Aquila audax guarding a road-killed Red Kangaroo in Sturt.
The highway north from Broken Hill to Tibooburra (on the edge of the park)
is now sealed in its entirety. The park itself is generally accessible to 2WD
vehicles, though only when dry (which it mostly is!).

Lesser Dog-faced Fruit Bats Cynopterus brachyotis Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve,
by the narrow Johore Strait which separates Singapore from Malaysia. The reserve
was declared in its current form of 130ha in 2002. It comprises a river, channels, ponds
and mangroves, accessed by an excellent series of walking tracks, including a lovely
boardwalk through the mangroves, plus many bird hides. 
These small fruit bats (compared with the ones we're most familiar with in Australia)
greet the visitors to the reserve from their roost on the ceiling of the entrance to the
visitors' centre.

Common Greenshank Tringa nebularia and Saltwater Crocodile Crocodylus porosus,
from one of the hides. The weird thing is that I was photographing the greenshank,
and didn't notice the crocodile until I was editing the photo. Hmm.
The reserve is especially important for migrating shorebirds. The crocodiles
are officially extinct in Singapore and it is unclear whether the Sungei Buloh population
is a previously unnoticed remnant, or comprises animals wandering across from Malaysia.

T

Sunset over the rainforest at Tambopata National Reserve in the Amazon basin of
south-eastern Peru. It protects 300,000ha of superb lowland rainforest and is only
accessed by a 100km river boat trip from the frontier town of Puerto Maldonado. To 
the south it adjoins the much larger Bahuaja-Sonene NP, of 1.3 million hectares.
There are two excellent accommodations available, at Refugia Amazonas and 
deeper in at the Tambopata Research Centre. Both are run by a trust which
supports both research and local communities through nature-based tourists (like us!).

This herd of White-lipped Peccaries Tayassu pecari (there were many more than you can see here)
came out of the forest to forage in the clearing round the research centre, ploughing up the ground
 presumably in search of tubers. We stood above them on the balcony and were enthralled 
by them for ages. I really loved our time in Tambopata; you can read much more about it here, 
including some history and more photos of the peccaries.

Tarangire River Valley in Tarangire NP in north-eastern Tanzania, with woodland including
palms and thorn trees extending to the horizon. This is not one of the more famous
Tanzanian parks (eg Serengeti and Ngorongoro Crater) but it is huge, nearly 
300,000ha, and full of wildlife. Moreover, from our egocentric viewpoint,
it was our introduction to east Africa and we were delighted by it.

Lions (females and youngsters, the male doubtless having fed first and retired to digest)
feeding on last night's kill, a young buffalo. Bad luck for it, exciting for us.

Lilac-breasted Roller Coracias caudatus, truly I think one of the world's most beautiful birds.
Fortunately for us they are common and widespread.

Two African giants, both of them common in Tangarire. We enjoyed many elephant
groups and learnt much about their behaviour from Gareth, our excellent guide.
African Baobabs Adansonia digitata are common in Tarangire; an oldster 
like this could be a thousand years old.

Windblown sandstone cave in Timmallallie NP in the Pilliga Forest on the north-west
slopes of NSW. This is of cultural significance to the local Gamilaraay community,
and there are petroglyphs in some of the overhangs.
Timmallallie protects some 40,000ha of dry eucalypt and cypress pine forest within the 
much larger half a million hectares of the Pilliga, the largest inland forest in NSW.
I did a post recently on the Pilliga and especially Timmallallie, here. 

The wildflowers in spring and autumn are alone worth a visit to the area, but this
one is special as it found nowhere else. It is Hibbertia covenyana and it was
only described in 1990 from plants growing by the highway through the forest!

Rwetyepme/Mount Sonder in Tjoritja/West MacDonnell NP, central Australia. This is one
of Australia's best-known arid mountain range national parks, lying west of Alice Springs.
The park stretches some 130k to the west, though the range extends well beyond that. (It also
runs to the east of Alice.) It covers some 250,000ha, incorporating not only the ranges themselves
with a series of gorges cutting into them, several with permanent waterholes, but also fringing
plains of mulga and ghost gum woodland.

Ancient Ghost Gum Corymbia aparrerinja at Rungutjirpa/Simpsons Gap.
I celebrated this wonderful arid land species here; this includes more Tjoritja Ghost Gums.

Spinifex Pigeon Geophaps plumifera courting along the Ormiston Pound/Ormiston Gorge walk
among the spinifex at the western end of the park. This is one of our favourite day walks in Australia.
You can find a lot more about the park here, where I posted about it in 2021.

This granite formation in Torndirrup NP near Albany in south-west WA is continued in Antarctica,
a dramatic reminder of when Australia and Antarctica were joined as part of Gondwana.
The park only comprises 4000ha, but the scenery and especially the wildflowers are dramatic.
Access is by a well-maintained system of walking tracks and lookouts.

My favourite memory of Torndirrup is of this glorious purple-red 
Cut-leaf Banksia Banksia praemorsa. I've not seen a flower of this color elsewhere,
and this species is limited to this stretch of coastline.

Cerro Paine Grande and los Cuernos (the Horns) rising above Lago Nordenskjold,
Torres del Paine NP, Chilean Patagonia. The mountains are carved by ongoing glacial
action (one glacier is clearly visible here at the right hand end of the Cerro Paine Grande). 
The blue of the lake is due to glacier-ground rock powder. This huge park (180,000ha) is
700k south of Hobart, at 51 degrees south. I don't enjoy cold and wind, but this place
utterly captivated me when I first saw it 19 years ago and five subsequent visits have
only reinforced this. It's a landscape like no other that I know. 

Porcelain Orchid Chloraea magellanica, on the plains of Torres del Paine. 
I don't expect orchids in such an environment, but I saw at least four species
that grow commonly here. For a bit more on these species see here.

Essence of Patagonia! A herd of Guanacos Lama guanicoe in front of the snowy Cordillera del Paine.
For more on these American camels (and the others) see here.

Darwin's (or Lesser) Rhea Rhea pennata father and chicks in the Patagonian landscape,
Torres del Paine. The smaller and southernmost of the two rhea species, common
in the park but less so elsewhere. For more on them, in the context of the 
ancient ratite group in general, see here.

Green (or Plumed) Basilisk Basiliscus plumifrons basking in the mangroves by one of the
waterways that provide the only access to Tortugeuro NP and the little town of the same
name on the Caribbean coast. In the 1940s canals were constructed to join rivers and 
lagoons to assist the logging industry. Fortunately the logging ended in the 1970s and
now the canals enable many visitors to enjoy the park's 31,000ha of mangroves, waterways,
rainforest and 30km of coastline. This truly spectacular lizard can run across the surface of
the water using its long hind toes and tail.

Neotropical River Otter Lontra longicaudis eating a catfish lunch on a log by the Rio Suerte 
('Lucky River'!) on our trip out of Tortuguero. We were fortunate indeed - this is not 
an animal that is readily seen, especially this well. It is rare and not at all well understood.

This extraordinary animal, 10cm across, is a tailless whip-scorpion, Family Phrynidae, which
was residing in one of our rooms. It's not a scorpion (or even really a whip-scorpiom!). They
hunt at night or in caves or under bark, but have no sting. It's still the only one I've ever seen.

U

Mighty Uluru catching the very last of the sun (the shadow has reached the base of the rock) at
Uluṟu-Kata Tjuṯa NP in central Australia. It is 385m high and three kilometres long. It awes
and moves me every single time. For more on Uluru, including the history, see here. 

Kata Tjuta (for a while renamed the Olgas) is within sight of the rock, though 25k away across the plains.
This is the first touch of sunrise on the rounded heads, as seen from a dune near the Uluru viewing point.
The largest dome is 200m higher than Uluru! More on Kata Tjuta here.

Hawkmoth caterpillar, Family Sphingidae, making slow progress on the 
hard red stony soil at the base of Uluru

Sandhill Ctenotus Ctenotus brooksi with a beetle snack, Kata Tjuta.

W

Thirrka (or Blanche Cup) spring in Wabma Kadarbu Mound Springs CP in far northern
South Australia. In background is Wabma Kadarbu itself (also known as Mount Hamilton),
a large but now dry mound spring. The 12,000ha park conserves a network of 
mound springs rising from the subterranean aquifer known as the Great Artesian Basin.

Sunset on Belougery Split Rock in Warrumbungle NP in central western NSW.
The park mostly comprises a spectacular volcanic mountain landscape, including this rock
which overlooked the campground where we stayed a couple of years ago.
I am surprised to read that it only covers 23,000ha; it feels bigger.

Turquoise Parrot Neophema pulchella in the Warrumbungles. This exquisite little parrot
is now largely restricted to NSW where its range has contracted drastically due to
woodland clearing and previously the pernicious aviary trade and hunting. 
Now the Warrumbungles, along with the adjacent Pilliga forest, is one of its last strongholds.
A full post on the Warrumbungles here. 

Warm temperate rainforest of Coachwood Ceratopetalum apetalum in Washpool NP,
north-eastern NSW.  This 59,000ha park in the ranges contains some of the most
extensive unlogged forests in NSW. It is also contiguous with the Gibraltar Ranges 
National Parks (see previous posting in this series) as part of the Gondwana Rainforest 
of Australia World Heritage Site. This photo was taken on the delightful
Coombadjha Nature Stroll, with Superb Lyrebirds providing the sound track.

A dusty or smoky (I can't recall which) sunset through a thorn tree in remote
Waza NP in far northern Cameroon. This dry 170,000ha park was my introduction
to the Sahel, the vast swathe of arid woodland across Africa south of the Sahara.
Tragically in 2013 a French family was kidnapped and held to ransom here when 
Boko Haram insurgents crossed the border from Nigeria; two years later the same group
murdered a busload of local people. I'm not sure if Waza has reopened but it's the only
park in this series that I can't recommend that you visit, at least until things change.

A herd of Korrigum Damaliscus korrigum in Waza; formerly regarded as a subspecies 
of Topi, the Korrigum exists in scattered populations across the Sahel from
Burkina Faso to the Central African Republic. Despite its aridity and limited 
management resources Waza supports rich wildlife, including large mammals.

Sandstone outcrop in ironbark woodland with regenerating cypress pines
in Weddin Mountains NP, on the south-west slopes of NSW. This is a 
favourite of ours and we've camped there several times over the years in the
shady, quiet and extensive campground just three hours from home. More on it here.

Goonoo Donkey Orchid Diuris goonooensis, Weddin Mountains. 
It's wet enough here for spring to be rich in wildflowers, including orchids.
This species is fairly common across the western slopes, despite the name -
the Goonoo is a forest just north of Dubbo.

Early morning on the Barcoo River by the campground at Welford NP, south-west Queensland.
This relatively remote 124,000ha park offers a variety of habitats including spinifex-covered
sand plains, red dunes, stream lines and waterholes. We thought it magnificent, as 
you'll see here.

A small flock of Australian Bustards Ardeotis australis near the old station homestead, 
which is now the park headquarters. The fencing is a relic of the pastoral days.

Peat bog in Wild Nephin NP in County May, western Ireland. It has only existed in its
present form and with the current name since 2018, though it is based on the older and smaller 
Ballycroy NP. It protects 15,000ha of Atlantic Peat Bog, one of the largest surviving in Europe.

Common Carder Bee Bombus pascuorum on a dandelion (not a weed here, unlike in
Australia) near the park's excellent visitor centre. This is one of many species
which is doubtless already benefitting from the park's planned rewilding project,
though the focus of that is a former commercial pine forest in the mountains
in the east of the park.

Musky Rat-kangaroo Hypsiprymnodon moschatus foraging by our rainforest
camp at Henrietta Creek in Wooroonooran NP in north Queensland. This 
important park protects 80,000ha of tropical rainforest in the ranges
of the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area south of Cairns.
This little kangaroo is the most ancient and smallest of the living
macropods, and gives us an idea of what the ancestral kangaroos were like.

View across the superb mallee woodland of Wyperfeld NP from the Eastern Lookout
on a sand dune. Wyperfeld protects an impressive 357,000ha of mallee and woodland
in the north-west of Victoria. We camped there for the first time just last year.

On our last morning there I did my regular early morning walk (not always the same one)
and to my delight this exquisite male Chestnut Quail-thrush Cinclosoma castanotum appeared 
almost at my feet - I've never known a quail-thrush to be so confiding.
The quail-thrushes are all solely Australian with the exception of one New Guinea species.
Most are birds of arid or semi-arid lands, including this one, which is mostly a mallee
specialist, though may also be found in adjacent dry woodlands. 

Y

Epiphytic orchid, Odontoglossum (or Oncidium) sp. Yanacocha Biological Reserve,
a short distance north from Quito but on the other side of the Pichincha Volcano.
It is run by the Jocotoco Foundation to protect cloud forest on the volcano flanks;
the foundation manages 15 such reserves across Ecuador, focussing on threatened
bird species, but of course protecting important habitat for other species in the process.
(And no, this doesn't strictly meet my definition of 'national park' for the purpose of
this blog post, but I've already set a precedent by including Monteverde last time, and 
you know... my blog, my rules. :-) )

Sword-billed Hummingbird Ensifera ensifera at Yanacocha. This amazing bird was
an important reason for our visit - the biggest hummingbird of all, and with the longest
beak relative to body size of any bird in the world. It has an elongated distribution 
in the mid-level Andean slopes from Venezuela to Bolivia but it's thin on the 
ground and it took me a few visits to see it.

Evening light over the rainforest from a lookout platform high in a giant Kapok Tree
in Yasuní NP in the Ecuadorian Amazonia. This is a vast area of protected tropical
rainforest (over a million hectares) but it is being compromised by oil extraction.

Ecuadorian Squirrel Monkey Saimiri macrodon, part of a large group feeding
on fruit by the streamside on our way out of the park; the waterways are the only
way to travel in and to the park.

Green-banded Urania Moth Urania leilus, taking minerals from the bank of a stream.
It is common in Amazonia to see great congregations of butterflies and moths 
feeding like this on river and stream banks.

And that brings to a close this alphabet of some very eclectic and very wonderful parks around the world. Of course we're wreaking great destruction on nature, here in Australia and throughout the world. We have proved to be very poor stewards indeed overall, but while there are reserves like these and good and committed people managing them, we must continue to hold some hope. Thanks for travelling this journey with me. It's been a lot work and a lot of fun. For you I hope it's only been fun!

 

The next post will also be the last of 2025, a celebration of the year via one photo per month. See you then, and hopefully again in 2026! 

NEXT POSTING WEDNESDAY 31 DECEMBER

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