An Alphabet of Mammals #1: A to M

It's almost exactly a year since I offered an alphabet of birds, so maybe it's time to balance the ledger a bit by offering a companion alphabet, of mammals. Where possible I'll offer per letter one species or group from Australia and another from overseas, with some brief comments in the photo caption. For a couple that's not possible, and for a couple of others I haven't been able to cut it down to two, but I'm hoping that won't disturb you too much. In a couple of cases I've not been able to illustrate any common names, so have used the genus names instead. I know, it sounds like cheating, but it's in the rules - I can show you a copy of them if you like. 

A is for antechinuses, anteaters and Aye-aye 

Yellow-footed Antechinus Antechinus flavipes, Chiltern NP, northern Victoria. Still
unfortunately often referred to as 'marsupial mice', this genus of little marsupial carnivores
is indeed superficially mouse-like but they of course are no relation at all to rodents.
This species differs from most antechinuses in being diurnal, and is found throughout
much of the south-east hinterland, as well as in the south-west and the wet tropics.
Famously males never get to celebrate a birthday; their youthful mating is so enthusiastic
that they all then die of compromised immune systems in their first year. 

Giant Anteater Myrmecophaga tridactyla, Pantanal, south-western Brazil.
This is one of the mammals I've most wanted to see since reading all of the Gerald Durrell
and David Attenborough series many decades ago. They are superb. While lots of animals
eat ants (terrible food, but abundant, like gum leaves) there are just four species of
The Anteaters, all South American, and in fact among the very few of the ancient
South American mammals that survived the collision with North America. I posted in
more detail about them here. A Giant Anteater can be over two metres long and
weigh up to 50kg.

Aye-aye Daubentonia madagascariensis, Pangalenes Lakes, eastern Madagascar.
Another dream realised for me - there are a few of them in this post! This big lemur
(head and body about 40cm and tail up to 60cm) shows remarkable parallel 
evolution with the Striped Possum (see my last post), in a long third toe.
Having located wood-boring grubs under the bark by tapping on the trunk and listening
for echoes, it chews into the wood with rodent-like incisors, unique among primates,
and extracts the hapless grub with the elongate finger.
This island population has been habituated to come down to gnaw into coconuts 
with those chiselly teeth, which grow constrantly.

B is for Bontebok and bandicoots

Long-nosed Bandicoot Perameles nasuta, Lake Eacham, Atherton Tablelands,
tropical Queensland. This little beauty came in to a simple feeding station at the lodge
where we were staying. Bandicoots comprise an entire Order of omnivorous 
medium to small marsupials, restricted to Australia and New Guinea. There are
8 living and 3 extinct bandicoot species in Australia. This one lives right 
along the east coast, including in suburbia, feeding on insects, small
lizards and their eggs, fungi and various plant materials.

Bontebok Damaliscus pygargus, Bontebok NP, south-western South Africa. This 
beautiful antelope is found only in the heathy fynbos system of this part of South Africa.
It is a conservation success story, with the population reduced to less than 20 animals
when the original Bontbok NP was established in 1931; 17 were captured and moved
there. Later this proved unsuitable habitat and herd was removed to the current
site near Swellenberg in 1960, where they thrived so that some 2000 Bontebok
have been established in other parks. (Until recently the Bontebok was regarded
as the same species as the more numerous Blesbok from eastern South Africa, 
but its species status is now recognised by antelope experts.)

C is for Cheetah and Colugo

Cheetah family Acinonyx jubatus, Amboseli NP, Kenya, mother and two of three
almost grownup children in the late afternoon, with no other vehicles around. We
watched them for half an hour as the sun set and nearby Mount Kilimanjaro glowed - a 
wonderful experience and privilege. Our local guide had only seen them in 
Amboseli once, and our experienced South African guide never! Because you're reading 
this I'm assuming you've watched plenty of wildlife docos featuring this fastest
land mammal on earth (up to 100kmh over short distances) so I'll leave it there.

Sunda Colugo Galeopterus variegatus mother and baby, Bukit Batok NP, Singapore.
Yet another extraordinary mammal I'd long pined to see; I actually saw them a few
years ago in Malaysian Borneo, but this view, just a couple of metres away, was
amazing. There are just two species in the entire Order, so they have no near
relatives at all (the other species lives in the Philippines). They are commonly - 
and entirely erroneously - known as 'flying lemurs', but they are not lemurs
(which of course are restricted to Madagascar) and they glide, not fly.
We can see part of the gliding membrane on the mother's front leg, but 
it extends from the neck along the limbs to finger- and toe-tips, enabling
it to glide almost horizontally for 100 metres and more.

D is for dik-diks and Dasyurus

Günter's Dik-dik Madoqua guentheri, Shaba Nature Reserve, northern Kenya.
There are four dik-diks, diminutive antelopes, in this genus, all from southern and
eastern Africa in arid environments. This one's range is centred on the semi-deserts of
northen Kenya, Somalia and southern Ethiopia. 

Spotted-tailed Quoll Dasyurus maculatus, Arthur River, north-eastern Tasmania.
And yes, I owe you a justification! I could/should have entered this under Q for quoll,
but a) I already had a candidate for that, and b) I didn't have one for Australian Ds - 
so D for Dasyurus it is. Feel free to boycott it. If you haven't then this was taken
many years ago (pre-digital camera days for me) when I took a group on a boat 
trip up this river in remote Tasmania. There were others on board too, and when
this magnificent animal came poking around while we were ashore for lunch -
no-one outside of our group took any notice! I was gobsmacked. This is the largest
of the three quoll species - a big male can be nearly a metre long and weigh up
to 9kg, a formidable predator. It is in the same family of carnivorous marsupials
as the antechinus which opened today's proceedings. This species (also known,
obscurely as Tiger Quoll, though tigers aren't noted for their spots) is found in wetter
eastern Australian forests below the tropics, with an outlier in the Queensland tropics.

E is for echidnas 

Short-beaked Echidna Tachyglossus aculeatus, Canberra. And while I couldn't find any
other mammals, either Australian or otherwise, to illustrate E, these wonderful mammals would have
got a guernsey anyway. One of the only two living groups of monotremes - egg-laying mammals -
in the world (along with the Platypus of course) these slow, shy daytime mammals
are toothless, living on the eggs and larvae of termites and ants, plus fat grubs, 
which they access by ripping open nests and rotting logs with powerful front claws. This 
species is common enough right across Australia from the alps to the deserts, and is also found
in Papua New Guinea. Also in New Guinea are three species of long-beaked echidnas.
(Which can mean trouble at trivia nights when they ask how many species of monotreme 
there are; are they being uninformed and expecting 'two', or clever and wanting 'five'?)

Yes I really do like echidnas. This is the only echidna 'train' I've ever seen. Up to 10 males will
follow a receptive female for up to a month, unable to stop to feed or rest unless she
 does for fear of missing his place in the queue. Eventually she will stop and the lead males 
dig a trench around her to access her without getting stabbed, and the strongest one gets to 
father her leathery egg, which hatches in 10 days. The blind puggle stays in her pouch until
its spines form, then is left plugged into a nursery burrow for months, fed by her
every few days. And enough now of echidnas, wonderful though they be!

F is for foxes and fruit bats 

Grey-headed Fruit Bats Pteropus poliocephalus, mother and baby, in central Canberra.
There are some 200 species of fruit bats (also unfortunately known as flying foxes, though
that would at least keep them under F here!). They are found throughout the Old World
tropics, and south to southern Africa and Australia.  Most are large, though there are 
also many are very small ones, which are sometimes known as blossom bats.
This species, the largest in Australia, is found along the east coast and has been
expanding south for a while now so there are colonies in Melbourne and even
Adelaide where they arrived only in 2010. Despite the name, they actually don't 
actually eat fruit, but crush it to swallow the juice; they also consume nectar
and play important roles in pollination and seed dispersal.

In Australian discussions of ecology and wildlife conservation 'fox' is a bad word indeed,
since the calamitous introduction of the widespread northern Hemisphere Red Fox
(Vulpes vulpes) in the 19th century, to give the landed gentry something familiar to hunt.
However across the rest of the world foxes are an attractive and fascinating part of the
landscape. Technically the term applies only to the 12 species of the genus Vulpes but it is also 
applied to various other fox-like dogs, including this Crab-eating Fox Cerdocyon thous
in the Pantanal of south-western Brazil. It is found throughout much of northern and 
eastern South America and does indeed hunt for freshwater crabs, as well as insects, 
small reptiles, carrion and fruit.

G is for gorillas and gerenuks 

Both of these g-mammals were among those species I'd long wanted to see - hands up if you're surprised! No, I thought not...  

Southern Gerenuk Litocranius walleri, Shaba NR, central Kenya.
These ridiculously graceful arid land antelopes may be on the way to evolving like a giraffe, 
with long legs and neck enabling them to reach foliage inaccessible to most competitors.
Moreover they will stand up on their hind legs to get even higher inyo the foliage. They are
found from northern Tanzania through Kenya to southern Somalia, with another
species in the Horn of Africa.

Mountain Gorilla mother and baby Gorilla beringei in Bwindi Impenetrable NP,
western Uganda. This was an extraordinary moment in my natural history life, and 
one that I had to work hard for in the steep mountain forests. There was also the 
satisfaction that this family, along with some other habituated groups in the park, 
was both heavily protected and providing a reliable income to local communities. 
Mountain Gorillas are a subspecies of the Eastern Gorilla; there are perhaps only 
1000 left in the highland forests of western Uganda, Rwanda and the DR Congo.
I wrote more about them, and Bwindi, here.

H is for hyraxes and Hypsiprymnodon  

Yellow-spotted Rock (or Bush) Hyraxes Heterohyrax brucei Tarangire NP, northern
Tanzania. There are six species of hyrax (or dassie, though I think that's mostly a
South African term) across most of sub-Saharan Africa. They are all solid short-tailed
medium-sized herbivorous mammals (weighing up to 5kg) which are surprisingly agile. 
It's fun to be able to say that their closest living relatives are elephants and dugongs/manatees
- it's true but it's still a pretty distant relationship. This species lives on rocky outcrops
through much of east Africa and across the continent in western Angola.

Hypsiprymnodon or Musky Rat-kangaroo Hypsiprymnodon moschatus 
Atherton Tableland, tropical Queensland. This is an intriguing little diurnal species
endemic to the Wet Tropics area of northern Queensland. It is the smallest
kangaroo, the most ancient living kangaroo species (giving us an idea of what the 
ancestral kangaroo may have looked like), and the only one that doesn't hop.
I think that it's one of the most fascinating of all Australian mammals.

I is for impala 

Common Impala Aepyceros melampus, Lake Mburo NP, Uganda.
To be honest, as much as I like impalas, this one probably wouldn't have made the cut
here if there were any more unusual i-mammals available to me. But as it is I'm 
quite happy to feature it, as a representative of the plains antelopes of eastern
and southern Africa. Impala comes from the Zulu language, and the species
is an important food item for many predators.

J is for Jaguar 

Another excitingly memorable moment was seeing these young brothers looking for
dinner (and probably mischief) along the Rio Piquíri; we were in a small boat.
Jaguars Panthera onca are the only true American great cats (ie genus Panthera)
and the third largest in the world, between a Lion and Leopard in size. They have a notably
powerful bite that can pierce turtle shells and mammal skulls. They are comfortably
aquatic and in the Pantanal caimans (South American crocodilians - more
on them here) form an important part of the diet.

K is for kangaroos and Klipspringer 

Young male Eastern Grey Kangaroos Macropus giganteus sparring while using their
tails as props, Tidbinbilla NR near Canberra. They are amazing mammals whose abundance
can lead to complacence on our part. They are one of the largest, and almost 
certainly the commonest, of the 60 or so members of the family Macropodidae.
So much to say about them, but perhaps I'll just direct you to the first of a two-part
series I wrote a while ago, here.

Cape Klipspringer Oreotragus oreotragus, Augrabies Falls NP, north-western South Africa.
(I'm almost sure I've got the species right, especially re the non-white belly.) Until 
recently only one diverse species was recognised, across much of Africa, but more
nuanced examinations now reveal 11 of them. They are stocky little antelopes,
specialists in rocky landscapes. They remind me of Euros Macropus robustus in Australia.
Both are nimble but powerful and totally at home in boulder piles and on cliff faces. 
One of my (many) favourite antelopes.

L is for lemurs 

Ankarana Sportive Lemur Lepilemur ankaranensis, Ankarana NP, northern
Madagascar. This little sprite is at home in the dry northern forests,
but there are lemurs, over 100 species of them, in every Madagascan habitat.
There are five lemur families in Madagascar; as many primate families
as there are in each of Asia and South America. Nearly all lemur species are in dire peril 
- Madagascar is an environmental tragedy - and in the relatively
brief time of human habitation at least 17 lemur species have become extinct.
It is not hard however  to see an array of the survivors in the system of mostly small 
national parks. For more on these wonderful primates, see what I wrote about them here.

M is for mongooses and marmosets

Yellow Mongoose Cynictis penicillata, Augrabies Falls NP, northern South Africa.
This one is found only in dry south-western Africa, but there are 34 species found throughout
sub-Saharan Africa and southern Asia. They are medium-small active carnivores, some
highly sociable, others solitary. They hunt invertebrates, birds and, famously, reptiles
including venomous snakes. To this end they have evolved chemical defences against certain
aspects of snake venom. Probably the best-known and most 'popular' mongooses
are the Meerkats of southern Africa, but I understand that certain cartoon
movies have cast mongooses as villains. Shame on those movies I say!

Black-tailed Marmoset Mico melanurus, Pantanal, south-western Brazil.
The marmosets and tamarins are a family of tiny South American monkeys, with at
least 47 species but that won't be the full tally. They are found mostly in the Amazon
basin and Atlantic coast rainforests, though this one is well outside of that.
They are highly sociable, and males play a much greater role in child-care
than those of other primates. Tree sap is an important food for many species,
along with insects and fruit.

And there I'll leave it until next time. I've run out of time to include the whole alphabet today, and in any case it really is a big ask of you to get through all 26 letters in one sitting! I hope this enables you to read as much of this as feel like reading, and maybe even give you time to follow some of the links to learn a bit more about some of these wonderful mammals, if you so desire. Thanks for your interest and your support.

 

NEXT POSTING THURSDAY 23 APRIL

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Atherton #2: Crater Lakes NP

In my most recent post, I introduced the fascinating Atherton Tableland in northern tropical Queensland. It, or at least the rainforest remnants it supports, is part of the Wet Tropics of Queensland World Heritage Area. These rainforests are a snapshot of ancient Australia, when old Gondwana was wet and rainforests covered most of the continent before the great drying which produced Australia as we now know it. The tableland is volcanic in origin, which led to very fertile soils, hence both the presence of the rainforest and its subsequent widespread clearing for agriculture. I feel that it is frustratingly obvious that a coordinated reafforestation program, offering appropriate incentives to landholders, would make an enormous difference. I've seen how such projects have transformed places with similar climates, such as Singapore and Costa Rica, undoing decades of clearing (though in Singapore most of the subject land is state-owned). However this would of course require a government with both vision and commitment.

Perhaps the richest of the remaining rainforest is the too-thin fringe that surrounds the two Crater Lakes, Barrine, originally Barany, and Eacham, also known as Yidyam, in the north-east of the tableland. 

Looking across Lake Eacham/Yidyam to the narrow belt of rainforest which surrounds both it and 
nearby Lake Barrine/Barany.

Just to save you from having to go back to the previous post; the crater lakes are in
the north-east of the map.

 

Lake Barrine/Barany above, and Lake Eacham/Yidyam; the red arrow points to Chambers Wildlife Lodge,
where we've stayed on a couple of occasions. As I've said before, I will only name
commercial businesses where I believe they have a genuine conservation ethos and
that what they offer is worth sharing with you. The national park covers just less than
1000ha, about half of which comprises the lakes themselves. Even then, not all of the forest
is reserved (eg the lodge I've mentioned is on the edge of the park, though I'm sure 
the forest is safe in their hands) and the two forests are only marginally connected. 

Despite this, the remnants are remarkably rich, a richness which is obvious to even a casual observer. We like to think of ourselves as a little more than that, and we are entranced by it.

The craters formed between 10,000 and 17,000 years ago (depending on what you read) when massive explosions resulted from the conjunction of molten magma with underground water. Pollen analyses tell us that at that time the surrounding forests were drier (this was during the last glaciation, when aridity was the norm). Both lakes are 65 metres deep at the lowest point and both lakes have easy circuit walks around them, 3km for Lake Eacham/Yidyam and 5k for Lake Barrine/Barany. We've done both of these walks more than once, and have enjoyed it every time, and recently did the boat cruise for the first time, so let's start with the lakes. 

A glimpse of Lake Eacham/Yidyam from the walking track.

Lake Eacham/Yidyam has large and usually busy picnic areas and extensive carparks. Often these are really too busy to provide much wildlife, but on our most recent visit we had a real surprise!

This splendid Southern Cassowary Casuarius casuarius was ambling along,
seemingly oblivious to the gawking humans (which of course included us).
They are massive up close. Cassowaries have not done well from the human
invasion, with traffic, dogs and of course rainforest clearing reducing numbers 
alarmingly. However there are apparently some encouraging signs of at least a 
slowing in the rate of reduction, and we were told that it has been quite some
years since a cassowary was last seen at Lake Eacham. (The next morning it 
turned up at our nearby accommodation!)

Nearby Lake Barrine/Barany has the historic teahouse and boat cruises. The teahouse was built in 1928 and has been a recreation hall, a guesthouse and, during World War II, an army convalescent home. 

Lake Barrine/Barany. (I'm afraid it rarely occurs to me to photograph buildings, but you can find
photos of the teahouse readily on line; it is a handsome old wooden building.)

As far back as 1888 both lakes, with a narrow strip of shoreline, were declared scenic reserves, and in 1934 both lakes were elevated to National Park status. In 1913 George Curry, with his wife Margaret, settled by the lake and after the war they developed the now teahouse and he was appointed a ranger by the Lakes Trust. (The details differ slightly between the accounts of the Curry family told to us on the boat cruise and the parks service website; I'm not in a position to adjudicate and it doesn't matter in this context anyway.) The teahouse and the boat cruises are still in the family; George and Margaret's grandson runs the boat cruises (at least on the day we were there) and their great-granddaughter and her partner run the teahouse.

Lake Barrine/Barany rainforest from the boat.

It was with a modicum of trepidation that we booked the boat cruise on the spur of the moment (we'd had a disappointing experience on another boat trip earlier in the year, albeit far from here) but our trepidation was entirely misplaced. We were accompanied on the cruise by a small busload of young local Indigenous people and a bigger busload of girls from a Sydney private school - both groups seemed fascinated by what they saw and heard. Our skipper Steve Curry was accompanied by a local Indigenous elder, Laurie, who told the local creation story of the lakes. Steve quietly told the history of the place, pointed out trees and other landmarks (and shared perhaps quite enough polished dad jokes), and the two of them made it an excellent experience. A highlight for seemingly most of us was seeing a couple of impressive Amethystine Pythons in branches just above the water; it was a cool day and the water is a heat sink, so keeps the air above it warm too and they gather here because of it. 

Australian Scrub (or Amethystine) Python Simalia kinghorni; it kept moving and I
unfortunately was unable to catch the head! (There is some disagreement re the names,
but it seems that Amethystine Python, while closely related, occurs only in 
Indonesia and PNG, not Australia.) Magnificent anyway, it is the longest and most massive
Australian snake, and one of the world's Big Snakes..

Flowering Umbrella Trees were another delight.

Flowering Umbrella Trees Heptapleurum (formerly Schefflera) actinophyllum 
Family Araliaceae growing by the lake, above and below.

A downside was the presence of African Tilapias in the water, among several species not native to the lake, which were all released illegally. As a result the number of fish species native to the lake has now dropped from three to one.

Tilapia in Lake Barrine/Barany.

Needless to say the perspective of the forest from the walking track around Barrine/Barany is rather different; here are some highlights we've enjoyed along the path.

A famous pair of Bull Kauris Agathis microstachya, growing by the track near the start
of the Lake Barrine/Barany walking track (going clockwise from the teahouse). These
are in the ancient Gondwanan conifer family Araucariaceae, and the species is endemic
to the Atherton Tablelands and the immediate vicinity. These two are estimated to 
be 1000 years old.

Boyd's Forest Dragon Lophosaurus boydii on the side of a tree, a common
resting/hunting place for them. A few years ago we went up to the tropics
in January - definitely not tourist season! - and were rewarded with sights
we'd not seen in the drier times of the year. This was one of them.

This spectacular dragon is another Queensland Wet Tropics endemic.

Another treat on the same walk was this male Cairns Birdwing Butterfly 
Ornithoptera euphorion, a real stunner and another Wet Tropics 
special (apart from an outlying population near Mackay to the south).

Atherton Scrubwren Sericornis keri, yet another Wet Tropics endemic,
mostly in the highlands.

 

Spectacled Monarch Symposiachrus trivirgatus, a more widespread species,
extending along the east coast south to the NSW mid north coast.

But many aspects of both tracks are, understandably, very similar, so the following set of photos is a combination of both walks; any of these images could have been taken on either walk.

Typical rainforest along the walking track, much of which is a boardwalk (at Lake Eacham at least).

Lianas; the climbing form allows these plants' leaves to access the sunlight by 
ascending into the canopy without investing in a massive wooden trunk. 
They are a feature of tropical rainforests.

A conspicuous group of climbers is the rattan palms, Calamus spp. (I think this
one is C. australis.) They require care on the part of walkers on these tracks. Young 
stems are protected by a thicket of thin sharp spines, and from the crown of palm leaves
descends a very unpleasant flexible 'whip', covered in wicked hooks. We are just
collateral damage however, the real purpose is to hook onto host trees to enable
them to extend upwards to the light.

 

Some rattan palm thorns, small but very effective! Their common name refers
to their use in basket and wicker furniture making, but they are more commonly
referred to in Australia as lawyer, or wait-a-while vines, for their savage entanglements.

Epiphytes are plants which grow on other plants, not taking nutrients from them (as mistletoes do) but using them for support to again get up nearer to the light. Many of these in the tropical rainforests are fern and orchids, which have minute dust-like spores and seeds respectively, to be carried on air currents to a resting place. 

Basket Ferns Drynaria sp., high in the canopy.

However there is one group of epiphytes which eventually literally overwhelm other rainforest trees; these are the strangler figs. 

A bird or bat deposits a fig seed on a branch or trunk in their sticky droppings. The seed
germinates and sends down roots, fine tendrils at first, which get bigger later. When the roots 
reach the ground they penetrate it and start sending nutrients up to the fig seedling, which in 
turns starts to grow upwards. Eventually its massive canopy kills the host tree, not by 
'strangling' but by shading it and preventing it from photosynthesising. The host trunks 
slowly rots, leaving the fig as a free-standing tree, with numerous aerial roots which 
provide shelter to many animals.

A well-known strangler fig on the Lake Eacham track. There are many species of them, 
this one and the one above being Ficus virens (often known as White Fig or Albayi).

Despite the previous comment however, not all ferns are epiphytes of course, and the rainforest understorey supports many fern species. 

Bank of Maidenhair Fern Adiantum hispidulum.

 And fungi are of course profuse; here are a couple that I can't name - sorry!

These bracket fungi are busy returning the log to the forest soil.

 

To end this celebration of the Crater Lakes NP I'm going to offer some of the highlights we've seen from (and even on) the balcony of our accommodation there, facing into the rainforest. Technically the lodge is obviously not in the park, but the boundary is very close and is unmarked. 

 

This is along the short entrance road to the property, some of which is dominated
by huge Flooded Gums Eucalyptus grandis, forming wet sclerophyll forest;
this track  is always work a walk. The lodge however, a bit lower down, is 
totally within the rainforest.

 

This is the view from a cabin verandah, looking directly into the rainforest.

It is not surprising then that the following photos, taken from one or other such verandah on different trips, are a pretty good sample of some of the vertebrate fauna of the park. They include three more Wet Tropics bird endemics though I'm starting with a couple of much more widespread species.

 

Rufous (or Little) Shrikethrush Colluricincla rufogaster, like all shrikethrushes a glorious songster.
It's smaller than other species, and is found across northern Australia and down
the east coast to northern NSW, mostly in rainforests

Lewin's Honeyeater Meliphaga lewinii is found right down the east coast
of Australia in wetter forests. It readily learns to come to the lodge verandahs
if fruit is on offer.

Grey-headed Robins Heteromyias cinereifrons are endemic to the Wet Tropics rainforests.
I find them beguiling, quiet but not especially shy, intent on going about their business.
This one was just below our balcony.

Black Butcherbirds Melloria quoyi live across the wetter parts of northern Australia
and down the east coast to Mackay, as well as in New Guinea and some associated
islands. An authoritative study determined that it is something of a link
between the other butcherbirds and Australian Magpies. Like other
butcherbirds (and magpies) they have a lovely rich complex call,
sometimes almost bell-like.

Male Victoria's Riflebird Ptiloris victoriae on the balcony. (We may have
inadvertently left some fruit on the railing...) Unfortunately the light was
entirely wrong, but you get just a hint of his glorious iridescence. This
species is pretty well limited to the Atherton Tableland.
There are three species of riflebirds, which are birds of paradise, in three 
small discrete populations in the eastern tropical and subtropical rainforests. 

Spotted Catbird Ailuroedus maculosus, calling from just off our balcony. It has a
rather weird cat-like wailing-yowling call, very atmospheric. Catbirds are 
apparently primitive bowerbirds, which do not build display bowers.
This one is another Wet Tropics endemic; there are two closely related and
similar species in far north Queensland and in New Guinea, with which
 it has until recently been confused.

One of the highlights of Chambers Wildlife Lodge is the night wildlife viewing area, near to the cabins, facing into the rainforest.

The area is lit, which initially surprised me, but it doesn't seem to bother at least
some of the animals; I've seen the same setup at a waterhole in Etosha NP in 
Namibia, and in a similar forest situation to this in Brazil.

In principle I don't like the idea of feeding wildlife, but this seems fairly controlled. Some honey is spread on a couple of tree trunks in the early evening, especially to attract two species of possum. In our experiences there the animals don't stay long and don't come every night, so it seems to be providing a minor treat rather than a primary food source. Anyway, here are the stars. 

Sugar Gliders are widespread in eastern and northern Australia and New Guinea.
However we now know that there are three Australian species and the most widespread
one, west of the Great Dividing Range, is Krefft's Glider Petaurus notatus, including this one.
(The true Sugar Glider P. breviceps live along the coastal strip in NSW and Victoria,
and has been introduced to Tasmania.) The New Guinea situation is still being studied. 
The gliding membrane stretches from wrist to ankle - we can see some of it by the
arm and leg of this one - and can carry the glider for well over 100 metres
between trees, changing direction as necessary.

Even more exciting to us however, because it is limited to the tropics and we'd never seen one properly, was the wonderful Striped Possum Dactylopsila trivirgata, found across New Guinea in a couple of narrow strips of rainforest on Cape York and the Wet Tropics. 

This striking colouration is usually a warning sign in animals. It has been reported
that Striped Possums have a strongly unpleasant odour, which suggests that they
might also taste bad for protection and would explain the warning.

Here we can see the extended fourth toe, which they use to extract nutritious wood-boring
larvae from the tree trunk. They locate a hollow by tapping on the trunk, then chew a hole
to access it, and use the long toe to extract the unfortunate grub. In a remarkable 
example of parallel evolution this is exactly the strategy used by the entirely
unrelated Madagascan lemur, the Aye-aye Daubentonia madagascariensis; see below.

This female is part of a population on an island in the Pangeles Lakes of eastern
Madagascar, partially habituated to come down for coconuts left out for them.
(The teeth which evolved primarily to rip into wood work well here too.) The photo
is not good (flashes are quite rightly banned here) but if you expand the photo
you can see the very slender fingers on her right hand and the extended
middle finger.

Another mammal came to the offerings too, but was only able to take whatever fell to the ground.

Long-nosed Bandicoot Perameles nasuta. This little marsupial is found along almost
the entire east coast of Australia, in a variety of habitats. The complete generalist, 
it is also omninvorous and while most of its diet is invertebrates it also eats fungi
and tubers (as well as some spilled honey where available!).

Perhaps the most interesting regular visitor to the lodge however is a tiny kangaroo - the smallest in fact, and the most ancient, perhaps resembling the ancestral kangaroo. Moreover the Musky Rat-Kangaroo Hypsiprymnodon moschatus is the only kangaroo that doesn't hop on its hind legs. It is diurnal and omnivorous and in my opinion one of the most fascinating of Australian mammals. It is not uncommon in the Wet Tropics (and only found there) but until this lodge my only experience of them was repeated glimpses as one dashed across a road or track. Not here though!  

I could scarcely believe my eyes the first time a 'Hypsie' pottered out of the forest
just below our balcony and proceeded to so potter unconcerned by us.
By now you may have some idea how exciting this was for us!

If you've read this far, my thanks. I hope you've been encouraged to visit this tiny park and adjacent forests, whether for the first time or as a return. This remnant of ancient Australia deserves our attention and awe.

NEXT POSTING THURSDAY 2 APRIL

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