Category: tropical rainforest

New Cassowary Chicks

Christina

Last seen in February, our cassowary Dad is now back with 3 tiny chicks. They might even be only a few days old!

Dad is doing his best to keep them close to him, but one managed to get separated from the group and only rejoined them a couple of hours later.

They rest often, and Dad nods off every now and then,

but only briefly!
The chicks seek shelter and warmth under Dad’s tail feathers. That’s why cassowary male have longer tails than females.

 

The chicks are very cute, but not if you are a finch! They caught a red-browed finch and, after a few attempts, one of the little chicks wolfed it down.

 

Hey, you’ve got something on your face!

New Pademelon Joey

Christina

One of our female Red-legged Pademelon’s pouch has been getting as big as they can recently, giving the impression that she is sitting on a gym ball.

female pademelon with big pouch

For a brief moment, the joey actually tumbled out, only to quickly make its way back into the safety of the pouch:

It is not so easy to fold those long legs back in!

baby pademelon in pouch

A few days later, the little one was much more confident, but still staying close to mum.

baby pademelon with mum and male
Around the time when the joey vacates the pouch, the males check out the female to find out whether she is ready to mate again.

When a joey first leaves the pouch, it often runs back and forth at full speed, jumping high and is full of energy and, as we think,  joie de vivre.

About the size of a large guinea pig, pademelon babies are very cute!

baby pademelon almost in pouch

Cassowaries and Tree-kangaroos

Christina

Cassowary chicks often hatch in September (rainforest fruits usually are most bountiful in spring and summer). As there is not much food for them in the wet sclerophyll forest at that time, we normally get to see the family in June/July, when the chicks are much bigger, have lost their stripes and are almost ready for life on their own.

Yesterday, though, 5 year old “Goldfinger” came by very late in the day with two small striped chicks. They are probably about 2 months old and his first offspring. He mated with “Wattle”, the alpha female in the area, in June 2019 (once even just outside our kitchen window!), but didn’t have any chicks that year.

Notice his wet feet: they had a drink from the creek not far down the track.

5 year old cassowary and 2 month old chick

Tree-kangaroo joeys normally leave the pouch around September, and this season our female Lumholtz’s tree-kangaroo has 2 joeys on foot: last year’s daughter and the new baby.

 

Tree-kangaroo mum and big daughter

 

 

For Love of Trees and Nature: Dendrophilia Nature Refuge

Christina
nature refuge

We are proud to announce that our property is now a Nature Refuge, the highest conservation status for private land in Queensland (comparable to National Parks).

Future owners (hopefully in the far distant future!) will be bound by this conservation agreement.between the QLD government and ourselves.

With increasing average and extreme temperatures, the Herberton Range is, together with the tops of Mt Bellenden Ker and Mt Bartle Frere, a most important refugium for many heat-sensitive species in the Wet Tropics (e.g. Lemuroid and Green Ringtail Possums, Golden Bowerbirds).

Professor Steve Williams of James Cook University has undertaken intensive studies over many years in that regard. You can listen to his talk on “Climate Change and Biodiversity of the Wet Tropics” by visiting the “Tree-kangaroo and Mammals Group” website:  https://www.tree-kangaroo.net/documents   or  youtube:

We harbour a faint hope that local councils will eventually awake to the fact that efforts like ours should be encouraged.

 

Moths

Christina
Queensland Day Moth, Alcides metaurus

Australia has 20-30000 species in the order Lepidoptera, of which about 450 are butterflies. There isn’t a big difference between butterflies and moths. Both usually have a coiled proboscis and four scaly wings. Some butterflies are active at night, and numerous moths  fly during the day,  many of those have clubbed antennae. One of our  more conspicuous species is the large Queensland Day Moth, Alcides metaurus (family Uraniidae):

Classifying moths is often not easy: one might have to look at their genitals, which are usually withdrawn into the abdomen! Therefore, some of the moths featured in our blog posts do not have a name to them (feel free to let us know, if you can identify them!), sometimes we cannot even  determine the family (there are about 80 families in Australia). Birds are so much easier!

A few nights ago, our mothlight attracted, amongst many Christmas and Rhinoceros beetles and other moths:

Aglasoma variegata (family Lasiocampidae):

viewed from another angle:

and a portrait, showing off the ‘woolly legs’:

Another species, holding the abdomen in an upright position, maybe for better camouflage:

Praesusica placerodes (family Limacodidae):

A front view reveals the striped legs:

 

and some more moths:

Hawk Moths (family Sphinghidae) are plentiful at the moment:

and so are the often very large Wood Moths (family Cossidae). The famous ‘witchetty grubs’ belong here.

The variety of patterns and shapes seems endless. These moths are well-adapted to life in eucalypt forests. You wouldn’t be able to spot them  amongst dried gum leaves:

or this moth on the bark of a Red Mahogany:

There surely will be more posts to come about moths, featuring our more unusual and/or colourful species!

A most beautifully presented, and very useful guide for identifying our local moths, is Buck Richardson’s book

“Tropical Queensland Wildlife from dawn to dusk, Science and Art”.

Contact details for Buck are:

buckrichardson@leapfrogoz.com.au

www.leapfrogoz.com.au