What did your neighbourhood look like 10, 50, or 100 years ago? If you live on the edge of an expanding city or town, like many people do, it’s likely that there was a lot more natural forest, grassland, scrub and bush around then than there is today. What happened to the residents who were therethen? Can you restore your local area or back yard? Here are some tips.
3rd Annual ‘Save The Frogs Day’ 29th April 2011
SAVE THE FROGS! America’s first and only public charity dedicated exclusively to amphibian conservation, has declared Friday April 29th, 2011 the 3rd Annual ‘Save The Frogs Day’. Please get involved and help spread the word!
Are societies still dependent on the stability and resilience of nature?
People often say we have evolved beyond nature but it is our very progress and growth which has bound us closer to its fate.
Richmond Birdwing butterfly: knowledge of ecology aides recovery
The Richmond Birdwing butterfly (Ornithoptera richmondia) is one of Australia’s biggest and most spectacular butterflies. Just 100 years ago, these butterflies were abundant throughout greater Brisbane. Today they are gone. Not entirely extinct, but no longer in Brisbane. The reason is more than just building a city. It’s a story of habitat loss, isolation and invasive species.
We can give them the chance to return and we’ll explain how here.
Mangroves: Smelly habitats but fantastic nurseries!
People often think of mangroves as smelly muddy places that ‘get in the way’ and block your view of the water.
It’s true they can be smelly, sticky places, but they’re also an important habitat for juvenile fish and crabs which we want to catch when they’re adults. So what is that smell and which fish get a benefit from those mangroves?
Meat ants, cat food and Bufo marinus: slowing down the cane toad!
When animals invade new places they either sink, swim, or just get along. Unfortunately, when an invader does well in its new land, it can have devastating consequences for the native animals and plants. Suddenly there is a new competitor or predator in the midst and the natives don’t have the skills, spines or teeth to compete or defend themselves. Evolution works over many generations and there’s rarely time to adapt. But people can help.
Understanding how animals interact may help us tip the ‘balance’ in favour of native Australian animals. Here’s one example from the ongoing battle against the invasive cane toad (Bufo marinus – a native of South America). Can meat ants and cat food slow them down?
5 things that make a good naturalist
A list of five basic things that make a good naturalist: Patience, Perseverance, Knowledge, An Inquiring Mind, and a camera! I present examples of how these things help a naturalist and other scientists discover things.
Ecological islands on land: a first for New Zealand?
This article describes Maungatautari, a volcano that’s become a native animal refuge in a sea of dairy pasture. New Zealanders have been first at many things. They may also be the first to create ‘islands on land’. That is, ‘ecological islands’ on land, anyway.
The false water rat, habitat mosaics and real estate!
The false water rat (Xeromys moyides) doesn’t live in any old mangroves. They’re picky and look for certain qualities in the real estate they choose. They need a dry house site and safe roads taking them to their supermarkets. Competition for real estate is tough on the edge of a growing city! Find out some more about Australia’s water mouse.
Nothofagus: relics from Gondwana
If you’ve ever walked through a forest of ancient Southern Beech (Nothofagus spp.) you can be forgiven for believing that you have just stepped into another world. You often find these trees growing as rings of giant trunks, covered in hundreds of epiphytes and mosses. But don’t be fooled. The rings of trunks are just the one tree! It’s called coppicing; the tree sends out new shoots radially from the base of the original trunk, and these shoot eventually grow into clones of the parent tree forming a ring of tunks, all belonging to the one tree.
