Something strange is happening in the South Australian seas. Someone’s not turned up for their party. Around this time of year the Australian giant cuttlefish (Sepia apama) gather along the South Australian coastline between False Bay and Whyalla to mate and spawn. Why has it happened? Have they found a new place to get together? Or, are there so few of them now that it’s a big deal to see three or four in the one place? Will they come back? Is it natural, or something us humans have done?
Posts Tagged ‘Conservation’
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!
And just for fun… the Takapo!
Here on Maud Island in the Marlborough Sounds we’re very excited and a little bemused at finding what could be the world’s first takapo eggs this morning.
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.
Nest boxes make new homes for sugar gliders
Australia is well known for it’s marsupials and many of them live in the trees. It can get windy, wet and cold living in a tree so a little hollow inside a tree makes a perfect den. Over 300 species of Australian vertebrates use tree hollows as a home for shelter, sleeping, nesting, and escaping predators! But where can they live in a new forest with few old trees?
