Well, it’s that time of the week for another update. Now that I am at a computer I can probably keep a more consistent schedule of updates, so let’s begin with Tasmania!
Despite being not too far from the mainland, I feel like visiting Tasmania has the same sort of feel as non-Floridians visiting Florida. It’s there, it’s not that expensive to visit, but it’s really just a holiday location for many people. Tasmania seems like that for Australians. I went to Tasmania for the first time a week and a half ago first to participate in the Australian Society of Herpetologists’ (ASH) annual meeting and after that, I had a few days to check out the state. Unlike Florida, Tasmania has no Disney World or Universal Studios or anything like that, but is quite well known for being mountainous and green (unlike much of the rest of Australia). Tasmania harbors Australia’s only temperate rainforest and, I think with the possible exception of Brazil, that makes Australia the only country to have both tropical and temperate rainforests.
The ASH meeting was a fun time. It is really hard to describe the atmosphere at ASH, but it’s very relaxed and jovial. There were about 150 participants, so it was one of the smaller meetings I’ve attended, but it was not nearly as intimidating. Herpetologists are a unique breed regardless of their nationality, it would seem, and that lent an air of comfortability for me presenting my research there. I presented my research on Dendrobates tinctorius that I’ve been working on for the last three years. I am excited about the results of this research, so it was fun to present my findings. And as is always my fear in presenting research, I was worried that my peers would reject the conclusions, but happily, people seemed to accept the conclusions I drew. Anyone who knows me, knows that I can get exceptionally obsessive about visual media, so when I give powerpoint presentations, I want to make full use of the program. I generally believe that the presentation is wasted if you do not have a compelling visual presentation and sadly, many scientists fall into this. I spent a great deal of time making and practicing the presentation, and I’m quite pleased to see that that effort is recognized. I was awarded runner-up for best PhD presentation, which earned me a copy of the Reptiles and Amphibians of Australia by Harold Cogger. This is a beast of a book that is worth around $120 and is quite comprehensive. I do actually have a copy, but I left it in the States. And in an effort to make it more personal, I basically turned it into a yearbook and got signatures of a bunch of people on the front page of the book, including a number of the bigwigs at the conference. I was also pleasantly surprised when I spoke to one of the judges of the presentations who said it really was back and forth between me and the first place winner. In addition to meeting everyone including a number of important contacts, this really capped off a great meeting.
After the meeting, I had plans to rent a car and then drive around Tasmania for four days. I had the goal of trying to find one of the species of frogs I’m working on, seeing an echidna, seeing a wombat, and seeing a Tasmanian Devil. When I went to the airport to rent a car, most of the cars were already rented out and those that were left were big vehicles. And it turns out that I wasn’t alone in this position. There was another guy from the conference who didn’t reserve a car ahead of time and was potentially looking at being stranded at the airport because he couldn’t rent a car. Since he was flying out of Hobart and I was going to head to Hobart to see some friends, I said I could take him and we could split costs. The only problem for him was that I was planning on camping and he didn’t have any gear to camp. It ended up working out that he slept in the car, but I think he probably would have preferred to stay in some hotels. But it was free to camp, so beggars can’t be choosers, and ultimately I think he enjoyed the whirlwind tour.
We started out by heading to the Bay of Fire on the northeast coast of Tasmania. I was hoping that this wasn’t ominous because Tasmania is dealing with a drought and a number of fires (which I believe are concentrated out west). I had chosen this spot because there was decent number of Pseudophryne semimarmorata found around this area, and that is the target species I wanted to find. Unfortunately, in getting there, I discovered that despite some rains in the last few weeks, the drought was not over and creeks that would be excellent for the frogs were bone dry. So that area ended up being a bust, although it was in the middle of nowhere, which was nice and scenic.
The following morning, we got up early and headed south with the goal of ending the night at Hartz Mountains National Park with is southwest of Hobart and about a 4-hour drive from where we currently were. We ended up driving down the eastern coast and stopped for a couple hours at Freycinet National Park. Blair had suggested stopping there to see Wineglass Bay which I had not heard about, but apparently is one of the big sights to see in Tasmania. It was a good way to break up the drive, so we spent a few hours there and the view was as advertised. And it was also well advertised as we were not the only ones there. In fact, we accidentally ran into another group from ASH as we were making our way back to the car. And then we were off to Hartz Mountains. Shortly after leaving Freycinet, I saw one
of my top targets on the side of the road. An echidna! I turned around and found that it wasn’t hurt or
anything (there is a ridiculous amount of wildlife in Tasmania, so a ton of roadkill, to the point that there are dusk-to-dawn speed limited to help cut down on that). By the time we got to close to the animal, it wasn’t having anything of us, and started burrowing down into the dirt. It basically burrowed down enough so that its spikes were at level with the ground and there was very little chance of getting at the animal without getting stabbed. Despite my prodding, it wouldn’t come up, but it was still a very cool animal to see and one I’ve wanted to see for a long time. First wild monotreme!
Hartz Mountains is the furthest south I’ve ever been. It’s about as far south as Manistee, Michigan (a place I spent many childhood summers) is north. But there isn’t much more south before you hit Antarctica, so that was quite cool. Hartz Mountains is also a temperate rainforest and quite reminiscent to the cloud forests I’ve been in in Central America. Despite getting a misting while we were there, it was still evident that it was drier than normal. Everything was covered in moss, but the moss was pretty dry. We had come to Hartz Mountains to try to find Crinia nimba, which is a relatively recently described species of frog endemic to southern Tasmania. We had also hoped to find a number of the Snow Skinks in the genus Niveoscincus. These are arguably the coldest lizards in the world with individuals being found on snow. There are six species endemic to Tasmania, and all of them can be found at Hartz Mountains. We arrived in the late afternoon, so we decided to head up to the top to scope out the area for some possible night road cruising. We were halted because someone needed some help because their friend skidded out on the road up to the park and crashed into a tree. When we got to the car, we realized that there wasn’t much we could do and the people would have to call a tow truck. Needless to say, I was quite careful about driving on the gravel roads after that as I didn’t want to repeat it. After we got up to the top, we went through an alpine bog area which seemed perfect for these frogs. And when we got up there, a cloud was moving through, so there was moisture for the frogs. It all seemed promising. When we went up there after dark, it was raining (misting) and chilly. Despite this, we heard a number of Crinia signifera calling. We cruised around the area to find the frogs, but we didn’t hear any calling, and given that these frogs are brown and cryptic, there is little chance of walking up on one, so finding that frog was a bust. The following morning, we went up to hike around before having to head to Hobart to drop Blair off and for me to meet up with my friends. We didn’t hear any frogs calling in the morning, but on our hike up to Osborn Lake, we did see a number of endemic Green Rosellas and on the way back from the lake, the sun had warmed the boardwalk enough to get the skinks to come out and bask, so we found one of the snow skinks! And then onto Hobart!
Hobart ended up being a pretty quick stop because I needed to make the ferry for Maria Island (pronounced Mariah) and there were only two a day. So I had lunch with my friends before heading off to catch a ferry. Maria Island National Park is a really near park. You know all of those stories about the Australia being a penal colony? Well, Maria Island was one of the spots that criminals were sent. So around the port of Darlington, there are ruins and historical buildings relating to the penitentiary that was once in the island. The main claim to fame, now, for Maria Island, is that it’s one of the spots to somewhat reliable see Tasmanian Devils. Tasmanian Devils are being wiped out throughout Tasmania because of a very unique facial cancer that is actually transmissible. Devils will contract the disease when they bite one another. And given that biting one another is the main way these animals communicate with one another spells problems for the species. Fortunately, all of the devils on Maria Island are cancer free. And they’re somewhat habituated to people, so the chances of seeing one is pretty good.
Maria Island is also interesting in that you can either stay in one of the old penitentiary buildings or camp, and you need to bring all food you need for your trip. There are two camp sites, either in Darlington or 11km away at the other side of the island. Given that the best chances of seeing devils is in Darlington, I stayed there (I also did not relish the idea of hiking 11km with all of my camera AND camping gear). To waste some time before dusk when devils would be active, I decided to walk to the Painted Cliffs and photograph them at sunset. Along the way, I was able to knock off another one of my target species: wombat. There were wombats everywhere, just grazing on the grass with very little concern for who was around. And why would they? There, effectively, are no predators on the island that can threaten them and nor are there vehicles that may hit them. In this walk, I also saw a number of endemic Tasmanian birds that I didn’t realize were endemic. Probably the best one was a Forty-Spotted Pardalote since it’s an endangered species. There are 12 endemic Tasmanian birds, and I think I saw 5 or 6 on this walk. After getting my photo of the cliffs, I headed back and on the way saw more wombats, and by this time, the kangaroos, wallabies, and pademelons had come out, so it was the right
time for devils. I waited for a while and walked around trying to find a devil or spotlight one, but with no luck. I decided to lay down in my tent and wait for a commotion in the camp since surely there would be
a commotion if a devil came through, right? Well, as it turns out, a devil walked right past my tent while I was in it, and I heard a single “oh look, a devil.” By the time I got out of my tent, it was gone. No devils that nice, so I called it a relatively early night figuring I might see them early in the morning. Throughout the night, I was rustled out of sleep by the screams of the devils that were in camp, apparently. But the following morning I was awarded a quick glimpse of a devil. Not nearly as satisfying a view as I would have liked, but I finally got my devil!
That morning, before the afternoon ferry back to the mainland, I decided to walk up to Bishop and Clerk which is one of the highest peaks on the island at 540m high (they advertise 620m, but my GPS begs to differ). The hike was advertised as 11km roundtrip, which would take 3-5 hours, which was great timing before having to head to the ferry. The hike was more like 13km (those 2 extra kilometers matter when you’re carrying a lot of camera gear on your back), and I think it took me about 5 hours to do. Mostly because I was taking my time. Unfortunately, the news that there was a drought in Tasmania apparently hadn’t made it to Maria Island, and about half way up, it started sprinkling. When I got to some rock scree that I had to walk through (and was exposed) it decided to pick up to a bit more than a sprinkle. Not a downpour by any means, but 10 minutes of walking in it and you’d be pretty wet. The only plus to it all was that there wasn’t much in the way of wind, otherwise it would have been pretty miserable. Once I got to the top, I got my photos and rushed the kilometer over rock scree to get back into the forest and some refuge for the rain. As if on cue, the rain let up shortly after I got into the forest. And then I was back and ready to hop on the ferry and head back towards Launceston.
I had one more night in Tasmania before flying back to Sydney, and on the recommendation of my Hobart friends, I stayed the night in Nawarntapu National Park, which is not far from Launceston. This is a coastal park, so I was hoping to see some birdlife, but it also had lots of low-usage roads which are perfect for road cruising. While waiting for the sun to go down, I set up camp which I shared with a Kookaburra who seemed completely uninterested in my being there, but he did keep laughing at me. Once the sun went down, I heard some hooting in my camp, which I thought could have been a frog call, and after trying to triangulate where on the ground this frog was, I scared (we were both scared) a Tawny Frogmouth from its perch. It turns out that the frogmouth was the one hooting, and he too was relatively unconcerned about me, so I was able to get some photos of it. I had seen a frogmouth
last year in Newcastle, but didn’t have my camera on me. They are very cool birds, but can be difficult to find because they sit perfectly still and seem like a broken branch. And then it was time for road cruising. After an hour of road cruising, though, I only saw some pademelons, possums, and a single Eastern Banjo Frog that was recently hit. Not quite as successful as I was hoping. I wasted some time the following morning by hiking on a couple of trails and walking along the beach to see some of the early morning birds, and then it was time to head back to the airport and fly back to Sydney.
And that’s the Tasmanian adventure! A lot packed into a week! Unfortunately, these next few weeks are likely to be somewhat boring as I’ll be in Sydney filling out paperwork to prepare for the field season which probably will start sometime in mid-March. As a result, the next couple blog posts will probably be rather short and boring, but we’ll see. Who knows what opportunities might pop up!
Time flies and all of that! I know it’s been two weeks since my last update, but I do have good reason why I haven’t filled in on the Australian adventure since. Things are finally starting to get into motion and I’m having less and less time to sit at a computer to write down a blog post. As is, I’m currently sitting at the airport in Sydney waiting for a flight to Launceston, Tasmania. But I’ll get to that in due time.
In the meantime, let me fill in all of my avid readers on the events of the last two weeks, or really, the last week, which is the interesting week (the week prior was, admittedly pretty boring and uneventful). On the 7th, I headed down to Kosciuszko National Park in the southern part of New South Wales to participate in a project for Corroboree Frogs. Simply, we were placing clay models all over the park to allow predator to attack them. We had three different types of models: solid yellow, solid black, and corroboree. The idea behind this research is to elucidate the function of the yellow-and-black striping of the Corroboree Frog because we actually don’t know its function. Surely, you must think, that that bright striping has to be warning coloration just like we see in poison dart frogs, but rarely are things so clear. Speaking from experience in placing these models, the striped pattern is incredibly cryptic when placed into the snow grass where these frogs were once found. So this color pattern could be disruptive. We don’t really know. We don’t actually know what eats or potentially eats these frogs. This study should give us a lot of insight into the biology of the frogs.
I analyzed the data that the lab collected in December and found some interesting results. The lead PI on this project wanted three different sampling periods to cover the entirety of the breeding season, which is probably prudent. In the interest of waiting until the study is done, I won’t discuss the results here, yet. But suffice to say I think that there are some neat things going on with Corroboree Frogs.
I spent this last week with two undergrads who were effectively heading the project. They spent countless hours making these frogs only to have them possibly destroyed by predators. They have a great deal of dedication for the project, and because of that, since I was brought in later, I really want them to be the main benefactors of the results. I’ve been encouraging them to start thinking of analysis and writing, and I envision the main PI and myself to act as editors and perfect the paper before we submit it for publication. I think that’ll probably be submitted before I leave for the US, which is really awesome. They seem pretty keen to do the paper. We will have one more sampling period in March that may address a couple other questions, but after that, we should be set with getting ready to publish. And it should be pretty awesome. By the end of it, we will have placed over 6,900 models, which is several times more than any clay model experiment I’ve seen and it’ll have been done over the course of the breeding season, which most model experiments do not do. With that, I think it could have pretty high impact.
I did have to emphasize to these two that I currently live in Mississippi and am from Michigan. In both of those areas, a 20m hill is considered a mountain. So I initially had some issues with doing the transect. After a couple of days, I got used to the 1500-1900m elevation, but it was still quite exhausting. The hardest part for me actually was going off-track. The subalpine and alpine areas are essentially all covered in “snow grass” with some sparse shrubs here and there as well as the occasional sphagnum bog that the Corroborees would have liked. This snow grass grows in tufts which made the ground very uneven. Effectively, it was like walking on a lumpy mattress for half a day. As a result, my ankles were seriously hurting by the end of the day. And further complicating matters was that I was pretty insistent on bringing some (but not all) of my camera gear to take photos of the area as well as film the experiment in progress. I want to great a short video of the research as it happens, so keep an eye out for that in the next couple weeks.
While the whole area was beautiful, I do want to make note of one particular trek. Blue Lake. This was the highest elevation we got to (between 1800m and 1900m) and it was also the longest hike. We had to walk 5km which was mostly uphill to get to the lake (which was formed many years ago by glaciers). In the panorama, you can see what we had to deal with. The trail goes downhill for about ½ km before starting uphill. You can see where Blue Lake is to the back right (that big exposed rocky bit). Rather than doing a fairly direct route, the route took us around one mountain before we ascended the mountain where Blue Lake was. Then we set 3km of transects down through that area. And we ended up bushwhacking for most of it until we ended and then made a loop of the hike to pick up the trail rather than go back the way we came. I can’t decide if this was ultimately better for me because probably cut 5km off of our return trip, but it meant going through a lumpy mattress for another kilometer or so.
Helping raise my spirits were the herps of the area. I thought that surely being so high, we wouldn’t see any herps, but we did end up seeing a number of cool ones. On the Blue Lake hike, we saw Alpine Water Skinks (endemic to the area) and on the way back, I almost stepped on a small (which I guess was an adult) White-Lipped Snake which is a venomous snake, but not particularly dangerous. That invigorated me because I wanted to get a decent photo for identification purposes. What worked best was taking my hat and throwing it over the snake. It would calm down and coil up. Until when I did that once, a rather large spider bolted out of the grass under the hat. When we lifted the hat, the snake was gone. These hills are dotted with spider burrows (some of which are pretty big – probably 1.5” in diameter). I suspect that the snake found this burrow while I was trying to take photos and decided to evict the arachnid, giving the appearance that the snake magically turned into a spider. Beyond that, we also saw a number of Alpine Copperheads (another venomous snake). One I managed to get some photos of, but it wasn’t exactly happy that I was taking its photo. It never struck at me, but it flattened its neck in a threatening behavior. It was definitely a cool experience.
In the interest of time, that is where I’m going to leave you. I apologize for the lateness of the post and the lack of photos. I’ll probably post a big photo post when I get back from Tasmania, so keep an eye out for that! I’ll finally have a little bit of time to breathe. This last week and this coming week have shifted by bedtime forward a couple of hours because I end up so exhausted at the end of the day. I can’t wait until I don’t feel so exhausted. But if that’s the price for experiencing Australia, so be it!
I don’t know how another week has already passed. These next few months are going to fly by, I’m afraid. But I’ll make the best use of them as I can. So onto the goings on for this week!
The beginning of the week was basically, and
most notably, Australia Day. Being from America, the best I can describe the atmosphere is like that of the Fourth of July. Australian flags everywhere. But one difference I got from our two cultures is the perception of the country itself. I don’t think that there are many Americans who can disagree with the Fourth of July being a moment of hyper-patriotism sprinkled in with a healthy dose of “America is the greatest country in the world.” This is not how Australians celebrate Australia Day. Rather, it’s certainly quite a bit of patriotism and celebrating all things Australian, but the general mentality as I perceived it was “Isn’t it awesome that we’re all Australian.” It’s a subtle difference, but it’s one I appreciated. But Australia Day isn’t Australian independence day, but essentially like Australian Columbus Day. It makes the day when the Australian continent was discovered by the English. And just like Columbus Day, it is heavily criticized because, like the Native Americans, the Aboriginals were treated horribly by colonists. And today, while things are much better for Australian Aboriginals, they are nowhere near perfect or equal for them. So there has been mounting criticism about the holiday. There, too, has been an increased push by Australian republicans (not to be confused with the American GOP) to have Australia be a republic. Currently, Australia is a constitutional monarchy, which essentially means it still holds ties to the UK because the Head of State for Australia is Queen Elizabeth II. Australian republicans want the Australian Head of State to be an Australian. There seems to be an increased movement for Australia to sever these ties with the UK and become independent. It wouldn’t surprise me if in the next decade or two, it came to fruition.
I spent the day in Sydney as there was much to do and see around the Harbour. Perhaps it’s the case in the US with analogous cities on the water, but one of the coolest things I saw was that they had multiple concerts going on around the Harbour. But the bands were on barges and would drift along the coastline as the bands played. It was quite a cool experience to see that as I made my way around the Harbour. But in addition to that, they had planes flying overhead (including a massive Qantas jet!), and even had a parade of ships go through the Harbour including some replicas of the 18th century twin-masted ships (i.e., pirate ships). Much of the day was spent in Darling Harbour at Cockle Bay because that, ultimately, was where the fireworks would happen. Come evening, Cockle Bay became a large, outdoor arena where there were dragon boat races, citizenship ceremonies (celebrating new Australians), and a concert (on a boat that went all around the bay) with Sneaky Sound System. I’m not really one for music, so I don’t know much in the way of bands or people in those bands, let alone Australian pop idols, but given the reaction of the crowd, I’m guessing I should feel privileged that the woman known as Sneaky Sound System passed within 20 feet of where I was. And then came the fireworks, which was pretty impressive. I have not really seen fireworks shows in cities before, so I can’t really say with any sort of confidence if this was better or worse than other shows, but compared to the smaller town shows I’ve seen on the Fourth of July, it was quite impressive. You know how on those shows, there’s always a finale which seeks to overwhelm you with the amount of explosions happening in the air? Yea, Australia Day in Cockle Bay was like that for 20 minutes straight. And with the backdrop of Sydney, it was a pretty cool experience. Definitely something I’d recommend for the wandering traveler.
The weekend was quieter than I would have liked, but that was largely because of track work on the trains that go out to the Blue Mountains, which would have put on hours of travel time for me. So instead, I went to Royal National Park to hike some of the interior of the park. This park is about 45 minutes south of Sydney and it actually quite a large park. It is most well-known for its Wedding Cake Rock, but I did not see this famous site. Instead, I went in from Waterfall (yes, there’s a town called Waterfall) and took a 6km hike to Uloola Falls. There is something about the Australian landscape that is so difficult to describe because it is so different from any other ecosystem that I’ve seen. This particular part of the park was dominated by shrubs and grasses, but on occasion, there would be clumps of Eucalypus trees. I think the best way I can describe this ecosystem and many of the Australian ecosystems is open. The forests are open. There is a great deal of light penetration that I’m not really used to in forest habitats. So when it gets particularly hot out, shade is not necessarily the easiest thing to find.
Australia, though, is truly the land of Dragons.
Many of the lizards in the Agamidae family are referred to as dragons here (think Bearded Dragon or Water Dragon). I saw a number of new species for me, and many of them were dragons, including some absolutely adorable hatchlings (or at least I so assume). And by and large, they were pretty tolerant of a photo-happy yank taking their pictures. I cannot say the same of the skinks here. There were several species of skink that I saw as well, but I could not get real close to them to get more posed photos that I was hoping for. I ended up having to settle for using my telephoto and getting in situ shots. But seeing so many of these lizards really got me excited.
The falls were, as best as I can tell, a stereotypical Australian water fall. They generally do not have a ton of water flowing over them. Like the forests, this, too, is difficult to describe, but in seeing several Australian waterfalls, there does seem to be a thread of commonality among them. They actually make for quite picturesque scenes. And despite being a hot day and a decent hike away, the falls were surprisingly popular. I can understand why, though, because it was pretty much a perfect waterfall to spend a lazy Sunday under. Cool water on a hot day was incredibly refreshing. But despite this, a little patience, and I could get the shot that I wanted. This is definitely a spot I wouldn’t mind hiking to again in the future. And that was pretty much the week. But I do have some news (finally) on research. The lab here has a project examining color evolution in the Corroboree Frog which is a critically endangered species (one of the rarest frogs on the planet), so when asked if I was interested in helping out, I had to say yes. I think every scientist wants their work to make an impact on the world. For some, they are quite content describing the function of a gene. For others, they want to describe a new species. For me, understanding diversity and conserving that diversity is very important to me. And this is the first real opportunity to get my foot in the door to have a tangible impact on the recovery of a critically endangered species. For this research, simply, we want to know the function of the conspicuous coloration of the Corroboree Frog. This will give us insight into its evolution, but from a conservation angle, it tells us what risk there is for reintroduction (and what sorts of predators pose that risk). It’s quite a basic question, but it allows us to start asking more questions. Like, can we train the predator community not to eat Corroboree Frogs? Or why yellow and black stripes, why not solid yellow? Or is yellow important, or is it the pattern? It’s the first step to really getting at understanding the risks of a reintroduction program for this species. This will potentially have long-lasting impacts here. We start on the 7th and will go for a week, then we’ll have a third trip (I missed the first) in mid-March to round out the breeding season for the Corroboree Frog. After that, I head to Tasmania to find a Thylacine (Tasmanian Tiger for those who don’t know). Shouldn’t be that difficult, right? Okay, I’m really going to attend the Australian Society of Herpetologists’ annual conference, which sounds like it’ll be a good time. I’ve been warned about ASH meetings as they can be “interesting.” Not sure what to expect, but it should be fun regardless. After ASH, I’ll have a few days to explore around Tasmania and scout some sites for species collection. Ideally, I’d be collecting this trip, but I doubt I’ll have permits to do the collecting. Instead, I’ll scout and find the species I’m interested in so that I can come back later. That said, even if I did have permits, I may not be able to find frogs. It has been incredibly dry in Tassie for a while and they’re dealing with bush fires throughout the state. It might not be wet enough yet to count on finding frogs. We shall see, but regardless, I’m excited to be able to visit! Given how busy I will be the next couple weeks (and I may be with limited internet), I might not be able to keep to the weekly streak. I will certainly try, however. This week’s update may come a little early and next week’s a little late. We shall see. One way or another, I’ll definitely keep you updated on the Adventures in Oz!
