Splendour in the Forest, Friends of the Billinudgel Wildlife Corridor. | Education website
Splendour in the Forest, Friends of the Billinudgel Wildlife Corridor.
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25.01.2022 2020, 15 May, Thylacine encounter report from cattle farmer, Steve, west of Grafton, NSW. Steve phoned the ABC North Coast NSW radio station on Saturday 13 June 2020 after having heard my broadcast on the animal that had been known in the 19th and early 20th century as the marsupial dog or wolf, during my weekly 'Wildlife Weekend' animal identification program, now in its 23rd year. I had described the animal that we had received sixty four detailed encounter reports of durin...Continue reading
24.01.2022 Listen here to a short segment of Wildlife Weekend, my weekly live-to-air wildlife identification broadcasts, now in its 23rd year on ABC Radio, 18 April 2020. I was talking about the fact that kangaroos are some of the most advanced animals in existence when Keith from Jiggi phoned to describe how kangaroos kill their predators by drowning them. He described two incidents that he witnessed, the first, when a kangaroo, chased by a pair of dingoes, hopped onto the beach and in...to the water and waited, grabbed the dingoes, held them underwater until they drowned. The second, a wallaroo or hill kangaroo, attacked by two pig-hunting dogs hopped into the creek and held the dogs underwater until they drowned. Kangaroos can travel long distances at great speed and use little energy as they absorb the energy from the impact with the ground as they travel, which is why they hop. Mother kangaroos can keep the embryo in the womb until grass is available before she gives birth & them mates again and keeps the new embryo in the womb as a backup. Once the young starts to eat grass it can feed without leaving the pouch so mum can suddenly take flight if a predator approaches. She produces two types of milk from each teat, a high-fat milk for the pouch young and a low-fat milk for the out-of-pouch joey. Kangaroos rule! See more
24.01.2022 Wildlife Weekend ABC North Coast NSW Radio 94.5 FM Saturday 19 September, 6.30 this morning we talked about Australia's unique honeyeaters. We have 67 species adapted to every habitat and 5 species, known as chats, have adapted to arid and desert habitats. 20 species live in north-eastern NSW and south-eastern Queensland. Leo from Murwillumbah sent in an audio recording of a bird call for identification and Mat from Murwillumbah and Gail from Tweed phoned in to say that they ...recognised it as a noisy friarbird. Wirgan was the name of this bird used by the local Eora and Darug inhabitants of the Sydney basin where it was first described scientifically by ornithologist John Latham in 1790. Its genus name Philmn is ancient Greek and means 'affectionate kissing' and its specific name corniculatus is Latin and means ‘little horn’ Named because of its comical resemblance to the Christian monks and friars of old with their bare head and brown cloak, it is also known as a leatherhead. One of the largest of our blossom-nomads, its distinctive loud conversational calls include notes that sound like "poor soldier Yakob chew tobacco four-o’clock chi-will keyhole". Females lay up to 4 spotted pink eggs in a large deep cup-shaped nest of leaves and bark on a leafy branch up to 10 metres above ground between July and January. The Noisy Friarbird photo is by Stuart Rae. See more
22.01.2022 Wildlife Weekend, ABC North Coast NSW Radio 94.5 FM, 23 November 2019 at 6.30 am. Here is a close-up of a pair of Burton's Sharp-snouted Snake Lizards (Lialis burtonis) that I photographed in sandstone bushland on the track to Flint and Steel Beach in Kuringai Chase N.P. near West Head, Hawkesbury River, Sydney, on 19-10-2019. The darker-coloured individual had grasped the pale individual on the lower body and they remained stationary for about 5 minutes until the former released its hold. After another couple of minutes the pale snake lizard wriggled off into the grass and was followed by the dark individual. I presumed that the dark snake lizard may have been a male holding onto a female as neither appeared to be aggressive and both were very calm.
21.01.2022 Richard Hil continues his analysis of neo liberalism and what its lead to in today's Australia - the devastation of our beautiful 'home', Planet Earth. Richard... takes a glancing, passing blow at a three Australian women politicians and neo liberal champions - Premiers Gladys Berejiklian and Annastacia Palaszczuk and federal environment minister Sussan-Sacred-Sites-Blow-'em-to-Smithereens-Ley and explains why they can be morally duplicitous, say all the right things on the one hand about the Climate Crisis we all face and the Bushfires. But make cold, political judgements at the expense of millions of people to continue to export coal. Richard finishes this grab by talking about Trump and the real possibilities of civil war breaking out in the US should Trump lose the election.
20.01.2022 We examined these wonderful gigantic trees in 1980 exploring the snow-covered forests of the western United States national parks. We camped in several national parks over some weeks throughout central and northern California and Oregon. Identified all the plants and animals encountered, camped amongst both the mountain and coastal redwoods and coastal bays full of sea otter, grey whales, marine birds and seals. Had the places mostly to ourselves.
19.01.2022 Wildlife Weekend, ABC North Coast NSW Radio 94.5 FM, 28 March 2020 @ 6.30 am; this rare female Regent Skipper butterfly is the world's most ancient butterfly and exhibits features that show that the butterflies evolved from moths. Males possess a frenulum, a wing coupling devise in moths, while the females do not. They live only along the eastern Australian coast north from Port Macquarie. This Regent Skipper was the first to be closely examined on our property in 22 years, o...nly the very occasional individual has been observed flying in the middle stratum of the forest canopy previously and I have only observed it in the wild 6 times. The caterpillars feed only on spiny-leaved Wilkia shrubs that grow in moist forests. They belong to the Hesperioidae family and are called skippers because of their distinctive jerky flight as they skip through the air and have robust bodies and small wings.The Regent Skipper is in the Pyrginae or Flats subfamily because they rest with wings expanded flat. See more
19.01.2022 Wildlife Weekend ABC North Coast NSW Radio 94.5 FM at 6.30 am, Easter 11 April 2020; here is a photograph of a very rare black fur-colour phase of a spotted-tailed quoll, sent to us by Margi Cannell and Keith while on a Tasmanian holiday camping at the Narawntapu N.P. at Bakers Beach, Rubicon River on the north coast during March 2020. This wonderful carnivorous marsupial visited them daily and the larger males can reach a length of over a metre and weigh up to 7 kg. They are... usually reddish-brown with white spots and I have not heard of a black fur-colour phase of a spotted-tailed quoll recorded before or photographed. The spotted-tailed quoll hunts possums, gliders and birds in the tree tops and small mammals, birds and insects on the ground and both are related to the Tasmanian tiger and devil. These wonderful animals used to prowl around my camp fire on the Franklin River during the successful environmental anti-dam blockade Tasmanian Wilderness Society campaign that saved the Wild Rivers National Park in 1983. I often awoke with one climbing over me as a slept on the forest floor in my sleeping bag as it foraged for prey and it would grab any food item that I offered or dropped. I closely followed one through the Antarctic beech rainforest in Lamington National Park, south-east Queensland in 1978. We have received around 25 reports from listeners of spotted-tailed quolls over the 23 years of our weekly wildlife identification broadcasts from the following localities from north to south; Upper Durobby Creek and North Tumbulgum adjacent the Queensland border, Mount Warning, Upper Middle Pocket, Billinudgel, Simpson Creek at Brunswick Heads, Wilson's Creek, Huonbrook and Upper Mullumbimby Creek, Eureka, the Channon, Maclean’s Ridges at Lismore, Bonalbo, South Grafton, Upper Clarence River, Upper Coldstream and Glenreagh. They range along the east coast from north Queensland to Tasmania and scientists obtained a photo of one of these animals using an automatic camera in the Grampians Mountains in western Victoria where it was last reported 140 years earlier so they can be difficult to detect. Its nearest relative is the eastern quoll, which is only half as large as a spotted-tailed quoll, has a brushed non-spotted tail and is usually reddish-brown but does have a black fur-colour phase or variety. Both species are endangered due to habitat destruction and introduced predators such as foxes and cats which compete with them for prey. The eastern quoll hunts insects and small mammals on the ground and was reintroduced to the mainland near Canberra and on the south coast of NSW from Tasmania after it went extinct. One of our listeners 20 years ago reported having an eastern quoll around their house in a remote area north of Drake.
18.01.2022 Wishing everyone Merry Christmas beetles from ABC North Coast NSW Radio station 94.5 FM, from the weekly live-to-air wildlife identification show broadcast every Saturday morning at 6.30, now approaching 23 years and over 400 different animals identified for listeners. Decorating gum trees like decorations on a Christmas tree, the Christmas beetle is a name commonly applied to the Australian beetle genus Anoplognathus in the scarab family. They are known as Christmas beetles ...because they are abundant in both urban and rural areas close to Christmas. Feeding on the roots of native grasses as curly grubs they emerge as adults feeding on the gum leaves. The sunshine reflects off their shiny bodies making them difficult to see, offering some protection from predators. They hover around their feed trees during the day looking for mates and come to verandah lights at night. Ranging in size from 10 cent to 20 cent coins, around 30 different species inhabit bushland and gardens, include golden beetles, bright light green beetles and blue -green beetles. All are harmless, have lovely blue eyes and make good temporary study exhibits in a terrarium with a gum leaf sprig to feed on and they can then be released at night beside their trees. With the replacement of native grasses, like kangaroo & wallaby grasses, with exotic pasture & lawn grasses, their numbers have plummeted over the decades of this radio show, See more
18.01.2022 Wildlife Weekend ABC North Coast Radio 94.5 FM at 6.30 am, 21 March 2020; Ben Wright was climbing Mount Warning in January and thought that he had encountered a brown snake curled up in the sun until he had a closer look and saw that it was actually an elongated brown lizard, so he photographed it and sent it to me for identification. It is a rare colour phase of the normally silver grey pink-tongued lizard that is usually covered with black transverse bands. One may think "w...hy would it be named a 'pink-tongued lizard' when most animals including lizards have a reddish to pink tongue?" The reason is that it resembles a blue-tongued lizard, often encountered in back yards, that has a similar shape and colour pattern and is related as a member of the skink family Scincidae. Also known as a pink-tongued skink, it may be more common than the blue tongue, which uses it bright blue tongue to frighten off potential predators by inflating its body, opening its mouth, waving its tongue about and hissing. Pink-tongues do the same though are less often encountered because they are generally active at dusk or at night, prefer moist forest or gardens and can climb and often live completely unnoticed in the ceilings of houses. Both species give birth to live young and feed particularly on slugs and snails. See more
15.01.2022 New research findings have been presented to the Royal Society of Victoria by a group of highly respected academics including Prof Jim Bowler, famous for his discovery of the oldest well-dated human remains on the Australian continent, Mungo Lady and Mungo Man dated at 42,000 years old. A genetic study carried out by Drs Luca Pagani and Toomas Kivisild from the University of Cambridge’s Department of Archaeology and Anthropology in 2016 found a genetic signature in present-day Papuans that suggested over 2% of their genome originates from an even earlier, and otherwise extinct, population present in the Oceanian region 120,000 years ago.
15.01.2022 Some good news at last! Tasmanian devils have been released into the wild in the Great Dividing Range at Barrington Tops after having been driven to extinction by the introduction of dogs, which have now been eradicated in many localities. The devils are an ecological solution addressing the main driver of extinction on the Australian continent, which is the presence of introduced feral cats and foxes, the devils will eat their young and keep the adults from hunting at night.
14.01.2022 Wildlife Weekend ABC North Coast NSW Radio 94.5 FM at 6.30 am Saturday 25 July 2020. Today we talked about kookaburras and kingfishers. Guuguuburra is a Wiradjuri word and radio host Angela Catterns described how she had observed a kookaburra swallow a rat head first after beating it on a branch. We have two species of kookaburras, the laughing kookaburra that ranges from South Australia to Cape York and the blue-winged kookaburras that lives across the top of Australia. They... are the largest of the kingfishers, of which there are 90 species world-wide and 10 species in Australia. There are more kookaburra and kingfisher species in that portion of the Australian continent known as New Guinea. Its laughing call is territorial. Young birds take a couple of weeks of learning before they are able to join in the family conversation. Another more discordant laughing call is used as an alarm when a goanna is on the prowl and which can feed on their eggs or young flightless infants. Old trees are essential for its survival as it breeds in tree hollows that take hundreds of years to form and it also breeds in big tree termite nests into which it pecks a hole. They mate for life and young females stay with the family to raise subsequent broods. The female lays 2 to 3 white eggs each year and they feed on any small animal, mostly invertebrates and small reptiles. The photograph I took on Tamborine Mountain in July 2009. See more
12.01.2022 Wildlife Weekend ABC North Coast NSW Radio 94.5 FM, 1st August 2020. This week we talked about the disappearance of bowerbirds and whether it is related to the massive extinction event ongoing around the planet. The drought and bush fires of last summer may have been the last straw that exterminated them in many areas. Both regent and satin bowerbirds were always very common and very noticeable with their spectacular bright colours, wonderfully strange calls and surprising be...Continue reading
12.01.2022 Paranormal Investigator Series hour-long, live-to-air, interview of Australian wildlife expert and cryptozoologist Gary Opit by cryptozoological researcher and film maker Attila Kaldy (Yowie documentary 'Tracks').
10.01.2022 Astounding news as three new giant gliding fluffy possums discovered in eucalypt forests of eastern Australia!
10.01.2022 I used to watch greater gliders on Currumbin Hill directly south-west of and within a km of the sanctuary in the late 1960s. It was wonderful to watch small families of them gliding close to a 100 metres between giant gum trees and feeding on gum leaves like a koala, illuminated by the moon and torch light. Few will ever see such a sight again. Long extinct in the wild in much of south-east Queensland & north-east NSW now from logging & clearing. The last individuals of the species are being exterminated now by big foreign business interests clear-felling the last old habitat trees along our drought-ridden failing creeks in the previously protected upper water catchments. Goodbye platypus, goodbye to the real Aussies. Goodbye to a fabulously beautiful ancient Aussie, so hated by big business & corrupted governments.
09.01.2022 Wildlife Weekend 6:40 am on Anzac Day, Saturday 25 April 2020; this wonderful photograph sent to ABC North Coast NSW radio station 94.5 FM for identification was taken by Evocati Joel. It is of a Spotted Harrier (Circus assimilis), one of two species of Australian hawks that are related and always fly low over grasslands hunting rodents, birds & insects. The zoological name Circus comes from the Greek word circos, their name for a hawk and assimilis is Latin and means similar.... This species is not often seen in north-eastern NSW, an occasional visitor from the inland at this time of year, so obtaining such a great photo of this wonderful bird is a rare treat. The Swamp Harrier (Circus approximans), Latin for the word approaching, is more commonly observed and has plainer brown plumage. A listener to this weekly live-to-air wildlife identification broadcast 23 years ago on 23rd September 1997, Allen Rich, phoned the radio station to report the first sighting in NSW of a third species, the Papuan Harrier (Circus spilonotus), normally observed in New Guinea and which has the head, nape, upper wing coverts and primary wing tips black, with black stripes on a white chest and white ventrals. Allen followed it by car for 2.5 km as it was flying south above littoral rainforest from Lennox Head, Boulder Beach, Skinners Head towards North Creek at Ballina on 27 August 1997 and then had a 2nd sighting on 12 September 1997, which was verified by ecologist Sandy Gilmore. See more
09.01.2022 Celebrating World Environment Day 5 June 2020. We should really appreciate the Australian environment because it is so different from the rest of the world, acting as an enormous island ark with a stable environment for 50 million years so that it possesses unique plants, animals and people that have survived from the distant past creating species and cultures unlike anything else on earth. New Guinea was connected to Australia until a few thousand years ago and New Zealand w...as connected 100 million years ago. This 19th century painting gives an overview of a tiny proportion of the actual species present. For instance there are many species of tree kangaroos, bird of paradise and kangaroos. From upper left to bottom right; tree kangaroo, bird of paradise, thylacine, lyrebird, kangaroo, emu, cassowary, egg-laying spiny echidna anteater, brush turkey, sulphur-crested white cockatoo, New Zealand tuatara lizard has survived little-changed for 300 million years, egg-laying duck-billed platypus has survived little-changed for 120 million years, Queensland lungfish has survived little-changed for 400 million years, cockatiel parrot, New Zealand flightless nocturnal kakapo owl parrot, New Zealand kiwi and New Zealand Kaka parrot. See more
08.01.2022 This bioluminescent fungi species is known as Mycena chlorophos and is common in rainforest and wet eucalypt forest in north-east Queensland, south-east Queensland north-east NSW. I know of only one other glowing fungus, the Ghost Mushroom (Omphalotus nidiformis) which prefers dry forest and is common in south-eastern Australia, though I have never seen it. There are 80 species of fungi that are bioluminescent out of approximately 100,000 around the globe. The chemical pathway behind bioluminescence is well-known a compound generically known as luciferin is oxidised in the presence of an enzyme, luciferase, which produces light but the reasons, from an ecological perspective, are less clear and scientists aren’t even too sure why it glows. Probably to attract night flying insects to spread the fungus spores.
07.01.2022 Celebrating black cockatoos on the ANZAC Day Wildlife Weekend, ABC North Coast NSW Radio, 25 April 2020. Particularly remembering the indigenous Australians who fought in the armed forces in various campaigns even though they were not recognized back home as Australian people because they did not originate in Europe. They were the only returned soldiers that were denied any benefits because of the hideous racists in government and even their pay was stolen along with their ch...ildren while they were fighting for our freedom in Europe, despite their freedom denied in their own country. A listener, Lisa, emailed us to say "About 2 weeks ago I saw 5 or 6 red-tailed black cockatoos down at my dam and my kids have spotted them back there several times since. Y'day I saw 2 fly over again. All the bird-folk I know find these sightings very odd given that I live at Larnook (between Kyogle and Lismore) We normally see plenty of the Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoos. Has anyone else seen them in the area? Is it normal?" The observation of two different species of red-tailed black-cockatoos along with the Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoo was always a normal sight in the northern rivers until logging destroyed all of their ancient nesting-hollow trees along with habitat destruction and so has almost exterminated the red-tailed species. The species that Lisa saw are most likely the Glossy Black-cockatoos (Calyptorhynchus lathami) that feeds only on the seeds of casuarinas, is vulnerable to extinction and the photo is from the South Australian Dept of Environment. The Red-tailed Black-cockatoo (Calyptorhynchus banksii) is even rarer, though thankfully more abundant throughout the tropical wilderness of northern Australia and the photo is from the Wildlife Habitat sanctuary at Port Douglas. The Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoo (Calyptorhynchus funereus) feeds on banksia and pine seeds as well as wood-boring grubs and thankfully has adapted well to habitat change and so remains common. Jodie Northcott took the photograph of the pair with an unusually yellow-speckled female, Michelle Walker took the photograph of a very rare yellow-colour phase as did Geoff Powers of the yellow female eating sees from a pine cone. These have been seen near Murwillumbah in north-eastern NSW and also in Victoria..
05.01.2022 Wildlife Weekend ABC North Coast NSW Radio Saturday 16 November 2009 on 94.5 FM at 6:30 am; Annie asked a question stating that in "the last few days we heard no birds in our yard. Normally early mornings are filled with the sounds of laughing kookaburras and chirping rainbow lorikeets. Where do they find sanctuary in this landscape of smoke and ash?" I replied that there is no sanctuary and that the reason the birds are not calling is because they are all dead. Kookaburras a...re territorial birds & laugh to proclaim their hunting & nesting grounds so if they fly into other kookaburra territories they will be attacked. After 8 years of no rain in most of NSW & Queensland there are no nectar-filled flowers & insects except in watered suburban gardens where some birds may survive. So all the lorikeets & other birds are dead. It is all part of the great 6th extinction where all the animals, birds & insects are rapidly going extinct all over the world because of the clear-felling of all the world's forests, especially here in Australia where the removal of forest is most intense. Australia was always covered in giant trees & the sunlight rarely ever touched the ground. Because the rain comes from passing thunder storms the giant trees shaded the middle & understory trees where 80% of the rain water perched before dripping to the ground. Now with all the giant trees dead & wood-chipped, the water evaporates in the sunlight & nothing flows down the creeks to the dams. Now all the last surviving giant trees in northern NSW along the upper water catchments in previously protected reserves are now being clear-felled, wood-chipped & burnt for green electricity by private companies that get taxpayer subsidies. We can be sure that this is not drought but the new climate reality in the driest continent on Earth. The Sydney Morning Herald newspaper, a month ago, reported that the head of the waterboard stated that Sydney will have run out of water in a year or two. The Australian newspaper, a month ago, reported that the head of the Australian Defence Department stated that all the billions of Asians will be dead of starvation & thirst in 30 years because there will be little water flowing down from the parched Himalayan Mountains and so he is worried that some may try to come to Australia. They won't find any Aussies if they do, just burning gum trees and sand! See more
03.01.2022 I have received over 70 reports of thylacine-like animals during my weekly live-to-air wildlife identification talkback radio broadcasts, now entitled 'Wildlife Weekend', during the last twenty-three years on ABC North Coast NSW Local Radio. I was incredibly surprised to receive extremely detailed reports from zoologists, national park rangers, vets, bush regenerators, loggers, farmers and from people of small towns. I was surprised because thylacines are generally believed e...xtinct in Australia for thousands of years and for decades in Tasmania where the only living specimens were obtained. Witnesses spoke openly on the radio while others contacted me privately after hearing the radio broadcasts. Other reports I received because of thylacine reports in local newspapers. They perfectly described the the animal's unique physical features, locomotion and vocalisations. Some reports by wildlife experts took place over several minutes within several metres of the animal. All reports described the animal as being unconcerned by the close proximity of the witness, and after gazing at the person or car for a few moments continued on their way. This contrasted with the behaviour of feral dogs and foxes that panicked and ran as soon as they observed a person or car. Because of the unexpected nature of these encounters usually only lasting a couple of minutes before the animal moved off into adjacent bushland, and the witness being in a somewhat stunned emotional state closely observing the physical features of a completely unexpected animal no photographs have so far been taken. With everyone carrying a camera phone we can only hope that photographs will eventually be taken. However, most people have only ever encountered the animal once in their lives as they appear to hold vast territories and are naturally cryptic as ambush predators of small animals such as bush rats, bandicoots, possums and small wallabies. They never ate sheep, were never common as is typical of large predators and were always difficult to observe or trap even when they were common in Tasmania.
