Review Issue 2, 2001

The KowarisOn the Brink

Urban EncountersScorpions

HomeSweetHollow

HomeSweetHollow

Nature Quiz

1 Cane Toads, unfortunately, have now reached theKakadu wetlands. When were they released in theQueensland canefields?

(a) 1900(b) 1935(c) 1970

2 Wildlife experts estimate that the number of feral catsin the NT could be as high as

(a) 10 000(b) 50 000(c) a quarter of a million

3 Until recently there were possibly 200 million rabbitsrunning wild in Australia. However, their numbers havefallen significantly since the 1995 release of a virus called

(a) calicivirus(b) lyssavirus(c) Escherichia colivirus

4 Australia has a terrible record for mammal extinction.Nine NT mammals have become extinct in the last 100 years.Recently, however, one thought to be extinct has beenrediscovered. It is the

(a) Long-tailed Hopping-mouse(b) Central Rock-rat(c) Pig-footed Bandicoot

5 The Earth’s population has now reached(a) 1 billion(b) 6 billion(c) 10 billion

6 Global warming, due to the greenhouse effect, is likelyto significantly reduce the rainfall in

(a) Perth and the southwest(b) Darwin and the Top End(c) Tasmania

7 The biggest contributors to rising levels of carbondioxide in the atmosphere, per head of population, are

(a) USA and China(b) USA and Europe(c) USA and Australia

8 The rate of forest clearing around the world everyminute is equivalent to

(a) 2 suburban house blocks(b) 20 suburban house blocks(c) 200 suburban house blocks

9 Approximately how many albatrosses are killed eachyear in the Southern Ocean as a result of longline fishing?

(a) 4 000(b) 14 000(c) 44 000

10 If all the garbage we throw away in Australia eachyear was stored in the Melbourne Cricket Ground, howhigh would the pile be?

(a) to the top of the stands(b) twice the height of the roof(c) the height of a 100 storey skyscraper

Tuesday 5 June is World Environment Day. It is aday for taking stock of the state of the environment

and what we can do to tackle our problems.How many of these questions concerning

the state of the environment can you answer?(You’ll find the answers on page 11.)

The main greenhouse gas is carbondioxide. We are currently adding about10 million tonnes of it to the atmosphereevery day.

Three easy things you can do to help our natural environment...• Recycle paper at school, home and at work. If all

Australians recycled paper we could save more than 40million trees each year!

• Choose products at the supermarket which have lesspackaging or has packaging which is recyclable, this putsless pressure on the natural environment.

• Take your own bag when you go shopping. Plastics can chokemarine life such as whales and seals if they get into the oceans.

Plastic nappies were invented in 1961.Australians throw away 1 300 000 of them aday. Scientists calculate that they take 500years to break down when buried in the dump.

Did you know...

Creature Feature

The Brush-tailed Tree-rat Coniluruspenicillatus is one of three speciesof tree-rat inhabiting Top Endforests. The others are the Black-footed Tree-rat and the Golden-backed Tree-rat. The Brush-tailedTree-rat is the smallest of the three.Its biggish ears, large bulging eyes,broad blunt head and long back feetgive it a rabbit-like look.As a result, it is sometimes calleda rabbit-rat.It is similar in size to the introducedBlack Rat Rattus rattus.The Brush-tailed Tree-rat has

The sun has set across the Top End of Australia.A yellow glow lingers briefly in the west. AgileWallabies are grazing in grassy parts of theforest. Northern Brown Bandicoots arescratching among the leaf litter for juicyinsects.As the birds settle down for the night, smallnocturnal mammals slowly and silently emergefrom their hiding places.While the ground-dwellers find it near impossibleto move about without rustling the leaves, theanimals of the trees can move in total silence.The Fawn Antechinus runs along from branchto branch without a sound. It sniffs theundersides of leaves and feels behind bark withits sensitive paws. Occasionally it will plungehead first into clusters of flowers, snatchingand crunching insects between its sharp teeth.

Brush-tailed Tree-rat

Sugar Gliders spread the membranes on each side of theirbody and leap from tree to tree.In the hollow limb of an old Stringybark tree a Brush-tailedTree-rat attends to the needs of her babies. She lets themdrink from her for a while but then gently pushes themaway and prepares to leave the tree hollow. With her hugeeyes, she looks around for possible danger. Judging thatthe coast is clear, she descends the tree head first. Onceon the ground, she bounds about with her bushy-tippedtail held up in the air. She searches the ground for seedsand juicy grass stems. The huge black whiskers on thesides of her nose twitch up and down as she feeds.

quite a longbreeding season. Femalesproduce several littersbetween March and October.Dad stays in the nest withMum and the babies.They are weaned between 4 and 7weeks of age and are fully grownby 11 weeks.The animal isfound acrossthe Top End and in the Kimberleyregion of WA. However, it has a verypatchy distribution and appearsto have very specific habitat

requirements.Although it is not endangered at themoment, local extinctions couldoccur if its habitat is alteredor destroyed.

Many Australian birds and mammals rely ontree hollows for shelter or breeding. Theseinclude bats, possums, sugar gliders,phascogales, cockatoos and parrots.Tree hollows form when the insides of trunks orbranches rot or are eaten by termites. This maytake many years.It’s the oldest trees that have the best hollowsand are most important for native wildlife.

Cover Story

Want to know moreabout nestboxes?

The Australian Nestbox Company, inBrisbane, makes nestboxes for a rangeof different-sized animals.Their address is 81 Haig St Gordon ParkQLD 4031 or visit their website at:www.powerup.com.au/~ozbox

Planting native trees and shrubs ingardens and towns ensures goodsupplies of food for native wildlife.But we must also make sure old treesare preserved so animals have suitablehollows in which to shelter and hide.Dead trees are worth saving too.Another thing we can do is installnestboxes in bushland where therearen’t old trees.

Home, Sweet, Hollow

The vegetation may grow back after the bushhas been cleared but the wildlife might not.

P A R R O T L W O BT H N E S T B O X ER E A C R O B A T EE C R S C U S C U SE O T M C O C K A TR N G B I O S L E EA I L I A T G N I RT L I G H T E A I RR U D G E U C A L YU R E G N I L T S E

M WU OS LS LO OP HE MN OP TN H

N U R E P Y T H O NK S T R I N G Y B A

E YR K

Hollow Quiz

I’m a nocturnal Australian.People rarely see me but I’m very common in theforests down the east coast of Australia.I need mature trees with lots of hollows where I canhide during the daytime and raise my family.I eat high energy foods like nectar and pollen. I visitmany flowers at night and am an importantpollinator.

I may be small but I’m fearless and athletic. Myscientific name is Acrobates pygmaeus.I’m a great runner and jumper, with heart-shapedpads on my fingers and toes.My picture is on the old one cent coin. TheGovernment scrapped it and the two cent coin in1991. The Frill-necked Lizard and I were not impressed!Answer and picture on page 11

Who am I?

ACROBATES

AIR

ANTS

BAT

BEES

COCKATOO

CONILURUS

CUSCUS

EGG

EUCALYPT

GLIDER

HOLLOW

HONEY

LIGHT

MOTH

NESTBOX

NESTLING

OPEN

OWL

PARROT

PHASCOGALE

POSSUM

PYTHON

RINGTAIL

SLEEP

STRINGYBARK

TERMITE

TREE RAT

TRUNK

Bats like hollow branches thatpoint down. When night falls,they just fall out of bed and flyout the front door.

Hollow WordsIn this puzzle are the names of

some other Australian animals

that hide in tree hollows and

some words relating to tree

hollows. Can you find all the

words in this list?

Project PageWherever there’s a tree, a patch of bush, garden, old log orflower bed you’ll find them: insects, spiders and a range ofother tiny creatures.A number of them are great builders or diggers. Some haveamazing strength and can pull many times their own weight.Others are better swimmers, divers or runners than thegreatest Olympic champions.You can learn a lot by looking at live ones close up. Buttrying to catch them, without causing any harm, can beinfuriatingly difficult. However, there is something you canuse and it’s easy to make.

Make a pooter.What you will need:• medium sized glass jar with a screw on lid• flexible plastic tubing or a plastic straw• plasticine or blu tack• a scrap of gauze or very thin material such as stockings• hammer and hole punch (or an electric drill, for which

you will need adult supervision.)• rubber band

What to do:1. Take the lid off the jar. Use the hammer and hole punch

(or the electric drill) to make two holes in the lid. Theyneed to be big enough so the tubing just fits through.

2. Cut 2 pieces of tubing. Make one reasonably long soit will reach almost to the bottom of the jar. The otherone should be shorter.

3.Use the rubber band to secure the gauze to the endof the shorter piece of tubing.

4. Use plasticine or blu tack to ensure an airtight sealwhere each tube goes through the lid.To catch a minibeast, point the end of the long tubeat the creature and quickly suck through the shorttube. It’s fun and doesn’t hurt the animal! Once youhave finished observing the creature gently release itwhere you found it.

Did you know...People often use the word bug to mean any insect. However,to entomologists (people who study insects), bugsare the members of the order Hemiptera.These are insects with mouthparts adapted for sucking:aphids, scale and lerp insects, cicadas, harlequin bugs, etc.

Gummy Spinifex Triodia pungensgrows on the sand plains to thenorth and west of Alice Springs.Its leaves are not as tough as otherspinifex grasses but still too hardfor our cattle and kangaroos.The only creatures that feed onit are tiny insects calledProrsococcus. They love the sweetspinifex sap. They suck so much,

6 7 3 5 1 8 2 4

Gummy Spinifex

TheDesert Dairy

Farmer

It’s a

cockroaches 1 G travel in a line head to tailmarchflies 2 L are one of nature’s best recycling agentshuntsmen 3 Y have been on Earth for 320 million yearsitchy grubs 4 E can reach speeds of 50 kphtermites 5 U are biting insectsbaby ants 6 B sometimes migrate long distancesdragonflies 7 A are sometimes called tarantulasbutterflies 8 M are called larvae.

MinibeastMatch-up

‘Sheds’ made from sand grainscemented with spinifex resin.

the excess comes out the otherend! (It’s called honeydew.)Spinifex ants have been farming thelittle sap-suckers for centuries.They ‘milk’ them for the honeydew.Like all good farmers, they look aftertheir ‘cows’. They build ‘cow sheds’from sand and spinifex resin toprotect them from the scorchingdesert sun.

To decode theanswer, you must first

draw a line fromeach minibeast’snumber to the

matching statementon the right. This willgive you the code.

What kind of insect is Prorsococcus?

Urban Encounters

ScorpionsIn some parts of the world scorpions havebeen responsible for many deaths. InMexico, for example, many people die eachyear following scorpion stings. However,Australian scorpions are relativelyharmless. Their sting is painful but noworse than a bee sting.The worst thing about Australianscorpions is their dreadful table manners.They eat spiders, insects and smalllizards. They tear up their victims withtheir jaws and then drool saliva overthem. They like their tucker to be partlydigested before they eat it!They have a slow rate of metabolism. Soa meal can last them for months. Theirskin is so waterproof, they can go a longtime without drink.

Scorpions are relatives ofspiders. Like spiders, theyhave 8 legs. Their claws aremodified palps.

These are aredback’s palps.

CourtshipOn warm nights males go in search of a mate. They rely onsmell because their eyesight isn’t all that great. When twoprospective mates meet, the male holds her palps and theybegin to dance. This dance may last quite a long time asthey move backwards, forwards and sideways acrossthe ground.The male leads his lady in the dance until he has found asuitably smooth patch of ground on which to deposit hisspermatophore. This is a package containing his sperm. Ithas a sticky pad to hold it to the ground.He manoeuvres her over the spermatophore until it breaksand the sperm enters her body.

BirthUnlike spiders, scorpions don’t lay eggs. Mum gives birth toa large number of live young. She doesn’t feed them but sheprotects them for a few days by carrying them on her back.

Australia has more than 20 different species ofscorpions. The little Marbled Scorpion Lychasmarmoreus is common down Australia’s eastcoast. It occurs under bark and is often found ingardens with lots of native trees and shrubs.Scorpions from northern Australia tend to bebigger. The Inland Robust Scorpion Urodacusyaschenkoi is about 10 cm long.It lives in a spiral-shaped burrow in sand country.The entrance is easy to recognise. It is crescent-

shaped, with a lip over the top.

scorpion lizard

burrow openings

1

2

3

4

5 6

7 3 6 4 7 5 2 1

The Scorpion inthe Night Sky

Scorpio the Scorpion is one of the 12 constellationsof the zodiac belt. Zodiac means path of the animals.The Sun, Moon and planets move through this part ofthe sky in their daily journey from east to west.

ZodiacCrossword

Build a crossword using the names of the12 constellations listed above.The numbered boxes spell the name ofScorpio’s brightest star. It is a red giantwith a diameter 500 times that of ourSun. It’s one of the largest stars known.

The Scorpion is a largeConstellation. See if you canfind it in the night sky.Look for it rising high in thesoutheast on May evenings.By July, it will be above yourhead in the evenings.

South

May Evening

Urban Encounters

Plant Profile

The Fringed Spider Flower Cleome rutiderperma grows intropical Africa, southeast Asia and Central America.It is a troublesome weed in rice fields and farms in thosecountries. Infestations of this unwanted plant have recentlybeen found in the Darwin rural area. The Department ofPrimary Industries and Fisheries is keen to eradicate theplant before it becomes a problem here. Contact your localoffice for suspected infestations.

FringedSpiderFlower

A new threat to Australia!

The plant produces numerous dark, ribbedseeds that are spread by ants.

The flowers have 4 petals each a centimetre long.They are initially crimson, fading to pink.

seed pod

The foliage consists of3 leaflets on a stalk upto 5 cm long. Theleaflets are 2 to 5 cm inlength.

Geographicaldistribution of the

Fringed Spider Flower

On the Brink

Diet and habitsKowaris are carnivorous. Their diet includes insects, spider,scorpions and occasionally mice.They are unsociable creatures, preferring to live on their own.Males and females only come together to mate.They are active diggers but may take over the burrows of otheranimals. They are mainly active at night but may bask in thesun on winter days.They bound along the ground on all fours but may stand upon their hind legs if disturbed.BreedingThe Kowari is one of the few marsupials without a fully-formedpouch. Instead, two loose folds of skin form around the nipplesof a mother’s tummy after mating. In good seasons, Kowarisusually produce 2 litters between May and September.The babies are only about 3 mm long at birth.StatusThe Kowari is rarely seen in the wild, except in very goodseasons. It is probably now extinct west of Lake Eyre andonly present in small numbers elsewhere.Grazing cattle, sheep, horses and rabbits have probablyaffected the Kowari in a number of places. When the vegetationgets eaten out, the numbers of insects, spiders and othersmall animals also decline. So there is less prey to support ahealthy population of Kowaris and other marsupial carnivores.

Nature Quiz (page 2)1. b 6. a2. c 7. c3. a. 8. c4. b 9. c5. b 10. c

Hollow Words (page 5)

The KowariDasyuroides

byrnei

Kowaris inhabit the stony gibber deserts ofsourtheast Northern Territory, southwestQueensland and the northeast corner ofSouth Australia. Mulgaras live in the sandydeserts further west.

The Mulgara and Kowari are similar looking, rat-sized,carnivorous marsupials from Australia’s desert regions.

They have similar habits and diets. The maindistinguishing feature is the Kowari’s bushy tail.

Who am I (page 5)Feathertail Glider

PUZZLE ANSWERS

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5 6

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C A P R I C O R N

A Q U A R I U S

S A G I T T A R I U S

A R I E S

C A N C E RV I R G O

LE

S

O

P

O

L

BR

EM

N

T

U

U

E

SIP

Desert Dairy Farmer (page 7)Prorsococcus is a mealybug.

Zodiac Crossword (page 9)Antares

Around the Traps

Contributions are welcomeand should be sent to:

The Editor, Junior Ranger Review

PO Box 496

Palmerston NT 0831

The Junior Ranger Review is produced 4 times a year bythe Parks and Wildlife Commission of the NorthernTerritory. This edition was written by Stuart Traynor anddesign and layout are by Big Picture Graphic Art. Thefront cover was drawn by Robbie Henderson. Illustrationsin this issue are mostly by Bob Whiteford. The Kowariillustration is by Brian Bertram (from “Marsupials of Australia”

1962). The Fringed Spider Flower is courtesy of theDepartment of Primary Industries & Fisheries.

Please note: You are welcome to photocopy the text and

illustrations in this book without prior permission for

non-profit educational purposes only. If text isreproduced separately it must not be altered and must

acknowledge Parks and Wildlife Commission of the

Northern Territory as the source. (If you wish to useillustrations, permission must be sought).

Please contact the editor if in doubt.

KatherineDarwin

G’day from Ranger Bill

Junior Rangers celebrated our cultural andhistorical identity in April. Members were taken ona historical tour of the leprosarium ruins at ChannelIsland Conservation Reserve. Simulated activitiessuch as carrying a day’s water ration from the oldstone jetty to the well helped to highlight the harshlife endured by residents of the Island.Members learnt about morse code and sent theirown secret messages to each other and discoveredthe amazing construction of the overland telegraph.They also picked up some hints for tracking peopleand animals and discovered the art of dot painting.Bush planning and navigation were the topics for Maywith Junior Rangers learning how to make the perfectcampfire, plan their own camp menu, discoveringtechniques to judge distances and how to navigate inthe bush.National Science Week was celebrated with JuniorRangers taking part in three Great MarsupialNightstalk activities at our Parks and Reserves.Data collected was forwarded to the Perth Zoo forinput into their national database on marsupials.

2001 has gotten off to a great start, and boy have theJunior Rangers been busy! In April Junior Rangers have beengetting their feet wet doing ‘Frog watch’, using their bestnight vision out ‘Spotlighting by the River’ for wildlife at night,netting ponds for aquatic life, jumping on unsuspectinginsects at a ‘Bug Lights’ activity and squashing plantcuttings in a ‘Preserving Plants’ activity.With the year just starting there is a lot more yet to come.Some exciting events to look out for are ‘EnvironmentalPuppets’, ‘Making a Pond’ and ‘Spotlighting in the Hills’. Thenext spotlighting will be an adventure up into the rocky hillslopes around Katherine to see what comparisons thereare with our previous activity of ‘Spotlighting by the River’.Although they are within a few kilometres of each other weare going to see what different types of species are foundliving in these areas. Two-year studies have been set up tomonitor the changes that occur as the dry seasonprogresses. One activity looks at a natural pond and theother is a dry land habitat. These will be monitored andsurveyed throughout the year to find out how the seasonswill affect them and what happens to the wildlife thatlive in them.

One of our articles in this issue looksat the arrival of a new weed speciesto the Territory - the fringed spiderflower. Any weed species is of concernto the Territory. Weeds can disrupt ournatural ecosystems by competingwith native species for space, light andfood, increase the flammability ofvegetation and reduce the native foodsource for animals - and that’s justto mention a few.So what is the Commission doing tohelp prevent the spread of weeds? In1999/2000, weed control plans wereprepared and implemented for allParks and Reserves in the Territory.Major control works undertakenincluded aerial spraying of the weed

Mimosa in Mary River and AdelaideRiver District Parks, treatment of OliveHymenachne in Djukbinj National Parkand Gamba Grass in LitchfieldNational Park.In the Katherine region staff continuedtheir efforts in the eradication of lionstail in Nathan River whilst in theVictoria River District staff andvolunteers removed 3365 Devil’s Clawplants from Gregory National Parkduring the Annual Devils Claw Festival.In the Southern region Mexican Poppyin the West MacDonnell National Parkand Buffel Grass at Simpsons Gapwere also targeted.Each of us can help to stop the spreadof weeds by becoming familiar with

what these weeds look like andreporting infestations of them on ourParks and Reserves to the Commission.You can ensure that you don’taccidentally spread weeds to newareas yourself by brushing off anyseeds from your shoes and clothesbefore you leave a Park. Many peoplealso enjoy being part of a volunteergroup or lending a helping hand atactivities such as the Devils’ ClawFestival outlined above.I hope you enjoy this issue and don’tforget to send us in your stories aboutany plants and animals you may havecome across on your travels so we canpublish them in upcoming issues of theJunior Ranger Review.