Rainforest Live '97 Journals from Queensland, Australia

  From the week ending March 7, 1997

Cassowary Case Study!
by Matt Pike

This week was the beginning of the cassowary case study. Cassowaries are Australia's largest bird, standing up to 2 meters and weighing up to 65 kg. These flightless birds are recognizable by their coarse black plumage, red and blue neck wattles and a helmet, consisting of cartilage and tough skin, on the head. Cassowaries swallow rainforest fruits whole and digest only the soft fleshy portion. These birds play an important role in seed dispersal in the rainforest because many of the seeds that are not digested will eventually sprout in the ground and grow into new plants.

The cassowary population has suffered from loss of their habitat, and it is estimated that there are as few as 1,500 adults left on a 9,000 square km area. Knowledge of this species ecology and behavior is limited and research is very hard because there are very few still living. Our case study deals with what the birds eat, where they live and leave their droppings.

We spent three days at Mission Beach, a cassowary "hot spot", to learn more about them with the local expert, Joan Bentrupperbaum and C4, a community preservation group. We went for two hikes, one along the beautiful coast and one in a magical licuala forest looking for the animals without much success. Only four people saw one of the elusive birds.

Between the walks and lectures, we spent our time on the sunny beach; eating coconuts, playing games and eventually swimming when the tide was high enough to fill the nets. The Queensland costs suffers from lethal Box jellyfish infestations during the wet season (which we are now in) making all swimming out of the anti-jellyfish nets a very dangerous thing. The water was warm and everything was so sunny, beautiful and calm at Mission Beach that nobody really wanted to go back to the center. I discovered that paradise does exists and it's in Australia!

 

Our Week At A Glance
by Jen Kliris

Saturday night we participated in a Bush Dance-very similar to square dancing. I can honestly say that I have never had so much fun dancing in my life. People eagerly kicked off their shoes and joined in on the dance floor!

Sunday morning we left for a trip to Mission Beach. On the way, we stopped at a local billabong, or water hole, for a swim. When we arrived, we headed to the beach for a wonderful day of soaking up the sun. After dinner many people headed straight back to the beach to finish the evening with a late night swim under the moonlight!

Monday, we went on an incredible coastal hike to South Mission Beach, were we learned about cassowary habitat issues and the birds' behavior. Following the hike, we went back to the beach for swimming, beach soccer and a barbecue. Everyone was very tired after such a busy day and slept very well that night, mosquitos and all!

Wednesday was spent in the field near CRS collecting cassowary scat. Unfortunately, as soon as we arrived, it began to pour, so most of us didn't actually find any scat. Instead, we were all busy picking leeches off our arms and legs; a couple of guys even managed to get leeches on their tongues! Two student's accidentally ran into the infamous Stinging Trees, and spent the afternoon trying to take out the stingers! Ouch!

This past week was really awesome and I can't wait for more great times in Australia!

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