Rainforest Live '97 Topic Essays from Queensland, Australia Faculty and Student Topic Essays

  From the week ending February 21, 1997

Animals of the Rainforest
by David Wallstrom

Greetings from the Wet Tropics of North Queensland, Australia. In the two weeks that I have been at the Center for Rainforest Studies I have seen an amazing amount of wildlife that is very different from that in the United States. These animals include marsupials, birds, big bats, big snakes, spiders, and leeches.

The animal that I have seen the most of is the leech. Leeches are everywhere along the forest floor and in low shrubs. When you disturb them or walk near them, the leech will attach itself to your foot, or crawl up your boot to find a better place to feed from. Leeches here start out the size of inch worms, but the longer they stay attached to you, the larger they get. I found one on my foot the other day the size of a cherry tomato while I was in lecture. Leeches are tough critters, hard to pull off and even harder to kill. There outer skin is rubbery and thick. Cutting them in half is the only way to make sure they won't find you again. If you just wait a while, the leech will get its fill and un-attach itself from you. Fortunately, leech bites only itch a little bit and they do not remove enough blood to hurt you. However, it is possible to get an infection if you don't let the bite bleed for a while after the leech is gone. The leech is an amazing creature. After a twenty minute feeding on the bottom of your foot, a leech may go for over a year without eating again.

 

Barry Thurling Day
by Sharon Cislowski
Intern

Thursday, the thirteenth of February turned out to be an enjoyable day on the Atherton Tablelands. We were invited to a local farmers property to see first-hand, the results of reforestation. Barry Thurling was kind enough to talk to us about his efforts to improve the waterways that run through his property, through reforestation. He began planting 15 years ago and the quality of the water has improved substantially. After the three hour walk around the property, Barry took us back to his house where we had our packed lunches supplemented with the delicious treats supplied by Barry's wife. The menu included pikelets(like pancakes but smaller) with native plum jam (Davidson's Plum Jam) and cream and a fruit cordial made from the rainforest tree fruit, the Lemon Aspen. After all the hard work consuming the scrumptious food, we headed for a swimming hole a little ways down the road. The water was "flowing upside-down" as Barry put it. There were also canoes and some of us took the opportunity to paddle upstream and see some amazing forest.

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