The rainforest is an intricate web of floral (plant) and faunal (animal)
dependencies and the affect of loosing one species can either directly or
indirectly damage several other species. For example, think of a chain link
fence. If one of the links was removed, there would be a whole area in the
fence that would be weakened. The structure of the rainforest also gets
weakened when species are removed. For example, the cassowary
(Casuarina casuarina) is a large flightless bird that lives in the rainforest. This
bird eats a wide variety of rainforest fruits and is the only bird that disperses
over 100 different plant species. These plant species could not survive without
the cassowary and the loss of plant species would lower the amount of
biodiversity in the forest. The plant species that might be lost could have
supported or housed other types of specialized fauna or insects and eventually
cause these to go extinct as a result of loss of habitat. Eventually, several links
out of the chain would be removed as the different species go extinct and the
entire fence will fall down. Once this fence has fallen, it is not possible to put it
back together again because the original links that fit into the fence no longer
exist. Currently, the rainforest is missing several links and it is weakened, but
still standing. It is up to our generation to make sure that we do not remove any
more links from the fence and to find other ways around the fence so that we
no longer have to use it.
Toohey's Creek Corridor is the name given to a series of tree plantings along a
cattle grazed creek that runs between Gadgarra State Forest and Lake Barine
National Park. The plantings have been done in order to facilitate faunal
(animal) movements between the two larger areas. This was to be the site at
which we set two sorts of traps, pitfall traps and mammal traps.
Pitfall traps are usually used to catch small reptiles. A length of mesh is set in
the ground to make a mini fence, about 3-4 m long and 12 cm high. Halfway
along the fence there is a pit in the ground, 60 cm deep, lined with plastic tubing
to stop the earth from falling in. These work when a small lizard comes along,
runs into the fence and runs along the length of it and drops into the pit in the
middle!
The mammal traps are made of aluminum and are made to fold away. They are
about 25-30 cm long, 5-7 cm high, and are a long narrow box, with a trap
door. These traps were set out along transects on either side of the creek, and
baited with a mixture of oats, peanut butter and vanilla essence.
We set out the traps late Wednesday afternoon, and went back on Thursday
morning to check them. The only things found in the pitfall traps were
caterpillars and a huge centipede, that was about 20cm long!! The mammal
traps managed to trap one little critter. It was a native rodent, most likely a
Bush Rat. It was really very cute, but it made a lot of noise!
