Hot Canberra Sundays are for the birds

February 3, 2014

And now for an intermission in which a tiny bird hijacks my entire Sunday afternoon.

I was driving to fill up an ANU vehicle before returning it when I had to stop at a crosswalk to let a bouncing grey ball hop across the road. The bouncing grey ball turned out to be a fledgling noisy miner.

I was very impressed with the consideration the bird showed by crossing at the crosswalk, so I pulled over and got out to help it the rest of the way across. It looked like it was putting in a lot of effort. The poor thing was so hot (it was 39 degrees Celsius in Canberra) that instead of fleeing it ran immediately into the shade underneath me.

I picked it up and placed it under a nearby tree. The tree was full of irate adult noisy miners, which I figured were the family of this little one.

After filling up the vehicle I passed by the spot again, so I got out to check on the fledgling. It was almost exactly where I left it, which was unfortunate. However, it was still being fed and tended to by adult miners, which was fortunate.

I called Angus Kennedy, who is an experienced wildlife carer in the ACT. He suggested a little craft project. I'm posting this here so that if anyone finds a fledgling bird, they may also benefit from Angus's wisdom.

First, I needed to get supplies: a bucket, a hammer, a knife and some nails. I stabbed some holes in the bottom of the bucket to prevent flooding if it rains.

Then I arranged the inside of the bucket into something I supposed a fledgling bird would find comfortable.

Finally, I nailed the bucket into the side of the tree. I put it as high up as I could reach and in a spot I thought would be shady for the majority of the day.

I put the fledgling bird in the bucket and backed off to wait. I watched the adults land on the ground around the tree, searching. They eventually found the fledgling in the bucket due to its constant vocalisations, and after about ten minutes I left. Hopefully everything works out!

ACT Herp Group gets a new website

January 23, 2014

Angus Kennedy (see below) designed and supplied most of the pictures for this lovely website. He has recently created another beautiful website for the ACT Herpetological Association (ACTHA). They now have a wonderful news section that compiles all the herp-related news from the ACT region into one convenient place. Right now the top story is a crazy picture of a large eastern brown snake eating a slightly-less-large red-bellied black snake.

Angus Kennedy. Thurlga Station, South Australia, 2012. Photo by me, probably.

ACTHA is currently running Snakes Alive, a display of reptiles and amphibians at the Australian National Botanical Gardens. My two pet pythons are there, as are many critters from the ACT, around Australia, and even a few exotics! They also offer the opportunity to touch and hold some of the critters, should you so choose.

If you're a herp nut in the ACT (or around the ACT, they accept Queabeyaners) you should consider joining to meet other reptile enthusiasts around here and listen to interesting talks on local herps, herp keeping, and herp research.

Dragons by Habitat

January 17, 2014

Ctenophorus is far and away Australia's largest genus of dragons; the current count being 28 species. It keeps getting bigger, with the addition just last month of a new species, Ctenophorus mirrityana. These dragons were long thought to be Ctenophorus decresii, and admittedly they do look pretty similar. However, there are differences if you look close enough, as McLean et al. did. Also, as McLean et al. found once they did the genetics, it turns out that Ctenophorus mirrityana isn't even particularly closely related to Ctenophorus decresii. C. decresii is much more closely related to a very different looking lizard, Ctenophorus fionni.

A tawny dragon,  Ctenophorus decresii, which looks like but is not particularly closely related to Ctenophorus mirrityana. near Burra, South Australia, 2011. Photo by Tobias Hayashi. — A tawny dragon, *Ctenophorus decresii*, which looks like but is not particularly closely related to *Ctenophorus mirrityana*. near Burra, South Australia, 2011. Photo by Tobias Hayashi.

The genus just keeps expanding. Before Ctenophorus mirrityana, the last time species got added to Ctenophorus was in 2008, when Melville et al. found four species of small, heath-dwelling lizards to be phylogenetically inside the Ctenophorus radiation. These four look nothing like what a Ctenophorus should look like, and don't really behave like a self-respecting Ctenophorus either. They are small, inconspicuous, pebble-mimicking lizards that aren't very fast and would rather crouch down and hope you don't see them than take off running. Any self-respecting Ctenophorus sits up proudly and doesn't care if you see it, because it knows it is faster than you. Well, it thinks it's faster than you.

The Ctenophorus is not faster than me. I'm also pretty sneaky. Cameron's Corner, South Australia, 2011. Photo by Angus Kennedy. — The *Ctenophorus* is not faster than me. I'm also pretty sneaky. Cameron's Corner, South Australia, 2011. Photo by Angus Kennedy.

Just one year before that, in 2007, a lizard species completely unknown to science was described from remote central Western Australia. It was found living on the surface of a salt lake, something Ctenophorus are famous for. This lizard turned out also to be a Ctenophorus and was named Ctenophorus nguyarna. So in the past seven years, six species have been added to the Ctenophorus genus in three different instances. Not only that, but each instance was a different method of discovering a new species: species splitting, polyphyly, and discovery of completely new animals previously unknown to science.

Before all this, a long time ago (the 80's) Dr. Allen Greer noticed and wrote about the fact that Ctenophorus dragons fall broadly into three categories: those that shelter in burrows, those that shelter under rocks, and those that shelter in vegetation. Thirty years later, Dr. Greer's designations still stand as a very useful way to divide up Australia's largest dragon genus. According to the most recent Ctenophorus phylogeny, there are two groups of everything. Two groups of burrowers, two groups of rock-dwellers, and two groups of vegetation-dwellers.

The first group of vegetation-dwellers are the small, heath-dwelling lizards formerly of the genus Rankinia that were transferred into Ctenophorus in 2008 based on phylogenetics and some subtle morphological features. Phylogenetics be damned, I consider them interlopers and will have nothing more to do with them! Also, I've never seen one and I don't have any pictures of them. The other groups, however, I have plenty of pictures of, so I think I'll go through each group and put up some pictures of them and their very different habitats.

Mammal Update

October 14, 2013

Angus and I just got back from another field trip, and I had to put up this picture in relation to the previous pictures of mammals. It was shearing season and I think this is a rebel gang of sheep that avoided the round-up. The are certainly going to regret that come summer!

Some heavily-burdened sheep. Lake Hurlestone Conservation Reserve, Western Australia. October 2013. Photo by Angus Kennedy.

More Mammals

September 16, 2013

I thought I'd put up some more pictures of non-native mammals instead of finally getting to the dragons themselves. I think about dragons all day. Why not spend a little time with something much bigger, smellier, dirtier, and more generally offputting? Not to mention more dangerous.

My first day in the field last year, we arrived at Henbury Station and, as part of our orientation, we got a lecture on safety. As we always do. I was expecting the usual: heat, water, snakes, getting lost, heat. Instead, the first thing I was told: "watch out for camels." What? Camels? They're big, ugly and have a reputation for spitting on you (that guy totally deserved it), but aren't they also supposed to be man's friend, carrying our water through the desert?

A herd of feral Australian camels. Mulga Park Station, Northern Territory, 2012. Photo by Angus Kennedy.

Apparently not. Camels can be pretty dangerous (here's one trying, with adorable results) and have quite the reputation in central Australia. In the spring, the time of year when we were in the field, male camels gather together a group of female camels. They guard their harem not only from other camels, but also from other large, intrusive creatures like humans. A male camel is a huge, powerful animal and getting stomped on by one would not be a pleasant experience.

The male camel is the really big one to the left. Mulga Park Station, Northern Territory, 2012. Photo by Angus Kennedy.

I only encountered a herd of camels once while I was on foot. They were quite impressive. Perspective can be misleading. Looking at those animals while standing on the ground I realized they were a lot bigger, and I a lot smaller, than I thought when watching them from the safety (and elevation) of the Landcruiser. Also, they must only use smaller females for camels rides, because that male was HUGE. Or maybe feral camels in Australia are like feral cats. Fortunately these camels weren't too interested in me. Not that I gave them much of a chance. I headed away from the flat ground and vegetation into the rocky hills. I don't think camels like hills.

IT'S LOOKING RIGHT AT YOU. Tempe Downs Aboriginal Land, Northern Territory, 2012.

Camels are also a massive nuisance to cattle ranchers. They compete with the cattle for scarce resources and harass the cattle during the breeding season. Though they're worth money, they're apparently very difficult to muster. One eight-year-old daughter of a station owner matter-of-factly explained "it's the dumbest thing my dad ever decided to do." So most ranchers choose to have camels on their lands end up like this:

One of my field sites turned out to be a creepy camel graveyard. We counted seven skeletons. Note the bullet hole at the back of the skull. Mulga Park Station, Northern Territory, 2012. Photo by Angus Kennedy.

Both brumbies and feral camels are pretty rare on our field trips. We didn't encounter any in 2011 and only a handful in 2012. Ironically, I have only one single lonesome picture of the most commonly seen mammal on our trips. Probably because we don't think to take pictures of commonplace things, even when they are photogenic. Here is that poor, lonely picture:

Cattle, the most abundant outback mammal. Mulga Park Station, Northern Territory, 2012. Photo by Angus Kennedy.

I do have a few pretty good pictures from Angus of our second most commonly sighted mammal, courtesy of a sunrise drive through a large herd: