Hi Jen,
After a torrid month or so of blundering around a web-design application and with the help of the team at Wild Lime Media, we have finally published (and hopefully de-bugged) our new website; complete with a ‘Rainforest Revelations’ weblog.
Now that that’s done, I can return to some semblance of a life. In my absence from your blog, I have captured some interesting images.
The Daintree Cape Tribulation rainforest is at its most vibrant in the wet. Some of its best-kept secrets are revealed in circumstances that are frustratingly uninviting to visitors. Nevertheless, we at Cooper Creek Wilderness carry on with our tours and share the wonder of the wet with a privileged few.
This image of a brush-footed trapdoor spider was captured two nights ago at the entrance to its burrow, deep within the buttress roots of a Javan Ash.
Primitive spiders lack trachea and have very limited respiratory capabilities. Their gill-like book-lungs confer a greater proximity to an aqueous pre-existence, than the more modern and mobile Araneomorphs. They are also less able to travel great distances from the protection of their burrows and tend to have more immobilizing venom.
Also known as whistling spiders, barking spiders or Australia’s Tarantulas, they are subject to concerning pressures from collectors who sell them as pets for around $400 each. In an attempt to control these impacts, their trade has become regulated by licencing requirements (I wonder if this is having any success).
The other interesting image is a magnification of a longicorn beetle's head, Batocera sp., whose family includes Australia’s largest beetle.
Their powerful mandibles rip into timber and their large, white and fleshy larvae are favoured bush-tucker for Cape York bama.
All the best from Cooper Creek Wilderness,
Hello, nice site 🙂
Hi Neil
thanks- I'm expanding my nature photography interests and have been playing with a DSLR quite happily. Hence the techie questions...
I get a little surprised when Australians or Kiwis manifest ignorance about their own wildlife. Unlike many countries, we're not actually all that divorced from many of the more common species. You have to try pretty hard to ignore what's around you.
Of course, your spot of the world sounds rather more unique...you must have some lucky children.
Hi B,
DSLR.
Because of the nature of our family business and the circumstances of their upbringoing, my kids regularly astonish visiting parents (particularly of similarly aged kids) with their interpretive knowledge and yet despite their upbringing, they are still motivated by peer pressure to 'own' a domestic pet.
A prospect that both the World Heritage Convention and the resident python population would not tolerate.