Eagleby Wetlands wet again

Posted on May 19, 2015 by ronda

Eagleby Wetlands wet again

It’s great to see the Eagleby Wetlands full of water again after so many months of drought earlier this year and late last year (a drought in our wet season? yes, it does happen)

Part of Eagleby Wetlands looking like Drylands last November

And now the tea trees are flowering we’re also getting nectar-feeding birds (including the beautiful little scarlet honeyeater) and insectivorous birds coming in after nectar-feeding insects.

Here are a few recent photos

Flocks of pelicans have retturned, along with stilts, black swans, dotterells and others

Flocks of pelicans have returned, along with stilts, black swans, dotterells and others: this lagoon was never as dry as the one above, but it did diminish considerably

ok, nothing unusual about seeing white ibis near Brsbane, but they do look rather nice flying in a flock

ok, nothing unusual about seeing white ibis near Brisbane, but they do look rather nice flying in a flock

Red-browed finches in a sheoak

brown honeyeater visiting tea tree (Melaleuca) flowers

A rufous whistler seeking insects from foliage and bark

A whistling kite soaring over the wetland

Two little brown birds: golden-headed cisticola and female of one of the blue fairy-wrens (superb or variegated: the males are easily distinguished but not the females). I don't think either of these deserted during the drought

Two little brown birds: golden-headed cisticola (right) and female of one of the blue fairy-wrens (superb or variegated: the males are easily distinguished but not the females). I don’t think either of these deserted during the drought

Royal spoonbills and two species of ibis rst in a tree by a lagoon

Australia’s third conference on wildife tourism

Posted on May 8, 2015 by ronda

Next week, as current chair of Wildlife Tourism Australia Inc., I head to Melbourne to meet some of the local organising committee for Australia’s third conference on wildlife tourism, plus representatives from Tourism Victoria (our major sponsor), Zoos Victoria and Parks Victoria. I’ll also visit the two venues we are deciding between for the conference, and we should make the final decision by the end of the week.

Wildlife Tourism: a Force for Biodiversity Conservation and Local Economies?

Geelong, Victoria 29 Sep – 2 Oct 2015
http://www.wildlifetourism.org.au/blog/wildlife-tourism-conference-2015/

This will be an exciting conference, with keynote speakers from Malaysia, Indonesia,USA and Australia speaking on important themes, and with plenty of opportunity for round table discussion.

From the WTA website:

Tuesday: welcome to delegates, registration

Wednesday: international aspects

How do other countries asses the value of, promote and manage wildlife tourism? What problems have they faced and what solutions have they found?
Which associations perform a similar role to Wildlife Tourism Australia in other countries, and what are their goals and activities?
What is new in wildlife tourism in our our nearest neighbours (New Zealand, New Guinea, Southeast Asia, Antarctica), and could there be more cross-promotion of wildlife travel between our countries, and promotion of our general region to the rest of the world?

Thursday: contributions of tourism to conservation

How are tour operations currently contributing to conservation of wildlife and their habitats (including monetary contributions, habitat restoration, public education, conservation breeding, citizen science etc.)?
What is the potential for increased contribution by wildlife tourism and the tourism industry in general to conservation of wildlife and habitats?

Friday: the value of wildlife tourism to local economies

What do we already know of the contributions of wildlife tourism to local and regional economies?
What kinds of wildlife tourism can encourage tourists to visit less-traveled regions, spend an extra night , or make repeat visits?
What obstacles are faced by small businesses and NGOs trying to stay afloat while offering high-quality wildlife experiences and interpretation to visitors?

Who should attend?

Wildlife tour operators (including birding tours, whale-watching, reef-diving etc.)
Managers and other staff of ecolodges, rural B&Bs, farmstays etc. who offer bird-watching or other wildlife experiences
general tour operators and guides who include wildlife-watching amongst their activities
Zoos, wildlife parks and museums
Researchers and students of wildlife tourism, ecotourism, nature tourism, nature interpretation/education and related topics
Conservation managers
Travel agents and tourism organizations
Local and state government bodies
Others with an interest in tourism which involves wildlife

A walk around the island

Posted on May 7, 2015 by ronda

We hadn’t run a Coochiemudlo Island trip for a while, so it was very pleasant to be back on the island, this time with a gentleman from England who had been on three of our other tours and his friend from USA.

Low tide below the red cliffs

The tide was low as we arrived, so as we neared the red cliffs the island derives its name from I was scanning the beach for soldier crabs hoping they hadn’t already finished their foraging and headed back into their burrows.

Soon they appeared as a vague shadow moving across the sand, so we hurried over for a closer look. A white ibis was also very interested, and it was at least good to see one eating something natural rather than picnic scraps

When disturbed, the crabs quickly bury themselves, then reappear a few minutes later. After feeding, they will all o so and wait for the next low tide.

Birds seen that day included the following:

Brahminy kite

Striated heron

Pied oyster catchers

Whimbrel

Bush stone-curlew, subject of annual counts on the island

Laughing kookaburra, just after pouncing from above to catch an insect on the ground

A pied butcherbird apparently helping to protect island residents

and an Australian pelican taking a nap near the mainland jetty

The banksias were starting to bloom, and should soon attract lots of nectar feeders

I almost expect the mangroves here to start walking like triffids

but this rather tattered eggfly found them safe enough to settle on

After a seafood lunch at Red Rock Cafe we headed back to the mainland to look for wallabies for our American guest, and found them at two locations within Redands before our final journey back to the city

Outback tour in spring of 2015?

Posted on April 7, 2015 by ronda

Our 6- or 8- day small-group outback tours run on demand, but at a maximum of twice a year (once in autumn. once in spring – summer is too hot, and in winter the reptiles aren’t active and we’re usually busy with other tours).

We’ve had an inquiry for a tour this spring, and could do it in early September or mid-October.

Let us know if you’re interested in joining in, so we can start planning.

Email us at info@learnaboutwildlife.com

red kangaroo – male

outback sunset

Butterfies in our butterfly walk from winter 2013 to autumn 2015

Posted on April 6, 2015 by ronda

blue tiger butterfly

The butterfly walk on the Araucaria property has been planted out with the food plants of local caterpillars, divided into the five major families of Australian butterflies.

Every month I walk the trail 5 times on 5 separate days, recording the butterflies I see: once in the morning, twice at mid-day (when butterflies ae most active), once late afternoon and once after dark (when some of the caterpillars are more active). For several years we saw no obvious increase in butterflies, but suddenly this summer they more than doubled in frequency of sightings

So far our butterflies include:

lemon migrant butterfly

Pieridae (whites and yellows)

Most common: Lemon Migrant and Grass Yellow
Others: Caper White, Albatross and (introduced) cabbage white
Caterpillars: none as yet, but many grass yellows seen apparently laying eggs on Breynia leaves

Nymphalidae (nymphs, browns and danains):

Most common: Monarch (introduced), evening brown, aeroplane, lesser wanderer
Others: common brown, blue tiger, jezebel nymph, common crow, varied eggfly, meadow argus, admiral
Caterpillars: monarch

Lycaenidae (blues and coppers):

Most common: ? several unidentified (tiny and very fast!)
Others: pencilled blue, speckled line-blue, wattle blue
Caterpillars: none seen

Papillionidae (swallowatils):

Most common: orchard butterfly (several on finger lime in our butterfly walk, also on orange tree near house)
Others:blue triangle, dingy swallowtail
Caterpillars: orchard butterfly, blue triangle

Hesperidae (skippers and darts):

Most common: orange palm dart
Others: regent skipper, common red-eye, orange ochre and a few unidentified (as for Lycaenid spp above)
Caterpillars: orange palm dart, in roll of palm-leaf

World Parks Congress

Posted on November 22, 2014 by ronda

I’ve just attended the World Parks Congress on behalf of Wildlife Tourism Australia Inc.

Citizen science was featured in the Eye on the Reef display

This important congress is held only once every 10 years, and this time it was in Sydney. The previous one was in South Africa, and at the opening ceremony here in Sydney we watched a video of part of Nelson Mandela’s speech on the importance of protected areas for both biodiversity and people, and were then addressed by his grandson who had flown in for the event. The next will be held in Russia in 2024.

The organisers were expecting about 3,000 delegates: instead we had over 6,000, representing 170 countries!

Promises werte made and goals were set. Delegates n he nature conservation stream agreed that by 2020 one-third of the oceans should be designated as no-take areas, to allow fish and other marine creatures to breed up to pre-exploitation levels and re-poluate the remaining two-thirds. Currently only 1% of the ocean is thus protected. The president of Madagascar promised to triple the amount of marine protected areas around his country, Gabon and Bangladesh pledged to create marine protected areas, and our own environment minister Greg Hunt declared there would never be drilling or dumping on the Great Barrier Reef, that he would work in with other countries to protect the Coral Triangle and the world’s oceans, and that China and Australia had signed an agreement not to allow mining in Antarctica. He also acknowledged the number of extinct and endangered terrestrial mammals in Australia and expressed a commitment to protecting our remaining species.

Much was said about the importance of protected areas to physical and mental health of humans, and the desirability of attracting young people into our parks. I presented a short talk on this theme, and the value of youth becoming involved in citizen science while travelling, including the opportunities presented by Wildlife Tourism Australia’s research network: http://www.wildliferesearchnetwork.org/

Just prior to the Congress, I also led a Parallel Event on behalf of Wildlife Tourism Australia to discuss wildlife tourism and biodiversity conservation n our parks. See http://www.wildlifetourism.org.au/wildlife-tourism-workshop-in-sydney-november-2014/ for details.

The dedication and bravery of rangers worldwide was honoured by awards and speeches, especially those who frequently risked their lives. A long list of those who had in fact died while performing their duties was displayed. Read more about these rangers on http://thingreenline.org.au/story/ Some ways you can assist rangers was presented by the Big Life Group: https://biglife.org/

IUCN has long been known for its Red List of endangered animals. At this Congress they launched the Green List, a positive step to reward those protected areas who are doing a great job on a number of important criteria. The first areas to be accepted for the Green List are situated in Australia, South Korea, China, Italy, France, Spain, Kenya and Colombia. Read more on this at: http://www.iucn.org/about/work/programmes/gpap_home/?18617/Green-is-the-new-gold

The TAPAS (Tourism and Protected Areas) group creed a schedule for all those interested in the connection between tourism and conservation, and I attended a number of the presentations on this theme.

Visit http://worldparkscongress.org/ for further details of this exciting event.

Our first snorkelling trip with Cooly Dive

Posted on February 5, 2014 by ronda

Twice before we’d booked for snorkelling at Cook Island, which we had so many times looked towards on the third day of our tours while watching for dolphins, but had never visited, with Cooly Dive. Each time the weather had been so bad they had to cancel the cruise. With the cyclone up north I was afraid we’d get some rough weather down our way as well.

We had just led a three-day wildlife tour, but added a couple of extra days at the request of our British guest, to include snorkelling and Aboriginal culture, and he was flying out the following day.

Third time lucky!

The sea is always a little rough as you enter it from the mouth of the river, and we were all given life jackets as a precaution

Unfortunately it was rough enough to make my stomach a bit queasy on the way (I hadn’t bothered with seasick pills as it seemed such a short distance, but maybe I shouldn’t have been taking so many photos while clinging to the edge of the plunging boat)

We soon reached Cook Island, well-known for nesting seabirds and turtles

Holding our masks firmly to our faces we each obediently took a big step outwards from the boat and sank swiftly below the water

: Ronda underwater

We soon saw what the dives here are famous for – a turtle (unfortunately the visibility wasn’t good enough for a better photo).

If you look closely you can see the shell, head, tail and flippers of the turtle

We saw another later in the dive, also a wobbegong shark (a small harmless species, and regrettably I didn’t manage a recognisable photo), toadfish and lots of other fish and scattered bits of coral. Our English guest also saw a pike fish.

Unfortunately the water was too murky that day to see the colours of the coral

Then finally back to the boat:

Darren heading back to the boat

Maybe next time the water will be a little clearer and we’ll get some better photos, but apart from my seasickness (which worsened on the return trip – must remember those pills next time!) it was a nice introduction to diving at the island.

Wildlife tourism: guides, students, operators

Posted on January 25, 2014 by ronda

Wildlife Tourism: A Handbook for Guides, Tour Operators, Job-seekers and Business Start-ups

Most books on wildlife tourism are aimed at researchers and policy-makers. This one is more of a practical guide for those who want to work (or are already working) within the field of wildlife tourism as guides, ecolodge managers, wildlife park staff or other situations where they will be interpreting our wildlife to visitors and also making a living.

Coming more from an academic background than a business one (although I had once run a holiday farm), the business of starting and running a small business took me and my husband into a very steep learning curve. I knew little of the red tape involved, marketing, book-keeping, insurance, or working with booking agents. One of the aims of the book is to help others who may be in the same boat – starting out with loads of enthusiasm for wildlife and for haring their enthusiasm with others, but lacking experience in running a business venture.

Other readers come from the other direction – they’ve been running a tourism or related business but have an interest in including more wildlife experiences, and want to brush up their wildlife skills (bail knowledge and how to find, view and interpret animals), so there are chapters devoted to getting a grasp of the basics and links to further information.

Ronda

For students and job-seekers there are also guidelines on what might appeal to your prospective employers.

Most of the examples are Australian, but there is ample general advice to be applicable anywhere in the world.

The book is available on Kindle

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00HE1SX1Q

Printed versions are available from Andrew Isles bookstore:

http://www.andrewisles.com/all-stock/publication/wildlife-tourism-a-handbook-for-tour-guides-eco-lodges-students-and-start-up-businesses

A PayPal system will soon be set up for other online and printed copies. Until then, it can be purchased directly by electronic transfer, cheque or credit card: contact me (Ronda) on info@learnaboutwildlife.com if interested. Cost $27.50 plus postage ($5 Australian, $12 Asia-Pacific, $15 elsewhere)

Contents:

1 Introduction

Is this book for you?
The big picture: does wildlife tourism matter for our economy or for conservation?
Not just the facts ma’am (but not ignoring them either): why good interpretation is so important
What this book will do for you
Background experience of author

2. The basics

Skills you will need as a guide
Going a bit further: how to excel as a tour guide
Becoming self-employed as a tour operator or using your skills in other areas

3. Wildlife Skills 1: knowing the wildlife

Getting the ‘big picture’ of wildlife in Australia (or other countries): a good start for avoiding major errors and showing your guests what is different from their own homelands
Identifying wildlife: how to know what you’re looking at (or at least narrowing down the possibilities)
Finding out what species to expect in your district

4. Wildlife Skills 2: finding the wildlife

Knowing when and where to search
When you can’t see the wildlife: tracks, scratches, scats and sounds

5. Wildlife Skills 3: understanding the behaviour and ecology of wildlife

Why should you understand ecology?
Population ecology: why populations of animals of a particular species increase, decrease, stay the same or never enter a particular area.
Community ecology: interactions between species living in the same locality
Further notes on wildlife behaviour

6. Wildlife Skills 4: not disturbing the wildlife

How much disturbance can animals tolerate without changing their behaviour, avoiding you or even disappearing from the region?
How should we approach wildlife?
What happens to the wildlife you never see?
Feeding animals
Other interactions with animals
Wildlife habitat

7. Wider conservation issues

Getting it straight
Some threats to wildlife
Learning about conservation problems while still enjoying a holiday
Knowing the legislation.
Contributing positively to conservation

8. People Skills 1: Attending to customer needs and desires

Not making them unhappy – general etiquette
Making them happy – Changing customer satisfaction to customer delight
Dealing with problems: avoiding them if possible, acting appropriately when they do happen
Feedback from customers, and what to do about it

9. People Skills 2: Interpretation

Enjoy your creativity
Not a school-room: remember people want to learn but are also here to enjoy themselves
Clarifying your goals: what would you most like them to remember and talk about?
What to tell them and how to tell it: the guided walk, drive or cruise
What to tell them and how to tell it: the information display
What to tell them and how to tell it: the self-guided nature trail
Learning about Interpretation techniques: links to further information
Testing: what best holds their interest and stays in their memories?

10. People Skills 3: Workplace, networking, and public relations

Why network?
Making face-to-face networking effective
Keeping records
Social media
Don’t forget your customers
Employer/employee and workmate relations

11. Financial matters

Starting an ecotourism venture
Staying afloat through the bad times
Hiring yourself out as a guide
Keeping records and projecting costs

12. Health and Safety issues

Food and water
First aid courses and kits
Driving
Walking
Other modes of travel

13. Legal matters

Licences and permits needed for starting and running a tour business
Public liability – nowadays it’s risky not to have insurance, and there are some things you can’t legally do without it
Copyright (yours and others), slander and related topics
Hiring staff
Indigenous culture
Conservation legislation

14. Final note: Never-endingLearning and Innovation

Learning about wildlife
Nature interpretation and guiding techniques
Wildlife tourism literature
Market trends: keeping up to date with what your potential customers are looking for
Thinking creatively: it’s fun and often productive!

References and further reading

——————————————————————————-

The book is packed with links to useful websites and other publications on wildlife, environment education, conservation issues, bureaucracy of running a small business, and other essential topics.

Frugivory and seed dispersal at Araucaria, SEQ

Posted on January 17, 2014 by ronda

Wompoo Fruitdove eating bangalow palm fruits

Animals obviously need plants, but many plants also need animals. If all seeds drop beneath the mother tree, they’ll be competing with their mother and with their siblings for light, water, space and nutrients, and there may be heavy shade under the mother. They are also more easily found by seed-eating animals if they are in a big clump on the ground. The tree has a better chance of contributing to the next generation if its seeds are spread through the forest (or other habitat) in the hope that some of the sites are better for germination and survival. Many trees, shrubs, herbs and vines simply scatter their seeds in the wind, but in the rainforest there’s not so much breeze, and when there is, the seeds are likely to hit a neighbouring tree and thus not travel far.

Frugivory (fruit-eating) is obviously useful for the animals that derive the nutrients, and if they also digest the seed (as parrots and many pigeons do) it’s not much good for the plant. If however they only digest the soft parts and regurgitate or pass the seeds through their digestive tracts unharmed (as some of our pigeons do, and also bowerbirds, honeyeaters and many others) they also provide an unwitting service for the tree, vine or other plant they fed on.

I was attracted to the topic because it involves so many disciplines – conservation biology (we can’t think only in terms of conserving species,but need to consider the relationships between them and others they interact with, and are there particular animals that threatened =plants depend on, and threatened animals that depend on particular fruits, especially in lean seasons?), ecology, evolution, animals behaviour and physiology.

A channel-billed cuckoo eating native figs

I’ve been conducting research on frugivory and seed dispersal, especially local birds that eat rainforest fruits, for some years now. One of the most popular fruit in our region – in terms both of of numbers of individual birds and the numbers of species feeding on the fruits – is a native fig Ficus rubiginosa (formerly regarded as F. platypoda). So why aren’t there more growing around here?

I’m currently looking at this and other local plant species from three angles: (1) what eats them and how frequently? (mostly looking at birds, but other creatures as well) (2) where do frugivorous birds sit when not feeding (and thus likely to deposit seeds) and (3) what conditions do they need for germination and growth?

I do most of the observations alone, but guests on our tours can also assist on forest walks by helping to find birds that are either eating fruit ( for 1 above) or doing other things (for 2 above).

For the third aspect of the study, I’ve been germinating seeds in the brush house, but am now about to embark on some experiment field plots. In the photos below, Darren is heeling set up some of these experimental plots which in the future can be viewed by visitors to the Araucaria property and which I hope will help answer some of my queries.

Frugivores other than birds include fruit bats and other mammals, some lizards (especially the larger skinks and dragons), fish (but not many in Australia) and ants, and we’re planning more observations of these.

Dugongs and more at Tangalooma

Posted on September 19, 2013 by ronda

Dugongs and more at Tangalooma, Moreton Island, near Brisbane

I had a delightful surprise at a business breakfast meeting run by the Queensland Tourism Industry Council (QTIC) a couple of months ago. I dropped my business card as usual into the bowl of cards while preparing to listen to a speech by our opposition tourism minister, and won the draw for an overnight trip for two to Tangalooma Resort, including return ferry journey, dolphin feeding, accommodation and buffet breakfast.

So two of us (Ronda and Denis) headed off in pre-dawn light to the wharf on Brisbane River, pleasantly surprised to find they had also allowed us free parking for two days.

So we were soon leaving Brisbane and heading for the one of the world’s largest sand islands

Leaving Brisbane

Even here we couldn’t escape the federal election campaign!

Approaching the resort

Near the resort is a grim reminder of the island’s whaling days – now the whales are appreciated more as magnificent, intelligent, playful animals than for their body parts. This harpoon was bent during such an animal’s struggles while its captors waited for it to slowly exhaust itself

Harpoon bent while a whate struggled to escape – thankfully this no longer happens along our coasts

Nearby a whistling kite fought his reflection in a resort window (they’re nesting nearby and don;t want rivals), and also rebuffed some crows that were protesting his presence

A whistling kite nesting in a tree nearby is taking a bit of time to learn that the bird it sees in the window is not a competitor

Nest of the whistling kite, in an Araucaria tree (Norfolk Island Pine)

The kite flying above the resort

A white-faced heron sat nearby

This heron tried to land on the same spot the next day, saw me sitting there, squawked and did a u-turn. After I moved on he came back to what he obviously considered his rightful place

A pied cormorant wandered down towards the bird feeding area

This pied cormorans knows bird feeding on the beach will start soon

The heron decided he’d better not miss out

as did this pelican

While waiting for our room to be prepared, we watched fish and seabirds being fed

Tangalooma staff member feeding fish at the resort

Puffer fish amongst the rocks and amenomes in the feeding pond

“I’m ready!”

“Me too!”

Pied cormorans, Australian pelicans and silver gulls being fed at Tangalooma

Now the bit I’d really been waiting for! After lunch we headed off on the eco-cruise to seek dugongs and other marine life.

And sure enough, within 20 minutes we had found a dugong

dugong surfacing for air: his tail is towards us, his face out of sight as he’s swimming away

They don’t leap out of the water like dolphins, just quietly feed on the sea-grass (they’re sometimes called ‘sea-cows’) and come every couple of minutes or so to the surface for a breath of air. Our guide told us they do some farming – pulling out the sea-grass species they don’t like so much, which facilitates the growth of their favoured species

I had previously patted an Amazonian manatee (one that had been confiscated as an illegal pet and being prepared for rehabilitation into the wild, near Manaus) and seen a captive dugong a tSeaWorld, but this was my first sighting of a wild dugong, so I was quite enthralled. He surfaced several times before we left I’m to seek other creatures

a green turtle swimming past- like the dugong the green turtle is herbivorous, unusual amongst marine mammals and reptiles

A cormorant dived for fish alongside our boat

The wrecks that were deliberately sunk as artificial reefs for fish and other marine life are popular with kayakers and divers

That evening we indulged in the activity Tangalooma is famous for – dolphin feeding

Tangalooma is careful with the feeding of dolphins. The sign gives regulations on how to feed the dolphins, and info on which dolphins have visited recently

The feeding of the dolphins is carefully regulated, based on research on effects offending practices her and elsewhere

Lines of visitors are speed out so that the dolphins also spread out, not crowding together, competing for food and knocking each other over. Thy are not fed enough fish to satisfy ten, so have to keep up their skills at catching wild fish each day. Visitors are requested to hold the fish under water so dolphins don’t strain their muscles trying to reach up for them. Frozen fish are thawed in fresh water to avoid them being too salty. Young dolphins are not fed while still feeding from their mothers. Visitors are advised not to pat or otherwise touch them while giving them the fish, to avoid any stress.

Young dolphin having a feed from Mum

The close contact with these wild creatures does have an emotional impact, and we hope that many of the people participating now have a more positive attitude towards them as a result

Next morning we enjoyed a hearty buffet breakfast (also included in our prize)

a Tangalooma breakfast

We spent the day relaxing, watching birds and finally watching another bird feeding session and dolphins feeding session before finally leaving. We would have loved to spend a few more days

“I really want this one!”

more soon ….

For information on how to have a holiday at Tangalooma, visit http://www.tangalooma.com/info/home/