animals: where the wild and not so wild things
live (and visit)
The
Rowes Bay wetlands
and woodlands attract a wide variety of animals with the most obvious
and easiest to sight being the birds.
What we usually don’t see is the huge range of insects and other small
animals that are the smorgasbord of the birds and larger animals.
The wetlands are like a foodcourt at a shopping centre. In the wetland
foodcourt during the rush hour (the wet season) the selection of food
is vast, fresh and it keeps on being replenished.
After the peak, as the wetland dries out, there is less food and the
customers start to leave to find better foodcourts.
The drier woodlands also support a wide range of animals with the rush
hour being less defined and more reliant on perennial plants and
flowering cycles and the availability of nectar, fruit and seeds.
Shelter and breeding habitat is also required to maintain biological
cycles.
Here is a selection of the wildlife that you are likely to see when you
visit the Rowes Bay wetlands and woodlands.
(see Wildlife of Tropical North Queensland (Queensland Museum 2000)
Rainbow Bee-eater
(Merops ornatus)
Common
Tree Snake
(Dendrelaphis punctulata)
Kookaburra (Dacelo
novaeguineae)
Goanna
(Lace Monitor)
(Varanus varius)
Forest
Kingfisher (Todiramphus macleayii)
Golden
Orb Weaver
(Nephila spp.)
Yellow-bellied
Sunbird (Nectarinia jugularis)
Scrub Turkey
(Alectura lathami)
Spangled Drongo
(Dicrurus bracteatus)
Brolga
(Grus rubicundus)
Kangaroo (Macropus spp.)
Red-tailed
Black Cockatoo (Calyptorhynchus
banksii)
