Come with me; I dare you.

I don't hope that 2017 is going to be an epic year; hope, more often than not, leads to unnecessary disappointment. I don't expect 2017 to be an epic year; fundamentally, I am a pessimist. I don't wish for 2017 to be an epic year; wishes belong in the land of fairies and unicorns. I just know 2017 is going to be an epic year and, if it isn't, I shall make it so!

New house, farm life, Uni life, wild destinations, engaging with elders, working overseas, new students and big responsibilities, big small screen events and the perpetual pursuit of knowledge by investigation. 

To all those that are fortunate enough to experience any, all or more than those aforementioned adventures, I believe you are obliged to document your journey. Why? In the first instance, there are many less fortunate than us that may never get to see what we see or do what we do and, as such, they may enjoy living vicariously through us. More importantly though, do it to leave a legacy for your kin that will live beyond your years. 

That is not a shaving cut; that is a big left handed swipe from a massive male Western Grey Kangaroo. The gash extends down the shoulder and chest. Pappy took it on the chin (literally) reasoning that he surprised the boomer and was not surprised he copped the swipe. That is MY father; that is just ONE story.

My father is one EPIC dude, but I have not had much more than a glimpse into his life. Although I keep promising myself I'll peel back his layers to discover all he knows and where he has been, I know there will never be enough time.

Sure we could go on a 'lads weekend away'; but how is that going to play out? It is not going to end in a 12 hour marathon recollection of his life lived long and hard. That is simply not going to happen. Instead, I will continue to get snippets of his past that he chooses to share in context with moments passing in the present; brief reflections. As time is passing so fast the sum total of that which I will learn will amount to, as I said, little more than a glimpse. Unfortunate, but true. 

As for me? Well, when I am in the moment with my kids, I am (and they are) far more interested in their story than mine. That is as it should be. But none of us know when we will no longer be here and when that time comes my kids will have a fully annotated legacy of that which I was.

Anytime it is quiet, any time they are alone or they feel lonely, any time they catch some time to themselves they can come on an adventure with me. All they need is WiFi and a little of their boundless imagination.

I thumb my nose at Darwinism

Carnac Island has no free water for most of the year. Rainfall collects in puddles on rocks but the water is highly saline and no good to drink. Clever island tigers have learned to drink water directly off their own bodies to minimise the intake of salt. When I did this simple experiment in 2004 this behaviour had only been documented on one other occasion in Bothrops.

A tale of two tiger snakes

Ecophysiological comparisons of the two conspecific populations of the tiger snakes in Western Australia shows that semi-arid Carnac Island (CI) snakes respond opportunistically to water when it is available, and the stimulus for this response appears to be the detection of rainfall. Carnac Island snakes can also discriminate salt water from fresh water, drinking only the latter, and they employ a range of water collecting tactics, such as the ability to drink water droplets from various surfaces, including their own body surface. The same behaviour was not observed for Herdsman Lake (HL) snakes, but could potentially be expressed under the appropriate environmental conditions.

Rates of water loss vary between the populations and HL snakes lose water at a higher rate than CI snakes. Total evaporative water loss (EWL) comprises mainly cutaneous water loss, and the epidermis of CI snakes is less permeable to water than the epidermis of HL snakes. There is a strong positive and linear relationship between temperature and total EWL loss in CI snakes and this, coupled with burrow and surface temperature data from the field, has revealed that an average sized male CI snake (approx. 350 g) can save approximately 65 ml of water over 45 days in summer.

Dehydration elicits thermal depression in snakes from both populations. However, this behaviour is more pronounced in semi-arid CI snakes. Carnac Island snakes suffer some degree of seasonal dehydration in the field, causing elevated concentrations of plasma [Na+] over summer (Ladyman and Bradshaw, 2003). Hypernatraemia causes thermal depression in both populations, with a weak negative relationship between plasma [Na+] and temperature selection that was significant for CI snakes and close to significance for HL snakes. Nevertheless, HL snakes do not appear to experience dehydration or elevated circulating electrolytes in the field during summer, which is expected for a snake inhabiting a perennial freshwater swamp. In CI and HL snakes, laboratory-induced hypernatraemia elevates circulating concentrations of the neuropeptide arginine vasotocin (AVT). Despite the positive correlation between AVT and both plasma [Na+] and plasma osmolality for laboratory snakes, field samples from CI snakes indicate that circulating levels of AVT may be influenced more by plasma osmolality than plasma [Na+]. Whatever the case, CI snakes injected with AVT also showed thermal depression, indicating that many physiological variables can influence temperature selection, rather than one variable alone (Ladyman et al., 2006).

Body mass (BM) increased and plasma electrolyte levels decreased following cloacal enema, indicating that the snakes could rehydrate from fluid in the colon. Electrolyte loading and water loading increased body mass, and observations of fluid storage in the colon of dehydrated and salt-loaded snakes suggest that this BM increase is due to fluid storage in this region of the digestive tract. Concentrations of electrolytes (hypoosmotic to plasma [Na+]) in the urine drawn out of excreter were low. This creates a passive gradient for water reabsorption into the body, suggesting that both island and mainland tiger snakes are capable of colonic reabsorption.

All of the traits examined indicated physiological or behavioural modifications of the fundamental reptilian ‘bauplan’ to economise water handling for CI snakes. Several of these traits were also available to HL snakes, though it appears that in the absence of the appropriate environmental conditions (i.e. aridity) these traits are not expressed. Nevertheless, possession of these traits allows at least semi-arid island dwelling snakes to survive in an environment lacking in a major resource: water.

King Geezuz

My blog is a repository for considered opinion (my opinion) on issues that may seem nonsensical and/or pointless to you, but to me are excruciatingly important and worthwhile. These are the big issues. OK....My big issues. Today we consider personal protective equipment (PPE) or 'work clobber'.

In the old days, when we used to have an ozone layer and common sense prevailed, Stubbie shorts, the trucker's best vest and a pair of double-pluggers were suitable attire for a day in the pit or down the shaft. These days you are required to cover up ankle to neck to wrist. I'm OK with that as PPE does serve a purpose. 

However, the regulation of our core body temperature becomes a challenge when it is 40 plus in the water bag and it is a far greater challenge when you must cover yourself in PPE 12 hours of the day. Credit where credit is due, King Gee and other manufactures have done there damnedest to produce PPE that allows at least a little air to circulate to help keep you cool. But I have to question their new addition (rather a subtraction) to the latest iteration of work pants.

This is a photo of my crotch/butt region taken in the Gulf Country in far north Queensland in March (the wet season). I have a balaclava on in a desperate effort to curb the number of mozzie bites to my face, head and neck. So I really don't need four dirty great holes in my pants that allow mosquitoes unfettered access to my 'meat and two vege'. You'd have thought that each hole had a sign on it saying "enter here and exit here for all you can eat ball-bag blood buffet".

This is another photo of the same region. However, this photo was taken at 7am in Hyden on the morning that Hyden was reported the coldest location in the State. In this situation there are no mosquitoes. But let me assure you that, had there been, they could not have bitten me on the man bits this morning because, thanks to these 'clever' 'vents', my gentleman's sausage was snap frozen.

So thank you King Gee for protecting me from the sun's harmful rays and for protecting me from a number of bumps, scratches or burns that would be so very much worse without the protection offered by your work pant. But let's just leave well enough alone, shall we?

Facades of #Fakebook

I started blogging because I wanted to create a record of my life: where I had been, where I was going and all that I had experienced in between.

I guess I assumed that some other peeps less fortunate than I or others with similar interests may derive some joy out of seeing or reading about my little adventures. But mostly I started blogging for two good, honest and genuine reasons:
1) I love to write
2) I want to remember.

And when I started I genuinely felt that it did not matter a whole lot if anyone or no-one ever actually read what I was writing or clicked on the video links.

But at some stage there was  a shift. I started using Facebook to promote my blogs and that was a mistake. Like billions of others I fell immediately into the Facebook trap: how many likes or views did this story get. Interestingly I found that the hit rate or click ratio of direct loads to Facebook vs embedded links into Facebook status were strongly divergent and not in my favour. In short, no-one or very few people clicked on the blog links. Why would you? Why read about a 40 something biological consultant's trip to the Gulf country in Queensland when you can laugh your ass off over #CatFails. As a consequence, and straying ever further from my original intent, I actually started posting longer and longer 'updates' and also started uploading videos direct to Facebook. I was basically spamming my friends.

Today I had a small moment of reckoning when I did to someone exactly what I hate having done to me. Even though I know it bores people stupid to have a mobile phone youtube clip shoved in their face, I did just that: I insisted a mate endure a video I made of the capture of a rather impressive varanid. What was so much worse than my insistence on his watching it was that the video kept pausing and buffering: I reckon it would have been less painful for him to have his teeth pulled.

Anyway, enough is enough; I have decided to commit Facebook harakiri before I disappear totally up my own bottom .

If you want to see what I am up to then follow my blog. If you don't, I don't care because it simply means your life is as full and complete as mine. If you do follow my blog, then I hope you get a little kick out of the words, the pics and the vids.

The fact that I have 122 blogs, only 13,000 reads over nearly 18 months and not a single subscriber should be evidence enough that I am only doing this for me and I'm cool with that.

Mind Bending Noises in the Night

The White –bellied Sea-eagle perched upon my trailer, like it was hiding behind the pile of trapping buckets that were stacked six feet high up-right in the centre. What was it looking at? I was tucked somewhat cryptically in my Coleman Instant-up Gazebo which I had only half erected, because I was too lazy to put it up properly. I lay in my swag, curious about the sea-eagle.

I caught a glimpse out of the corner of my eye of a small falcon or kestrel trying to glean something off the trunk of a casuarina tree. The sea-eagle cast off toward the kestrel and, in it's distress the kestrel shot toward the clouds. Pounding the air with mighty force the sea-eagle beat its wings once to which the kestrel could only answer with with a pathetic flutter. The sea-eagle folded its mighty wings back and lunged forth with its talons to take the kestrel out. 

Free-falling in a flat spin neither would relent: the eagle not letting go of it’s prey and the kestrel fighting valiantly for it’s release. They smashed to the ground not 10 feet away from me as I fumbled for an i-device with which I could record this epic struggle between prey and predator. 

But, before I had the chance to take up a camera, an astonishingly large lycocid spider shot across in front of me making an insurgence at these two raptors that were, themselves, already consumed by the dust storm from their own battle.

Seething with frustration at this spoiled opportunity I spat hard at the ground, wiped the sweat off my brow with my left shoulder and looked over toward the billabong next to which I had set up camp. 

I was staggered to see a very over-weight dirty brown-orange orangutan leaning into the trunk of a tree in the most ridiculous and slovenly manner.

Dreams that incorporate all of the eerie sounds that one is subconsciously registering whilst asleep under the stars, interspersed by sequences of aerial dog fights from ‘Top Gun (on TV the night prior at Mt Isa), all interrupted by memes seen on facebook. 

A fantastic melange in my mind, asleep by the highway in far north west Queensland on the first night of this epic trip. But was any of it triggered by real-time events?? I am guessing the sea-eagle, the orangutan and the kestrel were subliminal. The spider? Not so sure. 

Going It Alone

Some of the Survey Site locals from the 2015 trip. Wonder if she'll be there this year?

It has been a little over 15 years since I HAVE NOT been the leading field biologist on a field survey. That means that it has been a little over 15 years since I have had the luxury of relaxing on a biological survey and thinking about nothing other than just 'doing'. Just 'doing' does require busting through rocks to dig pits, scratching around in the dirt and dust, waking up insanely early and going to bed insanely late and checking trap after trap after trap; but I am a biologist so I am cool with that. You have to invest effort in order to reap the reward. You have to spill the blood in the mud to capture or record the animals you so desperately seek. 

It sounds tough, but let me assure you, ‘just doing’ is a whole lot easier than ‘doing whilst managing a half a dozen other biologists’ at the same time.

How is the irony?? Most of us aspire to lead rather than to be led and I don’t think I am any different. But once you have been there and done that there is that interminable desire to go back to where you first came from so you can just chillax a little and enjoy your job.

Actually, to be honest, I think it is closer to a quarter of a century since I could really relax on a survey and ‘just do’. When I started in this job I was responsible for preparation, packing and maintenance of all of the field gear. That meant making sure the biologists had what they wanted when they wanted it, whilst still trying to dig most of pit traps myself in an attempt to impress my seniors!

Well today all of that changes. Today I will commence to undertake a full and comprehensive biological field survey totally alone, with no help from anyone and I am just a little bit excited. 

I mean no offence to any and all of the amazing biologists I have worked with over the years. We have had some seriously awesome times out bush. But this is a bucket list moment for me and I can think of nowhere I would rather be doing it that in the middle of absolutely nowhere in far north-west Queensland only days after a long drought has been broken by flooding rains. Bring it on.

Updates as I go. 

Happy Pappy Day for the 70th Time

 

About 350 days ago (actually 351 due to the leap year) I hit the panic button. It was my Dad's 70th and there was nary enough time to time to organize a half-decent shindig. But then I paused, took off my shoes and socks and did the math. He was only 69. Phew!!!

I usually remember his birthday, even without the virtual assistance of Facebook. However, I usually only remember with enough time to get a card in the mail. Whatever the case, I vowed to remember his birthday in 2016 with sufficient time to organize a 'birthday bash' worthy of such a great man. 

But I am a field biologist that specialises in tropical biological field surveys and March is 'survey season'. So, as is almost always the case, the rains came, I went bush and I will miss his birthday.

I wanted to be there with him, but I can't be and I am gutted about it. So rather than have a sook about it I made a little video to let him know why, to me, he is not just a 'dad', but a great dad. 

Happy Birthday Pappy.