Fun in the bush!

DD with one of the many Bush Rats we caught. Rattus fuscipes. Photo: Ryan Pearson

By Ryan Pearson

Sounds rude right? Well, it wasn't really. You see, I've been out bush... yep, the bush, with all the spiders, ticks, lizards, snakes, marsupilami's, muddy death traps, and heat stroke that come along with it. And damn it was fun! I've been out helping my lovely lady DD with her PHD study into fire ecology. As part of it we were trapping to find out which species exist in certain areas that have been exposed to different fire regimes. This basically just means that they've been burnt at different intervals, some yearly, some never, and a couple of in betweeners.

The not so O.K. Coral... reefs.

A large bed of dead coral at Lady Musgrave Island. Photo: Ryan Pearson

By Ryan Pearson

Scientists claim that coral reefs are dying, they're disappearing, going extinct! There are even claims that they will disappear entirely by the end of this century. This would be an astounding 'accomplishment' by the human race... the first to wipe out not only a species, but an entire ecosystem. The sad part is, my first trip to the Great Barrier Reef, a single day of diving, has illustrated to me just how dire the situation is.