birding-aus

Eels away from water

To: Graham Turner <>, Baus <>
Subject: Eels away from water
From: Syd Curtis <>
Date: Thu, 27 Jul 2006 21:56:13 +1000
Further to eels and snakes as Stork food.


I don't imagine this situation is unique, but we used to see/catch eels in
the creek above Curtis Falls in Joalah N. P. on Tamborine Mountain (inland
from the Gold Coast).  The falls have a vertical drop of what - 10, 15 m.
maybe.

If it is still considered that all eels breed at sea (is it?) then they must
have trekked/slithered a considerable distance overland to get around the
falls.  I quote from the EELS entry in the Angus and Robertson  Australian
Encyclopaedia (published c. 1958):

    "Despite an earlier popular belief that is not yet wholly dispelled,
freshwater eels can breed only in the sea;  the adults migrate there solely
for that purpose, usually at a time when the stream they inhabit is in
flood.  Those inhabiting waterholes or lagoons travel overland at night
through wet grass, moving with unerring instinct towards their goal.

    "...; the young make their way in large numbers to the river-mouths,
develop into "elvers", congregate in estuaries, and surmount  apparently
impossible obstacles on their way upstream."

Cheers

Syd

[BTW, the same article notes that "the longest eel known to science in
Australia is a specimen of Evenchelys, 13 feet long and weighing 24 pounds."
I make that 4 m and 11 kg - that's some eel!]





Syd

> From: "Graham Turner" <>
> Date: Thu, 27 Jul 2006 14:45:13 +1000
> To: "Baus" <>
> Subject: Re: [Birding-Aus] Black-necked Stork eating snake
> 
> G'day all,
> just to confuse matters. Several snake species spend time in
> the water, red-belly black snakes, tiger snakes even pythons. And to really
> confuse matters I have seen eels in damp leaf litter adjacent to streams and
> in hollow logs near water. This seems to happen especially in winter (having
> a backpack electrofisher is a very useful tool).
> 
> Cheers
> Graham Turner
===============================
www.birding-aus.org
birding-aus.blogspot.com

To unsubscribe from this mailing list, 
send the message:
unsubscribe 
(in the body of the message, with no Subject line)
to: 
===============================

<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>
Admin

The University of NSW School of Computer and Engineering takes no responsibility for the contents of this archive. It is purely a compilation of material sent by many people to the birding-aus mailing list. It has not been checked for accuracy nor its content verified in any way. If you wish to get material removed from the archive or have other queries about the archive e-mail Andrew Taylor at this address: andrewt@cse.unsw.EDU.AU