Syd - The story behind the 430 species in the Daintree goes like this.
When I wrote the book "Birds of Queensland's Wet Tropics and Great
Barrier Reef "about 12 years ago, the number of species recorded for the
entire Wet Tropics area which runs from Cooktown south to Townsville,
totalled 430 species. This included those northern species which just
reach the northern boundaries around Cooktown, some southern species
which just reach the southern boundaries about Townsville, some inland
species which occasionally reach the drier western boundaries, seabirds,
vagrants and so on.
After publication (1996), there was quite a bit of local publicity - a
book launch, radio, television and newspaper interviews and so on. I
mentioned in most of them that around 430 species had been recorded
from the entire Wet Tropics area. Quite a few tourist establishments
grabbed the 430 figure and to this day dishonestly claim that they have
that number of birds either on their property or in the surrounding area
i.e. the Daintree in this case. So there are quite a few places up and
down the Wet Tropics claiming they have 430 species in their home patch.
Unfortunately, some authors pick this up from the tourist brochures and
perpetuate it.
When I first came to north Queensland in the early 1990s, I worked in
the tourist industry as a tour guide in the Daintree area (Cape
Tribulation) for about 8 months. I was quite amazed at the crazy stories
being told by some of the guides e.g. that crocodiles would rise up on
their hind legs and chase people along the beach, that a cassowary could
kick a 12 stone man over a 6 foot fence, that Archer Fish could spurt a
jet of water 30 feet into the air to knock an insect from a tree etc
etc. It was so crazy that I decided to write a book on the Daintree.
After extensive research and alot of photography, the book was published
in 1997 (it is still the standard reference for the Daintree). The
evolution of the Daintree area was extremely fascinating - it is one of
the only rainforests to remain in tact for many many millions of years
(can't remember the exact time offhand but it is incredible) escaping
the volcanic eruptions on the nearby Atherton Tableland and other
catastrophes. Today, it retains the largest number of primitive
flowering plants on Earth indicating that some areas have probably
remained intact from Gondwana times (13 out of 19 families worldwide are
represented - figures quoted at the time I wrote the book). Some of
these plants are confined to very small areas within the rainforest.
This is at the heart of the Daintree fame and the main reason for large
areas being preserved, and also for the current extensive buy-back of
rainforest blocks by governments following some reckless subdivision
back in the 1960-70s).
As far as bird species go, I would say at a guess that there would be
about 150 species of birds in the Daintree area if you considered all
habitats, from lowland rainforest, the river, farmland and upland
rainforest (generally inaccessible). The area north of the Daintree
River (Cape Tribulation) is surprisingly poor for birds. When I worked
there I managed to record just 100 species in 8 months, about 60% of
them being a single sighting of a single species! I would doubt if there
were more than 50 species of birds that could be recorded from the
grounds of the lodge mentioned - it is built entirely within tropical
lowland rainforest.
Lloyd Nielsen
Mt Molloy N Qld
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