|
Have been watching this discourse on the Antechinus
clan with interest due to historically seperated experiences.
In 1971 I worked for 9 months in Uriarra Forest
(between stints at UWA and TCD universities) as an AWU accredited Forestry
Labourer. One of my tasks was up above Wark's Road cutting out eucalypts that
were deemed inimical to the goal of telephone pole production. That meant that
Bluey and I took the chain saw to some very large boled (as in
circumference) eucalypts.
My job as off-sider was to watch for falling
branches as the vibrations of the chain saw reverberated through the trunk of
these trees. I never saw a branch fall. Yet I saw an amazing diversity of
animals issue forth as their home was destroyed. Gliders, cockatoos, parrots,
possums, insects and one particularly memorable experience.
I was looking up as my lead "Stihled" away at this
massive bole. I saw what I thought was a bees nest issue from way up the
trunk. The black mass moved down towards us. I tapped Bluey on the
shoulder but before either of us could move, a number of Antechinuses rushed,
face down, down the bark onto our shoulders and thence into the surrounding
bush. On recollection I would say there were perhaps 30-40 but suprise and
history challenge that memory's detail. Needless to say it has stuck with me
through many parts of the world as a vivid experience.
This January I was at Barren Grounds (which I
reported on this chat line) where I saw 2 Brown Antechinus' at about 10 am in
the morning after rain exploring the edges of one of the walking tracks on the
main circuit there. I observed them for several minutes. They seemed much more
benign than those that I had seen some 30 + years ago at Uriarra, yet they
displayed a sense of urgency. Their high country cousins seemed to have much
more menace then these mobile shadows. Perhaps I would have more aggressive
behaviour if someone was knocking down my residence but the perception stands
nevertheless.
For me the irony is that it is likely that the ones
that streamed down the tree being felled were Antechinus Swainsoni (Dusky
Antechinus). In a few years I was to go where Swainson had his name on several
birds (Swainson Thrush, Hawk, not to mention other forms of Linnean
description). Swainson certainly knew how to get himself front and centre,
though as Ian Fraser recorded in this last month's Gang-Gang, it all ended in
disgrace. He would probably have liked to take back some of his assertions, just
as I would have wished that my first Antechinus experience was in more
propitious circumstances.
At least Swainson observed what was around him,
even if he thought he was the first. Should be more...
Cheers
Shaun
| 