Platypus TRP days and free days in Cairns

In addition to our 4 classes, every student abroad also completes their own TRP, or targeted research projects. There was a variety of research options, and I ended up getting a project about the birds and pollination in the rainforest. However back in Brisbane when talking to my advisor, John Hall, he informed my group that we were going to a different site than previous years, then proceeded to apologize and ask us if it we were ok with monitoring platypus instead. Where we ok? YESSSS! We all informed John that it would be more than ok if our TRP involved platypus watching.

So here we were in Yungaburra with 3 days to conduct all our research for our TRP. Three other student and I, the “platypus crew” set up our experiment design.

Basically, the 4 of us each monitered a different region of a river for an hour, 3 times a day. (sunrise, midday, and sunset) for 2 days, hoping to find some trends.

Here's some pictures of the river:

Within each hour, we recorded how long each platypus surfaced for, and what they were doing at the surface.

on our last day, we also got into the water and took measurement of the river.

KL, Me, Eva, Joanna, and John Hall (our professor)

While jumping in the water in the river, I also had what I'm gonna call a near death experience with a platypus! So I thought that platypus were easily frightened animals, and scared by humans, but this definitely wasn’t my own experience. While in the water collecting the river date on our last day, our professor on shore calmly informed us that we were currently swimming with platypus (platypi?)!! A platypus had surfaced right about 10 feet from where we were measuring river width! We were all so excited that we just stopped working and stood there in the water. Next thing I knew, a platypus popped up less than a couple feet from me, surfacing between me and the shore. I screamed, and then was silent cause I didn’t want to scare the platypus. Our teacher, who tends to be easily concerned about our safety, freaked out, thinking something had happened. KL, watching the whole thing, informed John what had happened, and John encouraged me to back away slowly from where the platypus had been. Well, I was stuck in mud, but I eventually was able to move and make my way out of the river. APPARENTLY, platypuses are very dangerous creatures, as they have a barb on their tail that can cause a pretty painful injury. Nobody really knows too much about their venom since platypus aren’t known to attack. I personally think im pretty luck to have such a close encounter with a platypus; I mean, how many people actually get to swim with platypus! :)

In addtion to our own research, we also helped the other TRP students (there were 8 of us in total). One of my friends, Steven, ran a light trap at night to atractinsects.

Helping him actually made me somewhat interested in bugs for the first time ever!!

By the end of the second night, I was the one who was catching all the difference species of insects so our tutor, Claire could identify them. Speaking of Claire, she is amazing! Last year she was featured on Planet Earth as the glow worm expert, and is currently growing her own colony of glow worms in Yungaburra! So legit.

We used our flashlights (aka torches) to spell "bugs" out. Claire LOVED it!

On our last night in Yungaburra, we decided it was our turn to introduce the Australian to the American tradition of smores! KL and I went out and bought the closest thing we could find to normal marshmallows, chocolate, and gram crackers. We ended up with a Cadburry chocolate bar, candy package of normal and strawberry flavored marshmallows, and some malt crackers.

o ya, and we also didn't have a real campfire, but we improvised! :)

Claire thought they were a little sweet but John and Kate (owner of On the Wallaby) enjoyed them.

John, Me, Claire, Kate, and KL

It was a great way to end our time in Yungaburra!



We headed to Cairns, for 2 days off before Heron Island.

(how amazing does this look?? im soooo excited!)

We took one day to explore the city and relax

and we on my first scuba dive!!! IT WAS ABSOLUTELY AMAZING!



A group of almost 20 of us all booked the same diving company.

It was an all day trip, including 3 dives and morning tea and lunch were both provided.

the boat we were on was called SilverSwift.

After getting back from scuba diving at each location, we were allowed to snorkel around if we had extra time.



They provided us with gear, including a full sting suit to wear under our wet suit.

These sting suits were awesome, especially since we jumped in the water at our first site and there were jelly fish everywhere!





After our first 2 dives, we headed out to the front of the boat to eat lunch, and lay out and warm up before our last dive. Ok so it actually wasn't that cold, but the sun did feel amazing!

Coop, Me, Liz and KL

Here are some pictures from snokeling, courtesy of KL's waterproof camera (we couldn't take it diving cause it doesn't go deep enough)



All the fish and colors were gorgeous,



and the corals were incredible!

The diving experience all-in-all was amazing, and I couldn't have expected more out of a first dive.



Now were taking a 21-hour sleeper train to the tiny port city of Gladstone where we're then heading out to Heron Island by ferry.

Coastal Forest Ecosystem Part 2 – Rainforest and Outback

I am officially done with one class: Coastal Forest Ecosystems. We finished our final today! One class down, 3 to go - plus my own ‘targeted research project’ (TRP) - then I'm done with Australia!

The second part of the Forest Ecosystems course was completely different from the first (mangroves) but it was still equally amazing and ridiculous. A friend of mine described our experience as summer camp, and (despite the fact that I never actually went to summer camp growing up), I would complete agree.

We started out in Yungaburra within the Atherton Tableland (a volcanic plateau in North Queensland) staying in a hostel called "On the Wallaby". We then headed to Undara National Park to a resort/camping lodge. Its so hard to keep track of days here, since we are essentially in the middle of nowhere and have class usually through the weekends. Normally, each day we had 2-3 hours of lecture, then spent the rest of the day “in the field”. Our "field" was different types of Rainforests (did you know there’s such a thing as a dry Rainforest?…well there is! We learned all about it…) Here is a little break down of what we did each day.

Sunday

We arrived in Yungaburra and ventured off to the Curtain Strangler Fig Tree.

This amazing fig tree began when a seed was deposited in a branch of a tree (through animal droppings). The seed germinated and aerial roots grew down and around this host tree, eventually pulling it down (strangling it). It was pulled it into another tree at an angle, while the roots continued to grow 50 feet through the air to the ground, creating a curtain effect.

The original tree rotted away so you can almost see completely through it at places.

We also headed to the gorgeous Lake Barrine

where we walked around, exploring and finding some cool musky rat kangaroos. It’s really hard to take a picture of these animals, but they are essentially tiny little marsupials a little bit bigger than a rat, found in the rainforests of New Guinea and northeast Australia.

They actually hop around!

Musky Rat Kangaroos

They are hilarious to watch!

At night, we went on a night canoeing/wildlife spotting trip on a nearby lake. We saw a bunch of possums and musky rat kangaroos!

Monday:

We started with a tour of a tropical Rainforest walking around Lake Eacham (a crater lake),

then went for a little afternoon swim

before heading to a dry Rainforest at David’s Creek.

Tuesday:

Today was an early morning! One of our assignments included listening to the “morning choir” and identifying bird calls. Well, the morning choir begins before sunrise, so we were up and out the door by 5am! No worries though, watching the sun rise in the rainforest while listening to the calls Rainforest birds make is completely worth waking up for.

Morning Chorus Group

After a morning lecture we hiked through a tropical rainforest to this gorgeous waterfall pool

(where we swam of course)

then dried off and headed to Bonadio Farm.

The Bonadios are experiment then had a bbq dinner where we got to try both kangaroo (marinated this time) and crocodile. Both were surprisingly good! Since we were eating in a covered area pretty much in the forest, they put out a table of food and possums, bandicoots, and pademelons all came around to snack while we ate!

We also saw a joey (baby kangaroo) that was rescued after his mom was hit by a car. It was adorable!

After dinner, we took a tour of their glow worms caves! Not as many as we saw in New Zealand, but still really cool!

Wednesday:

One of our tutors, Claire Baker, is essentially an insect expert, and she gave us a bug lecture and let us hold Gretel, as GIANT stick insect!

We left On the Wallaby and began our 3 hour journey in our Troopies to Undara National park in the outback. We broke the long drive up with a swim in yet another gorgeous waterfall pool.

We hiked up to the highest rock, bird watching on the way up,

then sat and watched the sun set over the outback.

Thursday:

We explored the “schlerophyll forest” vegetation of the outback in the morning then had a guided tour of the Undara lava tubes. The view was crazy!

We hiked up and watched the sun set,

and it was just as amazing as the night before. After dinner we hiked back up to the same spot in the dark. We stayed for about an hour stargazing. You can see soooo many more stars than you can it home. I can’t even describe how many stars lit up the sky. Since this was our last night of the course, we headed back down for a campfire with roasted marshmallows (apparently the concept of s’mores doesn’t exist in Australia) and campfire songs!

O ya, and sometime during this busy day we attempted to find time to study for our final which was Friday morning.

Friday:

After an early morning kangaroo-watching walk, we took our final (yayyyy!) then began our trip back to Yungaburra. I stayed at Yungaburra with 7 other students, while the rest of the group headed off to Cairns for 5 free days. Since my TRP is in part of the Coastal Forest Ecosystems component of our class, I have my 3 research days in Yungaburra (but its okay cause I still get 2 days off when we join the group on Monday). We haven’t finalized our research plan yet, but it will involve platypus watching!