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A blossom bat; either Syconycteris or Macroglossus (they are extremely difficult to tell apart without close examination) caught in a mist net. These little mega-bats are major pollinators of a wide range of rainforest flowers. |
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| After the cyclone we had a mass flowering "bumpy satin ash" - Syzygium spp., which are pollinated by blossom bats. Gianluca Franceschini was given the interesting task of attempting to assess the impact of a relatively unpleasant commensal ant of the Syzygium, Iridomyrmex gilbertii on the pollination success of the satin ash. Here he is removing a blossom bat from a mist net. |
| Moritz Nowack (Univ. Marburg) carried out a detailed analysis of the relation of pollinating wasps and parasitic wasps in the ecology of a common cluster fig Ficus septica. During the rest of the three months he stayed here he kept us grandly entertained. |  |
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| Some of the Cooperative Management Agreement money was used to buy solar panels, which were mounted on a tracker donated by Mono Pumps Australia (Townsville) (Mono Pumps Australia donated three tracker assemblies, worth about A$2,000 each). Ten panels were mounted on the tracker, which gives us a total of 22 panels (1125 watts) - or, with the tracker, nine KWH/day. The system still has "bugs" but these are being ironed out slowly. It has been largely reliable, batteries are however failing - a very expensive future replacement, but our mode of operation means that the batteries are not heavily relied upon. Here the tracker assembly is about to be hoisted into place with the assistance of our immediate neighbor, Colin Gray. |
