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Ecosystem Guide Books Print E-mail

Accompanying our biology programmes and tours are the Ecosystem Guide Books. The first in the series, "Rainforest of tropical Australia", has now been released as a second edition. The second in the series "Ocean Surfaces of Australasia" is also available. They are found in all good bookstores in Cairns and in souvenir shops and info centres throughout the rainforest areas of North Queensland. If they haven't got it, ask them to order it in! It's RRP is $35-$40. It is also available online at:

www.ecosystem-guides.com

 

 
Activity Tour of Tropical Australia Print E-mail

This trip has been designed for more general interest and younger student groups. It visits a range of iconic regions, from the Great Barrier Reef, to the rainforests and rivers of the Daintree, to the caves and bush of the outback, and to the mountains, lakes and waterfalls of the Atherton Tablelands. We conduct a range of activities within the trip including hikes, ‘bushwalks', boat cruises, snorkeling to wildlife viewing and night-spotlighting. We see tropical rainforest, coal reefs, kangaroos, shops and beaches. With sufficient lead time, the trip can have it's focus and design changed to suit the interests of the group. You are guided by a biologist or ecotourism qualified guide for the entire trip, and other various local guides during the tours. We stay in a range of accommodation, from lodges in the jungle, to hotels in tropical cities, to permanent tents in the bush. We taste of a range of food, from hotel breakfasts, to picnic lunches, to BBQ dinners, to local fruits.

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Biology of Tropical Australia Print E-mail

This tour combines marine biology, botany, zoology and ecology into a full 10 day tour programme of tropical ecosystems. It is designed to take in as wide range of ecosystems as possible, going from the deeper water reefs, along the coastal beaches and mangroves, into the lowland rainforest, up into the mountain forests, and finally into the savanna woodlands and wetlands of the outback.

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Plants

Melstomids
The family includes the genus Tibouchina, which provides the popular garden Lasiandras. Most species are found in the neotropics of South and Central America, but the family is distributed throughout the tropics of the world including Australia.
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Birds

Herons
Egret
Egret
This group includes the herons, night herons, egrets and bitterns. All of these birds are in the heron family, and the terms ‘heron’ and ‘egret’ are often used interchangeably and mean different things in different parts of the world for different people. They are only common names and do not currently correspond to any scientific or biological grouping. The original historical definition of the name 'egret' came from certain species of white egrets that were hunted for their filamentous plumes, or 'aigrette' and this is where the name egret come from. Many of the Ardea species are large, rather elegant mainly whitish birds that all look rather similar. They usually wade through shallow water in slow movements, often freezing, looking for fish and other underwater prey and snatching them suddenly with sharp beaks.
 

Mammals

Quolls
In many ways, these are Australia's forgotten marsupials. The order is dominated by one family which contains some 50 species of these generally predatory marsupials. This is the biggest family of marsupials, yet they are little known by the general public.
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