Within the last 100 years and until 1974, crocs were hunted under licence for their skins, for fashions. Queensland then legislated to protect them. Although they are breeding successfully, their numbers remain at a low density, contrary to media reports.

In The Daintree River, the population is about 70 adults within 50 kilometres upstream. Females outnumber the males and there are obviously several juveniles and hatchlings.

Crocodiles can live for 70 years and will generally spend their entire lives where they were born. So, we get to see the same crocs frequently. They become used to the boats’ presence and engine noises. We are allowed to be 10 metres away from them.

The breeding season extends from September to April, immediately after the winter as the climate starts to warm. Courtship begins with the large males becoming jealous of each other’s presence. Females are attracted to the dominant males. During courtship and mating, the female constructs the nest. It is about 1 metre high, 2 metres in diameter and is placed above the high tide mark, concealed among the trees and close to the waters edge.

Any rain that occurs during building will dampen the mound and this dampness promotes decomposition of the vegetation, raising the temperature of the mound. Towards the end of the year and when the female is instinctively happy with the conditions, she will mount the mound, dig a hole in the top and lay roughly 70 eggs. After covering the eggs, she will lie beside the nest in the shade of the trees protecting the nest from predators; particularly monitor lizards, or goannas. This process takes about 3 months. Apart from goannas, minor flooding in the wet season can cause drowning in the lower tier if the nest, as young crocs are breathing through the eggshell in the latter stages of incubation.

The temperature of the nest ranges between 30 and 33 degrees. Nests in the middle range will produce predominantly males. Any nests one degree plus or minus will produce predominantly females. After 3 months, the little crocs are ready to hatch. They will call from within the egg. The female then excavates the mound, releasing the young and she will crush some accidentally. So, only about 20 – 25 hatchlings are successful. The young gather in a huddle close to the water’s edge not far from the nest. They feed mainly on insects, frogs, lizards, prawns and crabs. Competition and hunger forces them to disperse. Having left the mother, they are unprotected and vulnerable to fish, birds, river sharks and established juvenile crocs who have already set up a territory. If a hatchling finds a vacancy along the bank, it will need to remain there and occupy it. After the first year, only about 1 – 2 will survive! This is nature’s way of regulating the population. So, the population remains stable.

We have now covered the basics of mangroves (last issue) and crocodiles. Be sure to follow my aspects of The Daintree River next month.

Back about 20 years ago my friend Chris Dahlberg was conducting his customary tours. He was just coming out from behind Pig Island, just upstream from the ferry when he heard a rifle shot. He tells me that at that instant a flock of egrets took flight from the bang. He sped there and witnessed a large male croc lying on the mud bank in a pool of blood and it appeared to be dead. On his return minutes later the croc had gone, perhaps it had slid into the water through its nerve movements. Within a couple of days the croc’s bloated body surfaced just a short distance away and the authorities dragged it out and away.

About 8 years ago another iconic male croc named Gummy went missing, assumed dead. He was a crowd pleaser and such a good natured animal that sat for tourists reliably. A friend of mine was returning from a fishing trip to the reef one day and said he saw a male croc fitting that description floating belly up in the river.

I personally don’t see these animals as dangerous as long as I respect their domain. It is sad that there are still people out there that fear them and don’t understand them.

See you next month.

Finally, April is the time that many of the migratory birds disperse for their nesting duties in Siberia. While fishing generally, you would have seen flocks of hundreds of semi-sized birds wading at the river mouth. But did you happen to notice that all of a sudden they’re not there? Become a bird watcher and you’ll learn a lot more. They’ll be back by August, along with the T.I pigeons and others. See you next month.

They arrived here in the Daintree region in hundreds and established themselves immediately. It’s all very well to have ‘gold fever’ but at some point you need to eat. So, a group of them applied for a permit or lease to occupy some land to grow rice. It was actually an island along the Daintree River, known as Virgil Island and it is upstream of the ferry crossing by about 5 kilometres on the north side. You would not know it is an island as it blends in with the surroundings with just the small openings barely visible.

I’ll assume that the island and surrounding areas would have been logged for red cedar. So, the area in question would have been re-growth and scrubby. The Chinese would have had an enormous job preparing the land for rice. Obviously the water for irrigation would have come from the river. At low tide the water is fresh, although tidal. Pumps would have been rudimentary or perhaps they just had a line of people with buckets! I guess that would have taken months or even a year or so to become established. I’m told that the people set up camps along the banks close by.

Some years ago, once my ‘Permit to Occupy’ was granted to set up my tour operation here, we set about making a path between the trees from our house (100m) to the river bank. Because the bank is about 5 metres high we had to create a sloping path to allow us access to our proposed jetty. During works we came across what appeared to be pieces of a cast iron stove. I’ll assume that we disturbed an old camp site. Not far from there are a couple of old mango trees in poor condition. I’m suggesting that they had planted the mango trees there for the fruit which they used in their cooking, knowing that they would be in the area for a long time.

Life would have been pretty tough in those days dealing with cyclones, floods, diseases and other obstacles. History books tell us that Aborigines were determined to drive the white pioneers out. They resorted to cannibalism to do so. Modern Aborigines deny this; however, the lighter side of these stories is that they preferred the Chinese flesh because it was ‘grain fed’.

See you next month.

One of my favourite birds is the Papuan Frogmouth (close relative of the more familiar Tawny Frogmouth). There are three frogmouth species in Australia, but the Papuan is the only one we have in the lowlands of the Daintree Coast. They are nesting right now, and we are presently watching one along the river. Perhaps the best way to describe it is to liken it to an owl, or perhaps a broken piece of a branch (40cm long). The camouflage is spectacular, with its plumage matching the bark of the tree that it roosts in. It is a nocturnal bird which sleeps through the day with its head cocked up or looking towards the sky to give it that woody appearance. This is called the “cryptic posture”, to confuse potential attackers. I hear people calling it a frogmouth owl. This is incorrect. The frogmouth is a nocturnal insectivore. Whereas an owl is a nighthawk, catching prey with its talons. Although it is described as an insectivore, it will also catch small rodents and frogs, etc. the name frogmouth comes from its short wide break, resembling a frog. Its distribution is in Far North Queensland and in Papua, of course!

The nest of this bird is ridiculous! Only a handful of twigs, criss – crossed in the fork of an almost vertical branch. How the one eg or the chick doesn’t fall out is amazing. Once hatched, the hatchling pokes its head out from under the adult and it looks like a white, fluffy tennis ball with dark eyes.

One of the myths about this bird is being called the “Mopoke”, which it is not. The Mopoke is the Boobook Owl. It is often though that this bird migrates between Cape York Peninsula and New Guinea. This is not so, in fact it is described as being sedentary, or keeping to the same territory year round, using the same favoured roosts for long periods. They also pair permanently and sometimes you will see the male, female and the one off – spring side by side on a horizontal branch.

Well, I hope I’ve turned some of you into birdwatchers. Come up to the Daintree and join my early morning trips to catch up on your new hobby. See you next month.

The most spectacular moth I’ve ever seen is the Hercules. It is about the size of an adult human hand, beige coloured with long dangling pendulums it seems hanging from either wing. Just looking at this moth makes you wonder how it can fly and why on earth nature would make something so clumsy and perhaps awkward to fly!

Another one is the four o’clock moth, seen during the day and often mistaken for a butterfly. We generally see moths at night and they are usually dull-coloured. This moth has a large yellow abdomen and dark purple wings with clear or transparent patches. On the back wings it has yellow spots. This moth should have been a butterfly!

So, what is the difference between a moth and a butterfly? Butterflies have antennae with knobby tops while those on moths are feathery. Moths lock their wings together in flight whereas a butterfly can’t. Moths are most active at night whereas butterflies prefer the day. Butterflies are thought to be useful for pollinating flowers, but the moths are seen to be pests, eating clothing and generally seen as horrible. We often joke about someone’s wallet ‘having moths in it’, suggesting someone is reluctant to pay for his round of drinks in a bar! We could go on forever.

Have you ever wondered why moths have ‘dusty’ wings? I don’t know how accurate this is but I actually watched a moth hit a spider’s web and within a split second, before the spider could pounce, the moth had bounced off. I’m suggesting that the ‘dust’ or scales fouled the sticky catching parts of the spider’s thread.

See you next month!

One interesting tree is the Ylang-Ylang (pronounced “eelung-eelung”); its botanic name is Cananga odorata. Its significance is that the essential oil in the flowers is used as additives in producing fragrances in well-known brand names of scents and perfumes. Europeans, through Marco Polo who discovered the trade route to China, fancied the fragrances to hide the obvious body odours for the masses of people who in those days rarely bathed! I’m told by knowledgeable female tourists that the oil is also used in aromatherapy for melancholy (a feeling of sadness). Why would you bother? Others have suggested it’s used as an aphrodisiac. This really confuses me! However, the fruits or berries are about 15mm long and can be green or black and eaten and dispersed by pigeons, fig birds and cassowarys. The trees’ distribution is from Cape York to Mission Beach.

Another interesting tree that’s found in both regions is the Indian Beech (Pongamia pinnata). It grows to 20m, produces a raceme of flowers which ultimately becomes a seed pod, brown, and is about 100mm long, containing two seeds. The seed is a valuable vegetable oil and has been harvested in India since the first diesel engine developed. The oil is refined and used as a cheap biodiesel instead of diesoleum (petroleum by product). In India, wide spread use of taxis using diesel engines is the practical way to go for economic reasons.

There has been some local interest by people here to promote plantations for future use. Did you know that reject oil from deep fryers is being collected right now, refined and then on sold as bio diesel? See you next month.

This bird is strikingly beautiful. The chest is a golden yellow, the bill is bright red and the wings and crown are blue and, of course, it has the long white tail. It’s here for about 5 months before returning to New Guinea.

Another fascinating bird is the Comb- crested Jacana, described as a wader. This bird never ventures onto land as it cannot walk properly. It has long splayed toes which allows it to walk on and among lily pads and other aspects of vegetation This habit has led to its being known as a Lilytrotter or Christbird (being able to walk on water). A most unusual looking bird seemingly awkward and ungainly. It has brown wings, a long brown neck and a bright red comb (like the pink skin  on the head of a chicken). Although it can be seen in upper tidal areas it prefers fresh water about 1 metre deep among lilies and other vegetation. The long toes allow it to spread its weight enabling it to walk upon leaves.

While nesting (a gathering of debris on lily pads) they have up to 4 eggs, dark brown with bright red wriggly lines looking like veins, obviously for disguise. As hatchlings and if disturbed the adult and the chicks simply dive and can remain hidden for up to 30 minutes

See you in the New Year, yet again!

To emphasise my point I often describe the situation when, some years ago a man went missing from a campground around the Wonga Beach area. There were fears that he might have been taken by a crocodile while out on a walk. The S.E.S were dispersed in their bright orange overalls and dinghys, a group of about 35 people. This went for several days. Periodically, fisherman returning from their trips would say that they saw a man swimming about down near the river mouth. Incidentally this happened during a February, a time when crocs are most active and presumably at their hungriest! The S.E.S eventually abandoned their exercise, perhaps based on the sightings. Anyway, about a month later the man gave himself up after apparently hiding in Cape Trib. It’s assumed that crocs will kill as soon as you put your feet in the water – but that is more likely to happen if you use the same spot, down by the water’s edge on a regular basis. The story about this particular man demonstrates that crocs are not always hungry.

Another incident happened soon after I started as a tour guide on the Daintree River, 23 years ago where I had just taken off on a tour form the village, rounded the big sandy bend on Osborne’s property with a boat load of tourists. Suddenly, a man appeared out from the bushes, removed all his clothing (right in front of us!) and proceeded to enter the water only metres from the boat. There were cries of horror from my guests with the obvious thoughts in their minds. I did everything to talk sense to the man, but he ignored me and breast – stroked slowly to the other side, a distance of 100 metres. He was very relaxed and stood in the water for several minutes before returning to his starting point. I never saw the man again but I’ve presumed he was all right because of the lack of news. So, how dangerous are crocodiles?