White Lipped Tree Frogs

White Lipped Tree Frogs are bright green or brown and a lighter colour on their underside, with a white stripe along their lower jaw and side of their heads. They are nocturnal, hunting insects and other invertebrates of a night and spending their days resting in trees and other protected areas.

Green Tree Snake

The Green Tree Snake is a common snake which lives in a variety of habitats. It lives in open forests, rural lands and even backyards. It is dark green and has a yellow underside, active by day and are non-venomous. They eat frogs and lizards and are agile climbers.

Amethystine Python

These pythons can be very large, often 3 – 5 metres, but there are records of these pythons reaching 8.5 metres. They have brilliant shiny scales which reflect an Amethyst colour in direct sunlight. They live in tropical rainforests and can be aggressive. They hunt fruit bats, rodents and other ground-dwelling animals at night and are quite shy during the day.

Fiddler Crabs

Fiddler crabs live in intertidal areas, mostly in mangrove forests where there is mud. They make a burrow to hide in during both high and low tide and to keep their eggs. Males have one big claw for fighting, attracting females and defending their burrows. Females have two small claws. These crabs scrape the surface of the mud and bring it to their mouth where they sift out the organic matter to consume.

Mud crab

These crabs grow quickly due to frequent moults. They are carnivores and herbivores – opportunistic feeders which eat a wide variety of food. Mud crabs have eyes on the top of their heads which allow them to see 360 degrees, antennae which can sense movements in the water and tiny hairs on their legs which can sense movements and tastes in the water. Mud crabs have powerful claws they use \for feeding and defence, and can even drop a claw to escape if they have to. A new one will grow back in a few months.

Barramundi

Barramundi live in the Daintree River, usually reaching 1.2m in size however they can grow to 1.8m. They are carnivorous, mostly eating smaller fish and crustaceans.

Archerfish

These fish prey on land-based insects by shooting them down with a jet stream of water from their mouths. They are very accurate from 1 – 2m away but can shoot up to 5m, likely because of their good eyesight.

Spectacled Flying Foxes

Spectacled Flying Foxes are also known as Fruit-Bats. They get their name form the pale coloured rings around its eyes which look like spectacles. In Australia, they only live in the north-eastern wet regions in Queensland. They are also found in New Guinea and some off shore islands. They spend most of their time in the canopy of tall rainforest trees and mangroves. They set off at dusk in search of food, using their good eyesight and sense of smell. Predators of the Flying Foxes include Pythons and the White-breasted Sea-eagle. These animals are important dispersers of seeds in the rainforest and were listed as being a threatened species in 2002.

Mangrove Ecosystem

Mangroves are plants which are able to live in soils which are regularly waterlogged. They have adaptations for accessing air in these environments, namely their root structures. Daintree has many different species of mangroves, 30 out of the 34 that exist in Queensland. Some mangroves have buttressed roots, others have stilts and some have snorkel-like roots which stick out of the mud. Mangroves are essential to many ecosystems, they act as breeding and feeding grounds for many species of fish and crustaceans, protect the coastline from erosion and have high productivity. This productivity directly affects the food chain in their ecosystem – mangroves produce organic matter which is consumed by many species of crabs, molluscs and worms. These primary consumers are then eaten by secondary consumers such as young fish and other predators who become third level consumers when they reach adulthood.

Mangroves therefore also influence economic values, through commercial fisheries, and recreational values by keeping birdwatchers and recreational fishers busy.