Hi All,

After an extended absence I’ve rejoined Mammals-aus.

Firstly, a short report on the mammals seen on a recent trip to the islands of northern Torres Strait. I spent a week on Boigu Island and another week on Saibai Island in July. Both islands had received considerable rain and conditions remained overcast and drizzly throughout our stay. The upside was that it was relatively cool; the down side was that mosquitos were in plague proportions.

Terrestrial mammals on these islands are quite scarce.

We observed Melomys on both islands. These were most probably Grassland Melomys (M. burtoni) given recent voucher specimens collected from these same islands have now been identified as such by the Queensland Museum.

We had a single feral cat on Saibai and saw evidence (footprints) of the small herd of Rusa Deer that occur here. These Rusa Deer are interesting in an Australian context as they are self-introduced from the more substantial exotic populations that occur in the southern Trans Fly region of PNG (it is just a short 3-5 km swim for a Rusa Deer). They are thought to be Moluccan Rusa (Cervus timorensis moluccensis) whereas populations on the Australia mainland (e.g. the Royal National Park in NSW) are Javan Rusa (C. t. russa).

As we were working on a project that involved mist-netting we also caught a small number of bats at dawn and dusk (though we did our best to avoid them because of the damage they do to nets). Captures included two individual long-eared bats Nyctophilus spp. on Boigu and a number of pipistrelles (whether I can identify these with certainty is debatable). On previous trips we’ve also had Little Broad-nosed Bats. We spot-lit several Sheath-tail bats (Saccolaimus mixtus?) on both islands and a Blossom Bat on Boigu Island. Black Flying-foxes were reasonably common and seen well on both islands at night. I did not have time to check on the small colony of Large-eared Flying-foxes that usually resides near the airstrip on Saibai so can’t report on their current status.

Secondly, I have recently completed a new website to display my photographs - I’ve included an entire gallery dedicated to Australian mammals. To date, I’ve uploaded photos of about 70 Australian mammal species. In the coming weeks, after I’ve worked back through my slide collection, the number of species represented should have edged closer to 100.

www.pbase.com/wildlifeimages/australian_mammals

As the site is relatively new any feedback would be appreciated.

Regards,