Saturday 1 December 2012

Uno's big day out - reflections of the year

Uno is united with his own kind at the Melbourne Zoo. For now, they are on display at the end of the Butterfly House.

Yesterday we took the train to Melbourne together, mingling with the madding Melbourne crowd of female youth (spray tanned to their bum cheeks) on their way to the Stereosonic Festival at the Melbourne Showgrounds in Ascotvale. I'm sure there were equal numbers of boys, but they were far more sensibly clad and did not catch our attention as much! The Lord Howe Island Stick Insect is far more subtle in gender differentiation - a slightly different-shaped abdomen and different features at the tail end of the abdomen.
Buying a VLINE ticket at Geelong South Station 

Off to board the bus (replaced the train due to Geelong track work!) 

Southern Cross Station

Still at Southern Cross Station

Alighting at Royal Park Station - last stop, the Zoo

Uno didn't bat an eyelid (chiefly because he doesn't have any, and he was sleeping) throughout the journey. I was mildly concerned as we alighted at Southern Cross Station when my olfactory senses were assaulted with perfumes, car fumes and cigarette smoke. We had been so careful to instruct cleaners to be chemical free around our precious cargo all year. They were lovely and obliging, finding chemical free wiping sponges, and certainly no spraying any surfaces. Interesting how sensitive I have become when returning to the big SMOKE, particularly with Uno in tow!

The year at Christian College concluded with Uno doing a tour of Year 1, 2, 3 classes where students read about him, looked at him and asked questions about him. I know we were instructed not to personalise our hatchlings with a name, but in our case naming Uno worked well. He survived the year and became a personality in our midst. (Well, as much a personality as a nocturnal, transformer-like adolescent shining black stick insect can muster!) 

Year 8 students involved with the original application for the Lord Howe Island Stick Insect eggs
The Year 8 students learned of the LHISI story initially through their Environmental Studies classes and helped apply for the opportunity to hatch and manage a small population of these critically endangered Lord Howe Island Stick Insects. 





Later,Year 9 focused on the monitoring of the enclosure climate, and discovered Uno the morning he had hatched. That day was the second of May 2012. I will never forget the urgent tapping on the staff room door as two Year 9 boys excitedly told  me the news. We all ran down the corridors (very unprofessional, I know) to the enclosure to view our baby boy!
Year 9 students settling in the newly hatched Uno onto the
Pittosporum bush 

What continued was a changing story as Uno moulted his exoskeleton as he grew. He started at just short of 2cm, a lime green delicate little soft bodied stick insect, hiding (quite effectively) in the upper branches of foliage of his feeding plant, the non-native, ubiquitous Pittosporum. Within six busy weeks of munching he had doubled his length. He continued to sleep and feed in the upper reaches of his tree. It was possibly the warmer part of the enclosure because heat rises, and we had placed a second heat mat on the top to try and beat the winter chills.
Uno is 5 months






During August and September, Uno started changing colour to a gain a golden brown tinge on his shoulders and legs. By the September holidays, Uno was covered in an overall dark brown-black shining armour.

Yesterday at the Zoo reunion, about 10 schools of the original 25, were represented as we returned with our animals (dead and alive). There were some very sad stories, where one individual had died the day before from the heat spike, and of course that was the day the air conditioner broke. The other survivor from that population of nine hatchlings was dying on the way to the Zoo yesterday. (The other seven had succumbed from overzealous, possibly illiterate, cleaners who basically poisoned the whole population.) We say illiterate because Aimee, the insect carer (expert), had put up numerous signs and warnings to the cleaners and yet they had continued to spray chemicals.

Uno at 5.5 months, trying out his box. Didn't like it!
He preferred hanging in his tree or gripping the inside of his
perspex enclosure, up high
It was great talking to the other teachers who had shared a similar journey to me and our school community. We had all been cautious about handling the hatchlings at first, then as they "toughened up" in recent weeks, we had allowed a couple of students to handle the animals. I hope the students realise the importance of their involvement in bringing this species back from the brink of extinction. One day they will be able to show their children photos of them tending and holding Uno. 





Another key to the great feel we had as a group was the use of the Ning! What is a Ning you might ask? It's basically a secure blog site that allowed us members to post questions, answers, suggestions, photos and videos as we all shared and learned through this WORLD FIRST operation. I realised I had not been on the Ning much at the end of Term 3 and into Term 4. We were just going about our normal business at school and Uno was stable and happy. 
Uno at 5.5 months
Upon reflection, I think we were extremely lucky that Uno survived the duration with us. He was a great specimen from the day he hatched (rated as excellent, based on his size, colour, no deformities or missing parts). The fact that we didn't handle him much, vigilantly removed spiders from his enclosure the couple of times we found them, and of course tried to keep his atmosphere comfortable (warm and humid), probably helped. Although there were days that we forgot to water the plant, change the plant, measure the temperature and humidity, he fortunately put up with our shortfalls. Even though we tried to keep his climate comfortable, I was strongly aware and concerned that we did not ever overcome the winter chills, day or night. This was despite extra heaters, heat lamps, blankets and even bowls of warm water (covered in gladwrap) to try and better replicate the Lord Howe Island temperatures. Trying to encourage more eggs to hatch, the Year 1 classroom with North-facing windows hosted the egg container for a number of weeks, but the gentle autumn/winter sunshine did not do the trick. In response to a number of worried queries via the Ning, Rohan Cleave (Invertebrate Zookeeper and "father" of the LHISI project) had suggested to direct UV rays onto the egg container to try to prompt further hatching. In our case, and other schools' situations, this did not work. My belief is that the initial two weeks (March/April holidays) when the egg container was sitting in my SUNROOM, they received optimal conditions. Following this, they were moved to school where they were not in direct UV light conditions (until Rohan's suggestion) and by then the overnight temperatures were suboptimal. Humidity was always 80-90% or more - ideal. That was easy - just spray with rainwater every day, or twice a day.


Year 5 students carefully handling Uno, on the move!
In fact, it was this simple daily task that captivated a few individual students from year 5. They were the regular, reliable helpers that kept the project in the spotlight with certain classes. By having Uno's enclosure in the passage/junction of the Science rooms, plenty of children had exposure to the project. Shame it was a bit on the cool side for Uno. As Rohan said, luckily, the colony of eggs that Uno sprang from, was actually from Ball's Pyramid, the highly exposed granite rock outcrop 23km off Lord Howe Island. Temperatures and conditions are more varied and extreme there compared to Lord Howe.


Ball's Pyramid - an extreme environment

Uno at 6 months old, under his pink blanket!
So where to from here? Ultimately, the Lord Howe Island Stick Insect population will be returned to their native Lord Howe Island. This of course cannot happen until the rats have been ERADICATED. Federal, state and local money has been promised to this end, hopefully in the next few years. There was some media attention about this during the middle of this year. Federal funding promise to rid rats from Lord Howe, July 2012 It was also mentioned in this radio interview. PM, ABC Radio with Sir David Attenborough, August 2012

The Melbourne Zoo, in its 150th year, has played an INCREDIBLE role in bringing the Lord Howe Island Insect to our attention - personally, educationally and community wide. The two things that the Zoo hangs it hat on with pride and expertise is: managing small populations and saving species. There are 16 species in Victoria, two of which are our faunal emblems (do you know which they are???), that will likely be extinct in five years. The Zoo is doing its best to capture and manage these endangered populations in an attempt to ward off their impending extinction. In fact Sir David Attenborough selected the Melbourne Zoo (out of 1000 interview requests during his Melbourne visit in August) to specifically see the Lord Howe Island Stick Insect. Rohan and staff had 40 minutes with Sir David, and have video footage and memories of this special encounter. From what the media reports, it was Sir David Attenborough who felt that he was the privileged one, to have encountered the Lord Howe Island Stick Insect. Attenborough meets rare stick insect, August 2012 Here is the 7.30 Report video.



And so say all of us; privileged indeed, to have played a small part in the story of the LORD HOWE ISLAND STICK INSECT.
Thanks from the Melbourne Zoo



PS Victoria's two faunal emblems are both endangered: the Helmeted Honeyeater and the Leadbeater's Possum

Helmeted Honeyeater
Leadbeater's Possum
Baby Leadbeater's Possum 






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I hope you're enjoying the journey of the Lord Howe Island Stick Insect at Christian College Geelong.