Rainforest

• This goes without saying; we know Australia is full of weird and wonderful creatures found nowhere else on Earth, such as the platypus and the koala.
• Yet the traffic was largely one way – there are far fewer representatives of Australian fauna in Asia than there are Asian fauna in Australia.

Drifting continents on a cooling planet

• Dinosaurs were still a fairly new group walking the Earth, and Australia was part of a supercontinent called Gondwana.
• Gondwana had just broken off from another supercontinent, called Laurasia, which was smooshed together from modern North America, Europe and Asia.
• As it drifted northwards, the increasing space between Australia and Antarctica kick-started the Antarctic circumpolar current, which cooled the planet dramatically.
• Read more:
  Explainer: how the Antarctic Circumpolar Current helps keep Antarctica frozen

  Australia was isolated, cooling down and drying out.

Intercontinental stepping stones

• He first observed a difference in the types of animals found on either side of what is now called Wallace’s line.
• The islands became stepping stones between two continents whose groups of species hadn’t seen each other in a very, very long time.

Wet and dry

• Of all the groups of animals that moved between Asia and Australia, we found the staggering majority were birds.
• Animals also needed to be able to thrive in their new location, where the environment may have been quite different.
• Sunda is wet and Sahul is dry, and if you can tolerate more of that wet–dry spectrum, you are better equipped to move between these regions.

A lot can change in 30 million years

• We know Sunda has been dominated by lush tropical rainforest since before Australia broke away from Antarctica.
• Later, when the stepping-stone islands began to pop up, they also had the kind of humid equatorial climate favoured by the rainforest vegetation, and later animals, from Sunda.
• So moving from mainland Australia, through New Guinea and the stepping stones, to Sunda, requires adaptations to a very different environment.

Answers are a long time in the making

Climate and geography are some of the most important things that shape evolution and the distributions of different species. Taking the long view, deep into the past, helps us understand the world around us. Simple questions – like “why are there no kangaroos in Asia but hopping mice in Australia?” – have answers that are hundreds of millions of years in the making.

• The DRC’s eastern forests are one of the last remaining intact tracts of rainforest on the planet, second only to the Amazon.
• They help to regulate climate and provide resources – like food, medicines, materials and shelter – to millions of people.
• Timber is highly coveted for its commercial value and, once roads are opened to harvest it, further encroachment and deforestation may follow.
• Park personnel were also quick to adapt and adopt improved verification techniques, making illegal trade more difficult, if fully supported by their supervisors.

A long way to legal trade

• From Kisangani, on the bend of the Congo river, east-bound timber is trucked 700km overland to the border, usually in the form of sawn planks.
• These are unloaded and inspected at the timber park before continuing on towards markets in neighbouring countries, as well as Kenya and overseas.
• This species carries the highest rate of taxation of all species and has recently been listed in Annex II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species.
• Lastly, about 60 of the 100 cubic metres left the country undeclared, meaning only 18% of duties were paid.

Timber parks could help

• Timber parks can be an effective tool for the DRC to stem the flow of financial losses from illegal timber exports.
• Up-scaling to all major border crossings, however, is needed to deny truckers the choice of crossing at borders without timber parks.
• Our results indicate that about 93% of the timber sampled bore no trace of an authorised logging permit.
• Neighbours such as Uganda, or even Kenya further down the trade routes, should improve the way incoming timber is verified and recorded.

• These include several species of plants, a new species of bat, a new species of forest viper and two species of chameleons, as well as several new species of butterflies.
• In a recent paper we set out our findings from the first dung beetle survey on Mount Mabu.
• Dung beetles must be protected from extinction
  Our research results increase the number of currently valid dung beetle species recorded from Mozambique to 326.
• Several dung beetle species collected in our expedition seem to be endemic (restricted to a certain location) to the region of Mabu.

• Imagine the North Pole within the lush environment of the rainforest as Moody Gardens presents ICE LAND: Rainforest Holiday, set to open from November 18 through January 6.
• Additionally, guests can indulge in festive holiday spirits at Shivers Ice Bar, an exceptionally cool bar sculpted entirely out of ice.
• As Moody Gardens is set to transform into "Holiday in the Gardens," it continues to be an anticipated and cherished holiday tradition.
• Moody Gardens Hotel will host an exciting new “A Christmas Wish Holiday Spectacular” dinner show and a New Year’s Palooza Family Celebration.