Dingo Control, Birding at JCU, and Wallace’s Line

In mid-morning, Vilis and I met Chris Johnson in the biology building at James Cook University. Chris introduced Vilis to his office and showed us a map of Australia speckled with black dots. The dots...

Stingers, Crocs, Tree Ants, and Mozzies

At 5:30 a.m., while I sat on the toilet, a 15-centimetre-long pale green gecko clung to a vertical wall beyond the open door of the loo. The soft-skinned reptile’s toes were splayed wide, its tail a...

Castle Hill, The Strand, Cane Toads, Snakes, and Devil Facial Tumour Disease

This morning at breakfast, Vilis told me, “Last night, I killed a cockroach in the living room.” I asked him how big it was, so he indicated a length of about three inches and told me, “They...

A Year in Australia: Early Naturalists Inspired This Blog

On the verge of a year-long adventure in Australia, I read Sean Carroll’s book Into the Jungle. Its stories of Darwin and Wallace captivated me. In fact, the early naturalists inspired this blog...