Surprising discovery inside sunken logs captured on underwater cameras
The plan was to capture video of endangered Mary River cod, but the researchers found much more than that.
Researchers who dumped 100kg logs into a river to create more habitat for an endangered fish were surprised by what their underwater cameras picked up. Footage supplied to Yahoo News shows water dragons, eels, turtles and tadpoles also calling the 24 hollows home.
The target species was supposed to be Mary River cod. In the 1980s, its numbers plummeted to just 600 individuals in the wild. And while conservationists have been working to restore the fish, it faces ongoing threats to its habitat which are associated with climate change — major flooding, extreme droughts, heatwaves and severe bushfires.
Floods had washed away the underwater habitat the fish need for breeding and shelter. But clearly other animals that call the Mary River (Moonaboola) in southeast Queensland home were also impacted.
Dr Luke Carpenter-Bundhoo a research fellow at Griffith University told Yahoo News it was “wonderful” to see other creatures using the logs. He said researchers are increasingly realising that rather than managing a single species, they need to look at the entire ecosystem.
“The state of the environment is getting worse and worse. We can no longer just focus on one species, we have to do something that benefits a range of species. I think that's what's happened with these logs, and I think that's what's happening in science more broadly,” he said.
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Did the researchers film the endangered cod too?
Monitoring began at the end of winter and Carpenter-Bundhoo and his colleagues were forced to wade into chilly 9.5-degree water to install underwater cameras.
“If you weren't wearing a wetsuit and gloves, you were burning. But seeing the cod take up residence and lay eggs in one of these nests made braving the water worth it,” he said.
For the first time, researchers were able to view the wild breeding habitats of the cod underwater. This included observing a large male using the logs as nesting sites and protecting his brood of thousands of eggs and larvae. Until now, information about the process had only been documented at hatcheries. You can watch video taken for the project at the end of this story.
“No one has ever seen this in the wild before. This study is truly a case of a picture being worth a thousand words. We’re using underwater cameras to record definitive timing of their breeding schedule in the wild, which can ultimately enhance conservation efforts and hopefully improve their conservation status,” Carpenter-Bundhoo said.
The study is part of a wider $550,000 project to research and protect the river. Its funded in part by the federal government through its National Environmental Science Program. The project brings together scientists, governments, catchment Natural Resource Management groups, Traditional Owners and landholders to support the recovery of species threatened with extinction.
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