Environment Matters Autumn/Winter 2023

Make like a

Go with your family or friends somewhere you can see a number of trees of different shapes. Maybe somewhere like Queens Park or Robelle Domain Parklands! Stand up and make your body into the shape of the tree you are looking at. It is a gum tree, standing tall with long crooked arms? Is it a pine tree that is narrow at the top and wide at the bottom? Then pair up and play tree charades! One person silently chooses a tree. They pose like the tree as best they can. The other person tries to guess which tree is being copied.

Did you know? In urban areas the ‘bin chicken’ is often seen as a dirty pest – but the Australian White Ibis has a valuable role in its natural ecosystem. Ibis can help aerate the soil while digging for food, such as crayfish, mussels and crickets. Recently it was discovered ibis had developed a unique way of eating cane toads, by flinging toads in the air first to discharge the poison. With the quality of their natural habitat declining, ibis have learned to exploit human landfills, bins and litter. Ibis also nest in large colonies, and when this happens in urban areas it can lead to human-wildlife conflict.

AUSTRALIAN WHITE IBIS

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