You only need to hear the call of the Orange-footed Scrubfowl once for it to be remembered. It’s been described as a cross between a crow and a chicken and on a still night, their loud territorial calls can be heard 6 km away.
Orange-footed Scrubfowl - Photo by David White
The Orange-footed Scrubfowl are in a family of birds known as Megapodes. It includes the Brush Turkey and the Malley Fowl. Unlike other birds, Megapodes don’t build a nest to incubate their eggs with their body heat. Instead, they build a large mound, heaped up with organic matter to generate heat through the composting process. They build the mound using their massive orange legs and feet. In the mound, females lay up to a dozen eggs.
We found an incubation mound at Lot 398 Maple Road at Cow Bay. This important property is also a habitat for the Endangered Southern Cassowary, other Birds, Snakes, Gliders, Possums, Bats, and other tree-dwelling animals.
An incubation mound on Lot 398 Maple Road
Lot 398 Maple Road deserves the same level of protection as the adjacent Daintree National Park and World Heritage Area.
Right now we need to raise another $19,550 to ensure this property is purchased and added to the Daintree National Park.
Please, donate now and help purchase Lot 398 Maple Road in the Daintree Rainforest. Every $2 you donate will help save one square metre of the Daintree. If you donate $20 you will help purchase ten square metres of habitat! A donation of $50 will help purchase twenty-five square metres and $100 will help purchase fifty square metres of the World Heritage value Daintree Rainforest.
Old trees with hollows on Lot 398 provide valuable habitat
Lot 398 Maple Road at Cow Bay is covered by beautiful tropical rainforests with an impressive canopy of 60-metre-tall trees.
There is no evidence of past clearing or logging, and there are many old-growth trees with hollows that provide habitat for Birds, Snakes, Gliders, Possums, Bats, and other tree-dwelling animals.
On the property, we also found a very large Hope's Cycad that's estimated at over 1,000 years making this property an important acquisition for conservation. These cycads are endemic to Queensland and are the world's tallest species of cycad.
Two species found on Lot 398 are listed as Threatened in the Queensland Nature Conservation Act 1992. Noah’s Walnut (Endiandra microneura) is listed as Near Threatened and the Southern Cassowary (Casuarius casuarius johnsonii) is listed as Endangered.
This freehold property deserves the same level of protection as the adjacent Daintree National Park and World Heritage Area.
Right now we need to raise another $19,550 to ensure this property is purchased and added to the Daintree National Park.
Please, donate now and help purchase Lot 398 Maple Road in the Daintree Rainforest. Every $2 you donate will help save one square metre of the Daintree. If you donate $20 you will help purchase ten square metres of habitat! A donation of $50 will help purchase twenty-five square metres and $100 will help purchase fifty square metres of the World Heritage value Daintree Rainforest.
Lot 398 Maple Road in the Daintree Rainforest.
Scientists have identified the lowland rainforest in Cow Bay as providing an “Essential habitat for the Endangered Southern Cassowary” and the assemblage of plants on Lot 398 Maple Road has many species within the primitive plant family “Lauraceae”, all of which provide food for the Cassowary.
We are focusing our efforts on Cow Bay as scientists have identified this area as being the highest priority for conservation. The rainforest here has some of the highest levels of biodiversity and the highest densities of Cassowaries in Australia.
Please, donate now and help purchase Lot 398 Maple Road in the Daintree Rainforest. Every $2 you donate will help save one square metre of the Daintree. If you donate $20 you will help purchase ten square metres of habitat! A donation of $50 will help purchase twenty-five square metres and $100 will help purchase fifty square metres of the World Heritage value Daintree Rainforest.
Cassowary at Cow Bay in the Daintree Lowland Rainforest
Buying and protecting this property will be a fantastic outcome for conservation as it connects to the Daintree National Park and is located at the very end of Maple Road. We have purchased 14 properties in Cow Bay in the last two years including Lot 390 Maple Road. This enables the implementation of an improved management regime for the conservation of the Daintree Lowland Rainforest.
Buying land in this location helps us to wind back the negative impacts of the disastrous rural residential subdivision of 1,136 blocks that the Queensland Government approved in 1982. This resulted in two-thirds of the Daintree Lowland Rainforest being excluded from protection in the Daintree National Park and Wet Tropics World Heritage Area that was declared in 1988. Lot 398 Maple Road is one of these properties.
Please, donate now and help purchase Lot 398 Maple Road in the Daintree Rainforest. Every $2 you donate will help save one square metre of the Daintree. If you donate $20 you will help purchase ten square metres of habitat! A donation of $50 will help purchase twenty-five square metres and $100 will help purchase fifty square metres of the World Heritage value Daintree Rainforest.
Lot 398 Maple Road at Cow Bay
The property is adjacent to the Daintree National Park and World Heritage Area and at the very end of Maple Road. Its strategic location makes this an important acquisition as we work towards reversing the negative impacts of the rural residential subdivision. Following the purchase of this property, we will begin the process of it being transferred into the Daintree National Park (CYPAL) estate.
We've taken over 50 photographs of the beautiful rainforest on Lot 398 Maple Road which you can see here.
Please join me and donate now to help purchase Lot 398 Maple Road at Cow Bay.
If you have any questions about our projects please email me at [email protected] or you can call me on 0437 423 119.
Thanks for everything you do to help Save the Daintree Rainforest.
Kelvin Davies
Founder, Rainforest 4 Foundation
Showing 1 reaction
Sign in with