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Trekking through the Australian tropical rainforest, three EBIO students and one Boulder County local (Alyson Cheney, Meghan Wiebe, Kayla Carey and Chelsea Walls pictured left to right) scan the ground for a tiny hopping marsupial, the聽聽commonly called the Hypsy. 聽As the smallest member of the kangaroo family, this furry little animal has a tail and a triangular face of a rat, but hops like a kangaroo.聽 The students are carrying out聽聽with SIT Study Abroad. The study evaluates the population changes of the tiny kangaroo by surveying national parks in the聽.

The Hypsy lives in the wet tropical rainforest of northern聽, but historical clearing of forests for farming and timber has made locating suitable habitat more difficult for the Hypsy. The rainforests of the wet tropics have been cleared almost everywhere except for the northeastern tablelands due to its high elevation. They rely heavily on the fruiting trees of the rainforest. Experts are concerned about the future of tropical rainforest as climate change threatens to disrupt weather patterns and ecosystem stability.

Besides being cute, the musky rat kangaroos are extremely important to maintaining the diversity of other rainforest species because they are vital seed dispersers. As frugivores, they consume forest fruit, but also store rainforest fruits in leaf litter. 鈥淏y scattering seeds they help a variety of rainforest trees grow,鈥� said Chelsea Walls, CU senior studying Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. The little critters are vital in maintaining a diverse ecosystem, which helps to increase the variety of vegetation and wildlife in the environment.

Kayla Carey, a junior Ecology and Evolutionary Biology major, describes observing two of the furry critters chasing each other in a defensive manner; 鈥淭he males are very territorial of their home ranges and defend their territory against others with behavior that resembles a small game of tag.鈥澛� This is a common behavior demonstrated by the miniature kangaroos. 聽

The students hiked around the scenic聽聽and Gadgarra National Parks聽for hours, watching and recording the number and behavior of the Musky Rat Kangaroos. 鈥淎nimal observations take patience. Sometimes you see many animals every other minute, darting across the trail, but other times you won鈥檛 see one for an hour鈥� said Meghan Wiebe, also a CU senior, double majoring in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies. The researchers combined their data with past surveys from other national parks in the World Heritage Area and found that more Hypsy鈥檚 were spotted during the current dry season than in previous studies from the wet season. The increased sightings are encouraging, but unfortunately may be due to a decrease in the local predators, like pythons or Australia鈥檚 carnivorous聽. On one end we are excited to see the little kangaroos flourish, but ecosystems are extremely complex and we don鈥檛 know what this might mean for future rainforest health.

鈥淲e gained a new appreciation for how much even the smallest species can effect the entire ecosystem鈥� Alyson Cheney a Lafayette local and Environmental Studies major at Connecticut College. The team鈥檚 research advisor and field biologist, Dr. John Grant, pointed out that it is more important than ever to work on research and conservation efforts in the area.聽 There is no way to tell what is going to happen to the wet tropics in the future, but care must be taken to preserve the beauty of such an ecologically significant location.

Story by Alyson Cheney, Meghan Wiebe, Kayla Carey, and Chelsea Walls
Photo Credit: By The Rambling Man (Own work) [听辞谤听闭,听惫颈补