# Lord Howe Island -- Natural History pt1



## moloch05 (Oct 25, 2009)

My wife and I have just returned from a week long trip to Lord Howe Island. Wow, what a place! It is a superb site for those who enjoy cycling, hiking, snorkelling, birding or just want to be awed by natural beauty. 

Lord Howe is situated about 700 km northeast of Sydney. It is located between New Caledonia to the northeast, New Zealand to the southeast and Norfolk Island to the east. As a result, the flora and fauna is very interesting and includes a blend of life from these different areas. It seems surprising but the islands were uninhabited when the Europeans arrived in the late 1700s.

There are only a couple of terrestrial herps on the island but this place is so interesting and stunningly beautiful that I decided to prepare a "natural history" report to show some of the amazing sights of the island. 

Lord Howe Island once was huge but now, it has nearly been reclaimed by the sea. All that is left is the small island of Lord Howe (11 km long), the adjacent Admiralty islets and about 23 kms to the east, Ball's Pyramid. This is a photo of a drawing of the island at the island's museum:






The main island of Lord Howe is dominated by the cores of an extinct volcano. These cores have formed the mountains known as Mt. Lidgbird (777m) and Mt. Gower (875m).











This is a shot of Ball's Pyramid (550m) from the western slope of Mt. Lidgbird. Ball's Pyramid is the tallest stack on the planet. It is an ominous looking place but is a refuge to both of Lord Howe's native reptiles. 







Ball's Pyramid is also the site where the huge phasmid known as the "Land Lobster" was rediscovered in 2001. Prior to this, the insect was thought to be extinct as the result of the accidental introduction of Black Rats to Lord Howe in 1918. While I was on the island, I was lucky to meet a former ranger who was on the survey team that found the phasmid. He and others climbed the pyramid at night and found 5 on their first visit. They later returned and collected a few to establish a breeding colony at the nursery on Lord Howe. I cannot imagine climbing on that place especially at night due to the nearly shear slopes and unstable substrate! It is possible to view the captive animals at the nursery but I did not have time so had to settle for photos of specimens from the museum:






About 80% of Lord Howe has been set aside as a permanent preserve. Most of the island is forested.






Lord Howe Island is bathed by the East Australia Current so water temperatures range between 18C in the winter and 25C in the summer. These mild conditions have allowed coral reefs to develop and Lord Howe has the most southerly of all reefs. The reef itself is a mix of both hard and soft corals. It was colourful with many blue, purple and green outcrops. Fish diversity was much greater than I expected and I saw a number of fish that I have not encountered further north at the Great Barrier Reef. Butterfly Fish were particular diverse.








*Ned's Beach*
Ned's Beach was just a 10 minute walk from our accommodation.






The fish in this bay are protected and extremely tame. Meter-long Kingfish would swim right up to my feet in the shallows. 













Bluefish are normally grey but they flush this lovely sky blue when excited. This one (left) was definitely excited by bread. The other fish is a Surge Wrasse and was an absolute rainbow of colours.









This morning glory was common on the dunes surrounding the beach. _Ipomoea pes-capre_ (Convolvulaceae):






Sallywood (_Lagunaria patersonia_, Malvaceae) and a fern.









Sacred Kingfisher was a common native of the lowlands.






Ned's Beach is the area where Lord Howe Island Horned Turtle (_Meiolania platyceps_) fossils are found. These turtles are thought to have become extinct about 40,000 years ago. They were huge and almost the size of the Galapagos Tortoises.


















*Offshore Islets*

Offshore Islands have provided refuge to a number of animals that have otherwise become rare or extinct on the main island due to Black Rats. I visited one of these to see some of the animals that once lived on Lord Howe.






Lord Howe Island Gecko (_Christinus guentheri_): These geckos were numerous on an offshore island. I also saw a single animal near accommodation right on Lord Howe itself. _Christinus_ is a genus of cool-adapted geckos within Australia that are mostly distributed in the southern portion of Australia. It is surprising that this genus of gecko managed to reach the Lord Howe.





These little geckos exhibited an unusual behaviour. They would form a tight coil and place the large toes from one foot over their head and eyes. When coiled like this, they were very inconspicuous when on rocks and leaf litter of the forest floor.
































A small red mite lived on the geckos. I wonder if these are harmless to the geckos like the mites that I see on _Phyllurus_ (leaf-tailed) geckos?






Lord Howe Island Skink (_Cyclodina lichenigera_): I saw three of these skinks. This species is about the size of an Eastern Water Skink and is thought to have reached Lord Howe from New Zealand.


























Wedge-tailed Shearwaters nested mostly on the offshore islands. They were mostly in their burrows when I visited the islet. They moaned continuously and the sound was quite eerie and almost human-like.













Lord Howe Island bush cockroach (_Panesthia lata_) -- common on an offshore island. These roaches are apparently extinct on the main island of Lord Howe due to predation by Black Rats.









Flat Spider (_Hemicloea sp_.) and a centipede









Brown Noddy

There was a nesting colony of Brown Noddies at the far end of Blinky Beach.

























Masked Booby

Mutton Bird Point was the nesting site of many pairs of Masked Boobies. 




















The natural habitat has been most altered near the south end of the island. This is the area that was initially settled by Europeans in the early 1800s. Here, many of the exotic Norfolk Island Pines were planted and some of these are now huge trees. 






These trees are a favourite nesting site of the lovely White Tern. I saw large numbers of these nesting in the trees sometimes within a meter or two of the ground. They don't actually build a nest but lay their egg in a slight depression on a branch. White Terns would attempt to drive away other birds such as Pied Currawongs that flew near their nests.




















Emerald Ground Doves were often seen as they walked along the forest floor:






At night, one of the most conspicuous birds was the Flesh-footed Shearwater. These birds nest in burrows and would return at dusk. Once it was dark, they were very noisy. Their call vaguely sounded like "pick me, pick me!". They departed before sunrise to return to feed from the ocean.




















Arthropods and Gastropods of the area included the following:

... a burrowing cricket:









... wasps:








... huntsman (abundant!) and a long-horned borer:








... these two large slugs were twisting around each other and slowly dropping to the ground while suspended by a thread of slime:








Regards,
David


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## ryanharvey1993 (Oct 25, 2009)

nice find with the guentheri, I have read they are now very rare on the main island due to introduced rats. very nice pics by the way, love reading the threads and looking at the pics.


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## kupper (Oct 25, 2009)

thats awesome mate, please keep the photos coming


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## Serpentes (Oct 25, 2009)

Awesome shots as always! It's beautiful over there. No pics of Lampropholis?! Did you know that the Lampropholis delicata on the island are invasive there? They appeared in the 1970's and now cover the whole island other than the tops of Litchbrid and Gower. They are proudly Australias only invasive lizard, and the only invasive Aussie reptile other than Boiga.

Where were the Cyclodina? I have done a bit of research on the local herps for the LHI Board.


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## j.kcustoms (Oct 25, 2009)

very nice photos looks like an unreal place to go for a holiday


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## Snowman (Oct 25, 2009)

Your photos are always amazing Moloch. Do you get any of them publlished?
What len's do you use for photographing the birds?
You should have your own photo web site for us to check regularly


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## bongie555 (Oct 25, 2009)

did you go fishing? thats why i want to go there. big kingies.


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## gecko-mad (Oct 25, 2009)

AWESOME!!!! man i waish i was there!


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## dottyback (Oct 25, 2009)

absolutly amazing! thanks for sharing!


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## JasonL (Oct 26, 2009)

Great pics, lucky to find C. guentheri on the main island.. Glenn Shea did a talk at the AHS last year on the work he and Hal Cogger did on them... Hal apparently found some eggs and they took some crazy amount of time to hatch... something like 9 months??... the talk was actually extremely interesting..
Your Blue Fish (Girella cyanea) is from the Drummer family like Black Drummer (Girella elevata).... my fisho mates who go over there catching kingies say that apparently the Blue Fish have an hallucinogen in their meat...??...


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## Sock Puppet (Oct 26, 2009)

LHI is in my top 3 "must-go-fishing" places for the future. Especially off the pyramid. It is unique that it has a diverse mix of temperate fish species (kingfish, silver trevally etc), tropical species (coral trout, sweetlips), & even endemic species such as the enigmatic "double header". 

Great pics, especially the bird life. Being a keen fisho I also take an interest in wildlife in & around marine environments, so those pics were interesting.


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## pythons73 (Oct 26, 2009)

As usuall, fantastic photos Moloch,you visit some top areas and must have a awesome time.Everytime i see a post regarding your name,i no its going to be worthwhile looking...Stunning photos again..10/10 top stuff..MARK







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## ozziepythons (Oct 26, 2009)

The landscape pics are inspiring, as are the wildlife shots, and the text that goes with it well educated. It is this type of thread that raises the standard of this site, thanks moloch05, keep raising the bar


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## lilmissrazz (Oct 26, 2009)

Fantastic pics mate!! AMAZING. I wanna go now!! hahaha


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## redbellybite (Oct 26, 2009)

Dave as usual no fault can be found with your pics ..love reading your posts...


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## Frozenmouse (Oct 26, 2009)

Thank you for sharing .


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## jase75 (Oct 26, 2009)

Great pics David, i love Lord Howe Island. The climb to the top of Mt Gower has the most amazing views. Did you get to see any of the Lord Howe Island Wood Hens ? I done so much looking around but cudnt find any of the Gecko's, only 1 dead 1 that had been run over on the road. Wat island to you go to to find them ? I swam out to Blackburn Island a few times but didnt find any. Thanks for sharing your pics.


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## moloch05 (Oct 26, 2009)

Thanks so much, everyone, for the kind replies. It is always nice to know that the reports are enjoyed. I certainly have lots of fun on the trips and then preparing these posts to share with like-minded people. 

Ryan, I was very surprised to see the gecko near town since I was under the impression that they and the skink were difficult on the main island. There is talk of an attempt to broadcast poison over the entire island to try and kill off all the rats. It would be so good for the native animals if this happens. I saw rats in the woodlands whenever I went out in the evening.



Serpentes, did you spend much time at Lord Howe? If so, you are a lucky one since it is so beautiful. Yes, I saw large numbers of Lampropholis and have a photo in my next post.

Snowman, a few of my pics have been published. A number will also appear in Danny Brown's lizard book that will be out before too long. I use either a Tamron 18x250mm or 90mm macro for my photos.

bongie, I did not fish. I was too busy walking the various trails of the island. I hope to return in a year or two and take along an underwater camera.

Jason, thanks for the info. I did not realize that the Bluefish was one of the drummers. It certainly is a pretty one. Hallucinogen? I wonder if it is a popular fish with the locals?

Tonsky, there certainly is an interesting blend of fish. I saw a big double-headed or hump-headed wrasse in the lagoon. They are odd looking creatures.

Thanks kupper, j.k., gecko-mad, dottyback, Mark, ozziepythons, lilmissraz, redbelly, Dabool and jase. 


Regards,
David


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## Serpentes (Oct 26, 2009)

Hi David,
I was doing stuff in 2007 with the invasive skinks on the island and their impacts, plus impacts of the planned rodent eradication on the invasive skinks and so on and so forth. I was lucky to be paid to spend time on the island, and work mostly consisted of walking around catching Lampropholis!

There are large numbers of Christinus on the island in places, don't know why, but it may simply be predator refuge from rodents. I was finding dozens in a night in hot spots. The LHI Skink, however, is different, I found none on the main island and a couple offshore. Were your Cyclodina found on the main island?


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## Adsell (Oct 26, 2009)

nice pics as always
Ads


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## saratoga (Oct 26, 2009)

Fantastic report David and great images. Really appreciate the overall insight and not just the herps.

You certainly get around the place!


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## hornet (Jun 3, 2010)

Great pics, would really love to visit Lord howe one day, a number of inverts on that island i would love to get my hands on including lord howe phasmids altho i'm expecting some of them to turn up today


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## moosenoose (Jun 3, 2010)

Wonderful stuff!


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## Southside Morelia (Jun 3, 2010)

Awesome pics and thread!!! 
Brings back so many memories as I have been to Lord Howe a few times game fishing...unbelievable, I have never have used ALL my strength against a fish before on the mainland like I have at Lord Howe against the massive "greenback kingies" and 50kg+ yellowfin tuna which we sent to Japan and the pain in the butt sharks!!! lol
I went to school with a mate who had to come to the mainland to attend High School as they don't have one on lord Howe, so i had connections...lol Awesome hollow reef breaks as well if your a surfer....
Funny story, I was at Neds Beach feeding the fish by hand, no one around except me and my mate...next minute i see him on shore waving his hands around, didn't take much notice until he came in knee deep and I was in above my head...turned around and he gave me the shark sign..hand above the head like a fin..and there was 3 BIG whaler sharks within meters circling me...needless to say i walked on water to get out as there was a feeding frenzy in the water at the time and I had fish and bread tucked in my boardies..lol

Great place, l plan to go back again soon!


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## boodie (Jun 3, 2010)

You have no idea how shocked i was when i saw this thread. I trace my ancestry back to the original settlers of Lord Howe Island, if you go to the museum my parents are on the family tree though myself and younger brother are not given they haven't updated it in ages. My grandmother grew up on the island and only left when she got married to one of the men who worked on the flying boat service that traveled to the island. My mother used to spend her summer holidays there.

Love going there, but it is weird when you are related by blood to every full time islander there. The kingfish make a great feed, and i love the snorkeling. Used to love going out into the lagoon and swimming with the sharks and it is the only place i have seen Moray Eels and Lion Fish ( at the same time!).

I had the awesome luck of actually seeing Baby Wood hens when I was there last, we were walking up to the goat house and they just came right out of the undergrowth with their mothers. Still all fluffy and just out of the egg. Wish I had pictures on this computer to post of them! The white turns are also great when you can see their young nesting on the pines, though they are not technically native.

Bit of trivia though; The Mutton Birds are named so because the settlers used to eat them. Apparently they tasted like mutton.


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## thals (Jun 3, 2010)

What an awesome place to visit! So much beauty and amazing wildlife to see, those wrasse are just gorgeous


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