MONA FOMA

Over the past two weeks, I have been able experience an integral part of the Tasmanian cultural experience: the MONA FOMA, also known as Dark Mofo. Dark Mofo is a midwinter festival put on by MONA: the museum of old and new art (the FOMA stands for festival of music and art). It is a celebration of the darkness of winter (today the sun rose at 7:45am and set at 4:45pm), the pagan solstice, as well as music, art, and food. There were some truly fantastic events and displays, and I am very grateful that my visit coincided with this unique festival.

I also took this time to ride the ferry up the Derwent River to visit MONA. This museum is not about looking at pretty pictures - it has been called "controversial" and "subversive". I definitely felt intrigued by much of the art, pleased by some, confused by a lot of it, and troubled by several pieces. On the museum’s website to book ferry tickets, it advertises a luxury option, complete with champagne and a cheese plate. The other option is, I quote, to “sit on sheep.” After reading that, I sincerely hoped there would be actual sheep on the ferry, and I certainly wasn’t disappointed.

Below are some of the highlights from the festival and museum:

The city all lit up for Dark Mofo

Sheep seats on the ferry!

This is Tim.

Art made from wind patterns. This artist also had work with magnetic fields, tides, and vortices.

This is "Cloaca Professional," a machine which eats, digests, and poops much like a human being  

Itchy itchy wombats

Since arriving in Tasmania, I've learned quite a bit about Wombats*. The species that lives in Tasmania is the Common, or Bare-Nosed Wombat (Vombatus ursinus), a very stocky but incredibly cute creature that eats mostly grass. They are marsupials, so come equipped with the requisite pouch, but they are in many ways like rabbits - for example they have continuously growing (open rooted) teeth. They also remind me in some ways of marmots and badgers.

They have long claws for digging burrows, in fact, they are the largest burrowing herbivore. Because they dig so much, they have backwards pouches, so that the joeys don't get covered in dirt every time their mama starts digging - clever wombats. I got to see a pouch up close this past weekend, which I was very excited about!  I had imagined pouches as squarish apron pocket-like structure, but that's really not at all how they are (at least in wombats), but rather more round. When not pregnant/lactating the pouch shrinks up so it is very small, and when occupied it expands, sort of like a uterus, which makes a lot of sense.

A Common Wombat grazing in Narawntapu National Park

As you might imagine wombats would make a nice, juicy meal for many predators. When wombats are threatened they go halfway into their burrows, hang on tight with their incredibly muscular forearms to prevent themselves from getting dragged out. They have thick skin and a large cartilage plate across the top of their bum (yes that's a technical anatomy term), so if the predator bites on, they can crush the predator's head in between their bum and the top of the burrow. Wombat 1, Predator 0.

Wombats in the northern part of Tasmania are currently experiencing a bad epidemic of Sarcoptic mange, which is decimating their populations. I'm in a good spot to learn about this because the professor I'm working with for my summer project here at the University does a lot of research on this issue, and he and some of his PhD students are trying to find a treatment for the problem. I had the opportunity to go with him up to Narawntapu National Park on the north coast of Tasmania, which used to have a huge population of Wombats but has been hit hardest by the mange. It's a beautiful park, and I was treated to two wombat sightings, and kangaroos!

Mangy wombat

This past weekend, I was enlisted to help the ecologists and a visiting archeologist in a project to figure out the amount of fat that wombats have between summer and winter. We were working on wombats that died from being hit by a car, or were euthanized for mange, so it was a bit smelly, but hopefully the data will give us some interesting results. It was also a wonderful opportunity to appreciate wombat anatomy up close, and see the extent of the mange problem - it's a pretty nasty infection. I am hopeful that the team of researchers and national park scientists will figure out a way to get the epidemic under control.

Here are some articles about the wombat mange projects:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-01-11/researchers-declare-war-on-wombat-mange-in-tasmanian-national-p/6010398

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-33549928

A Pademelon at Narawntapu

Some more information about all three species of Wombats:

http://www.australianwildlife.net.au/pdf/wombat/AWS_Project_Wombat.pdf

Eastern Grey (Forester) Kangaroos

*Disclaimer - I am not a wombat biologist so the facts presented here are likely mostly correct but are not guaranteed to be completely correct.

Arrival to the land down under

First, I’d like to clarify something very important: my location. I am currently living in Tasmania, which is in fact in Australia and not, as some might think, in Africa (don’t worry, you’re not the only one). I realize that the title of this blog makes this already somewhat confusing thing even more confusing, but this is a reincarnation of my previous blog (sadly no longer with us due to technological glitches and human forgetfulness).

Before I got to Tasmania, I had a 7 hour layover in Sydney, which allowed me to toss aside my jetlag like a bag of bricks and explore the city for a few hours. I saw the famed Opera House, which was just as impressive as I thought it would be, the bay bridge, and the Royal Botanical gardens. Although I was desperately hoping to see a flying fox roosting in a tree, I did get to see Sulphur Crested Cockatoos. They would spend time grazing on one of the lawns, but also periodically fly overhead squawking hysterically. By the time I got back to the airport I was happy to have seen the highlights of a new city in a new country, and also ready for a much needed nap on the airplane to Hobart.

Sulphur Crested Cockatoos

Tasmania is an island state off the southern coast of Australia. It is about 68,000km2, or about ¼ the size of Arizona or Colorado. It is known as one of the wildest parts of Australia, with much of the state set aside for National Parks. It is home to the charismatic Tasmanian Devil, as well as to a large variety of small marsupial species, many of which have become extinct on the mainland because of introduced foxes and domestic cats.

I am staying in Hobart, the capital of Tasmania, located on the southeast coast, with about 150,000 people (similar to Fort Collins). I’m staying at the place of some people who work in the biology department at University, and my current roommate is a visiting PhD student from Melbourne. They are all wonderful and friendly and have made me feel very welcome. The same is true for everyone at the University where I’m working, it’s a very friendly place!

Last weekend, we went adventuring to the Tasman Peninsula, near Port Arthur. The scenery was spectacular: towering sea cliffs with sparkling blue water, swaying gum trees, unique arches and sea caves. We found a cute little eco-coffee truck with a killer view and woolen blankets to wrap our cold selves in. I had a flat-white, which is a drink from Australia and still very popular here. A flat white, according to Wikipedia is: “somewhat similar to the traditional cappuccino or the latte although smaller in volume, therefore having a higher proportion of coffee to milk, and milk that is more velvety in consistency – allowing the espresso to dominate the flavour, while being supported by the milk.” Yum.

After our refreshments we trekked on to the Tesselated pavement, a very interesting geological feature that looks sort of like paving stones on the edge of the ocean. It occurs because of the natural processes of the saltwater making small cracks in the rock, which widen over time, and variable amounts of erosion. Then onto various big arches, sea channels, and a blowhole, all formed over time by the surf and wind. Along the way we looked for birds, plants, and saw a Wallaby!

Some photos of the cliffs and scenery:

Tessellated pavement

The Tasman peninsula

Amazing Eucalyptus trees everywhere