Rand Rudland will give an audio-visual presentation of a visit to a number of remote islands found near Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu in Melanesia, to the Sunshine Coast Natural History Society, on Dec. 4 at 7:30 p.m. at the Sechelt Arts Centre.
The talk will describe his off-duty visits, while working as the ship’s physician aboard the small cruise vessel, the Spirit of Enderby, which visited the area. The advantages of travelling in a small ship is that one can visit small islands by using Zodiac boats, which is not possible when one travels on the larger cruise ships. In this manner, one can experience unique cultural experiences and ceremonies not usually seen by most visitors. On many occasions, the last visitors to these islands happened a year ago, when the same ship had visited the area. That’s isolation.
Visiting remote islands such as these offers naturalists a bittersweet opportunity to explore the forested areas of the tropics. Sweet, because they house such amazing diversity in floral, insect and avian life, and bitter, because much of the forest is being removed, to the detriment of the endemic species within. Clear cutting is proceeding at an accelerating rate to feed offshore demand for exotic hardwoods in the furniture and construction industries in China, Malaysia and beyond. And as goes the forest, so goes the wildlife. Fortunately, there are still large old-growth remnants left to explore, and the occasional island with inhabitants who have taken it upon themselves to not sell out for immediate cash. And in these latter locations the wildlife, especially the birds, survive and prosper.
This area offers excellent diving opportunities, and many colourful coral, starfish, tunicates, fish, mammal and reptile species were seen. On hot days, it was very refreshing to snorkel into the shallow cooler coral reef and shelf areas of these volcanic islands.
The presentation will cover aspects of the endemic avian population covering species such as fruit-doves, kingfishers, imperial pigeons, fantails and friarbirds present on the islands. Several species from Queensland, Australia will be included in the discussion of new avian and mammalian family relationships of this whole general area. Also, a few photographs will be shown of the underwater beauties present in the many coral reefs visited. Some videos will be shown too, of dances and ceremonies that occur on these isolated islands that are rarely seen by visiting travellers.
Rudland lives in Halfmoon Bay. Recently, he has been working in short-term locums in Northern Canada, ranging from Alberta to Labrador. He travels extensively and has an insatiable interest in natural history and taking pictures and videos of wildlife, ranging from insects and birds to mammals.
