The biodiversity existing among living things in a healthy environment includes invertebrates with no hard body parts or with only a protective hard shell on the outside of the body. Some of these have parts that are jointed so that they can move, and vertebrates, with an internal skeleton like humans.
All animals at Tumbi wetlands
[ Worms ] [ Snails ] [ Arthropods ] [Vertebrates ]
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Animals with soft bodies and no external protection: Worms.
There are quite a lot of animals with soft bodies, many of which are so small that a microscope is needed to see them, but among the ones we can see, there is a variety of worms, including earthworms which live in the soil and leaches which usually are found in or near water.
Worm
Photo shows some of the small worms living in the mud at the bottom of the pool; notice the adaptation shown by the small one – it has a lot of bed blood cells to help it extract oxygen from the largely depleted water around it.
Leeches are segmented worms, just like earthworms, that usually live in water. They are an interesting part of the food chain as they are both food for predators and predators themselves.
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Animals with soft bodies inside a hard shell: Molluscs or Snails.
Some of the animals with soft bodies, protect themselves by growing a shell as a covering or a “house”.
Water Snail
Here is one of the larger water snails at Tumbi Wetlands – less than 2 cm long, crawling along with feelers extended. They browse on the algae covering the rocks in the pond.
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Animals with hard shells and jointed legs: Arthropods.
There are two major groups of animals with hard outer shells and jointed limbs. They are classified by the number of pairs of legs each one has. Insects have 3 pair, spiders have 4 pair and others e.g. centipedes, have more.
Insects and Spiders
Typical insect structure Typical spider structure
Insects are a very diverse group of animals and are divided into groups according to how their wings are structured. Some have four wings, like Dragonflies and Beetles. For Beetles the outer wings are hard like the body shell. Many insects have a life cycle of 4 stages
Egg Caterpiller Coocoon Adult
But others just grow from small nymphs to larger adults, shedding their hard outer skin as they grow out of it. Spiders are predators, hunters of smaller animals, which have evolved to have quite a variety of different web types. These were monitored during a biodiversity survey when at least 11 different types of webs were encountered. Some were large round webs at least half a metre across while the smallest was only a few centimetres across.
Animals with backbones: vertebrates.
There are no fish at Tumbi Wetlands but all the other vertebrate groups are represented:
[Amphibians ] [ Reptiles ] [ Birds ] [ Mammals ]
Amphibians resident in, or visiting Tumbi Wetlands
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Common Eastern Froglet Crinia signifera |
Limnodynastes peronii Striped Marsh Frog |
Reptiles resident in, or visiting Tumbi Wetlands
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Blue-tongued Lizard Common Garden Skink Eastern Water Skink Egernia major Eulamprus quoyii |
Lampropholis guichenoti Land Mullet Pseudechis porphyriacus Red-bellied Black Snake Tiliqua scincoide |
Birds resident in, or visiting Tumbi Wetlands
| Kookaburra Galah Black Cockatoo Noisy Miner Acanthorhynchus tenuiorosris Aegotheles cristatus Alectura lathami Alisterus scapularis Anas castanea Anas superciliosa Anthochaera carunculata Anthochaera chrysoptera Ardea pacifica Australian Brush-turkey Australian Magpie Blacked-faced Cuckoo-Shrike Brown Cuckoo-Dove Calyptorhynchus funereus Channel-billed Cuckoo Chestnut Teal Colluricincla harmonica Common Koel violaceus Coracina novaehollandiae Cracticus torquatus Crested Pigeon Dacelo novaeguineae Dollarbird Eastern Rosella Eastern Spinebill Eastern Whipbird Eastern Yellow Robin Egretta novaehollandiae Eolophus roseicapillus Eopsaltria australis Eudynamys scolopacea Eurystomus orientalis Figbird Golden Whistler Grallina Cyanoleuca Grey Butcherbird Grey Fantail Grey Shrike-Thrush Gymnorhina tibicen King Parrot Lewin’s Honeyeater Lichenostomus chrysops Little Wattlebird Macropygia amboinennsis |
Magpie lark Malurus cyaneus Manorina melanochephala Meliphaga lewinii Myzomela sanguinolenta Neochmia temporalis Noisy Friarbird Noisy Miner Ocyphaps lophotes Owlet Nightjar Pachycephala pectoralis Pacific Black Duck Pardalotus punctata pardalotus punctatus Petroica rosea Philemon corniculatus Phylidonyris nigra Pied Currawong Platycercus eximius Podargus strigoides Psophodes olivaceus Ptilonorhynchus Rainbow Lorrikeet Red Wattlebird Redhead Finch Rhipidura albiscapa Rose Robin Sacred Kingfisher Satin Bowerbird Scarlet Honeyeater Scythrops novaehollandiae Sericornis frontalis Sphecotheres vieilloti Spotted pardalote Spotted Pardalote Strepera graculina Superb Fairy-wren Tawny Frogmouth Todiramphus sanctus Trichoglossus haematodus White-browed Scrubwren White-cheeked Honeyeater White-faced Heron White-necked Heron Yellow-faced Honeyeater |
Mammals resident in, or visiting Tumbi Wetlands
Links below are to photographs of these mammals on this site.
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Common Ringtail Possum Common Brushtail Possum Trichosurus vulpecula |
Pseudocheirus peregrinus Grey Headed Fruit Bat Pteropus poliocephalus |
