Location: Sydney and surrounding area,
New South Wales.
Mark investigates the threats faced by the venomous
Broad-headed snake, one of Australias most endangered snake
species. Confined to the Hawkesbury sandstone ridges of New South
Wales, most of its former range is now buried under an expanding
Sydney. Unfortunately bush-rock collectors and other habitat disturbance
further threaten the few locations where it still survives. Marks
aim is to investigate the current status of the Broad-headed snake
on ridges in the Morton National Park, south of Sydney, where Jonathan
Webb has previously carried out extensive fieldwork. They then plan
to use a helicopter to survey remote sandstone outcrops for isolated
populations that may serve as a safe-havens for the species
survival in the wild.
Secondary mission statement: The Sydney funnel-web spider, Atrax
robustus, is thought to be the most venomous spider in the world
but to the west of Sydney, in the forests of the Blue Mountains,
lives a much larger species of funnel-web spider. Ros Whitten and
Mark set out to capture a specimen for the Australian Reptile Park,
the only place in the world that extracts venom from funnel-web
spiders to produce the antivenom required to save the lives of Sydney-siders
bitten by them.
The Broad-headed snake (Hoplocephalus bungaroides)
raises and flattens its neck when threatened.
||Brown striped frog
||Spotted grass frog
||Green and golden bell
||Jervis bay treefrog
||Lesueur's velvet gecko
||Red-throated cool skink
||COBRAS & THEIR
Location: Morton National Park, NSW (original range of Broad-headed
snake in red).
Location: Blue Mountains National Park, NSW (range of Blue Mt. funnel-web
spider in red).