Originally Posted by Webby

I'm no expert in this area psili, but got friends here who are and it's very interesting learning from them.

On the "tiny piece" aspect, one biologist who works specifically with people engaged in reforestations has the job of "implanting" species into the new forests to make the whole ecology of that area work. He has ranges of insects, toads, snails, reptiles etc (all indiginous species) and these are "planted" as part of the rainforest "re-creation program". Apparently when there is an element missing from the stucture - like an insect etc - this breaks the forest life down and it stands less chance of being self-sustainable.

Another friend specializes in "slithery critters" - he's kinda like a real Crocodile Dundee and prob handled most of the world's reptiles :-) There was a small frog - very small creature half an inch in size. This was assumed to have become extinct a few years back and was a major factor in the future of several rainforests. Alex eventually found a very small pocket of these frogs and managed to preserve them and with others, is spreading them into new forest territories to encourage/restore the ecology back to it's previous state.

It appears that very small things have this trickling effect over much bigger and obvious elements ;-)


PS It is interesting what these folks do and can be fun as well :-) Got a demonstration of a snake attack a couple of years back - had to firmly hold a large perspex sheet between the snake and my face. The snake was very interested in "performing" and eventually attacked. Could not believe the power of that "punch" against the perspex - if it was glass, chances are the snake would have broken the glass. It was more like a strong human punch - and inclined to have great respect for snakes now *lol*

Then there was the injured jaguar one kept in his kitchen while it got back to health *lol*... But that's another story...