NATURE is a wonderfully inventive thing. What we screamingly describe as catastrophe and disaster, Nature makes it an opportunity.
It may be an ice age, a meteor whacking into earth, or CO2 pumped by humans into the atmosphere. Whatever it is, some species adapt and find themselves survivors and masters.
This is happening now. Species are looking at the rubbish we have left around and thinking, "Hmm, we can use this stuff".
The thought occurred to me when I caught a glimpse of gold fish-like shapes in Sheep Station Creek as I cycled down Morayfield Road. It wasn't a school of escapee gold fish - the shapes were handles of escapee shopping trolleys.
What a brilliant evolutionary strategy - disguise yourself as rubbish. Use the accumulated stratum of junk to survive and prosper as a species. Here is a list of newly-emerged species that are using the cool stuff we leave everywhere.
Nappy Crows. Crows are picking up disposable nappies flung out on the side of roads to construct their nests. The brilliant thing is that they are using the same strategies they have for eating cane toads. They are flipping them over so the yucky stuff is on the outside.
Paper Redbacks. These live in the creases of crumpled yellow pages of the Courier Mail blown around the landscape, hence the sub species name Murdochia. It is distinguished by aggressive reaction to health bureaucrats and anyone associated with the Bligh or Gillard governments. A new British sub-species has been found to be causing havoc with phone lines.
Longbeach Yabbies. This species is not named after the beach where they are found, but after the washed-up cigarette packets they prefer as their homes. They are distinguished by the square shaped bodies that fit in the corner of the box, and their hacking coughs heard in the morning.
Gobbledock Bandicoots. These lovable creatures are growing fur markings that look like empty chip packets. Once they nestle amongst the chip packets blown up against fences, they can't be detected. Their survival may be assured by the fact they refuse to eat any of the chips they find in the packets.
The only real threat to these newly evolved species is, ironically, ourselves. On Clean Up Australia Day each year, armies of well-meaning humans strip the landscape of any rubbish they can find, robbing these creatures of their habitat.
Nature is indeed clever, and can evolve into adverse conditions we leave for them. So let us not react hastily and take away this lovely new habitat we have graciously gifted them. They may need it to adapt to world that is up to ten degrees hotter.
