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Pisonia grandis, a tough species which has made a career out of structural fragility. Note the punky wood --- it is a water storage tissue, and does not have a clear ring structure. This tree exhibits the strategic behavior of the species. It grows tall enough to form a closed canopy. During storms, the largest specimens blow over, tearing a gap in the forest canopy. If this were mainland rainforest (see the Daintree Rainforest HERE), the temporary clear space of the gap would be filled in by many species of frantically sprouting seeds or surging growth in seedlings which have been lingering in the deep shade for decades.

But there is a catch. Pisonias don't die when they fall over. They sprout along the trunk at each branch. The initial fall smashes what few rainforest species manage to become established on a coral cay. Then sprouting clones an already established tree into the gap. A minor trunk of this tree has fallen over and all sorts of bits and scraps are sprouting. The result is that gaps fill in with clones, not with new species. Sneaky. Effective.

LEFT: Buff banded rail (Gallirallus philippensis) patrolling its territory in the Pisonia forest. If you stood quietly on a path, you could hear the eerie shuffling of these ground birds sorting the leaf litter on the forest floor. They ate just about anything organic, including the losers of territorial squabbles. CENTER: In the restaurant, rails snuck around the floor under tables and pounced instantly on any abandoned plate when a guest went for a refill at the central table buffet. We always left an armed guard (a fork worked well) at our table when we went for food. Very competitive eating.

And the avian entertainment got better. If a lucky rail grabbed a piece of food, it was immediately chased by other rails in the restaurant, including those watching through the plate glass windows. RIGHT: There was invariably a silver gull (Larus novaehollandiae) posted at the door, waiting for a rail with a snack to make a run for the outside. The gull would beat up the rail and steal its food. And there would be another gull waiting on a nearby rooftop to whack on the first gull, should it be unwary.

I told you this Island was a quietly ferocious place. Never boring. In keeping with the general observation that animals in Australia are nifty at blending in to their background habitats, I thought the rails went rather well with the restaurant décor.