As soon as I set eyes on these termite mounds, thanks to David Attenborough I knew exactly what they were! I had first seen them on one of his documentaries a couple of years earlier and now here we were seeing them with our own eyes.
What I didn't realise at the time, was that we were at the most southerly point in Cape York where these particular termite mounds can be found. And the termites that build these particular mounds are named after the township we were just heading to "Laura". Amitermes laurensis are found on the Cape York Peninsula in Far North Queensland AU and only north of Laura do they build magnetic mounds.
It is generally believed that the reason these mounds align to a north/south direction is so that the termites are able to protect themselves from the extreme heat. Other types of termites are able to retreat into the ground to keep cool, but in areas North of Laura, the termites cannot do this during the wet season for fear of drowning so they have to find a way of surviving in the mound throughout the summer heat and rain.
Post a Comment