The Termite attack!

One of the things that I'd heard about NT and had noticed was the proliferation of termite mounds. It was amazing looking to your left and right whilst driving past and seeing various red mounds sticking up all over the place. Where the Forestry Commission has burnt the vegetation (to pre-empt bush fires) often all that remained within the blackened remains are these hardy red termite mounds. They in fact looked like little soldiers or sentries, marching off into the distance, hundreds, everywhere. However, the style of the mounds and their size started to change as we drew nearer to Darwin. Rather than appearing to be a blob, with a sticky-up bit in the middle, about 3-4 feet in height, these mounds grew taller and taller and took on shapes with towers, buttresses and fluted sections looking like a medieval or gothic castle until these too were marching off into the distance like big soldiers! An interesting fact I read was that of the weight of biomass in Oz (Biomass being (From Wikipedia):

In ecology, biomass refers to the cumulation of living matter. That is, it is the total living biological material in a given area or of a biological community or group. Biomass is measured by weight, or by dry weight, per given area (usually measured per square metre or square kilometre));

Ants and Termites account for nearly 50%. 50%... That's pretty amazing and when you see these mounds, you can begin to appreciate it. I killed a cockroach and left it where I'd crunched it, on the pavement. Next morning, I saw some ants by it and moved the body with my shoe and it had been completely husked - hollowed out. Amazing. Doesn't take long to become part of the food chain here! Anyway, some more amazing facts to follow....!

Wow, look at the size of that...!