This month, I thought it might be nice to revisit the ‘mixed-bag’ of articles for a change. So, there is no central theme to the three items, except that I find all three topics interesting and slightly bizarre.

The Little Cousin

Like all species, human beings come in a range of shapes, colours and …sizes. I am not a tall woman. In fact, you might even say that I am short; I had a range of nicknames at school, ranging from ‘Half-pint’ to ‘Short-stuff’. So, I am quite thrilled that scientists have discovered ‘Hobbit Man’, a cousin of mankind who is petite. (This is code for “Shorter than Lynne”.)

Hobbit Man, properly named Homo floresiensis, has been discovered by a team of Australian scientists, on the remote Indonesian island of Flores. The scientists have so far uncovered six skeletons, ranging form 95,000 years old to a mere 12,000. This species of humanoid averaged three feet and three inches in height - much smaller than the African race of Pygmies - and probably hunted pigmy elephants. It is not an unusual phenomenon for a species to become smaller in an isolated, nutrient-poor environment, like an island; if food is plentiful, the opposite can happen and ‘giants’ form, such as the dodo, Raphus cucullatus – a ‘giant’ type of bird evolved from migratory pigeons – and the Galapagos tortoise, Geochelone elephantopus.

Homo erectus and Homo floresiensis would have existed side by side at some point. It is unlikely that Hobbit Man has contributed to the gene pool of Homo sapiens; the poor creature was probably out-competed by its larger cousins and went extinct, like Homo erectus. But the local islanders do have legends of little people, and they may have persisted into historic times.

Tiny tools have also been discovered by the archaeologists. Even though Hobbit Man had a brain mass less than a third of our own, it is theorised he must have been more intelligent than present day chimpanzees. For comparison, African pigmies have a brain mass well within the range for normal adult human beings.

Huckleberries

When I was a child, I thought that ‘huckleberry’ was a made-up word, as I had heard of Huckleberry Finn and Huckleberry Hound, but I’d never seen such a thing. But they do exist.

Huckleberries, genus Vaccinium, are a bush related to blueberries and cranberries, and are native to the Americas, mainly North America. They produce a strongly-scented edible berry that is beloved by bears. There are several species of huckleberries, including a tart, red version that is also known as whortleberries.

Unfortunately, I can no evidence of any commercial huckleberry growers in Australia. In fact, I don’t think we import them either, and my local nursery claimed to have no idea if the plants existed, so I don’t think you can try growing your own. This means that you can only taste them by visiting America. If they are as nice as blueberries and cranberries, I can’t understand why this is the case.

Goddess of the Yangtze

The baiji, Lipotes vexillifer, or fresh river dolphin of the Yangtze, is the rarest cetacean on the world. There are between 5 to 250 individuals left in the wild; population estimates vary wildly with whoever is supplying the information.

This is a real shame. There are just five species of fresh water dolphin, and the baiji are among the most delightful creatures on the planet. The baiji are a light blue-grey, shading to white, with a jaunty uptilted beak. Their average body size is equivalent to an adult male human; though the maximum recorded size for the species is two and a half metres and 160 kg, individuals this large haven’t been sighted in the last decade.

The baiji used to be worshipped as a goddess. Then, as the Chinese culture grew too sophisticated for this belief, the species was fished to near extinction – they went from deity to dinner in one generation. This fishing has now ceased. As well, the Three Gorges Dam has altered the flow of the river, and there has been a decline in its habitat. Increased pollution levels have also played a role in the population decline. Individual animals can die in collisions with ships and boats, as the Yangtze River has experienced an increase in shipping.

It sounds like the poor baiji won’t be around for much longer, another victim sacrificed to the altar of ‘Progess’.