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The Giant Gippsland EarthwormGrowing to Lengths of Up to 3m in West Gippsland, Victoria, Australia.
Jul 31, 2010 © Harry P. Schlanger
The Giant Gippsland Earthworm was first discovered in 1878. It is the largest worm of its kind in the world - so large that some may confuse it for a snake.
According to
Museum Victoria the Director of the National Museum of Victoria in colonial times, Professor Frederick
McCoy, gave it the species name, Megascolides Australis.
When European settlers arrived in the 18th century, they transformed large
areas of native forest into pasture for the dairy industry and this proved very damaging to the worms'
survival.
Habitat of the Giant Earthworm
The Giant Gippsland Earthworm can only be found in West Gippsland, Victoria, approximately a 75 minute
drive from Melbourne. Its distribution used to be much wider than is today.
The worm's habitat is now patchy and restricted to a region of only about 100 square kilometres, bounded to
the North from the coast at Bass, to Loch and Korumburra in the East, and up to Warragul in the South.
Giant worms need water to survive so they never leave their moist underground maze. Any activities that affect
the moisture content and drainage of the soil can be damaging for the worms. For example, building roads
and dams, trenching and laying cables are all adverse activities.
Giant Earthworm Appearance
A zoological illustration from
colonial times of the giant earthworm is available. The user can move around the print to examine each
minor detail. David Attenborough produced a documentary about the Giant Gippsland Earthworm and in a
video segment
he finds and extracts a rare cocoon some 10 cm long from the soil, then he finds
an adult giant earthworm, which he describes. A gurgling sound of earthworms can be heard as they scrape
their bodies against the walls of their burrows.
Giant Earthworms a Protected Species
Giant Gippsland Earthworms are useful by keeping soil healthy by decomposing organic material, recycling
plant nutrients and improving soil structure. They are now a protected species because of the decline
in population. Their fragility is caused by their sensitivity to:
- Being dug up or even handled by humans
- Disturbances from agriculture
- Soil compaction by herds of animals
- Toxic herbicides and pesticides
Tourist Attractions
The town of Loch has a Giant Gippsland Earthworm display(
Loch Village Display)
under the Highway Bypass that visitors might find interesting. The display highlights the significance of
the worm to Loch and surrounding regions. It aims to educate people of the worm's fragility as a species,
and how its habitat may be preserved through re-vegetation efforts.
In Bass, the town's main attraction for visitors is "Wildlife Wonderland", which features The Giant
Earthworm Museum. This 100-metre long structure is in the likeness of the worms it celebrates, allowing
visitors to crawl through a human-size worm burrow and walk through a simulated worm's stomach. It also
features a theatrette, natural history of worms, marine worm tank and a local historical display.
References:
- "The biology and conservation of the giant gippsland earthworm Megascolides Australis
mccoy, 1878. Beverley Van Praagh. Elsevier Ltd. 1992.
Abstract
The copyright of the article The Giant Gippsland Earthworm: Growing to Lengths of Up to 3m in West Gippsland, Victoria, Australia. is owned by Harry P. Schlanger. Permission to republish in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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