Bad at Goodbyes

Rough Transcript

Intro 00:05

Welcome to Bad at Goodbyes.

On today’s show we consider the Bahamas Hutia.

 

Species Information 02:05

The Bahamian Hutia is a critically endangered mammal, a rodent, native to the Bahamas archipelago in the Caribbean region, in the Atlantic Ocean. Its scientific name is Geocapromys ingrahami and it was first described in 1891.

 

Description

The Bahamian Hutia is a small to medium sized rodent, weighing about one and a half pounds, and measuring about a foot in body length with a short two inch tail. They are covered in a fine, soft, fur ranging in color from grayish, brownish, reddish, to black. Their undersides are paler, a creamy tan color. 

 

They look like perhaps a mix between a gerbil and a large mouse with a compact, study, somewhat rounded body. They move low to the ground, with four short strong limbs each with five toed feet, the digits ending in sharp curved claws. The hindlimbs are longer and stronger than the forelimbs, and they’ll sit upright, on their baskside and hindlimbs. Their forelimbs are particularly dexterous, adept at manipulating food. The soles of their feet are rough fleshly pads; for traction in navigating uneven and slippery surfaces.

 

They have a squat rounded muzzle, with large dark eyes, small arched ears, and fine whiskers at the end of their snout.

 

Behavior

The Bahamian Hutia is nocturnal, emerging and active from dusk until midmorning, roughly 10am. And then daytime is spent at rest in small caves, in crevices, or sheltered under leaf litter or in dense vegetation. This behavior, remaining inactive during the sunlit hours, is to minimize heat stress during the hottest parts of the day, as opposed to predator avoidance. In fact, in its native habitat, the Bahamian Hutia does not have any natural predators.

 

Lack of predator threat may in part explain their generally gregarious social behavior. Bahamian Hutia live in highly dense colonies, sharing feed sites and their caves and hollows, with very rare aggressive altercation. Colonies have been observed to have high site fidelity, groups repeatedly returning to the same locations, but low territoriality. They do not defend their territory with threatening behavior or violence. Even interactions between different colonies, who may have overlapping home ranges, are peaceful. Distinct colonies will feed in the same area without altercation. And within the colonies, there do not seem to be hierarchies of dominance, like divisions of leader and follower. In their restricted habitat (they live on a very small island), the hutia have adopted cooperative and tolerant behaviors, as opposed to competitive, violent behaviors.

 

This social cohesion is maintained through a variety of communication strategies. Researchers describe “nearly constant” soft vocalizations; chirps, whistles, low grunts, and quiet chortles when the hutia forage together. Physical touch is frequent, so mutual grooming, and playful (non-aggressive) wrestling are used to maintain social bonds. And olfactory communication. The Bahamian Hutia scent-mark locations with their urine, but unlike many mammals that use scent as a warning or to define territorial boundaries, the hutia employ this olfactory signaling to recognize group members and demarcate communal spaces.

 

Reproduction

Colonies consist of multiple intergenerational family units, and the Bahamian Hutia form long-term and possibly lifelong pair bonds. Mating takes place through-out the year, there does not seem to be a peak mating season. After mating mothers gestate their young for 4-5 months, and generally give birth to a single offspring. The pups are born precocial, already covered in fur, with eyes open, able to consume solid food within a day or two and only nurse for about two months. That said, the young stay with their family group for two plus years, learning to forage, developing their communication skills, and integrating into the social structure.

 

We have some evidence of communal rearing and caretaking. Researchers describe a scenario in which they captured a young hutia to tag and track it. Throughout, the pup vocalized a distress call, a sharp squeak, which drew a crowd of adult hutia, more individuals than would be in a single family group, so these are other unrelated adults drawn to the research site; the adults gathering and vocalizing in defensive response, until the pup was safely released.

 

Pups reach reproductive maturity at two years of age. And Bahamian Hutia have an average lifespan of roughly 6 years in the wild, though have been documented living as long as 9 years in captivity.

In The Dream

————

In the dream,

 

A dream for my species,

May we, humankind, share our territories without threat or violence.

May we act peaceably, when our home ranges overlap.

May we disband hierarchies of dominance.

May we reject territoriality.

May we adopt cooperation and tolerance not competition and brutality.

May we gather to protect our young,

And the young of our neighbors.

 

In the dream.

————

Diet

The Bahamian Hutia are herbivores, foraging for leaves, shoots, fruit, nuts, and bark. Their diet includes more than 40 plant species, including Wild Dilly, Pigeon Plum, Prickly-Ash, Sea Lavender, and Sweet Potato. Though foraging mainly on the ground, they will stand on their hindlimbs to reach leaves and even climb small distances up into shrubs and trees to reach fruits, bark, and new shoots at the tips of higher branches.

 

The Bahamian Hutia have specialized adaptations for their very dry environment. They have a much lower metabolic rate as compared to other rodent of similar size, and can regulate their metabolism, slowing it down when water is scarce. In general they are able to meet their drinking water needs entirely through feeding, making efficient use of the water content in the vegetation they consume. They are even able to survive drinking salt water for up to about a week. These are vital adaptations for their arid habitat.

 

Habitat

The Bahamian Hutia is native the Caribbean region, to the Bahamas, to East Plana Cay, a limestone and coral island near the southeast tip of the Bahamas archipelago. East Plana Cay is roughly five miles long and a quartermile wide, a total area of roughly one and half square miles. It is remote; a thin strip of relatively barren, low-lying stone, with 20 plus miles across the open Atlantic to the nearest island.

 

The landscape is desolate, a thin layer of sandy soil covers rough weathered slabs of limestone, pocked with fissures, craters, crevasses, and small caves. 

 

Vegetation is salt-tolerant and drought-resistant, adapted for this semi-arid environment of nutrient-poor soil, high winds and salt spray: low growing shrubs, cactus, sparse stands of short palm and small buttonwood trees. The only fresh water is temporary, collected in craters and crevasses after rainfall.

 

The climate is subtropical and relatively consistent, year-round. Temps average in the upper 70°s F across the year with summer highs cresting in the low 90s°F and winter lows falling to the mid 60s°F.  Annual rainfall is fairly low, averaging about 35 inches per year, falling in short, infrequent bursts, quick storms as weather systems pass through to the wider ocean.

 

There are few other animal on the island. The only other inhabitants are bats, lizards, and seabirds who will visit though few nest there. Importantly there is no, nor has there even been regular human settlement on the island.

 

The Bahamian Hutia shares its island home with:

Seven-Year Apple, Southern Bahamas Anole, White-Tailed Tropicbird, Silver Thatch Palm, Wild Papaya, Audubon’s Shearwater, Sea Oats, East Plana Curlytail, Bridled Tern, Buttonwood, Hog-Cabbage Palm, Sooty Tern, Wild Dilly, Firebrush, Florida Privet, Railroad Vine, American Flamingo, Golden Creeper, Swordbush, Central Bahamas Geckolet, Seagrape, Great Blue Heron, Coastal Ragweed, Pigeon Plum, Bay Cedar, Osprey, and many, many more.

 

Threats

Once widespread all across the Bahamas, the fossil record shows significant decline in the Bahamian Hutia population upon the arrival of European colonizers in the 1500s and 1600s. Specifically, due to habitat destruction: land clearance for agriculture. And additionally the invasive introduction of European mammals, rats, mice, cats, and dogs impacted Hutia populations across the archipelago. Two subspecies, the Great Abaco Hutia and the Crooked Island Hutia, were driven to extinction roughly three to four hundred years ago.

 

In fact our Bahamian Hutia was believed to be extinct until the 1960s when the population on East Plana Cay was rediscovered. Their remote uninhabited location, crucial to their continued survival.

 

Today, the species is threatened by stochastic events, unpredictable occurrences, like a particularly severe hurricane which could devastate the remaining population in a single catastrophic occurrence. And by anthropogenic climate change. Human-induced climate change resulting from persistent overreliance on fossil fuel burning is resulting in sea level rise that is and will increasingly affect the Bahaman Cays. The low-lying islands are threatened by saltwater intrusion which would inundate the freshwater vegetation that the Bahamian Hutia feeds upon. And climate change is increasing the frequency and severity of extreme weather, increasing the likelihood of stochastic events.

 

Conservation

Fortunately, the Bahamian Hutia has been legally protected by the Bahaman Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries since the 1960s. In the late 60s a translocation program introduced the species to two other remote island with similar habitats within the protected Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park, on Warderick Wells Cay and Little Wax Cay. Though as of 2011, few, if any, of the Little Wax Cay population remain.

 

In 2018, a small captive breeding population was established at the Ardastra Gardens Zoo & Conservation Centre in Nassau, Bahamas to secure a stable, genetically diverse population for conservation research and public education.

 

Most recently, a 2025 research project is studying the feasibility of additional local breeding and reintroduction programs.

 

Nevertheless the Bahamian Hutia has been considered critically endangered on the IUCN Red List since 2024 and their population is currently in decline.

 

Our most recent counts, which are very rough, and some of which are 40-plus years old, estimate that less than 15000 Bahamian Hutia remain in the wild.

Citations 26:25

Information for today’s show about the Bahamas Hutia was compiled from:

 

Allen, J.A. 1891-08-31. Description of a new species of Capromys from the Plana Keys, Bahamas. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 3(23):329-336. – https://hdl.handle.net/2246/839

 

Campbell, D. G., Lowell, K. S., Lightbourn, M. E. 1991. The effect of introduced Hutias (Geocapromys ingrahami) on the woody vegetation of Little Wax Cay, Bahamas. Conservation Biology 5: 536-541 - https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1523-1739.1991.tb00361.x

 

Cartwright, F.B., Davis, A., Kennerley, R. & Turvey, S.T. 2024. Geocapromys ingrahami. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2024: e.T9002A224590046. – https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2024-2.RLTS.T9002A224590046.en

 

Clough, Garrett C. 1973. “A Most Peaceable Rodent.” Natural History 82 (6): 66–74. – http://hdl.handle.net/2246/6480

 

Clough, Garrett C. “The Bahaman Hutia: A Rodent Refound.” Oryx 10, no. 2 (1969): 106–8. – https://doi.org/10.1017/S0030605300007936

 

Clough, Garrett C. 1976. “Current Status of Two Endangered Caribbean Rodents.” Biological Conservation 10, no. 1 (July): 43–47. – https://doi.org/10.1016/0006-3207(76)90023-9

 

Jordan, Kevin Clark. 1989. “An Ecology of the Bahamian Hutia : Geocapromys Ingrahami”. Doctoral Dissertation; University of Florida. – https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/207298

 

Knowles, Lindy, and Casuarina McKinney-Lambert. 2013. Southeastern Bahamas Coral Reef & Island Survey: Rapid Ecological Assessment Report. Nassau: Bahamas National Trust & BREEF. – https://www.agrra.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/SE-Bahamas-Coral-Reef-and-Island-Survey-Final-REA-Report-9-24-13.pdf

 

Kennerley, Ros. 2024. “Safeguarding the Future of Critically Endangered Bahaman Hutia Within the Bahaman Archipelago Through Evidenced Based Management.” Mohamed bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund. December 23, 2024. - https://www.speciesconservation.org/small-grant/bahamian-hutia/36130

 

LeFebvre MJ, deFrance SD, Kamenov GD, Keegan WF, Krigbaum J (2019) The zooarchaeology and isotopic ecology of the Bahamian hutia (Geocapromys ingrahami): Evidence for pre-Columbian anthropogenic management. PLoS ONE 14(9): e0220284. – https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0220284

 

LeFebvre, Michelle, Geoffrey Duchemin, Susan deFrance, William Keegan, and Kristen Walczesky. 2018. “Bahamian Hutia (Geocapromys Ingrahami) in the Lucayan Realm: Pre-Columbian Exploitation and Translocation.” Environmental Archaeology 24, no. 2 (August): 171–87. – https://doi.org/10.1080/14614103.2018.1503809

 

Oswald, J.A., Allen, J.M., LeFebvre, M.J. et al. Ancient DNA and high-resolution chronometry reveal a long-term human role in the historical diversity and biogeography of the Bahamian hutia. Scientific Reports v 10, 1373 (2020). – https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-58224-y

 

Rebach, Judith A. Osborn, “Comparison of the Gas Exchange and Water Balance of the Nutria, Myocastorcoypus, and the Hutia, Geocapromys Ingrahami“ (1971). Open Access Dissertations. Paper 2617. University of Rhode Island. – https://digitalcommons.uri.edu/oa_diss/2617

 

Turvey, Samuel T., Rosalind J. Kennerley, Jose M. Nuñez-Miño, and Richard P. Young. 2017. “The Last Survivors: Current Status and Conservation of the Non-Volant Land Mammals of the Insular Caribbean.” Journal of Mammalogy 98, no. 4 (August): 918–36. https://doi.org/10.1093/jmammal/gyw154

 

Wilson, Don E., Thomas E. Lacher Jr., and Russell A. Mittermeier. 2016. “Geocapromys Ingrahami.” In Handbook of the Mammals of the World – Volume 6: Lagomorphs and Rodents I, 552–604. Barcelona: Lynx Edicions. – https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6624107

 

For more information about Bahamian Hutia conservation, please see the Bahamas National Trust at https://bnt.bs/explore/exuma/exuma-cays-land-sea-park/

Music 28:32

Pledge 33:34

I honor the lifeforce of the Bahamas Hutia. I will commit its name to my record. I am grateful to have shared time on our planet with this being. I lament the ways in which I and my species have harmed and diminished this species. I grieve.

 

And so, in the name of the Bahamas Hutia I pledge to reduce my consumption. And my carbon footprint. And curb my wastefulness. I pledge to acknowledge and attempt to address the costs of my actions and inactions. And I pledge to resist the harm of plant and animal kin and their habitat, by individuals, corporations, and governments.

 

I forever pledge my song to the witness and memory of all life, to a broad celebration of biodiversity, and to the total liberation of all beings.

Rough Transcript

Intro 00:05

Welcome to Bad at Goodbyes.

On today’s show we consider the Caley’s Grevillea.

Species Information 02:05

Caley’s Grevillea is a critically endangered flowering shrub native to Australia, specifically to the state of New South Wales, north of Sydney, near the Pacific coast. Its scientific name is Grevillea caleyi and it was first described in 1830.

 

Description

Caley’s Grevillea is a medium to tall-ish spreading shrub, that can reach heights of 10 feet and widths of 13 feet. They have very long, wide-spreading branches and an open growth form, with a kind of tangled vine-like appearance. 

 

Caley’s Grevillea grows unusual leaves. They’re large, up to 7 inches in length and 3 inches in width with each blade divided into roughly 28 oblong lobes. The blades are so deeply divided that, looking at the plant, one might mistake these lobes for distinct leaves but are in fact divisions of a single leaf. The leaves are recurved, meaning their edges (their margins) are wavy and curled. And they are covered in soft, relatively long, rusty white-ish hairs; these are trichomes. Trichomes also cover the plant’s branches and stems, looking not so much like a fuzz but more cobweb-y, a bit like the hairs on human arms and legs. The trichomes and the recurved leaf form and are adaptations to prevent water loss.

 

Grevillea, are often referred to as spider flowers, due to their unusual flower clusters, their inflorescences. Caley’s Grevillea inflorescences are a three-inch cluster of a dozen-plus individual flowers, growing upright, in a secund raceme arrangement, meaning the flowers only grow on one side of the stem. This is sometimes called a toothbrush flower cluster. And it is likely an adaptation for bird pollination. Birds can perch on the stem, and the flowers are there, upright, all on the same side, easy to access their nectar.

 

The flowers themselves do not have traditional petals, instead a whorl of four pink-ish brown tepals envelope the reproductive organs in a tube-like structure. Protruding from this tube is the style, part of the female reproductive organ. It’s 1.5 inches long, deep-red, and wiry, with a bright green domed tip, called a pollen presenter, with the pollen-receiving stigma at its center. The male reproductive organs, the pollen-producing stamen, are fused to the inside of the tepals. So while the flower bud is still closed, before the tepals open, the stamen produces its pollen. Then upon opening, the long style springs free of the bud, with the pollen presenter brushing against the stamen, collecting pollen as it’s released.

 

Caley’s Grevillea relies on birds, like honeyeaters and wattlebirds, and honeybees for pollen transfer. The flowers are nectar rich, producing high sugar, high energy nectar at the bottom of their flower tube. So when a pollinator visits, to feed on the nectar, it brushes against the pollen presenter, pollen sticks to its feathers or fur, and ideally is transferred when the pollinator feeds at a different individual.

 

On successful pollen transfer and fertilization the Caley’s Grevillea develops a small, three-quarter inch long, reddish-brown striped, woody fruit called a follicle. Each follicle contains a single seed. The seeds are tough and durable adapted for soil seed banking. Caley’s Grevillea is what is called an obligate seeder.

 

Here’s how this works:

Once a fruit matures and dries, while still on the plant, it splits open and drops its seed directly to the ground beneath the parent plant. These seeds are dormant and over time, due to wind and weather, may be buried in the topsoil. The seed’s dormancy persists until exposure to high heat. Bushfire. Research has shown that temperatures between about 140°F and 250°F, are needed to break the physical dormancy of the seed coat. With a short weak burn that does not raise soil temp above 140°, germination is not triggered. But with a long hot burn in which temps exceed 250°, the seed suffers too much heat damage to be viable. So the reproductive success of the Caley’s Grevillea relies on fire intensity.

 

And on fire frequency. Caley’s Grevillea, the plant itself is not fire-tolerant. It burns. It’s killed by fire. So in ideal circumstances, the previous generation, the parent plants, die-off in flames, in a fire event which induces germination of the next generation, the seeds that have been banked beneath. These new seedlings grow in soil now rich with nutrients released by the burnt vegetation of their parent plants and free from competition for light.

 

But all of this is complicated by timing, because it takes roughly 5 years for a juvenile Caley’s Grevillea to reach reproductive maturity and roughly another 5 years to build up an appreciable seed bank. If bushfire sweeps their habitat too frequently, the previous generation dies-off without ample seeds banked to replace their numbers. If fires occur too infrequently, the previous generation may die-off from old age and the banked seed never germinate and lose viability. So changes in the fire regime, the cycles, frequency, and intensity of wildfire has a pronounced effect on Caley’s Grevillea reproduction.

In The Dream

————

In the dream,

 

To be, in the final act, oneself, an offering,

At the end, a contribution, a commitment to a growing future.

A refutation of wealth-hoarding, of petty futile covetousness

On the flames I sing:

What I was, is now yours: Live!

 

In the dream.

————

Habitat

The Caley’s Grevillea is native to Australia, to the state of New South Wales at the eastern edge of the continent, to a generally suburban area, about 5 miles from the Pacific coast and about 10 miles north of Sydney, Australia’s most populous city.

 

This is the Sydney Basin Bioregion, historically dominated by vegetation growing on nutrient-poor sandstone plateaus, near the coastal plains. We specifically find the Caley’s Grevillea in only about 3 square miles of the Duffys Forest Ecological Community, an open woodland on the ridges of the Hornsby Plateau, roughly 500-800 ft above sea level. Here the terrain is relatively flat and the soil is dry, clay- and iron-rich, with a textured reddish-brown color. Canopy vegetation grows tall and dense, an overstory of eucalyptus and bloodwood. The midstory is more sparse and open, so light reaches the shrubby understory of grevillea, banksia and hakea, with a groundcover of grasses, and small flowers and herbs.

 

The climate is temperate and relatively mild, summer highs averaging in the low 80°s F, and winter lows averaging in the 50°s F. Annual rainfall averages about 50 inches, distributed fairly evenly across the year.

 

The Caley’s Grevillea shares its New South Wales home with:

Thick-tailed Gecko, Smooth-barked Apple, Ringtail Possum, Feathertail Glider, Red Bloodwood, Jacky Lizard, Silvertop Ash, Masked Owl, Long-nosed Bandicoot, Devil’s Twine, Hairpin Banksia, Crinkle Bush, Eastern Pygmy-possum, Swamp Wallaby, Little Wattlebird, Lesser Flannel Flower, Rusty Velvet-bush, Sugar Glider, Indian Pennywort, Glossy Black-Cockatoo, Myrtle Wattle, Woody Pear, Port Jackson Heath, Curved Rice Flower, New Holland Honeyeater, Diamond Python, Hooded Plover, and many many more.

 

Threats

The primary historic and contemporary threat to the Caley’s Grevillea is human habitat destruction. Development in this region began in the mid-1800s with timber clearing and sawmills, and today this is a landscape of highways, gas stations and golf courses, with fragment pockets of forest. 85% of the Caley’s Grevillea habitat has been cleared, with accelerating habitat encroachment and destruction across the 20th century.

 

Relatedly, reduced habitat has led to increased consumption of Grevillea seeds and seedlings by Bush Rat and Swamp Wallaby. These small mammals are increasingly concentrated in smaller habitat fragments, leading to increased seed predation and grazing. The Caley’s Grevillea seeds eaten before they can be seed banked in the soil, the seedlings consumed before they reach reproductive maturity.

 

And human impact on the local fire regime, challenges Caley’s Grevillea reproduction. In some parts of their habitat, both intentional and unintentional burns are happening too frequently for substantial seed banking. And in other areas, human suppression of bushfire means banked seeds are not germinating.

 

Additionally, human impacts like trash dumping, recreation (motorized dirt-bikes and trail clearing), and human introduced invasive species continue to threaten the remaining Caley’s Grevillea’s population.

 

Conservation

Fortunately, Caley’s Grevillea is legally protected at the federal and local level and the New South Wales government has developed an extensive species conservation action plan. The plan includes fire management guidelines to ensure fire frequency accords with seed germination requirements; invasive species eradication; protecting remaining habitat from clearing and disturbance; and ensuring future development does not damage plants or key habitats.

 

Some individuals are found in the protected wildernesses of Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park and Garigal National Park.

 

The plant’s seeds have been conserved offsite in the Australian PlantBank at the Australian Botanic Garden Mount Annan, and in the Millennium Seed Bank at the Kew Royal Botanic Gardens in the UK. There are offsite propagation programs in place also at the Mount Annan gardens, as well as at local nurseries, which are cultivating seedings to later be replanted in the Grevillea’s habitat.

 

A 2025 program is exploring “olfactory misinformation” to protect the Caley’s Grevillea from mammalian feeders. Researchers are trialing the use of odors that mimic the smell of unappealing vegetation, on four endangered species including Caley’s Grevillea. Herbivores like the Swamp Wallaby, rely on olfaction to find good food sources. So researchers are hoping the application of the scent of poor-quality food will deter the wallaby, reducing browsing pressure on the Caley’s Grevillea without needing disruptive physical barriers like fencing or toxic pesticides. These trials are ongoing but early results are promising.

 

Nevertheless the Caley’s Grevillea has been considered critically endangered on the IUCN Red List since 2020 and their population is currently in decline.

 

Our most recent counts estimate that less than 1000 Caley’s Grevillea remain in the wild.

Citations 24:59

Information for today’s show about the Caley’s Grevillea was compiled from:

 

Auld, T.D. & Makinson, R. 2020. Grevillea caleyi. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2020: e.T112648700A113309255. – https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2020-2.RLTS.T112648700A113309255.en

 

Auld, Tony D., and J. A. Scott. 2004. “Estimating Population Abundance in Species with Dormant Life-Stages: Fire and the Endangered Plant Grevillea Caleyi R. Br.” Ecological Management & Restoration 5 (2): 125–29 - https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1442-8903.2004.00187.x

 

Auld, Tony D, and Judith Scott. 2013. “Integrating Fire Management into Conservation Actions for the Threatened Shrub ‘Grevillea Caleyi.’” Australasian Plant Conservation: Journal of the Australian Network for Plant Conservation 22 (1): 2—4. – https://doi.org/10.5962/p.373496

 

Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water. (2026, March 23). Grevillea caleyi — Caley’s Grevillea. Species Profile and Threats Database. – http://www.environment.gov.au/cgi-bin/sprat/public/publicspecies.pl?taxon_id=9683

 

Howes, Jeff, and Dan Clarke. 2021. “Grevillea Caleyi.” Australian Plants Society NSW. August 7, 2021. – https://resources.austplants.com.au/plant/grevillea-caleyi/.

 

Llorens, T., Ayre, D. & Whelan, R. Evidence for ancient genetic subdivision among recently fragmented populations of the endangered shrub Grevillea caleyi (Proteaceae). Heredity 92, 519–526 (2004). – https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.hdy.6800444

 

Llorens, Tanya. 2003. Genetic Structure and Diversity in the Soil-Stored Seed Bank of the Endangered Grevillea caleyi. Sydney: Australian Flora Foundation. - https://aff.org.au/results/grant-summaries/aff-llorens-g_caleyi/

 

Morris, E. Charles. 2000. “Germination response of seven east Australian Grevillea species (Proteaceae) to smoke, heat exposure and scarification.” Australian Journal of Botany 48 (2): 179–89. – https://doi.org/10.1071/BT98051

 

NSW Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (DCCEEW). 2025. “Tricking Herbivore Noses to Aid Plant Conservation.” Environment and Heritage. August 1, 2025. – https://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/news/tricking-herbivore-noses-aid-plant-conservation-news

 

NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service. 2022. Conservation Action Plan: Caley’s Grevillea (Grevillea caleyi). Parramatta: Department of Planning and Environment. – https://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/sites/default/files/conservation-action-plan-caleys-grevillea-220101.pdf

 

Office of Environment and Heritage. 2024. “Caley’s Grevillea - Profile.” Threatened Species Profile, NSW BioNet. – https://threatenedspecies.bionet.nsw.gov.au/profile?id=10361

 

Royal Botanic Gardens and Domain Trust (1999-2011) PlantNET - The Plant Information Network System of The Royal Botanic Gardens and Domain Trust, Sydney, Australia (version 2.0). – http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Grevillea~caleyi

 

Wikipedia – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grevillea_caleyi

For more information about Caley’s Grevillea conservation, please see the New South Wales Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water at https://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/

Music 27:11

Pledge 33:34

I honor the lifeforce of the Caley’s Grevillea. I will commit its name to my record. I am grateful to have shared time on our planet with this being. I lament the ways in which I and my species have harmed and diminished this species. I grieve.

 

And so, in the name of the Caley’s Grevillea I pledge to reduce my consumption. And my carbon footprint. And curb my wastefulness. I pledge to acknowledge and attempt to address the costs of my actions and inactions. And I pledge to resist the harm of plant and animal kin and their habitat, by individuals, corporations, and governments.

 

I forever pledge my song to the witness and memory of all life, to a broad celebration of biodiversity, and to the total liberation of all beings.