Steve Hopper

And inland from Yanship is a little town called Jinjin.

There are large numbers of red and green kangaroo paws of another species called cat's paw and hybrids between the two in the grounds of the cemetery because the grounds were slashed and burnt almost annually.

And that's ideal for growing conditions for kangaroo paws.

And I asked amongst Sid and other staff members, has anyone worked on kangaroo paws?

And he said, no, you know, people have described the species as we know them at present.

But that's about it.

No one has gone in depth and studied kangaroo paws.

So by the time I was able to enrol in honours, I decided to go with Sid and work on hybridisation in the kangaroo paws.

And the interest has persisted.

Having a double major in zoology and botany was quite unusual in those days.

And the two departments were at opposite ends of UWA's campus, you know, a mile apart.

So if you had conjoint lectures, you had to sprint, basically.

Yeah, all that.

I was very keen on understanding not plants on their own, not animals on their own, not humans on their own, but all three.

And what I had a great time studying was the behaviour of honey-eating birds feeding on the kangaroo paws.

And we discovered that the honey eaters were primarily responsible for confining the hybrids to a narrow zone between

the bottom end of the cemetery, which had slightly moister soil where all the red and green kangaroo paws were, and a little hilltop in the middle of the cemetery where the cat's paws occurred.

So if you're looking for the hybrids, you look where the habitats of the two parents are adjacent.

And we discovered, you know, even red wattle birds, which can fly...

very long distances if they want to, were just hopping from one cat's paw to the next cat's paw or perching on red and green kangaroo paws, you know, metres, just a metre apart sort of thing and not moving long distances at all.