Creatures Featured: Let’s stick together

Welcome to our new Far North series ‘Creatures Featured on the Far North Blog’.

As you would be well aware, as police officers we are expected to attend jobs that sometimes see us deal with unruly people.

One of our officers here on the Tablelands however, not only deals with unruly people, but also seems to deal with her fair share of some weird and wonderful animals.

Constable Norriss has been in the Tablelands Patrol Group for a number of years and is always the first to put her hand up when there is an animal involved.

Her encounters have led us to begin sharing with you some of the wildlife our officers meet on the job throughout our vast region as part of this new blog series.

Recently, Constable Norriss attended an address in Mareeba with her First Year partner, who refused to knock on the door because there was a ‘creature’ sitting on the doormat.

Off to the rescue Constable Norriss went with much ribbing to her scaredy-cat partner.

“It’s only a little stick insect,” Constable Norriss said.

Nervous and not going anywhere near it, the First Year Constable replied, “That is a monster, not little.”

And so the introductions began, this is Cyclone Larry (pictured on Constable Norriss below) or Sipyloidea larryi, unique to North Queensland and they normally live in the rainforest and rainforest margins from Kuranda to Cape Tribulation.

This type of insect can grow between 53-60mm for males and 76-85mm for females and prefer to climb using small hooks on their feet that they use to hang on with – hence Constable Norriss’ messy hair.

Constable Norriss relocated Cyclone Larry into a large Eucalyptus tree nearby and away from harm much to the First Year’s relief.

Stay tuned for our next instalment, coming to you from the Far North blog soon!