Portuguese Millipede: An Odyssey Down Under
The concept for this storyboard resulted of two different stories that are two pieces of a bigger and more complex story.
Some years ago, it came to my attention that Australia not only had the “Portuguese Man-of-War” (a type of jellyfish) on their “top of terrible Australian wildlife”, but to my surprise there was also the terrible “Portuguese Millipede”!
I then found out that a certain type of millipede, that only once existed in my country (Portugal), was sent to Australia under misterious circumstances, where it went insane as an invasive species, driving everyone there a little more crazy than their usual state of mind.
A couple years later, I was reading a news article in my local newspaper about the many greeneries in my region, which also listed the significant volume of plants and trees exported every year. To my surprise, there was a detailed report on the participation of those greeneries in a massive reforestation led by Australian authorities, that started in the 1940’s.
It seems that in the beginning of the 20th century, Australians realized that deforestation, for the purposes of creating vast grassland for the lamb flocks, had originated too much arid soil. After several tests and studies with different seeds, their experts decided to choose a type of Portuguese pine tree for the replanting program, because those seeds had shown a faster growth.
Having made scientific research on this matter and by comparing the dates in different articles, it became clear that those poor little millipedes were brought to Australia probably in the dirt, inside of the small pots carrying the baby trees.
Strangers in a strange land, they first begin to spread in Western Australia which has a similar climate to Portugal, but they later spread to a much larger area to the east. This was due to the absence of their natural predators found in Portugal, like hedgehogs and birds, that don’t exist in Australia.
However, according to Australian ecologists the reforestation with pine trees also saved the “Carnaby black cockatoo”, a once endangered species, by providing them with food and a safe habitat. This bird is also endemic to southwest Australia, precisely the area which had been most deforested for intensive cattle breeding.
In conclusion, the odyssey of this much traumatized “Portuguese millipede” species is a clear example of how an ecological disaster (the deforestation) led by humans, results later in another ecological problem, when a foreign species is forced to live in a different habitat. Soon I realized that all of these events would be interesting as a source of inspiration to create a children’s book.
The story plot (or narrative) has a strong ecologic theme, to point out the negative consequences of some human activities, which only lead to a circle of distructive “natural disasters”, that many times are not so natural, after all.
One final note, in the aftermath of the terrible wildfires in Australia, I decided that the illustration work in this project, should be done by an Australian artist. She or he, will also be free to change, add or eliminate details of the story plot that I had already written, as well.
I thank you all in advance for your critics and comments! Thanks.
