ABSTRACT
In the Australian tropics, annual monsoonal rainfall transforms the ecosystem from dry and dusty to lush and moist. Vegetation growth provides food for native Dusky Rats, which increase in abundance. But in years when rainfall is low, the landscape remains dry and rodents are scarce. That dynamic situation affects prey availability for Water Pythons, and so the numbers, condition, growth rates, and reproductive output of these snakes are driven by annual variation in the timing and amount of monsoonal rainfall. But extreme events are just as important as average values. Brief torrential downpours that inundated the Fogg Dam floodplain decimated the population of Water Pythons. The most important impact of climate change on wildlife may be mediated by occasional extreme events, not changes in average weather conditions.
