Wildlife and where to see it (pt 1)

There's a lot of wild-life in Australia - much of it terrifyingly and fatally venomous or equipped with the kind of teeth that can sever limbs in single 'never-even-saw-it-coming' sort of chomp.

Luckily, there is also a vast - unimaginably vast - amount of space (be it bush, beach, sea or other types of water) in which this rather threatening wild-life can exist. As a result you don't necessarily come across that much of it in the normal run of things. This is a very good thing.

We did inadvertently disturb a large green snake on Moreton, sunning itself near the path, but it cleared off of its own accord at a reassuringly swift lick. None of us spotted it till it moved though, and it was CLOSE to the path, pretty much 'could have easily been stepped' on close.

Even the delightful and comical platypus - though only the males - have a venomous sting that, while it won't kill you, is reportedly excruciatingly painful, and toxic enough to kill dogs.

On that basis, going to the local zoo sounded like a solid sort of plan, so we took an afternoon dandle around Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary.

The saltwater crocs were impressive. Chillingly so.

Here is Boss Hog. He is HUGE. Nearly five metres long.

He was captured up in the far North of Queensland, having lived in relative harmony with the human farming population - until he took a prize bull. Saltwater crocs are protected in Australia, and if they pose a threat will often be moved, rather than culled. I guess they decided Boss was quite a specimen so off to the zoo it was. I wouldn't fancy having to catch him though.

This is Lily, his companion. A delicate slip of a thing at a mere 3.8 metres.

You know crocs have those ridged knobbly backs? Those ridges mean that when it moves through the water there's barely a ripple to be seen, so they can sneak right up to you...

But not that many people get attacked. Roughly one a year. It seems that mostly it's people ignoring the safety advice that get got.

I was very keen to see a cassowary - they do live in the wild, but a quite a bit further north where it's much hotter, more humid and basically rainforest. They are dwindling though - mainly due to shrinking habitat, dogs, and urban encroachment particularly roads and cars.

Meet the less-than-imaginatively name 'Cassie'.

These big flightless birds are pretty amazing. Not as big as emus, they can grow up to 1.8 metres tall. I reckon Cassie was close to that kind of height. And see that inner toe? Mostly talon, about 5 inches worth.

That said, cassowaries have an undeserved reputation for being very dangerous.  Notably, at least two large emus were wandering about freely among the zoo visitors. Cassowaries certainly can do very serious damage to a human or other animal if they do attack - which they sometimes do. But there is actually only one documented human death due to a cassowary attack, and it was a clear case of self defence on the part of the bird. Even so, I would hesitate to get too close.

We may yet take a trip to Tasmania, and while the famous devils do exist in the wild there, they are quite rare. So, here is one of the funny little fellas for you to enjoy.

He was exceedingly well fed, with a very round tummy...

And, had he not looked like an undeniably strange mix of small bear, large rat, and piglet, he really would have been cute. The pig bit is the least obvious feature in this photo - it was something about the very short hair letting his skin show through, and his very very narrow hips. He was better than cute, he was brilliant and full of character.

As he trotted about his enclosure he reminded me of a rather disgruntled looking chap who, having been slim in his youth, has put on quite a large amount of weight in the form of a beer belly and heavy set of shoulders...which explains this I guess: Tas' shape being pretty much the only aspect of real devils that the cartoon retains.

Anyway. The real devils have been in a bit of fix since the late 1990s, when a transmissible facial tumour disease began to decimate them. They've been officially endangered since 2008. The Aussies love their wildlife though, and they're busy doing all they can to keep them going.

I had assumed that echidnas were rare, but apparently they are actually 'common', and live pretty much everywhere. They're fascinating...as far as we know, they're the most ancient mammalian species on the planet. They lay eggs and have a pouch. The babies are called 'puggles'...I could go on. If you want to know more, look here.

This was a she I think...size of a large hedgehog, but because the spines go in different directions it also reminded me just a bit of those guinea pigs that have rosettes in their fur.

It's not all weird or pant-wettingly scary though. Next post: light relief with some antipodean cuddlies.