Crocs, koalas, kangaroos, that’s only few of the exotic animals we were looking forward to come across on our journey in the Down Under land and we weren’t disappointed. Australia has such an incredible biodiversity of animals that in Europe we could only watch on telly. This land has been so isolated for centuries that only here you are able to find certain species, even the swans are different, they are all black.
Australia abounds of wild animals and didn’t take us long to spot Kangaroos and other small marsupials like the possum or wallaby, colourful birds, huge pelicans, cute koalas waggling or climbing in many national parks, lizards like the big komodo, turtles, dolphins, whales and much more.
Many species have adapted well to the urban environment too and live in “harmony” with the mankind (maybe not reciprocally as some, like the possum, are considered a pest). Others could only be spotted in the wide wild and not all are harmless, actually many are poisonous animals. Spiders, snakes, scorpions are only few dangerous animals that could have ruin our holiday and I could go on and on with the list like the cassowaries, a large flightless bird which could also become very aggressive.
Not only on land but also the sea holds great hazards with jellyfishes, like the deadly box jellyfish, stingrays, stonefishes, sharks, blue-ringed octopus infesting especially the tropical waters during the wet season.
Even the apparently innocuous male platypus, famous icon of Australia, has poisonous spurs and you wouldn’t want to annoy a peaceful stingray, see what happened when it got threatened by Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin.
At first, I got a bit intimidated by the plentiful of potential dangers of such poisonous creatures but I learned not to give a negative attribute and to threat nature with respect, even better to watch out for that big yellow warning sign and I survived!
for the underwater world undoubtedly hit to the Great Barrier Reef, it is just legendary;
kangaroo: well everywhere but good spots are Jervis Bay, Tewantin Golf Course, Crowdy Bay National Park;
humpback whales: during their breeding migration to tropical waters (June-November) you could just spot them slapping their huge tail from Byron Bay’s Lighthouse or go to Hervey bay for a boat tour encounter;
turtles: along Noosa Heads coastline and also at Hervey Bay’s Harbour and of course again on the great barrier reef;
salties, the big croc: Cape Tribulation resident in Myall Creek;
sharks: Chris fished one smallish in Sorrento, Mornington Peninsula, it was too beautiful that we realised it, and spot one under water on great barrier reef;
dolphins: Tin Can bay, they have regular b’fast everyday @8am at the marine, or try Byron Bay where they swim wildly.
1 comments:
- At 30/6/10 11:52 PM Ariel said...
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Ooh! The possum. I was lucky to live in country Victoria for some years. We have a small possum and her family that lived in our home. They would comedown every night and eat the food that we left out on the bench for them .There was a reason for doing this as this family would create havoc in the pantry attacking with particular interest the chocolate powder. Yes we tried to have them removed, however the family returned to its home. It just happened to be our house. Georgeous really. We sold our house with the possums as residents.
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