AUSTRALIAN WILDLIFE
Having lived all
around this beautiful country, I have been blessed to see much of the
wildlife at close range.
Some people are not at home with animals, especially wildlife, but I think that this is mostly out of unfamiliarity and fear. When you are around it a lot, you tend to value the exposure.
As a child, the main types of wildlife I was exposed to, in their natural environment, were brown and black snakes, and kangaroos. The snakes I kept a wide berth from, both being venomous. I loved the roos, watching them in the paddocks, despite them being cursed by the farmers for eating all the crops.
Living on a tropical island in North Queensland for a couple of years left me regularly exposed to green tree snakes and pythons, neither of which are life threatening. The tree snakes wound their way up through the forest trees at all sorts of angles. I always found them graceful. The pythons were enormous. Walking island tracks with friends late at night, it was not unusual to have to wait for a python to finish crossing the road in front of us, and not being able to see either end. I grew to love them, though it still always breaks my heart to see them confined as pets.
Nearby on the mainland, a friend and I were chased one day by a huge goanna as we unknowingly ventured too close to her home. A good reminder that we all share this Earth.
In the Northern Territory, there was no swimming in the McArthur River near Borroloola due to crocs. We saw quite a few. It is wild country up there. One of my jobs at a nearby resort, which was really more like a bush camp, and a rough one at that, was to remove the green tree frogs from the cistern of the toilets every day. After doing this once and seeing them all back the next day, I realised what a futile effort it was, so left them in peace. They just hung on with their webbed feet if the water was flushed down into the loo.
Driving through the Territory down to Perth, there were emus, camels and dingoes along the way too. And watching flocks of cockatoos flying freely is always a heart-lifting thing.
Perth brought its sunsets over the Indian Ocean and with that, dolphins galore. Whales were also plentiful during the right season. It was understandably beautiful.
While living up in the Gold Coast hinterlands, there were kookaburras landing on our veranda each day, as well as peacocks roaming freely in the bush down the back.
Backing onto Cooper Park in Sydney's Eastern Suburbs, my delights were the golden orb spiders, with webs so strong you could lift them to go under, and the lizards. I love watching lizards.
One of the most prolific homes for wildlife though was in the bush in Northern NSW. Here we had a bat come in for a while then left. Koalas were so abundant that you could walk out the back door and search up in the trees, with a good chance of seeing one, or standing on the front veranda and taking a photo of one not far away. Not all Aussies get such close contact with them in their natural environment. Yet while it was quite beautiful and romantic to be able to have koalas living so nearby, there is nothing quiet or gentle about their lovemaking. What a racket they make.
This house also had a surplus of lizards and snakes. After being there for over a year and suspecting there was a snake in a little alcove near the door, I came to finally meet this creature one morning as I was heading off to work. Down she slid onto the veranda and was huge, majestically so. We came to see her often after that.
One of my favourite swimming spots is a river about half an hour from Tamworth. This place has literally saved me a couple of times, during the darkest periods of my life. The platypus is a shy and gentle river swimmer but because I was often out there alone, making no noise if sitting by the bank writing, I managed to watch them a couple of times at close range. I felt very special for such a gift.
Sadly a lot of people only see wildlife in zoos or as road kill, where kangaroos, wallabies or wombats have ventured onto the roads and been hit by a car. Wombats don't stand a chance really, as they slowly waddle across. My uncle once had a wombat. He found her as a babe and brought her up. She was called Wendy the Wombat. As an adult Wendy took herself off to live in the nearby bush. But returned a few years later to say hello with her whole family, then toddled off back to the bush. What a beautiful thing.
This morning while driving up to the nearby village, I was saddened to see a dead wallaby beside the road and the body of her babe that had been thrown from its pouch, while still an embryo really, no fur yet covering its little body.
I do see a lot of live wallabies here too though thankfully. They are sweet little animals.
Last week while on the phone being interviewed for a vegan magazine, I watched a red-belly black snake slither past me, only a couple of metres away. They are quite gentle, the red-bellies, though still not to be trifled with due to their venom.
Possums are about here too, as they are in many places. I have written more about possums in my article 'Furry Friends'. I love the cheeky things.
Green frogs leave their droppings on my veranda some nights and as I write this, two baby ones are on the window here.
Lizards hang out in the sun on the rickety bridge over the creek and hide underneath whenever we drive over it.
One of the most powerful documentaries I have ever seen is called Earthlings and is available online. It is incredibly confronting as it looks at man's dependence on the animal world for food, clothing, research and entertainment. Yet despite the tragic reality of what you will view, it is also a beautiful film in its own way in that it reminds us all of the beauty of animals and of their right to live on the Earth too. I highly recommend this documentary to anyone.
We share the Earth with all of these creatures. It is their home too. Wildlife is not to be feared, but respected.
When I look out the window here at a wallaby on the driveway, frogs on the window and lizards down on the bridge, I am in great company.
Yes, I am blessed. We all are.
Some people are not at home with animals, especially wildlife, but I think that this is mostly out of unfamiliarity and fear. When you are around it a lot, you tend to value the exposure.
As a child, the main types of wildlife I was exposed to, in their natural environment, were brown and black snakes, and kangaroos. The snakes I kept a wide berth from, both being venomous. I loved the roos, watching them in the paddocks, despite them being cursed by the farmers for eating all the crops.
Living on a tropical island in North Queensland for a couple of years left me regularly exposed to green tree snakes and pythons, neither of which are life threatening. The tree snakes wound their way up through the forest trees at all sorts of angles. I always found them graceful. The pythons were enormous. Walking island tracks with friends late at night, it was not unusual to have to wait for a python to finish crossing the road in front of us, and not being able to see either end. I grew to love them, though it still always breaks my heart to see them confined as pets.
Nearby on the mainland, a friend and I were chased one day by a huge goanna as we unknowingly ventured too close to her home. A good reminder that we all share this Earth.
In the Northern Territory, there was no swimming in the McArthur River near Borroloola due to crocs. We saw quite a few. It is wild country up there. One of my jobs at a nearby resort, which was really more like a bush camp, and a rough one at that, was to remove the green tree frogs from the cistern of the toilets every day. After doing this once and seeing them all back the next day, I realised what a futile effort it was, so left them in peace. They just hung on with their webbed feet if the water was flushed down into the loo.
Driving through the Territory down to Perth, there were emus, camels and dingoes along the way too. And watching flocks of cockatoos flying freely is always a heart-lifting thing.
Perth brought its sunsets over the Indian Ocean and with that, dolphins galore. Whales were also plentiful during the right season. It was understandably beautiful.
While living up in the Gold Coast hinterlands, there were kookaburras landing on our veranda each day, as well as peacocks roaming freely in the bush down the back.
Backing onto Cooper Park in Sydney's Eastern Suburbs, my delights were the golden orb spiders, with webs so strong you could lift them to go under, and the lizards. I love watching lizards.
One of the most prolific homes for wildlife though was in the bush in Northern NSW. Here we had a bat come in for a while then left. Koalas were so abundant that you could walk out the back door and search up in the trees, with a good chance of seeing one, or standing on the front veranda and taking a photo of one not far away. Not all Aussies get such close contact with them in their natural environment. Yet while it was quite beautiful and romantic to be able to have koalas living so nearby, there is nothing quiet or gentle about their lovemaking. What a racket they make.
This house also had a surplus of lizards and snakes. After being there for over a year and suspecting there was a snake in a little alcove near the door, I came to finally meet this creature one morning as I was heading off to work. Down she slid onto the veranda and was huge, majestically so. We came to see her often after that.
One of my favourite swimming spots is a river about half an hour from Tamworth. This place has literally saved me a couple of times, during the darkest periods of my life. The platypus is a shy and gentle river swimmer but because I was often out there alone, making no noise if sitting by the bank writing, I managed to watch them a couple of times at close range. I felt very special for such a gift.
Sadly a lot of people only see wildlife in zoos or as road kill, where kangaroos, wallabies or wombats have ventured onto the roads and been hit by a car. Wombats don't stand a chance really, as they slowly waddle across. My uncle once had a wombat. He found her as a babe and brought her up. She was called Wendy the Wombat. As an adult Wendy took herself off to live in the nearby bush. But returned a few years later to say hello with her whole family, then toddled off back to the bush. What a beautiful thing.
This morning while driving up to the nearby village, I was saddened to see a dead wallaby beside the road and the body of her babe that had been thrown from its pouch, while still an embryo really, no fur yet covering its little body.
I do see a lot of live wallabies here too though thankfully. They are sweet little animals.
Last week while on the phone being interviewed for a vegan magazine, I watched a red-belly black snake slither past me, only a couple of metres away. They are quite gentle, the red-bellies, though still not to be trifled with due to their venom.
Possums are about here too, as they are in many places. I have written more about possums in my article 'Furry Friends'. I love the cheeky things.
Green frogs leave their droppings on my veranda some nights and as I write this, two baby ones are on the window here.
Lizards hang out in the sun on the rickety bridge over the creek and hide underneath whenever we drive over it.
One of the most powerful documentaries I have ever seen is called Earthlings and is available online. It is incredibly confronting as it looks at man's dependence on the animal world for food, clothing, research and entertainment. Yet despite the tragic reality of what you will view, it is also a beautiful film in its own way in that it reminds us all of the beauty of animals and of their right to live on the Earth too. I highly recommend this documentary to anyone.
We share the Earth with all of these creatures. It is their home too. Wildlife is not to be feared, but respected.
When I look out the window here at a wallaby on the driveway, frogs on the window and lizards down on the bridge, I am in great company.
Yes, I am blessed. We all are.
