Koalas, despite their nickname, are not bears but marsupials. The babies, called joeys, develop in their mother’s pouch for about six months; they then spend the next six months riding on their mothers’ backs while using the pouch to feed and sleep. As adults, Koalas spend most of their lives in eucalyptus trees. They sleep […]
Tag: Australia
Queensland man uses pocket knife to fight off crocodile dragging him into river
A Queensland man has escaped the jaws of a crocodile by stabbing it in the head with a pocket knife as it dragged him into a river on Cape York. Parks and Wildlife officers said the 60-year-old had been fishing on his property on the banks of a remote part of the McIvor River, near […]
Questions and concerns over NSW kangaroo culling program
The kangaroo is arguably Australia’s most iconic creature but in New South Wales, there are fears the species could be under pressure due to landholder culling and commercial harvesting. The industry is supposed to be tightly regulated, but the government department responsible for monitoring it has no idea how many kangaroos are killed each year […]
Great white shark attacks on humans may be case of mistaken identity, study suggests
On the rare occasion a great white shark attacks a human, the bite may be the result of mistaken identity, according to new research. A study by Australian scientists suggests the apex predator may not be able to visually distinguish surfers and swimmers at the water’s surface from their natural prey. “They’re not these mindless […]
I thank my lucky stars for the rosellas that led to my career in ornithology
A flash of colour that takes my eye at the age of 10 in 1968 and learning that it is an Adelaide rosella. Reaching the edge of a vast swamp north of Birdsville in 1982 thinking, “This is perfect habitat for grey grasswrens. They must be here.” And they are! Right at the edge of […]
How Kangaroo Populations are Mistreated in Australia
What images come to mind when you think of kangaroos? Giant marsupials with teeny babies in hidden pouches happily hopping around Australia? Maybe you picture their massive thigh muscles that propel them into the air? Well, those visuals aren’t wrong, but they also aren’t the whole story. Kangaroos are considered pests in Australia. They are […]
Conservationists say rocket launch site could push endangered southern emu-wren to extinction
Conservationists say a plan to build a permanent rocket launch facility at Whaler’s Way in South Australia could push threatened bird species to extinction. Southern Launch, an Adelaide-based startup, operates the Whalers Way Orbital Launch Complex in a privately owned conservation area at the tip of the Eyre Peninsula. The facility is expected to help […]
‘Dingoes were here first’: the landowners who say letting ‘wild dogs’ live pays dividends
By their own admission, John Knight and Caroline Thomas are blow-ins to the cattle country in South Australia’s far north. An Adelaide cardiac surgeon and a clinical researcher respectively, they bought Evelyn Downs, a cattle station near the Painted Desert about 150km north of Coober Pedy, in 2006 and moved north a decade later. From […]