Australia has a reputation for being full of deadly – and often wonderfully weird – wildlife. But many of its endemic animals, such as the wombat, koala and platypus, aren’t known for their fast pace – apart from one. What’s the fastest land mammal in Australia? The fastest terrestrial mammal in Australia is the red kangaroo which can clock up a […]
Tag: Platypus
Ambitious Rewilding Project for Koala and Platypus Undertaken by Sydney’s Taronga Zoo
An Australian zoo credited with saving 7 native species from extinction aims to continue its vital work by rewilding a 3,050-acre tract of farmland. The aim of planting a Box-Gum tree fores across the cleared land that would act as a corridor to help connect existing wildlife habitats. The Taronga Zoo Conservation Society (TZCS) then […]
Monotreme dreams: the plan to reintroduce platypuses into Adelaide’s once ‘noxious’ river
In May 1872, Adelaide’s doctors were surveyed about the “noxious effluvia” emanating from the River Torrens, the South Australian Advertiser reported. John Burn wrote to the paper to say he endorsed their condemnation of “the filthy state of Adelaide – a city of stenches”. “If any of our citizens be sceptical, I would suggest his […]
Platypus | Ornithorhynchus anatinus
Early one morning during my Australian trip I headed out along the Condamine River to a quiet spot that I had noticed on a previous excursion. Here the river widened around a bend, forming a slow-flowing, lagoon-like stretch of water that had reeds and grasses along its edges. When I first saw this part of […]