Australian Critters

One of the most entertaining elements in a visit to Australia is the wildlife. It's largely endemic... found only here, or on occasion here and in just a few other places. And the critters live everywhere. This good sized goanna, over a foot long, is posing on the Brisbane riverwalk, in the heart of the city. You can tell that he's an urban lizard by his sophisticated sense of design, posing within the tile pattern!

This is a pademelon, a rather unromantic name for a cute, gentle, small wallaby. These guys can be found hanging out at O'Reilly's Rainforest Resort, a fine hostelry deep in the mountains along the Queensland/New South Wales border. The woods here are full of birds and other animals, and the resort has a vigorous program that will immerse a visitor in the environment. You can hike, take 4 wheel drive vehicles into the bush, or simply see many birds and other animals right on the grounds of the resort. Gourmet food is also included. It ain't cheap, but I reckon that's mainly because everything has to be hauled up a winding 35 kiilometer road up the mountains; paved, but only one lane wide in many places. Here in the mountains, the fog drifts in and out, and an ethereal beauty and peace pervades the scene.

The crimson rosellas that live around the resort are rather tame. You can buy special food for them, but they relish chompin' down on Nobby's salted peanuts as well. This bloke would fly right up onto the railing of my deck when I appeared.

Meet brush turkey! These birds hang out on the floor of the rainforest, and they seem to like living close to people. In virtually any settled area in this part of Australia, you'll have them for neighbors. They can fly just enough to get up on your second floor deck and bludge (beg) a little. Interestingly, the males, with the wattles hanging down from their necks, do most of the egg maintenance. They build a large nest of leaf litter over the eggs laid by a female by kicking the litter into a mound. Then they adjust the mound so that the heat generated by the decomposition of the litter stays at 33 degrees C (91F) until the eggs hatch. They don't care for the infant turkeys, though; as with all other intruders, from pythons to humans, the turkey kicks leaf litter onto the alien fellow that may be threatening the nest. Other than the usual male vs. male competition, this is about the only time a brush turkey becomes the least bit agitated!