Archive for the 'Wildlife' Category

Australian Man Almost Eaten By Crocodile Without Knowing It

Published on April 30, 2010 in Wildlife. 0 Comments Tags: Australia, Crocodiles, Northern Territory.

Here is another good Northern Territory crocodile story for everyone:

NORTHERN Territory chef Kyle MacLennan almost became the meal during a recent swim.

And no one knew how narrowly he escaped until some days later.

Mr MacLennan, 26, was swimming from the beach to a boat in the small marina at Mandorah, west of Darwin, when his mum Lui MacLennan took a photo of her boy.

She did not check the photos over until she returned to Sydney a few days later.

“No one even knew (the crocodile) was there,” Mr MacLennan said.

“I was at Mandorah with my mum and her friend. I was completely unaware (of the crocodile) until I saw the pic.”

For the life of me I just cannot figure out why people would swim in waters, especially muddy rivers that are known for crocodiles.

You can view pictures I took of Northern Territory crocodiles here and here.

Australian Dingo May Be World’s Oldest Dog

Published on March 18, 2010 in Wildlife. 0 Comments Tags: Australia, dingo.

Just about everything in Australia seems to be impossibly old and now you can add the continents native dogs to that list as well:

Australia’s iconic dingo may be the world’s oldest breed of dog, according a major new DNA study that is likely to boost conservation efforts.

The international study has found the dingo and its close relation, the rare New Guinea singing dog, bear the closest genetic similarity to wolves of all breeds tested.

The research, published in science journal Nature, appears to confirm widely held theories about the dingo’s history. It involved testing nearly 1,000 dogs of 85 different breeds as well as hundreds of wolves.

“This gives us a huge weight of evidence supporting the theory that the dingo is quite distinct from all modern dog breeds,” said joint author Alan Wilton, of Sydney’s University of New South Wales.

“It’s a bit of information that could be important to the conservation issue. If it’s distinct from domestic dogs there may be scientific reasons for conserving the dingo.”

Dingoes and the singing dog, named for its distinctive multi-pitched howl, have developed in isolation from other breeds for thousands of years. Dingoes were introduced to Australia from Indonesia about 5,000 years ago. [AFP]

The dingoes actually are nice looking dogs, however Australians rarely see them because of the construction of the “dingo fence“, which is 3,488 miles long and protects the most populated areas of Australia where the majority of the sheep farming takes place from the dingoes. The length of this fence makes it the world’s longest fence.

This fence limits the dingoes to mostly living out in the remote outback though they can be found along the tropical east coast in isolated areas such as Fraser Island. I actually took a picture of a dingo visiting our camp site in the Northern Territory which is where many of these dingoes live. They are beautiful looking dogs that hopefully continue to be a part of the diverse wildlife on the Australian continent.

Extinct Frog Species Rediscovered In New South Wales

Published on March 4, 2010 in Wildlife. 0 Comments Tags: frogs, New South Wales.

It is pretty amazing but not surprising that this frog once thought extinct is actually still alive in Australia:

An Australian frog which disappeared nearly 40 years ago and was feared extinct has been rediscovered in a remote creek, astounding experts.

A state government scientist spotted an unusual species during a trip to New South Wales’ Southern Tablelands, and later returned with a frog specialist to confirm the Yellow-Spotted Bell Frog’s first sighting since 1973.

“This was definitely the most exciting moment of my career and I will be surprised if I repeat it,” doctor David Hunter, who was led to a thriving community of the frogs by conservation officer Luke Pearce, said Thursday.

State environment minister Frank Sartor said the re-emergence of the green and gold amphibian showed the importance of protecting natural habitats.

“I’m advised that finding this frog is as significant a discovery as a Tasmanian tiger,” he said, referring to an animal which is believed to have died out last century. [AFP]

Australia has so much remote wilderness such a find of a small frog like this is not surprising me. However, I doubt a larger animal like the Tasmanian Tiger will ever be found again. This discovery of this frog reminds of the discovery of another long extinct species, the Wollemi Pine which was also found in the remote New South Wales wilderness.

Experts Recommend Fighting Back If Bitten By A Shark

Published on February 15, 2010 in Wildlife. 0 Comments Tags: sharks.

Try and remember to do this the next time you find yourself attacked by a shark:

A shark expert says a 60-year-old woman who repeatedly punched a shark to save herself from its attack on the weekend probably surprised the animal into letting her go.

Sydney woman Paddy Trumbull was attacked by a shark off Dent Island in the Whitsundays in north Queensland.

She says she began punching it on the nose as it bit her on her leg and buttocks.

The Queensland Shark Control Program’s manager, Tony Ham, told ABC News Breakfast sharks generally do not expect their prey to turn around and strike back.

“It’s a good strategy and one that’s been used by a number of shark attack victims in recent times,” he said.

“They [the sharks] get a bit surprised I think, and one of the bonuses of today’s modern life is that humans are far more aware of what they can do for themselves. [ABC Online]

I have always been told to not only punch a shark on its nose if attacked, but to try and poke its eye out as well. Good to see that this lady survived the attack though.

Great White Sharks Seen Near Bondi Beach

Published on January 24, 2010 in Wildlife. 0 Comments Tags: Australia, Bondi Beach, Sydney.

Here is are some incredible Google Earth images of Great White Sharks being seen near beach goers at Sydney’s famous Bondi Beach.

Click the image to go to the link.

Search On for Person Who Slaughtered 100 Australian Brumbies

Published on January 4, 2010 in Wildlife. 0 Comments Tags: Australia, brumby, New South Wales.

This is a senseless slaughter of horses:

(Image from here.)

UP to 100 brumbies have shot by a gunman, some at close range, over the past 18-months in a state forest in southern New South Wales.

Police and Forests NSW are appealing for public help to find the person, or persons responsible for the shootings after discovering another 10 brumbies slaughtered in the Maragle and Bago State Forests near Tumbarumba.

Six of the horses were shot within 50 metres of each other with what appeared to be a high-powered rifle.

Forests NSW feral animal control officer Mark Goldspink found the animals after being alerted to their deaths by a member of the public.

He said it was an appalling, heart-breaking slaughter of horses that were well known to people in the area.

“One of the horses shot appears to be a domestic palomino mare, who had escaped from a property and joined the brumbies,” he said. “She has been brutally shot approximately three times – in the flank, ribs and neck.” [News.com]

For those that don’t know brumbies are the Australian version of a mustang. They are wild horses that live mostly in the Australian Alps of southern New South Wales and northern Victoria. These wild horses were made famous by the books and later movies of The Man From Snowy River.

The Effort to Study the Tasmanian Devil Facial Tumor Disease

Published on November 26, 2009 in Wildlife. 0 Comments Tags: Tasmania, Tasmanian Devil.

Here is a nice article about a effort on Tasmania to conserve the wild Tasmanian Devil population that continues to be ravaged by the facial tumor disease:

‘Skinny boy’ is back. The three-year-old Tasmanian devil is a serial offender. Thin and hungry, he’d been among the first devils trapped last March during the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery’s (TMAG) field trip to the remote coast south of Cape Sorell, halfway up Tasmania’s west coast. And here he is the very next day, again at the wrong end of a metre-long PVC tube trap.

“He has this big open wound, from under his chin right down his chest,” says scientific officer Billie Lazenby, as she peers down at Skinny Boy in the upended trap while wriggling her hands into disposable latex gloves. “Yesterday it had this yucky flap of skin hanging off it. He’d most likely have gotten it fighting.”

With help from fellow researcher Brian Looker, Billie slides Skinny Boy into a fresh hessian bag, which she carries to where veterinarian Jemma Bergfeld is pulling on her disposable gloves. Brian, meanwhile, wanders away with the empty trap and dons his elbow-length rubber gloves and starts thoroughly cleaning the trap with water, brushes and an industrial-strength disinfectant named Virkon.

All these gloves and cleanliness hint at the reason the TMAG team is here, on this rarely visited stretch of coast. The devils here have never been studied, but mere zoological curiosity wouldn’t have got the helicopter flying here. It was Devil Facial Tumour Disease (DFTD). This deadly, transmissible cancer – responsible for rapidly wiping out three-quarters of devils in areas where it’s found – has invaded about two-thirds of Tasmania. But, it seems, it isn’t here. Not yet. None of the devils trapped so far on this trip has shown signs of the disease.

Softly spoken and reassuringly gentle with her marsupial charge, Billie settles down on the sandy track beside Jemma, who is preparing her tools of trade – needles and phials for collecting blood samples. Billie positions Skinny Boy so that Jemma can extract her samples. He isn’t the first devil recaptured on the 10 km long line of 40 traps, and won’t be the last, according to team leader David ‘Doozie’ Pemberton.

“A lot of animals are incredibly wary of traps,” Doozie says. “Some ?just can’t be trapped. Devils, however… they’re probably the most trap-happy animals I’ve studied.”

Once Billie and Jemma have the blood samples they start examining Skinny Boy’s wound, a fist-sized patch of raw flesh on his chest. “There’s no sign of infection,” Jemma says. “For such a big wound it looks really good. I reckon he’ll be fine.” [Australian Geographic]

You can read the rest of the article at the link.

Kangaroo Nearly Kills Victorian Man

Published on November 25, 2009 in Wildlife. 1 Comment Tags: kangaroos.

For those that don’t know, kangaroos are wild animals that should be respected because they do have the ability to kill you:

A VICTORIAN man was almost drowned by a kangaroo after he dived into his farm dam to save his pet dog.

Chris Rickard, 49, of Arthurs Creek, is being assessed by Austin Hospital surgeons after being mauled by the 1.5m roo at 9am (AEDT).

He only managed to end the attack when he elbowed the kangaroo in the throat as it tried to hold him under water, The Herald Sun reported.

By then he had already suffered a deep gash across his abdomen as the kangaroo tried to disembowel him with its hind legs, as well as a deep gash across his forehead and further cuts and scratches across his chest. [Herald-Sun]

Read the rest of the story at the link, but this gentleman is lucky to be alive. Just last year a kangaroo nearly killed a woman in New South Wales who got to close to one. I have had my own run ins with feisty males that dominate their mob of kangaroos. When confronted by a large male it is best just to give them their space and keep your distance. But as this case shows circumstances don’t always make that possible, but I’m glad Mr. Rickard is alright.