Animal Facts In Australia
I recently spent a week with a 14-year-old boy in the far north of australia. We went to Uluru, the forbidden mountains, which the aboriginal people considered sacred.
I spent time with young aborigines and their parents. We hiked in the rainforest, ate rabbit on the couch, ran in rainforest stream, and drove along windswept dusty roads.
We talked, we laughed, we got frustrated. It was the most beautiful day's of my life.
The first animal encounter I had was with a short-legged spider.
I never thought I'd encounter the barbed wire-sucking insect that shares its name. They're not uncommon.
My best guess is that the natives, who used to hunt these arachnids in their blinds at night, named them after barbed wire.
Though I'd never seen the creature before, it's a harmless pest that is attracted to lights and dyes and the like. While walking along a beach one night, my feet sunk in muddy sand as I walked through a thin tide.
A little on the darker side, I was afraid I had stumbled upon a barbed wire barber, except that I didn't get a haircut. The spider soon left my shoe behind, though. In fact, it's one of the only spiders I've seen on a trail.
I hadn't gotten my driver's license yet, but I was prepared to drive through the weeds. I wasn't prepared for a snake.
But there he was, slithering past the side of my passenger seat. We were driving on a narrow track in dense fog. The snake was about five feet away.
I thought, I should just drive away. But my survival instincts kicked in, and I was too scared to touch the snake. I crawled all the way across the seat, which was much more effective than jumping out of the car.
I can't remember the details of the drive home, but I do remember my father gently joking with me about how the driver-education course may have been a little too easy that day.
You could hardly call it a vacation, but I went to Uluru's heartland in the northern part of australia. This was my first experience with indigenous culture, and I have never been more aware of how lucky I am to be an american.
For starters, there are toilets and showers at each visitor center. "Aborigines used to travel 20 miles to a river with water, where they would relieve themselves in the river," I was told. Of course, there are no signs outside every bathroom.
You cannot even see the buildings from the road. These are people who cannot just use the same place as everyone else, so the toilet was clearly a place of honor, and it was filled with people relieving themselves.
After a successful morning of hiking, my friend and I entered a small building with a man standing in front of a wood stove, cooking rice and vegetables.
He welcomed us, and invited us to sit at his table. Though the food looked just like the food on the menu at any "local" restaurant, we were told that this was "traditional Aboriginal
10 Animal Facts In Australia
(CNN) — Australia is a big country, especially if you're sitting on a hot beach or trying to get from one place to another.
That's why it's surprising to know that the animals that call the place home are just as big.
You may not be aware of it, but you're close to marsupials, carnivores, birds, fish, reptiles and insects all in one.
Here are 10 little known facts about these creatures.
Table of contents
- Cows are mammals.
- Fish can be written with one 'e'.
- There are arround 270 million koalas.
- Kangaroos are marsupial.
- There are 5,000 species of birds in Australia.
- Goanna may be closest relative to cockroaches.
- Bats can't fly.
- A vegetarian could eat worms.
- There are three animals called 'sea cows'.
- We have one-tenth of the mammal species on earth.
1. Cows are mammals
Cows are mammals, which means they are a kind of animal. It was previously thought that there were three kinds of mammals:
Mammals, which are an order including birds and crocodiles and are named for their mammary glands;
Deinotheria, or "guard animals," which also include bears and lizards; and Leporidae, or "marsupials."
 |
| Images by pixabay website |
However, scientists now believe there are at least 17 kinds of mammal, which includes at least 11 families (just check out that list in the near term) and four suborders (insectivores, herbivores, carnivores and eutherians).
2. Fish can be written with one 'e'
Since there are 11 families of fish, there are 11 letters in the English alphabet (this is similar to how the world's languages don't distinguish between "th" and "z"), and only 11 letters in the Greek alphabet.
That means there are fish names like the rainbow trout, goldfish, and crayfish.
 |
| Images by pixabay.com |
So, it's a lot easier for us to say "granny smith apple" than "orichalcum smithia."
3. There are around 270 million koalas
According to Zoologist Julian Fennessy, Australia has about 270,000 koalas, making it the continent's most threatened native mammal.
Koalas are an example of endemism -- that's the fact that the same animal is found only in a single habitat. They're found in three main areas:
 |
| Images by pixabay.com |
Northern Territory, particularly the outback;
Queensland, Australia's mainland state; and
Western Australia, where they've also found a home in the desert, seagrass beds and swamps.
4. Kangaroos are marsupials
Kangaroos are known as "quokkas," which is a mix of the Indonesian words for "kangaroo" and "goanna."
 |
| Credit - pixabay |
They are actually related to kangaroos and wallabies but have a much smaller, stockier body. Quokkas live on the islands of Indonesia and New Guinea.
5. There are 5,000 species of birds in Australia
A lot of birds have been extinct in Australia since European colonizers landed in 1788, but they have survived and thrived.
The brown booby, for example, is considered a threatened species and there are just 6,000 of them left. And the sulphur-crested cockatoo has no natural predators.
 |
| Credit- pixabay-pen_ash / 886 Bilder |
According to Zoologist Bob Sorensen, Australia is home to the most species of birds of any continent.
6. Goanna may be closest relative to cockroaches
Science technology: Cactus Tech
"Goanna" refers to a family of marsupials called tammar wallabies.
They look and act a lot like cockroaches.
7. Bats can't fly
Cave-dwelling bats can't fly and they rely on echolocation to detect their prey.
The Australian funnel-web spider is considered to be the most venomous arthropod. The bite of a funnel-web spider can produce some of the most painful bites known in the animal kingdom, if not in the world.
The largest is said to have the capacity to deliver as much as 70,000 micrograms (0.00007 ounces) of venom.
8. A vegetarian could eat worms
The Australian town of Bourke has been declared Australia's most vegetarian-friendly town.
It is believed that because there is a higher concentration of vegetables, fruit and grains per square mile than anywhere else on earth.
9. There are three animals called 'sea cows'
The specific term used for these species is Mylona rugosa, also known as the large river dolphin, the family of which includes the humpback whale.
They're now critically endangered in the wild because of pollution, capture for live baiting and the construction of dams.
The smallest, the pygmy freshwater dolphin, measures around 15 feet (4.5 m) long.
The southern river dolphin can reach up to 6.6 feet (2 m) long.
10. We have one-tenth of the mammal species on earth
There are just about a quarter of the world's mammal species alive today as there were in the year 20 million years ago.
An island is surrounded by water that does not have a single native mammal species. Australian waters also host an unusual land-vertebrate: the water wallaby.
If you have also gone to Australia, then you also share some experiences about Australia with us.
Comments
Post a Comment