Aug
29
Echidna
August 29, 2002 | Leave a Comment
Another of Australia’s weird and wonderful indigenous animals is the echidna, or spiny anteater. It’s a monotreme — like the platypus — and, biologically, shares a lot of features with reptiles.
Echidnas lay eggs and suckle their young in a pouch until the youngster begin to develop spines, when — not surprisingly — it is moved out of the pouch and into the den. Ouch.
Aug
29
Dingo
August 29, 2002 | Leave a Comment
The dingo is related to dogs, but wild dingoes have larger feet and bigger teeth than most dogs. Also, dingoes howl, but don’t bark. Or so we’re told.
Do they eat babies? Well, their main food is rabbits, and they are known to eat larger mammals, including sheep. You decide.
Aug
29
Saltwater Crocodiles
August 29, 2002 | Leave a Comment
Saltwater Crocodiles — or “salties” as they’re called locally — can grow to more than 20 feet long, and they definitely consider human beings potential meals. Prey is often killed by being dragged underwater, drowned, and dismembered, then stuck under a log and left to tenderize …
Like that scene in Crocodile Dundee where the woman is getting some water, and a croc jumps out and grabs her necklace, crocs really do lie in wait for an animal to come back to a spot to drink, and then grab it.
Aug
29
Koala
August 29, 2002 | Leave a Comment
A koala spends its entire life in eucalyptus trees, leaving only to move from one tree to another. They sleep about 22 hours every day, and reportedly have a 6-foot-long appendix, to help digest leaves. Koalas rarely drink water, but do eat significant quantities of dirt, probably for the minerals.
Aug
29
Kangaroo at Healesville
August 29, 2002 | Leave a Comment
The wild animal sanctuary at Healesville is a good day trip from Melbourne. It’s houses native Australian animals displayed in a sensitive environment. (Is there a politically correct way to display other species in order that humans may be educated and entertained?)
Anyway, we went many times, and really enjoyed it. Here’s our friend Lynn petting a small kangaroo (photo taken in 1993).
Aug
29
Laughing Kookaburra
August 29, 2002 | Leave a Comment
The Laughing Kookaburra is a large kingfisher with a loud, racous call. These birds are believed to live in small groups, with one pair mating and the other adults in the group all helping to maintain the territory, incubate the eggs, and raise the young. It takes a village!
(I took this photo at the Healesville Sanctuary in 1993)
Aug
29
Duck-billed Platypus
August 29, 2002 | Leave a Comment
Talk about weird animals: the duck-billed platypus has a beak-like muzzle, webbed feet, a fur-covered body, a flat, beaver-like tail, and eyes on the top of its head. Males have a venom gland and a spine on their hind foot.When swimming under water, these guys keep their eyes closed and nuzzle around in the mud for food.
They are wonderful fun to watch, and the Healesville Sanctuary in Victoria has a really good exhibit!
Aug
29
Goanna Sunbathing
August 29, 2002 | Leave a Comment
The name goanna is believed to be a derivative of iguana, which early European settlers likened this lizard to. (The goanna is actually a type of monitor lizard.) Australia has about 20 different species of goanna, which feed on other — smaller — reptiles, eggs, insects, and small mammals.
Goannas are big to begin with, and can, when threatened, rear up on their hind legs — scary!
(Photo from my year in Australia, 1992-1992)
Aug
29
Tasmanian Tiger
August 29, 2002 | Leave a Comment
The Thylacine, also called the Tasmanian tiger or Tasmanian wolf, was hunted to extinction early in the 20th century. Here’s a virtual Thylacine museum with more information about this gorgeous, unfortunate, carniverous marsupial.
Aug
28
The Scoop on Poop
August 28, 2002 | Leave a Comment
Moses shows us poop from a Maasai giraffe. Looks small for a giraffe, doesn’t it? That’s because the giraffe deposits about 300 little round pellets like this at a time.
(From a 2002 trip to Kenya.)
Aug
28
The Scoop on Poop-2
August 28, 2002 | Leave a Comment
The dung beetle lays 1 or 2 eggs and encloses them in a ball (shown here) it rolls out of animal dung. It then buries the ball about 6 inches underground. If the ball isn’t disturbed, the baby dung beetles will burrow out.
But the bat-eared fox  with its large ears  can actually hear the baby beetles 6 inches underground, and will dig them up, break open the casing, and eat them. Seems like an awful lot of work for a little bite to eat.
(From a 2002 trip to Kenya.)
Aug
28
The Scoop on Poop-3
August 28, 2002 | Leave a Comment
This is impala poop; Â you see it everywhere! Grazers (like impala and gazelle) tend to have pellet-like poop.
(From a 2002 trip to Kenya.)
Aug
28
The Scoop on Poop-4
August 28, 2002 | Leave a Comment
This is hippo poop. Browsers, such as hippos, generally have poop that is big and grassy.
Our guide explained that hippos tend to spread their poop around  by using their little tails as dispersing propellers  in order to mark their territory. What a cute image!
(From a 2002 trip to Kenya.)
Aug
28
The Scoop on Poop-5
August 28, 2002 | Leave a Comment
The grassy poop of a grazer. This is from a zebra.
(From a 2002 trip to Kenya.)
Aug
28
The Scoop on Poop-6
August 28, 2002 | Leave a Comment
This lovely specimen is from a wildebeeste.
(From a 2002 trip to Kenya.)
Aug
28
The Scoop on Poop-7
August 28, 2002 | Leave a Comment
To my mind, this is a scat scientist’s dream: Grant’s gazelle poop on top of zebra poop. Why are they right in the same place? Coincidence?
Did you recognize the zebra poop? Or am I silly to think you care?
(From a 2002 trip to Kenya.)
Aug
28
The Scoop on Poop-8
August 28, 2002 | Leave a Comment
This is from Thompson’s gazelle; it resembles Grant’s gazelle, but is a little smaller.
(From a 2002 trip to Kenya.)
Aug
28
The Scoop on Poop-9
August 28, 2002 | Leave a Comment
This is mystery poop; I neglected to write down what it was when I took the photo. (At the time it seemed so obvious; I was sure I’d remember!)
(From a 2002 trip to Kenya.)
Aug
28
The Scoop on Poop-10
August 28, 2002 | Leave a Comment
These tiny little pellets are from a tiny little antelope  called the dik-dik.
(From a 2002 trip to Kenya.)
Aug
28
The Scoop on Poop-11
August 28, 2002 | Leave a Comment
OK, now it’s time for the test. Â
Do you recognize this?
It’s wildebeest poop.
(From a 2002 trip to Kenya.)
Aug
28
The Equator
August 28, 2002 | Leave a Comment
Here we are at the equator sign and gift shop.
(From a 2002 trip to Kenya.)
Aug
28
Professor Lopez at the Equator
August 28, 2002 | Leave a Comment
“Professor Lopez,” an enterprising young Kenyan man, uses a piece of grass floating in a bowl with a hole in the bottom to demonstrate that water drains clockwise in the northern hemisphere and anticlockwise in the southern. “The farther from the equator, the faster it [the grass] twirls.” And he shows us that it doesn’t twirl at all right at the equator.
(From a 2002 trip to Kenya.)
Aug
28
At the Sarova Mara camp we met Solomon, who speaks English as well as Swahili and Maa (the language of the Maasai people). Solomon told us a lot about Maasai culture: clan structure and function, doweries, raising and herding cattle, use of herbs.
The Maasai are known for wearing red, but the plaid fabrics are a relatively recent development; they were brought to Africa by the Brits in the 19th century. I think they make the Maasai look like a bunch of very dark Scottsmen.
(From a 2002 trip to Kenya.)
Aug
28
Maasai Villagers
August 28, 2002 | Leave a Comment
Young male villagers — wearing traditional Maasai red clothing — have come to greet us, show us around their village, and perform some traditional dances. About 80 people live in this manata, and they’re all one family: brothers, unmarried sisters, cousins, and the women who have married into the family.
Our guides were Dixon and Peter, sons of the chief.
(From a 2002 trip to Kenya.)
Aug
28
Maasai Homes
August 28, 2002 | Leave a Comment
In the background are traditional Maasai homes, shaped like loaves of bread. The houses, made of sticks and plaster, last about six years before the termites make them uninhabitable, at which time the whole village moves to another location and rebuilds the compound.
If a man has several wives, he also has several houses; each wife “gets” to build her own home. Young girls learn to build houses from their grandmothers, and practice at it as children.
(From a 2002 trip to Kenya.)
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- Laughing Kookaburra
(5 out of 5) - Goanna Sunbathing (5 out of 5)
- Andrew Dean Nystrom (5 out of 5)
- Ten Best Puns (5 out of 5)
- Laura Read (5 out of 5)
- Golden Bamboo Lemur (5 out of 5)
- Greater Bamboo Lemur (5 out of 5)
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- Tasmanian Tiger (5 out of 5)
- Many Thanks (5 out of 5)
- Laughing Kookaburra