Animals of Australia

[matthew]

Australia is a land of strange animals, and I made a point of visiting a few of the aquariums and nature reserves that house the native fauna. I'm not usually a fan of zoos, with their bored animals living in confined spaces, but most of what I saw on my trip impressed me. Certainly I've never been to any park that matches the quality of Cleland, outside of Adelaide, and the Sydney Aquarium in Darling Harbour was also remarkable.

Here are a few of the animals that caught my eye over the past few weeks:

Lizards:



Insects:



Fish:



and birds:



And of course, no visit would be complete without a kangaroo:



and koalas make great subjects, when they're awake:



How could anyone not want to live in a country with such cute bears? It's almost worth overlooking such minor trifles as funnel-web spiders, scorpions, and fire ants. That there's snake called the "common death adder" is a little harder to get used to.

[Wedding Shooter]

Cool shots Matt - love the fish and the lizard (looks like a frill necked lizard with his frills folded).

[Rabid Penguin]

I feel it's my duty as an Australian to point out that Koala's aren't bears.

[ABree]

Looks like you met a number of the friendly locals while down under

I like the iridescent blue on the squid, looks awesome.

Good to hear you enjoyed your holiday.

Sharon

[pamb]

Koalas are best seen running along the ground. I went 24 years without ever seeing that and fell over laughing when I did...

Great photos

Did you see an Emu? They scare the bejeezus out of me, evil birds.

And year most of our critters will kill you some how, if it's not a common death adder it's something that crawls or a drop bear

[Rabid Penguin]

gotta watch the drop bears.

[matthew]

WS, I think you're right about the lizard's ID. I wasn't very diligent about photographing the signs that accompany each display, so I frequently have no idea what the animals' names are. (I have the same problem with photos of my extended family.)

Rabid, something I learned during my trip is that Australians think of bears in Canada the way Canadians think about sharks in Australia. (Basically that they'll kill you if you're more than fifteen feet from civilization.) No, koalas aren't true bears... I know they have those claws, but I still think I could take one in a fight.

Sharon, Australia really is a very friendly place. Relatives that I haven't seen in twenty years dropped everything for my visit. Even people on the street were much more sociable and helpful than they are in Toronto or Los Angeles. I'm still glad that most of these critters were under glass, though. And the squid -- a sepioteuthis australis, I got the name of it -- was a fantastic subject. It just hovered, looking back at me, slowly changing its angle. It was at least as interested in what I was doing as I was in looking at it.

Pam, I saw several emus, but the background was always bad and I didn't photograph them. Cleland animal park has them wandering around, possibly to teach tourists and small children valuable life lessons. (of which many were in desperate need.) I also saw several Cassowaries, and didn't photograph them, either. They were always behind heavy fences. Another valuable life lesson opportunity missed...

Australia's a great and beautiful country, but it is nice to be back in a place where not everything that moves can kill me.

The Scorpion photo was interesting -- that's the natural colour of the display. The illumination is from a black light, which makes the bug fluoresce. (Cute.) I've never seen a white balance value of fifty thousand before.

[pamb]

matthew Wrote:Australia's a great and beautiful country, but it is nice to be back in a place where not everything that moves can kill me.

The Scorpion photo was interesting -- that's the natural colour of the display. The illumination is from a black light, which makes the bug fluoresce. (Cute.) I've never seen a white balance value of fifty thousand before.

I came face to face with a funnel web the other day in the garden. I'm ready to get the heck out of Australia myself!

I really wouldn't have guessed that white balance was possible. Or that someone would ever describe a scorpion as 'cute'

(And yeah, that's a frill neck lizard.)