Aussie Wildlife
Friday, 13 January 2012If you’re at the right place and at the right time of day – lots of Australian wildlife is nocturnal – it’s often remarkably easy to encounter the critters and I certainly saw a few over the Christmas-New Year period.
◄ Starting with koalas – lots of wildlife you have to sneak up on to catch a glimpse and seeing them in motion (lions stalking, impala fleeing) is what it’s all about. Koalas aren’t going anywhere and you’re disappointed if they move, lounging around looking stoned is what being a koala is all about. Like this one, close to the road down to Cape Otway off the Great Ocean Rd in Victoria.
Kangaroos on the other hand are often on the bound as soon as they spot you. With some friends we spent a week just off the Great Ocean Rd near Apollo Bay. Every night a mob of kangaroos would appear in the paddock above our house just on sunset, ears alert, ready to leap away if they spotted you. ►
Flying foxes, also known as fruit bats, are the world’s largest bats and every night in Melbourne a cloud of them fly over our house at sunset, heading out for the night time hunt. In daytime you can find them hanging in the trees beside the Yarra River, just a few km upstream from where I life. ▼
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◄ Appropriately my ceramic artist friend Alexandra Copeland gave me this delightful bat-plate as a Christmas present, although I don’t think this ugly beast is a fruit bat.
