13 Unique Australian Animals

by Deb on June 17, 2010

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{ 26 comments }

Catherine June 17, 2010 at 10:51 am

There are so many to choose from. Since you have said barramundi, I vote for quolls, mainly because of their wonderful name and endangered status. Unless mudcrabs are native to Australia, in which case I change my vote.
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Deb June 17, 2010 at 4:16 pm

I like the word quoll too. Mudcrabs were serious contenders and I should have put a crustacean in, but the list was getting way too long!

Hear Mum Roar June 17, 2010 at 1:45 pm

They’re all just so beautiful! Although I’m so glad I’ve never come face to face with the olive python!
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Deb June 17, 2010 at 4:16 pm

I love snakes, reptiles are my favourites. I used to volunteer in the reptile house all the time, Olive pythons are gorgeous.

Heather June 17, 2010 at 2:09 pm

Love the black swan, and the numbat is kind of cute, too! As promised last Thursday, I’ve posted on prairie plants this week.
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Deb June 17, 2010 at 4:17 pm

There are black swans in Perth that are really tame and you can feed them. I’m impressed doing 158 TTs! That’s 3 years worth.

Marita June 17, 2010 at 4:01 pm

SPIDER!

:: freaks out ::

:: counts to 10 ::

:: rapidly scrolls past picture ::

:: jumps 10 feet in air at picture of ant ::

:: returns to seat when she realises it is ant picture not another spider ::

Ummm fav Aussie Animal?

The Drop Bear 😀
http://www.cfr.com.au/dropbears/index.html

and the Blue tongue lizard.

Deb June 17, 2010 at 4:30 pm

Heh heh. I freaked when I saw one of those ants a few weeks ago, thought it couldn’t possibly be an ant! The things we used to call bull ants when I was a kid weren’t like that!

jenny June 17, 2010 at 6:43 pm

I’m quite partial to the thorny devil myself 🙂 I have a lizard crazy 11 year old living in my house and it has kinda rubbed off on me.
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Deb June 17, 2010 at 11:09 pm

Reptiles are definitely my favourites. I’m slowly building myself up to getting a snake as a pet, doing the research on keeping them.

amandab June 17, 2010 at 7:09 pm

Princess loves the cassowary, it is a definitely a favourite in our house.

Redbacks are all over our yard, which is why we haven’t done anything out there as yet.

And bullant bites are horrid! 🙁

My favourite is the wombat, kind of common and boring, I know. “Hunwick’s Egg” by Mem Fox makes me kind of like bilbies though, and from memory has a beautiful thorny devil pic too
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Deb June 17, 2010 at 11:11 pm

Ouch! If you’ve been bitten by something that size I feel for you!

Wombats are quite cute, I don’t think of them as common because they are only in the Eastern states. Aren’t we parochial – eastern states, north or south of the river, now I live in the NT it’s ‘Down South!’

Hootin' Anni June 17, 2010 at 8:21 pm

Wow….this was all so amazing!!! And I learned something new reading it all….you rock the blog world with this one. Excellent.

Come join me and read my Thursday post of you can. It’s HERE
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Deb June 17, 2010 at 11:12 pm

Thanks 😀

Kimberly Menozzi June 17, 2010 at 8:31 pm

Awww… Budgies! I love budgies! 🙂 Ours was named Charlie – and he was the natural green color, too.

I like the sugar glider, too. So cute! 🙂

Happy TT!

Deb June 17, 2010 at 11:13 pm

We’ve just got pet budgies, they’re all very mixed. The big girl loves them and is trying to teach them to talk!

Harriet June 17, 2010 at 10:28 pm

There was a story on the news about a guy who put his hand into a bag of grapes and one of those spiders was in there.

Have a great Thursday!
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Robert Williams June 17, 2010 at 11:00 pm

I’m sure the RedBack is actually an Import.
But for Australian animals there is always the Potoroo, the Antechinus, and the Urban Boguns

Deb June 17, 2010 at 11:15 pm

Of course, who could overlook the bogans! Almost as good as drop bears and hoop snakes.

The redback is listed as native, widows are certainly found all over the world. But I do remember reading something a few years ago that pointed out they were mostly found in urban settings and were quite rare in the bush, it was speculating that they may have been introduced. But I don’t know from where, does anyone know if there are redbacks found anywhere else?

ETA I just checked Wikipedia, it says they may have been spread around Australia by settlers in the 19th century. But it’s closely related to the New Zealand version, so if it’s been introduced it’s not from too far away.

Robert Williams June 17, 2010 at 11:39 pm

I thought they where the same as the US black widow spiders. Also there are no Aboridginal stories about them (So I’m told)

Deb June 18, 2010 at 9:35 am

They’re closely related – the US spider is Latrodectus mactans, the redback is Latrodectus hasselti – however it appears that L. mactans has been redefined several times with other species together or separate, currently they are separate. There are several related species on Pacific islands and New Zealand, I’d love to know how well these have been studied and if they could be the same.

They weren’t recorded until 1870, which is quite late if they were as common as they are today, and were found in Queensland seaports. Plus Qld and the NT have a long history of contact with other islands, particularly Indonesia, so they could have come in on sailing ships or with non-Europeans, like dingoes and cats. (Cats have been introduced twice.)

The lack of Dreaming stories is interesting but complicated. We’ve lost so many stories, and a lot that are still around cannot be recorded because they are secret, sacred knowledge. But it would be unusual if that included all stories about redbacks. Also many Aboriginal people have a very dry sense of humour. I know of at least one person who came to a community to ‘record their stories’ and was fed a pile of BS. So our knowledge of Dreaming stories is pretty spotty and inaccurate. There are some Aboriginal sounding names for the redback – Murra-ngura spider, Kapara spider and the Kanna-jeri spider – but they could be new names or misunderstandings of Aboriginal words.

Looking further afield, accidentally introduced species that do well generally spread to other countries too. There is a small colony of redbacks in NZ and some in Japan. In NZ they could be contained by the native species, but in Japan they have no competitors and you would expect them to spread very quickly, which they don’t appear to have done. So they aren’t really acting like a typical introduced species.

And just because a species does well out of invasion doesn’t mean it isn’t native – galahs are a classic example. European agriculture has allowed them to drastically increase their numbers and range, but they’re most definitely native! So redbacks could have been a small part of the bush ecosystem, as they are today, but adapted very well to urban settings.

It sounds like it’s a definite maybe 🙂 There are arguments both ways, it would be fascinating to test them genetically but I don’t think that will happen soon. They have definitely spread and increased thanks to European settlement, but it could have been as a native or immigrant. Thanks for a fascinating little research project.

Jill Conyers June 18, 2010 at 12:11 am

Cool T13 and great images.

Janet June 18, 2010 at 1:00 am

love the numbats & super gliders!

Kristine June 21, 2010 at 10:30 pm

Hi Deb, My husband had a great experience with a olive python. When we lived in Newman, we saw some Mardu men walking through town with an olive python around their necks. My husband went over to have a chat and they offered him a hold. He thought it was already dead and got quite a shock when the end near him swung around to have a look at what was going on.

Adesi June 22, 2010 at 2:57 am

anything but reptiles 🙁 please

check mine at http://bit.ly/bNGC3a

Lynn June 25, 2010 at 5:17 am

What a cool list! I personally wouldn’t want to see the redback or bull ant in person though ….
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