Dealing with the Wildlife

When you live in the outer reaches of urban living, you need to learn how to deal with the wildlife.

In our region, crocodiles immediately come to mind - you cannot miss them - they appear on the front page of the local newspaper almost every day. Along with snakes, ants - large and small, especially green ants, bandicoots, cockroaches, cane toads and ...........lizards.

The last ones come in large through to small. Our immediate neighbourhood has a quite large monitor lizard - similar to a goanna, about a metre long, and an absolute plethora of much smaller lizards. Skinks of various types and lots of ta -ta lizards. Even the resident dog hardly ever bothers to chase these critters.........there are just too many in the yard, "her" yard!

But last night we had a new incursion, with a 300mm long ta-ta lizard sleeping - yes, sleeping, on the small clothes line on the outside covered terrace area. They cling on tightly to small tree and shrub branches to sleep overnight where they blend in with the colour of the branch very well. But I had not seen one using the clothes line, grasping the line tightly and using it for a bed!



And yes, it had moved on by this morning.

Even More Crocodiles for the Newspaper Front Page

The local newspaper in Darwin is renowned for having crocodile stories on the front page. Afterall, the local region is a very significant crocodile region with large areas of crocodile habitat and many large crocodiles.

Below is a superb new crocodile story.........will it make the NT News front page? Will Wicking produce a cartoon to match?

These are momentous decisions for the highly acclaimed editors at the newspaper.

However, it is an interesting thought......a world full of crocodiles. How would Swamp the cartoon character in the newspaper handle so many competitors?


New fossils reveal world full of crocodiles

New fossils unearthed in the Sahara desert reveal a once-swampy world divided up among a half-dozen species of unusual and perhaps intelligent crocodiles, researchers have found.

Researchers have given some of the new species snappy names - BoarCroc, RatCroc, DogCroc, DuckCroc and PancakeCroc - but say their findings help build an understanding of how crocodilians were and remain such a successful life form.

They lived during the Cretaceous period 145 million to 65 million years ago, when the continents were closer together and the world was warmer and wetter than it is now. Some walked upright with their legs under the body like a land mammal instead of sprawled out to the sides, bellies touching the ground. "We were surprised to find so many species from the same time in the same place," said paleontologist Hans Larsson of McGill University in Montreal. "Each of the crocs apparently had different diets, different behaviours. It appears they had divided up the ecosystem, each species taking advantage of it in its own way."

Mr Larsson and Paul Sereno from the University of Chicago, funded by National Geographic, studied the jaws, teeth and what few bones they had of the crocodiles. They also did CT scans to see inside the skulls.

Two of the species, DogCroc and DuckCroc, had brains that looked different from those of modern crocodiles.

"They may have had slightly more sophisticated brain function than living crocs because active hunting on land usually requires more brain power than merely waiting for prey to show up," Mr Larsson said.

RatCroc, a new species formally named Araripesuchus rattoides, was found in Morocco and would have used its buck-toothed lower jaw to grub for food.

PancakeCroc, known as Laganosuchus thaumastos, was six metres long with a big, flat head.

DuckCroc represents new fossils found in Niger from a previously known species called Anatosuchus minor. It would have eaten grubs and frogs with its broad snout.

The more ferocious BoarCroc was also six metres long but ran upright and had a jaw built for ramming, with three pairs of knife-like teeth.

"Their amphibious talents in the past may be the key to understanding how they flourished in, and ultimately survived, the dinosaur era," Mr Sereno said.


[sourced from ABC web site ex Reuters]

Could a Crocodile Be YOUR Friend?

The Northern Territory is full of crocodle stories. Crocodile Dundee helped make it that way. They regularly appear on the front page of the NT News , the local newspaper, and there are several large tourist ventures that use crocodiles as their money spinner.

Locally, they are VERY respected. Definitely not to be abused, or treated lightly.........or it might cost you your life.

It seems as if that is not always the way things are. I am a bit shocked, but a recent news article shows a Costa Rican man actually playing with his pet crocodile. Read about it here; see the photos.
http://www.news.com.au/travel/story/0,28318,25940391-5014090,00.html

It is mind boggling. Not something one does lightly.

The Crocodile is BACK

As noted a few times, the local newspaper is renowned for the outlandish front page........normally crocodiles, sometimes fishing and the odd "way out there" story of all sorts. The emu starred a few weeks back, for a short few days.

BUT.............crocodiles are back, and they are large. Over 4m long. The same croc was seen some months ago in the same place at Fogg Dam Nature Reserve just south of Darwin. After that it seems to have been absent for a while. A wet season holiday maybe.

This time it was sunning itself on the earthen dam wall. Seen last week, same spot and it is BIG. At least four metres. That is a serious sized crocodile. The photo was taken in March, the first time it appeared at Fogg Dam.

A front page story again............same crocodile!

Quite a few years ago, when living near Fogg Dam I used to exercise our dog by throwing sticks into the dam for the dog to jump in, swim and chase the stick. Was definitely very safe then with no crocodiles around much. NOT the thing to do now.

Parks and Wildlife are warning people not to walk across the dam wall at this time. Understandably. But is is a great walk, with plenty of native flora and fauna to see...............but you do not want to meet a croc, in or out of the water.



Image taken by Brian Hannand March 2009 at Fogg Dam

Emu Replaces the Crocodile

The crocodile is a regular contributor to the NT News. If not the front page, then page 2, 3,4,5,6, etc.

Whether it is size, some one has been attacked or killed, or a famous personality has been in the big submerged cage at one of the local crocodile tourist facilities.

But the croc has ben gazumped! Pure and simple. The headline says it all!

Enjoy the headlines from last Saturday.

Crocodiles Nearly Always Feature Here - But the Shark Did It This Time

The local newspaper is a bit of a rag. Definitely not the upmarket big city dailies characterised by " The Australian", "Sydney Morning herald" or "the Age", or even droll Adelaide with "The Advertiser".

However, the NT News seems to make a mark with regular headlines about crocodiles, drunks in the street, rampaging buffaloes, and similar esotoric notable and noble mind developing themes.

On January 12 it may have scored a notable double in the newspaper headlines - "man stalked by croc but bitten by shark". Yes, the past few days have seen a number of shark attacks along the east coast, and a number of people have been hurt, with one teenage girl very savagely mauled. But just to spice it up for local consumption we have to have a crocodile involved.

A few days ago someone caught a small [ 1.2m] crocodile near an infamous Territory watering hole........the Noonamah pub. Not particularly notable at this time of year when small crocodiles can walk big distances overland. But to have a local, while on holiday interstate, get bitten by a shark ......well it's a double whammy. Especially after the guy had been fishing on a river's edge near a large croc. That is a bit of a no-no here; you are dicing with death when crocodiles lurk in most rivers.

Watch this space - the NT News front page - a crocodile will be back soon! Will not be upstaged by a shark!

http://www.ntnews.com.au/article/2009/01/12/26415_ntnews.html is the article.

Frogs and Crocodiles Suffer Too

Increasing amounts of oestrogen are getting into the environment. Mostly via effluent, and effluent reuse. Some also through the food chain, with man [ and women] at the top. A lot via use of the contraceptive pill, both inadvertently, and by disposal via the sewer.

We are probably not doing ourselves a lot of good, overall.

But when oestrogen effects are the subject of an article in the mainstream press, then maybe it is time to be more mindful of the issue.

It is a thoughtful and thought provoking article.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24891709-7583,00.html

and definitely worth reading.

We are lucky, living in a relatively smaller city. But for cities where their sewer is the next cities drinking water, what a mess!

Irreverent - DEFINITELY

Monsoonal life in the NT is enhanced by the cartooning mirth and irreverency of the local cartoonist, Colin Wicking - aka Wicking.

Delivering a daily cartoon for the local newspaper - the usual "meet a deadline cartoon" on local and / or world events, reasonably comon to newspapers around the world. The local newspaper seems to have a focus on crocodiles on the front page, and they do appear in the cartoons too.

Wicking does tend to be decidely irreverent. Like his DECIDLY irreverent Easter cartoons of a number of years ago. Yet, even the local christian churches were not too fazed. Cartoonists are a bit like that......getting you where it causes mirth, on even the most sombre events.

Australians are well known for taking the mickey out of one another.......enjoy his cartoons at www.wicking.net.au . Some material is focussed on local issues, such as the recent one over the Chief Minister's near death experience with his dog, but others are of broader appeal.

The Monsoon Frog will be back soon

It is coming back........soon! The pundits are saying the monsoon will be back next week.

And with it the hordes of green tree frogs that live in our tropical garden, nestled in the mulch. Once it rains, the chorus starts, and then continues almost every night.

So much for the advance of the dreaded Cane Toad. Yes, they are coming, but are not into much of suburban Darwin....YET. One or two found nearby in the past year, and promptly dispatched to the freezer, and into the mulch bin once frozen. And nary one seen at night while walking the dog. If they are dense, you should see cane toads under the street lights or path lights catching insects, but they are just not there.

Of more concern is the supposed sighting of a crocodile in the nearby Water Gardens parklands at Jingili. Now dogs are banned while the crocodile is found! How many readers have a crocodile in the local park?? Or maybe just a big lizard or water monitor.

And there is concern too about the extinction of a pygmy crocodile population due to the advance across the Northern Territory of the diabolical cane toad. And yes, saving them by relocation is an excellent concept. Read the story here:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/02/05/2155091.htm?site=darwin