February 25, 2023
"The continued existence of wildlife and wilderness is important to the quality of life of humans. Our challenge for the future is that we realize we are very much a part of the Earth's ecosystem, and we must learn to respect and live according to the basic biological laws of nature."
- Jim Fowler
“96% of all the mammals in the world are homo sapiens (us) or our domestic livestock. The remaining 4% comprise all the rest. All of it. All the tigers, badgers, deer, kangaroos, bats, monkeys, etc. And that small percentage is shrinking daily.”
- Sir David Attenborough
When I was young their used to be a television show called “Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom”. It started in 1962 and ran through the 70’s. The host was a genteel silver haired man named Marlin Perkins and he had a trusty sidekick Jim Fowler who was younger, handsome in a ‘Mad Men’ kind of way, and always dressed in jungle khakis.
The production quality was primitive and the dialogue achingly bad, but I loved it. It all felt so exciting back when the television only had three channels and the world was so far away.
They always had scenes like this….
(Marlin in a 1960’s era open cockpit helicopter) : While I am safe flying above the site Jim will rope down into that nest of Australian Bird Eating Spiders to take measurements
Dramatic music as Jim gets out of the helicopter with his jungle hat on and slides down into the hole in a manly manner.
Pause.....
Marlin (Looking down with head set on). Oh my……(looks at camera). If you have been bitten by multiple spiders, Mutual of Omaha has the insurance you need
Go to commercial break
Marlin would always feed the baby kangaroos and Jim would have to handle the poisonous snakes. He had the khakis on so that was his job.
When we came to Australia, like many tourists, we were briefed on the many things that can and will kill you here. From salt water crocodiles to huge poisonous spiders, this place was Stephen King’s pantry. Ten of the most venomous snakes on the planet all live here. Sharks have been known to hide behind trees in parks.
But there is more. The unique mammals that live here are second to none on earth. From the 6 foot tall Red Kangaroo to the Duck billed Platypus, this place is a wonderland. So we kind of expected on our long drives to see many kangaroo, like herds of Wildebeest, crossing the road.
"Fun Australian fact - this kangaroo is waiting for pursuers to come into the water with him, where he will try to drown them. They are extremely good at it. Never, ever go into water with a kangaroo. Everything has lots of innovative ways to kill you here".
- Cormac Ferrell
The locals all would say, “They are such a pest. They are always in my back yard”.
We just nodded in wide eyed wonder.
Surely we will see them too.
Nope. Nada. Zilch, Zero.
With the exception of the two we saw near the ‘Great Ocean Road’, Mutual of Omaha has been a bust. Despite my abject fear of them, I wanted to see a snake after awhile.
No can do.
So, it was with some interest that we visited the national Taronga Zoo across the bay today.
At last we would see some of the animals that were supposed to be everywhere here.
We arrived and learned it is “World Pride Month” here in Sydney.
Like the Olympics, cities all over the world compete to host the celebration for this semi annual event. Pride flags are everywhere and on Saturday there will be a large parade. More on this event will be in tomorrow's blog when we go to the opera.
But there was this guy. Above him were disco balls hung in the trees. Fabulous.
One of the best things was time with the Koalas here. Their fur is not soft but coarse like sheep's wool. They spend 20 hours a day sleeping and when they are awake they are eating eucalyptus leaves or having sex. Not a terrible life.
They are endangered because of reduced habitat. With the major bush fires 2 years ago, some 10,000 died in the wild. When the tree are farther apart, the koalas have to descend to the ground to go the another tree. There they are vulnerable to cars and dogs.
I was not willing to pet the ‘tame’ croodile in the petting area. But Colleen did.
We finally saw a large male Red Kangaroo. These marsupials are the largest in the group. It was lounging about. This is what they do most of the day which is likely why we saw so few on the road during the day. A joey and some females were nearby.
This is a Tasmanian Devil. Like many here they are endangered due to loss of habitat but also due to a rare infectious cancer that is wiping their populations out. They pass it when they fight with each other which is frequent since they are very territorial. They are nocturnal and the largest predator marsupial. This guy was unusually active during the day.
A beautiful parrot. They are common here like crows.
These two guys were discussing politics.
And this is a Taipan. This is the deadliest snake in the world. It is not that large and pretty unassuming but it’s venom is 200x stronger than a cobra’s. That fact made no sense to me, since their prey is often small rodents. Such a bite is equivalent to shooting a mouse with a shotgun. It is the definition of overkill.
A a zookeeper explained, “They live in remote arid areas where game is scarce. They have one chance to subdue their prey with the first bite. If they miss, they will go hungry”
He also told us the snakes have the remarkable ability to vary the amount to inject during a bite, since venom takes a lot of energy to make and they have to conserve it.
Despite that, “You wouldn’t want to handle one”, he advised.
It was a beautiful day with great views of the harbor.
While Jim stayed behind to handle the Taipans we boarded the ferry for home with Marlen.
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