Wildlife Encounters 3: Monotremes

Most of our Australian mammals are marsupials like kangaroos and koalas. There are a few placental mammals, the dingo, some rats and mice and some bats, but less well known are the two unique Australian monotremes. These are the only egg-laying mammals.
When we arrived in Australia in 1973, we lived in Tasmania for 12 years and were very keen to see all the unique wild animals. It was 6 months before we saw our first monotreme. We were driving one day when this hedgehog-like animal crossed the road in front of us. We hurriedly stopped and rushed up the bank to look at it, our first Echidna or Spiny Anteater - Tachyglossus aculeatus. They don't curl up in a ball like hedgehogs. Instead they use their incredibly powerful digging legs to dig in and take a very firm grip of the ground beneath them. It is impossible to dislodge them without harming the animal and all that is presented is its armour of sharp quills. Here is our first echidna, dug in and hanging on tight to the earth. We had disturbed it too much to get any better view of it.

The next time I met an echidna, 4 months later, I was more patient. I stood very still beside it and it gradually lifted its head and gave me a full view of it. Its long nose is probed into termite mounds. Ants and termites are its favourite food! Notice how hairy the echinda is between its spines. This is a feature of the Tasmanian echidnas, which used to be considered a separate species.

In 1985 we moved to the mainland, to Churchill in Victoria. I have seen a lot of echidnas since we moved here, especially in Morwell National Park, where I took this picture. Notice that the hair between the spines is hardly noticeable at all.

Echidnas are very much animals that live on the ground, where they dig up ants nests and dig into termite mounds. We were very surprised one day to see an echidna standing on top of a tree stump, some 4 feet off the ground. There must have been termites in the core of the stump, but we never imagined the echidna capable of climbing.

Last year for the first time, we had an echidna visit our garden and my wife, Fay was able to get its picture.

oh! thank you so much for posting these!

The other Australian monotreme is much less frequently seen. This is one if the strangest of all mammals, the Platypus - Ornithorhynchus anatinus, with their duck-like bill, webbed feet, flat beaver-like tail and again laying eggs.
I saw 4 or 5 in the time I was in Tasmania, but most were very distant views of an animal that soon disappeared.
One day we drove over to the site of a long-abandoned saw mill, to get a trailer full of old saw-dust to use as a mulch.
When we arrived we found that a large party of bush-walkers had just completed a hike and were gathering around their vehicles before moving off. We decided to leave loading the trailer until they had gone and we strolled down the hill towards the creek. There was large water-hole part way down to the creek and Fay and the boys reached it well ahead of me. They called out that there was a platypus in the water-hole. I didn't even hurry as I expected it to be long gone before I could get there. To my surprise it was still there, swimming about in the middle of the water seemingly unconcerned at our presence. I then went 200 metres back up the hill and got my camera and telephoto lens and hurried back to the pool and the platypus was still there and I was able to take my first platypus picture.

I gradually worked closer to the platypus, moving round the pool to get nearer to it.

I was standing behind some low reeds and I suddenly realised that the platypus was coming straight towards me and to my amazement, came right to the water's edge in front of me

Finally it came practically out of the water right in front of me. I felt very thrilled and privileged to see this animal so close. I have seen a few more since, but never again have I been able to approach close enough for even a distant photograph.

Beautiful pictures of beautiful animals! Not many people get to get up close and personal with a Platypus, you are so lucky! I really enjoy your pictures of the unique Australian animals. More please!
Pati

Incredible! Thanks so much for sharing all your nature adventures with us!

Thank you so much, KennedyH. Those animals looks so cool! It's almost hard to believe they are real - the little echidna's nose looks like a pot handle. :)

As for the platty; do you think it might have been raised by humans, and that is why it was so bold? Is it even possible to hand-raise one?

It was a long way from human habitation so I think it unlikely that it was used to humans. I think they would be very hard to hand-raise. They are kept in captivity in the Healesville Sanctuary near Melbourne and they have recently succeeded in breeding them in captivity fo the first time. At the Sanctuary you get wonderful views of them swimming underwater. http://www.zoo.org.au/area_page.cfm?area_id=54&zoo_id=2

Kennedyh .. Glad I've continued looking about the DG site! I was hoping to find some more critter stories and adventures .. and was totally delighted to find your posts! Wonderful pics!!
Glad, too .. to get more information about where you and your family have visited and lived.
You mentioned that you'd lived inTasmania for 12 years. May I inquire, if you happened to have been anywhere near Brighton ? Only reason I'm asking .. is simply because only about 3 years or so ago .. we've managed to find that we have some distant cousins living there in Brighton, Tasmania! We'd had no idea that we had family down under! I'm still working on figguring how we all fit in!! hee We are delighted.
ha .. Try to overlook what may appear as my somewhat silly delight here! It just gives me a little tickle all over, to realize that so many times each of us live in our own little spots in the road .. and kind of forget that there is more out there! It amazes me most about the much greater varied kinds of animals that exist .. and have also become extinct!
For some unknown reason, I've got this strange 'feeling' going on .. So I am dying of curiousity, and feel compelled to inquire - if you happened to have been near Brighton? And if so .. did you meet, or know .. any Funslows?

I do know Brighton in Tasmania. It is a small town on the Midland Highway, 20 to 30 miles north of the state capital Hobart. There is an Army Base there. I would have driven past it many many times, but I do not remember ever stopping there and I am afraid I do not know anyone by the name of Funslow.
Back in 1998 at the end of the year we spent in Canada, we drove across the US. We drove from Vancouver down to San Francisco, then down into Arizona and then diagonally across the country to Niagara and thence to Maine. We passed close to Arizona, but did not enter your state, passing just to the north in Missouri.

Thanks Kennedyh .. for settling my enormous curiousity (aka: pure noseyness)!! .. ha .. I do appreciate it very much!
It was a thought .. One, indeed, just never knows .. until ya ask!
You've sure covered some ground along with some mity huge bodies of water! Dig out some more pictures and get 'em posted.
If you guys ever find yourselves droppin' south into the US again .. ya may want to come see our only 'National' River; Arkansas's Buffalo National River.

.. LOL .. Kennedyh ... I seem to be creating my own 'entertainment' this morning!
In that ^ previous post . . I mention that 'if you guys ever DROP SOUTH' !!?!! .. HA! .. I'm not looking up from this keyboard often enuff .. for I plum forgot that you were in Australia (not in Canada any longer!) .. hence you wouldn't be droppin' south, 'ey? ..
Oh geez .. apparently, it's gonna be 'one of those days' for me . . .

Magpye, I would love to visit you and Arkansas's Buffalo National River, but as you noticed it is rather a long trip. Who knows, one day perhaps!! I shall post more picture, but if you haven't seen it, you might like to look through this thread:
http://davesgarden.com/t/387114/kangaroo.
A couple of the animals in that thread have been very recent visitors.
The Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoos have been only occasional visitors since the pine plantation behind us was felled recently. Last Sunday, they were back in force. Fay and I watched them from the family room window. We must have had more than 30 of these enormous birds in the garden at the same time. Every tree had at least a couple of them perched and there were always some flying back and forth between the trees. There were two pairs in different trees, who were perched right next to each other and mutually preening. One cockatoo was very unusual. Instead of being all black with a yellow patch on its face and in its tail, this bird was black, mottled all over with yellow, presumably some form of albinism! This bird was in the centre of our large Silver Wattle tree http://plantsdatabase.com/go/2499/index.html and was clearly tearing strips of wood off the tree, attempting to reach some large boring caterpillar. I kept my camera on it for a long time and eventually got a few photos. Not digital unfortunately, so I can't report whether I got any decent pictures until I finish the film and get it processed. These are one of my favourite birds and I love the sight and sound of them flying across with long lazy wing-beats, calling as they fly. While in their garden some must have been feeding on our Sea-urchin Hakea http://plantsdatabase.com/go/56276/index.html as there were lots of fresh prunings on the ground afterwards as well as a lot of chewed, empty seed capsules.
Yesterday evening, I was sitting in the family room and I noticed some kangaroos moving along the fire-break that separates us from the pine plantation. I got up to watch and there were at least seven, including a big male. They stopped just outside our garden and spent quite a long time grazing there in the firebreak. It is the first time we have seen more than a single roo from the garden although there are plenty nearby. At lunch time today I went to look at where they were feeding and found that they have heavily grazed a large patch of Sparaxis tricolor. We had these in the garden and they spread so rapidly that we tossed most of them into the firebreak, where they have thrived and give us a colourful display each spring. It will be interesting to see if they still flower well after being browsed by the roos!

Australian wildlife is so unique! I would give anything to spend a few years in the outback.

You know not to get too close to the Platypus right? Just checking. Their venom attacks the pain receptors or the nerves, can't remember, I watched a show about it, and the victim described it as the worst pain imaginable!

Yes, I know about their poison spur, but getting that close to a platypus is very unlikely indeed, although I have heard of them being accidentally caught on a fishing line!

You're so lucky that you got to see them in the wild! I don't think they even have them at the zoo here in D.C. Anymore pics?

I reported above on our recent visit by a lot of Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoos. I managed to get a few photos of them and I have just got the slides back and scanned them. Here is a black cockatoo at the top of our Silver Wattle Acacia dealbata

Sorry, I attached the wrong picture. I have posted the correct one below.

This message was edited Aug 23, 2004 12:11 PM

and here's another at the top of our Ironbark Eucalyptus sideroxylon

and here is a very strange yellow-tailed black cockatoo. It hasmuch more yellow than normal, patchily all over. It is just about more yellow than black. We see hundreds of normal cockies, but this one is a rare aberration. Perhaps it is a form of albinism. Here is the best picture I could manage

Here is the first black cockatoo picture in the silver wattle, which I meant to post above.

WOW! Thanks for this really, really neat thread. It is very much appreciated. Does that anteater dine on Texas fire ants? If so, send me a few of them critters!