Australia Wildlife - Lizards & Leeches

So, we love the Australians.  But some of the other creatures that inhabit this beautiful country are a bit scary.  I have watched enough Nat Geo and Animal Planet to be sure that there would be a family of deadly funnel webs living in a dark corner of my apartment.  But I have looked and looked and not seen a single insect yet.  Several butterflies.  So, cross off insects.  Time to go hiking.

The Royal National Park

We are about 15 minutes from the entrance to this park.  It's wonderful!  For the first weeks we were here, I think we went nearly every day.  Our favorite place is Wattamolla.

My grandson -- hello, Jakob! -- is extremely interested in lizards.  Might say a bit obsessed.  He wanted me to send him pictures of lizards.  Of course, I didn't want to fail in this, but I never thought there would be much chance.  Until ...

This beautiful fellow just ambled across the parking lot at Wattamolla.  A nearly four-foot long monitor -- called a goanna here.  He didn't skitter off either.  He walked slowly and purposefully.  You could see the power rippling along his body.  I was NOT tempted to pick him up.

The next time we were there ...

An eastern water dragon joined us for a picnic.  He stayed still and submitted to our attention quite placidly.  Maybe half a meter long, he had a larger friend basking across the pond.

 

Then this lovely blue-tongued lizard.  They are common in gardens and people love them here as they eat garden pests and are calm and relatively tame as lizards go.  The blue tongue is a defense mechanism that they use to scare off threats.  We didn’t know that and stayed back so as not to frighten him, so we got only a brief glimpse of his tongue.  But it was really, really BLUE.

 

 

Bob has become very good at this lizard photography and I am the lizard queen grandma.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Rain Forest

 

We asked about snakes before we headed off and they told us there were few reported, but lots of leeches in the wet weather and we should take precautions.  Okay, hiking boots, long pants and duct tape should do it.

 

 

 

 

It was beautiful there, but we couldn't go too far as the creek was pretty deep.  We finished early and decided to stop at the mall on the way home.  My shoe wardrobe was lacking something to wear in Sydney.  You know how it is -- twelve pairs of shoes and not one would suit.  No worries – the mall is on the way home.

 

The tape looked a bit odd, so we peeled it off in the parking lot.  Hmm.  I saw a spot of blood on the top of my foot between the tape and my boot.  Bob found a lot of one sock covered in blood.  And --- eeeoooo! – the little bugger was still clinging to his jeans.  Flick!  The now quite distended leech landed with a plop on the pavement.

 

 

 

We resisted the temptation to strip off right there in full view of all the other shoppers, but a careful examination turned up nothing.  Mine had had a light snack and left.  Bob's was still sitting there -- on the pavement that had been in the sun since morning.  I looked at it -- him, whatever --  as he stretched to get as much of himself off the blistering pavement as he could.  I could almost hear a tiny voice,  "hot!  hot!  hot!"

 

 

Of course, a leech on a rooftop parking garage has no future to speak of.  They may rate fairly high on the ick scale, but they are harmless.  And they are pretty amazing:  in one nip they inject anesthetic, vasodilators, anticoagulant and anti-inflammatories -- a skill doctors cannot claim.  And these are the types that are used in medical treatments.  There is a leech "farm" not far away that ships them all over.

 

I popped him into a little plastic cup I keep in the car for things that I want to collect.  We released him and he won't cause any trouble for a while.  He doesn’t have to eat again for a year.

 

Next, something more attractive -- BIRDS!!!!