Tag: Australia
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Meet the numbat
Last week (November 2nd) was World Numbat Day! How did you celebrate?? I don’t blame you if you missed this holiday – I didn’t know what a numbat was until a few days ago! Let’s discuss them now so we’re all ready to celebrate next year. Numbats (Myrmecobius fasciatus) are small Australian marsupials. They are,…
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Meet the wombat
It’s been a hectic week. My fiancé had to go on an unexpected work trip to Australia, leaving me home alone to take care of the cat. Ori and I have been relaxing at home, though! And my fiancé has had some free time to explore Australia. I personally think he should be spending his…
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Meet the peacock spider
This past Wednesday was Valentine’s Day! Whether you’re single or paired up with a loved one, we can all take advice from peacock spiders. The best way to someone’s heart…is to DANCE. Peacock spiders are tiny jumping spiders in the genus Maratus found almost exclusively in Australia (one species is found in China). You can find peacock…
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Remembering the Great Emu War
If you read my post last week, you know a bit about emus. They’re large, flightless birds that live in Australia. And around 91 years ago, the Australian government declared war on them. This week, we’re going to take a history dive into the Great Emu War. The Background We can trace the origins of the…
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Meet the emu
Think of a bird. Most aren’t too scary, right? Now imagine a bird that’s 6 feet tall and has claws 6 inches long. That’s the size of the weapons wielded by the world’s second-largest bird, the emu. Emus (Dromaius novaehollandiae) are large birds living in Australia. They belong to the most primitive family of modern…
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Meet the koala
I have been really sleepy lately. But even with how tired I’ve been feeling, one animal can still out-sleep me: the koala. Koalas (Phascolarctos cinereus) hold the record for the sleepiest animal, sleeping between 18 and 22 hours a day. These small animals are arboreal and spend almost their entire lives in the eucalyptus trees…
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Meet the Mary River turtle
It’s time for another turtle, but you may only have heard of it if you’re in the punk scene. This is the Mary River turtle, aka the punk turtle on the internet, because it grows a green algae mohawk in its Australian river home. Unfortunately, scientists don’t tend to call it ‘punk turtle’ and instead…
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Meet the quokka
Folks, we’re heading back to Australia this week on the blog. Australia: the place where evolution went wild. The place where it went wild and created one of the cutest animals ever: the quokka! This smiling little creature is a quokka (pronounced KWAH-kuh; Setonix brachyurus). Quokkas are about the size of a domestic cat and look…
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Meet the platypus
Ah, the platypus. One of nature’s weirdest mammals, if I do say so myself. These small, roughly cat-sized mammals have a lot going on in their body: a duck-bill, a beaver-tail, and otter-feet. They honestly look like someone just taped a bunch of different animals together. And the first European scientists thought so too. Native…
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Meet the central rock rat
As you may know, I studied rodents in during my PhD work. While I specifically studied prairie voles, I did some field work that exposed me to other rodents (i.e., rats, mice, shrews, etc.). So I thought I had a good handle on the types of rodents out there. But guess what? I just found…