The female here-- the male has 40 spots and more, plus bright dashes of red about the head and tail. A birder's dream. Nope-- we didn't see it.
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Tasmanian Devil
Bonorong Wildlife Sanctuary had at least a dozen Tasmanian devils when we visited in Jan. 2011. This guys had stopped to sniff the air, poised just like this. The devils spent most of their time racing racing racing around along paths they had created in their generous, native-habitat landscaped areas. They run more like piglets than like little dogs, tight and high on their toes. Their back ends bound forward during the center of the lope, sailing high up enough that you wonder if they ever turn a somersault coming off the logs! The devils have had the very worst luck and may become extinct in our life time. First they were distrusted by hunted early settlers because of their "screams" which are vocalizations over food disputes. As the Tasmanian tiger became extinct (human predation) the devils switched their strategy from a hyena-like place in the food chain to relying on road kill. This obviously puts them directly in harm's way. And now they are being wiped out by the Devil Facial Tumor Disease. An extremely rare viral cancer, its spread by a ritual communication behaviour where the full expanse of the lips of 2 devils are in complete contact. For more about this extremely sad situation, go the the website Save the Tasmanian Devil at www.tassiedevil.com.au. Sounds hopeless? The Devil, I say-- send money!
Morris the Wombat
Meet Morris the Wombat, whom I met in Tasmania this January (from my moleskine journal). Morris is an orphan, found on the highway circling the body of his deceased mom. Very sad. In January 2010 he hanging at the Bonorong Wildlife Sanctuary in Tasmania. Soon he will be reintroduced back into the wild because he is approaching adolescence-- and will change from his affectionate self into one morose, aggressive wombat until he's in "circulation." Morris will be using his butt callous to protect himself out there: Wombats defend themselves from Tasmanian tigers (or now, dogs) by heading deep into their burrow and then, when the predator sticks its nose into the hole, the wombat crushes that snout between his big butt callous and the tunnel roof.... In short, he's a hard ass.
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