Fact File: Blue-ringed octopus (Hapalochlaena maculosa)
A greater blue-ringed octopus (Hapalochlaena lunulata).Image credit: shutterstock. These tiny cephalopods are grey to beige or even yellow in colour when resting, and have large light brown patches, helping them to camouflage beautifully into their rocky surrounds.
Fact File: Platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus ... - Australian …
Platypus take cover in earth banks and botanical vegetation near the edges of waterways. Image credit: Martin Pelanek/shutterstock. Hunting for food, the platypus closes its eyes and ears and relies on its amazing duck-like bill, a supersonic organ that is completely covered in sensors.
Fact File: Emu (Dromaius novaehollandiae) - Australian Geographic
speeds of up to 50km per hour. Image credit: shutterstock. Hunted for food, celebrated in culture, and represented in traditional artworks and dance by Indigenous Australians for thousands of years, there is no specific, standard Indigenous word for emu, since there is …
Fact File: Koala (Phascolarctos cinereus) - Australian Geographic
Koalas use several sounds, including growling, belching, and bellowing to communicate with each other. Image credit: shutterstock. Once the juvenile koala is weaned from milk, it feeds on an unusual soft liquid faeces called pap, from its mother.This substance is thought to introduce the right bacteria to the joey which is necessary for digesting gum leaves.
The owls of Australia - Australian Geographic
Image credit: shutterstock. The well-known call of this medium sized hawk-owl is synonymous with that of a dog’s bark— “woof woof”. The Barking Owl inhabits drier woodland and forest type zones, often in edge habitats nearing watercourses such as creeks.
Fact File: Eastern brown snake (Pseudonaja textilis)
One of Australia’s most venomous snakes, the eastern brown (Pseudonaja textilis) is an intimidating reptile that has nervous tendencies and will actively defend itself if it feels threatened.Despite the development of a successful antivenom and first aid practices, there are still between one and two deaths per year from eastern brown bites within Australia.
Fact File: Drop bear (Thylarctos plummetus) - Australian Geographic
The drop bear is a native Australian marsupial related to the koala that is ferocious, savage, cunning and…. entirely fabricated. The urban legend surrounding this predatory creature centres on the idea that this territorial animal ‘drops’ from the treetops on unsuspecting bush walkers and tourists.Interestingly, the drop bear is so elusive that no one has ever captured or photographed ...
Fact File: Australian wolf spider (Lycosidae ... - Australian Geographic
Wolf spider (family Lycosidae). Image credit: shutterstock Wolf spiders are typically dark and mottled in colour. Image credits: shutterstock. Wolf spiders are an adaptive arachnid and are found right across Australia, within a vast number of habitats including open woodlands, grasslands, wet coastal forests, alpine meadows, and inlands scrublands.
Fact File: Blue dragon (Glaucus atlanticus) - Australian Geographic
Blue dragons occur in the temperate and tropical waters of the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian oceans. Image credit: Sahara Frost/shutterstock. Blue dragons feed on venomous siphonophores such as the Portuguese man-o-war and bluebottle, which also occur in ocean surface waters.The dragons appear immune to the nematocysts – stinging cells – of these jellyfish-like creatures.
World’s deadliest spider: the funnel-web - Australian Geographic
Feb 13, 2017 · FROM SHARKS AND BOX jellyfish in the sea to snakes and spiders on land, Australia has a reputation for being filled with animals ready to kill you.. One land-dwelling animal that has the history to back up those claims is the funnel-web spider – with venom that can kill a human in just 15 minutes.