Tasmanian Fauna

We’ve Met before!

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We've met before wallabies seem to be very much creatures of habit

I’m no expert when it comes to Tasmanian wild life but thus far in my gaining of knowledge about the animals that we see every night on our walk through the Cataract Gorge I often see the same wallabies pademelons and possums. We stop and observe and many of the wallabies and possums in particular seem to remember us. Often if we stand very still they come very close and have a sniff to just to check us out. It’s a funny thing but it is a very satisfying feeling to recognise and be recognised by an absolutely wild creature.

A colourful mouth but very bad breath!

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A Blue Tongue Shingle back or Bob Tail skink

A first time experience with a Blue Tongue Shingle back or Bob Tail skink rewrites most of the common expectations of reptiles. For gardeners they are welcome in my garden anytime as they eat slugs snails and insects, but last year I found one trying to climb a tomato plant to eat cherry tomatoes. I’m quite happy for him to eat the windfalls in return for his work eating all the gastropods, but most of the time they just seem to sleep!
I photographed this one in W.A. with a Canon AE1 and a 100mm lens. He was atop of a retaining wall, so just a bit below my eye level. Like many other creatures surprised at meeting a human he made a definite hiss and I could see the full extent of his colourful gob and for his size a cavernous throat… Then I caught a whiff of his terrible breath!

Awe Mum let me jump out and play!

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Awe Mum let me jump out and play!

A young Bennetts wallaby mother lets her Joey take a look at the world. In another couple of months this eager joey will have all its fur and be able to hop along with its mother on the nightly foraging excursion. But the nights in Tasmania are still close to being cold with strong gusts of wind so for now mums pouch is the best place to be…

Cyclops the possum

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Cyclops is a brush tail possum he left his mothers pouch late last year or early in 2024 he or perhaps she has a damaged right eye the fur is thin under the eye showing some scar tissue. I’m guessing it was caught by a claw from another possum or animal although most other creatures tend to avoid possums but I have seen larger male pademelons take a swipe at them and they also have formidable claws. From observation of Cyclops’s movements my guess is that he is totally blind in the right eye he is also much smaller than possums born in the same season and when we first encountered him he was not in the best condition. Even though he can climb trees very quickly he is at a disadvantage I have noticed that when climbing he has crashed into branches in his path. Possums are much maligned in Tasmania because they certainly cause damage to any fruit or nut trees. In urban areas they do like to break into attics and are often to heard chasing, fighting and bonking on roofs. As a result their major predators are humans, dogs and even cats when young.