Tasmania has wildlife, and more wildlife and then some more wildlife. It is a) oddly named b) fearless. Depressingly this means it also has a lot of roadkill.
In Freycinet National Park the wildlife is reasonably used to humans and is really not that scared, with wallabies hanging around the campsites, minding their own business, being photographed, nibbling on some vegetation. They realise that clumsy humans like us occasionally spill pieces of pasta when cooking camp food. Not being fussy about the lack of sauce, they quite quickly eat this up, like this little fellow above. But they get far more fearless than that. Accidentally, a bag of trail mix fell out of my bag as we were moving stuff into the tent for a while. The first we realised this was when we heard the sound of three possums fighting each over over the bag, and then noisily munching away just outside our tent. And they weren't afraid of anything, making noises, getting out the tent, torchlight. They were temporarily abated by clapping but returned within twenty seconds. Then after this they went snuffling round for more, reaching little paws underneath the fly sheet and poking their heads under for a closer look. One got too close to the side of the inner-tent for my liking, so a swung my fist, pushing out the tent material and making contact with the possum on the other side of the fabric. It yelped, ran off and we weren't disturbed again that night.
On Cradle Mountain a few days later we saw an Echidna which was awesome. They're furry, spikey little egg-laying mammals with long pointy snouts. Here is a photo of the Echida escaping into the undergrowth faster than I can get my camera, the cheeky little snouty thing.
The disadvantage of such abundant wildlife is that it makes driving at night in rural areas both interesting and quite scary. We were late getting into Cradle Mountain National Park the night before we did a walk there and had to drive the last hour in the dark, mainly though forest. We saw so much wildlife, more than any night-safari I've been on! There was so much wildlife to see, from possums of different kinds to various bounding rat/kangaroo crosses (Pademelons). The possums again were fearless, we had to stop for a couple sitting in the middle of the road. We pulled up, revved the engine, flashed the lights and they just sat there, not caring. The horn worked, eventually, but even then they had a think about it before letting us on our way. We saw a few Wombats, which are oh so cute, but really quite slow, had to slam on the brakes for a couple of them.
Unfortunatly the night didn't end well for all the wildlife we saw. We ended up hitting two creatures. The first was small and dark coloured and very speedy, it just ran straight out under us. There was a yelp, but we didn't find it when we stopped. I hope it wasn't a Tassie Devil. The second time we hit what we think was a Bettong. This time much more forcibly, enough, in fact to decapitate it. Which wasn't nice at all and rather put a dampner on the entire evening to be fair. :(
So Tasmania has loads of wildlife, its everywhere.
Lizards, lots of them. And snakes too. All three of Tasmania's snakes are venomous (though as the National Parks authority in Tasmania points out, no-one has died for decades and frankly peanuts and spouses are far more dangerous). We caught glimpses of a couple. Then on our final day we came across a huge black snake sitting in the middle of the path, normally you just see a tail end disappearing off. It was probably a Tiger Snake. It slithered off reasonably quickly but it was still quite scary.
On another occasion we were walking down a small track towards some interesting geology/geography (very much a GEM stop for those who are initiated into such things) viewpoint. The people just in front of us caught a glimpse of a Tassie Devil scurrying off into the bush as they rounded a corner. We didn't quite see it, but it would have been cool to do so.
In the morning this wallaby was even braver, coming over to investigate MC's water bottle and remains of breakfast. He got really close, I had to forcibly nudge him a few times in order to persuade him to move along. The Tasmanian wildlife seems to only respond to physical violence.
The disadvantage of such abundant wildlife is that it makes driving at night in rural areas both interesting and quite scary. We were late getting into Cradle Mountain National Park the night before we did a walk there and had to drive the last hour in the dark, mainly though forest. We saw so much wildlife, more than any night-safari I've been on! There was so much wildlife to see, from possums of different kinds to various bounding rat/kangaroo crosses (Pademelons). The possums again were fearless, we had to stop for a couple sitting in the middle of the road. We pulled up, revved the engine, flashed the lights and they just sat there, not caring. The horn worked, eventually, but even then they had a think about it before letting us on our way. We saw a few Wombats, which are oh so cute, but really quite slow, had to slam on the brakes for a couple of them.
Unfortunatly the night didn't end well for all the wildlife we saw. We ended up hitting two creatures. The first was small and dark coloured and very speedy, it just ran straight out under us. There was a yelp, but we didn't find it when we stopped. I hope it wasn't a Tassie Devil. The second time we hit what we think was a Bettong. This time much more forcibly, enough, in fact to decapitate it. Which wasn't nice at all and rather put a dampner on the entire evening to be fair. :(
So Tasmania has loads of wildlife, its everywhere.
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