Sealed and delivered

On Boxing Day, the owner of a Toyota in the Launceston (Tasmania) suburb of Newstead woke up to find a huge fur seal of 200 kg lodged on the bonnet.

Parks and Wildlife staff threw a net over the creature,

and tranquillized it by means of a veterinary product.

The seal slipped quickly into DreamLand.

Traces of the seal’s visit remained visible on the automobile.

The creature was finally placed on a trailer.

The seal was then driven to a beach and released.
All's well that ends well.
Bravo to the seal-handlers !

So hot in Australia that a koala used a bicycle to get a drink

Yesterday in the Adelaide Hills, a thirsty koala climbed to the top of a bicycle wheel to get a drink from a cyclist's water bottle.

Click to enlarge slightly.

Passing cyclist Nick Lothian stopped to take a photo of the event. The koala was still drinking when the photographer reappeared on his return journey, half an hour later.

Fauna Rescue volunteers were called in to collect the one-year-old female, who spent the night recovering at the Adelaide Animal Hospital. The animal was due to be released, in an excellent state of health, later in the day.

Story sent to me by my childhood friend Bruce Hudson.

Dangerous creatures in my native land

I was shocked yesterday by a banal story I came across in a local newspaper in Australia. The tragic news article involved this common reptile known simply as a Brown Snake.

A snake of this kind had bitten a six-year-old girl and, in spite of rapid medical attention, the child did not survive.

When growing up in rural Australia, I was perfectly aware of the dangers of various specimens of wild life such as snakes and spiders... not to mention more exotic beasts such as crocodiles and sharks. But I was never greatly stressed by such threats. Funnily enough, my everyday rural existence here in France has made me aware of the various kinds of behavior that would be unwise if Gamone were in fact located in my native land. Here, for example, when I catch sight of some kind of snake, I certainly don't think of killing it.

Once upon a time, in the land that would become Australia, there was a particularly dangerous beast known as the Marsupial Lion.

To put it bluntly, this animal was about as bad as a wild beast could possibly be. But I'm joking, of course. Maybe it was a charming companion... if only you didn't upset it, particularly when it was hungry or angry, or both.

White whale

This amazing creature—a white whale—is both rare and well known in the waters of eastern Australia. He even has an Aboriginal name: Migaloo.

Experienced whale-watchers know that, at this time of the year, Migaloo always heads off northwards on his annual holidays.

Aussie meal

These are salt-water crocodiles in the Northern Territory.

The little fellow is about 2.5 meters in length. As for the big reptile, the photographer Lyn Minchin and her friends in a boat decided that it would be unwise to wait around until they could witness the beast's full length, which appeared to exceed that of their 5-meter boat. Clearly, the big crocodile was hungry, and he decided to chew into the nearest food available: one of his mates.