SPIDERS

(Net-casting Spider)

In Australia you can find the most incredible and unusual species of spiders. Some of them are dangerous, some aren’t. However, luckily for us, even being poisonous most of them aren`t so aggressive. You find beautiful colours and shapes, different sizes. Hairy or hairless, skinny or fat, long legs or short legs, or whatever. You can find all kinds!

 (Redback Spider)

The Redback Spider is a small black spider (female 12mm, male 3mm) with a red stripe in the back, very poisonous and dangerous. The bite is not painful initially, with intense pain developing after about 5 minutes.

(Sydney Funnel-web Spider)

Just like the Redback Spider, this one should be avoided because their bite can be painful for some days and can be fatal if not treated. The Sydney Funnel-web Spider is a very aggressive species and one of the deadliest spiders in the world.

My first scary encounter!

When I was travelling through Jervis Bay, more precisely in Cave`s Beach, I had a funny experience, and kind of dangerous knowing the level of alcohol in my blood. Later in the night after some drinks, when we (me and my friends) were camping, we went into the bushes looking for spiders, snakes and frogs. We found some interesting creatures, but the amazing moment was when we arrived back in our tent: A really creepy big brown spider waiting for us inside our "home". We were very afraid cause we know that some spiders can be very dangerous here. But it ran away and everybody slept peacefully and safe.

After all, it was a Huntsman Spider. Not poisonous, not dangerous.

Koala

Koalas are the most known animals in Australia and we can find them in four different states: Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia.

The koala is an arboreal herbivorous marsupial and it looks like a little bear or a wombat but with bigger ears, a thicker coat and longer limbs.

Koala's diet is based only on eucalyptus leaves and that is the reason why they sleep most of the time (sometimes till 20 hours in a day). Sleeping saves energy. The leaves have some relaxing properties and the animals use a lot of energy to digest them. And by the way, those leaves are poisonous to almost all other animals.

CURIOSITIES ABOUT KOALAS:

- They hardly drink water ever;

- A baby stays in its mother's pouch for a few months after ir is born;

- The male koala has a bifurcade penis and the female has two lateral vaginas and two separate uteri;

- It is the only animal on Earth with such a strangely reduced brain;                  

- When under stress, koalas may issue a loud cry;

- A baby koala is reffered to as a joey and its hairless, blind and earless

Fish

There are many fish living in Australia, especially famous for fishes is the Great Barrier Reef. There are thousand and thousand of fish living there. Below you can see a sample of some Australian fishes.



Especially interesting is the slimy fish in the second line on the right, this fish has a really big nose and can use this nose to breathe in fishes. So in fact the fish is eating with his nose. As you also can see, this fish is looking a little bit sad and to be honest, I don't know if this slimy fish is really sad or not.

Hoppers of the world...

General information:
Hoppers of the world... that means the Kangourous. I heard that Australia, where these hoppers come from  have 40 million of them, but just a population of 14 million humans. So the kangourous are the real kings of Australia. 

Types:
There are several types of kangourous - there are smaller and taller ones - and although they look really sweet they are really good boxers. I think you can put them in a ring and they will fight down the Klitschko brothers...

Penguins - Kowalski, Private, Rico und Skipper!

Story:
What do Kowalski, Private, Rico und Skipper from the movie Madagascar in the wildlife zoo in Australia?
...

General description:
Penguins (order Sphenisciformes, family Spheniscidae) are a group of aquatic, flightless birds living almost exclusively in the southern hemisphere, especially in Antarctica. Highly adapted for life in the water, penguins have countershaded dark and white plumage, and their wings have become flippers. Most penguins feed on krill, fish, squid, and other forms of sealife caught while swimming underwater. They spend about half of their life on land and half in the oceans.
Although all penguin species are native to the southern hemisphere, they are not found only in cold climates, such as Antarctica. In fact, only a few species of penguin live so far south. Several species are found in the temperate zone, and one species, the Galápagos Penguin, lives near the equator.
The largest living species is the Emperor Penguin (Aptenodytes forsteri): adults average about 1.1 m (3 ft 7 in) tall and weigh 35 kg (75 lb) or more. The smallest penguin species is the Little Blue Penguin (Eudyptula minor), also known as the Fairy Penguin, which stands around 40 cm tall (16 in) and weighs 1 kg (2.2 lb). Among extant penguins, larger penguins inhabit colder regions, while smaller penguins are generally found in temperate or even tropical climates (see also Bergmann's Rule). Some prehistoric species attained enormous sizes, becoming as tall or as heavy as an adult human (see below for more). These were not restricted to Antarctic regions; on the contrary, subantarctic regions harboured high diversity, and at least one giant penguin occurred in a region not quite 2,000 km south of the equator 35 mya, in a climate decidedly warmer than today.