The Courier Mail reports a story about a koala that survived being hit by a car travelling at 100km/hr, near Petrie in Queensland. The koala’s head and arm were forced through the car grille by the impact.

A call was made to the Caboolture Koala Care and Rescue group, who cut around the car’s grille mesh to release the animal. The koala was taken to the Australian Wildlife Hospital at Australia Zoo on the Sunshine Coast have dubbed the 8-year-old marsupial Ely “Lucky” Grills, after the late Australian television actor.
The 8-year old male koala suffered no serious injuries in the unusual car versus koala clash.

I heard report on ABC radio this morning about Australian long-necked tortoises from around the mouth of the Murray River that have been infected by a parasitic bristle worm that lives in the salty water.

The bristle worms grow on the tortoise’s shell and can get under the shell. As the worms grow bigger and bigger, they impact the tortoise’s mobility, if they get under the shell can stop the legs moving in or out of the shell. The weight of the worms make it difficult for them to move on land where they become victim to foxes and rats.

The Savannah cat is a cross between the Serval, an African wildcat, and a domestic cat. It can grow much larger than a domestic cat.

According to an ABC report, members of the scientific community have urged the government to ban the importation of the cat which is due to become available in Australia next year. Federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett has said he will prohibit the import of the pet if it is shown to be a risk for the environment.

Special koala proof fencing is used along major roads through koala habitat. The fence is chain wire about 1.5m high with a 600mm wide Colorbond sheet metal strip secured to the top of the fence and clipped to the mesh. Koalas cannot climb the fence and get onto the road. This blurry photo was taken from car at speed on the freeway. Queensland, Australia.

The moth was photographed on a post of our veranda. It has curious large eyes and a pointed “snout”.

Can anyone identify it?

location: Queensland, Australia.
Length: about 2cm

Pentax K100D digital SLR camera with Tamron SP AF90mm f2.8 1:1 macro lens

Added another batch of insect photos. Includes beetles, moths, butterflies, lacewings and some cool looking green lacewing larvae, grasshoppers. There is a couple of new reptile shots too, including an Asian House Gecko attacking a large Hawk Moth.

Also added a couple of domestic pest insect species like silverfish and good old dog fleas.

Most of these shots (except the fleas) were taken with  a Tamron 90mm f2.8 macro lens on a Pentax K100D digital camera.

There has been a lot of publicity recently about the proposed cull of 500 kangaroos in Belconnen in the Australian Capital Territory. Compared with the total number of kangaroos killed each year in Australia, this is a small percentage of the total. There is a significant commercial kangaroo industry in Australia that “harvests” wild kangaroos - mainly for meat and skins. The total kangaroo quota for 2007 was about 3.6 million. There are over 50 species of kangaroos and wallabies in Australia, with the following species killed commercially:

I got an email the other day from Hans Engstrand in Sweden. Hans is breeding King Parrots and currently has 23 of them. They are hardy birds and can thrive in Sweden in temperatures down to minus 20 degrees. On his web site www.kungsparakit.com he has photos of King Parrots in the snow.

For more information on this bird, see the OzAnimals King Parrot page

Did you know that Praying Mantis eyses changed colour at night - I didn’t realise this until a couple of days ago. I photographed this Mantis at night on one of our potted fig plants, and the red eyes were very noticable.

Granny’s Cloak Moth is a large brownish grey moth. You often see them in dark buildings like in your garage, or shed or in outdoor dunnies. They look faily drab boring moths but in the light of the flash they have quite a nice pattern. Click on the pic for more info.