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Glow in the dark Scorpions
August 5, 2021When the sun goes down in the Australian outback a completely new suite of animals come out of hiding. This includes Urodacus macrurus, a large (up to 10cm in length) species of scorpion that occurs throughout central Queensland. These scorpions avoid the harsh sun during the day bunkered down in their burrow. Instead, they prefer… Read more »
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Spring is in the air!
September 16, 2020I was looking at my diminished woodpile this morning and thinking that I might not need to cut any more this winter. We might just have seen off the worst of the cold. Spring is in the air! In the last week I’ve noticed the Little Noisy Friarbirds Philemon corniculatus (a kind of honeyeater) arriving… Read more »
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Spotted Bowerbird: Nature’s True Collector
September 15, 2020Our Principal Ecologist and Tour Guide Craig Eddie took these photographs of a bower in some roadside vegetation in western Queensland. The bower belongs to our resident bowerbird in Outback Queensland – the Spotted Bowerbird Chlamydera maculata. Like all bowerbirds, they build a bower which is basically an archway constructed from grass stems and twigs. Each… Read more »
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Being a responsible traveler in Australia
September 14, 2020Whether you are an international tourist or an Aussie citizen, it is important to travel throughout Outback Australia responsibly. There are many factors to consider and be aware of, such as our poisonous creatures, animals that may cross roads at any times of day (cattle, kangaroos & emus), distances between some towns and black spots… Read more »
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Where did Boobook tours get its name?
June 15, 2020Growing up on a farm in the South Burnett area and at the tender age of twelve I started my own business, being a Poll Hereford cattle stud. When registering my stud I had to decide on a prefix. Most nights after the radio and T.V. were turned off, and you were lying there listening… Read more »
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Sugar Gliders – Gliding through the Night
June 9, 2020You need to get the spotlight out at night to try to find these little critters. Widely spread across northern and eastern Australia, the Sugar Glider (Petaurus breviceps) is common within the Maranoa Local Government area and around the township of Roma. Belonging to the gliding possum family, their most distinguishing feature is the flap… Read more »
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What the heck is a Narrow Nosed Planigale?
January 24, 2019Found this little critter in our house garden yesterday at Roma, Queensland. Only a youngster, it is a Narrow-nosed Planigale and only the second we’ve found in the sixteen years we’ve been gardening here. With an adult fitting comfortably in a matchbox they weigh less than 10g and are one of the smallest marsupials in… Read more »
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Outback Queensland’s Dr Dolittle
September 27, 2018Richard Johnson (BOOBOOK Senior Ecologist) loves conversing with animals. He has been face to face with a roaring silverback Mountain Gorilla in the Congo and a less-intimidating, though equally rare, leaf-tailed gecko in a tiny patch of vine forest near Kilkivan, NW of Gympie, Queensland. On ecological surveys around Roma in Outback Queensland he has… Read more »
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A Day in the Life: Fauna Spotter
June 14, 2018Dusty, dirty, long days scrambling over timber, debris and conducting searches through long grass, along tree branches, hollows, logs and bushes for native critters to get them out of harms way, before and after machines have felled timber or cleared land for some construction purpose. Not everyone’s cup of tea, however our BOOBOOK Fauna Spotters… Read more »