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How did Boobook Explore get its name?
June 15, 2020Meryl Eddie “Growing up on a farm in the South Burnett area and at the tender age of twelve I started my own business – 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… 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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Dining with the Yellow-tailed Black-Cockatoo
May 25, 2020There are many amazing things about the Yellow-tailed Black-Cockatoo (Calyptorhynchus funereus ). One of these is its ability to find its favourite foods – wood-boring grubs! These are the larvae of beetles and moths which tunnel into various trees such as gum trees and wattles. In this snippet of footage, a male Yellow-tailed Black-Cockatoo, uses… Read more »
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Identifying snake species based on skin shedding’s
April 8, 2020Recently we received a call from a member of our community who had found a snake skin in their spare bedroom. Concerned that they couldn’t find the snake’s whereabouts, we got them to bring in the skin so we could identify it before deciding on the next course of action. The easiest method of identify… Read more »
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Lace Monitor Goanna
April 6, 2020I was recently out in the field nearby to Roma Queensland, poking around for weeds when I spooked a large goanna beside the track I was following. It ran up a fence post and I was able to get a good look at it. This particular goanna is more formally known as a Lace Monitor… Read more »
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Fighting Snakes
April 6, 2020One of the most exciting things about night-time spotlighting searches is that you never know what you might come across. I was recently spotlighting for gliders and koalas with a couple of colleagues when one of us spotted these two snakes on the forest floor. They are Small-eyed Snakes (Cryptophis nigrescens), a common species in… Read more »
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Bushfire Rescue : Greater Glider
January 14, 2020Australia has an incredible array of fantastic and iconic wildlife but few people have ever seen or even heard of our beautiful Greater Glider Petauroides volans. As voluntary wildlife carers this charming animal recently came into temporary care following its rescue from a nearby bush fire which burnt its home. This particular glider was lucky… Read more »
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Australia’s Coral Snake – A Mini Elapid
November 13, 2019The elapid snake family includes the front-fanged venomous species. Everyone has heard of the more fearsome Eastern Brown Snake and the Mulga Snake, but what about some of our smaller species of elapid snakes? Introducing Australia’s own Coral Snake (Brachyurophis australis), a reddish –orange, slightly venomous species. What do they look like? The Coral Snake… 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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Grow Natives to Encourage Australian Birdlife
November 29, 2018As the seasons change and the Summer heats up, many of us are heading back out into the garden to give it a new lease on life after the winter chill. Instead of planting Pink Periwinkle or Cadaghi this season, why not go for an Eremophila or Bottle Brush? Native gardens maintain the local biodiversity,… Read more »