203 – Animals Amongst Us

A few weeks ago, we named the Adelaide Snake Lizard as the official mascot of The Adelaide Show podcast. As fate would have it, the following week, Steve met Adrian from Animals Anonymous at an event where he was able to share more stories about this interesting creature. He also was surrounded by a mini-zoo of native birds, reptiles, amphibians, and marsupials, so we just had to invite him into our conversational habitat so we could chew the fat over the animals amongst us.

I probably shouldn’t say chew the fat. What Australian animals do we eat?

Let’s start with the Adelaide Snake Lizard. Mark Thomson from episode 199 said he used to play with them in the quarry around Blackwood in the Adelaide Hills. Can you describe them? Would you “play” with them?

What is the difference between snakes and lizards?

Where do we see them?

What do they eat?

I went to Black Hill conservation park on Sunday and there is a big sign warning about snakes. Why do they instill fear?

And given it was 15 degrees, was I right in telling my girls there was nothing to worry about?

What is the golden rule when bumping into a snake while bushwalking? Are there some days or some areas where you just should say, no, not today?

Listener, Maggie Harriman made the comment: More people don’t understand why we NEED these animals in our environment. We also need to teach people how to live with them.
Next I would ask ways to show people how to “not let fear rule themselves”. By this I mean, don’t react in a negative manner just because your afraid. It’s ok to be afraid but there is no need to kill things because your afraid.

What native animals can we co-inhabit with, eg, birds seem easy and people try to live with possums but we don’t seem to live with snakes all that well.

Koalas. You do work with schools about how animals have adapted over the years. I believe Invictoo Koala was a prehistoric ancestor to today’s koala (Professor Flint has a song about that – he is on our show next week). What do you know about them?

I learned how to find koalas recently. Should we steer clear?

How can you spot frogs? We heard them but could not see them?

What are some of the “darlings” of nature that live amongst us?

What are some of the dangers?

Introduce us to some of your animals: bettongs, potoroos, gliders, dunnarts, crocodiles, goannas, dragons, geckos, turtles, pythons, frogs, falcons, frogmouths, parrots

Are are schools doing the right thing in your field?

Nigel challenges the panel to pick the fake story from three stories from South Australia’s past.

The Advertiser March 1952
Snakes Terrified By Helicopter
When the helicopter flying to the Royal Adelaide Exhibition hovered over the snake pit at the Koala Farm on Saturday afternoon it started trouble which kept staff and sightseers busy for an hour. Every snake went frantic, according to the director (Mr. Keith Minchin). A diamond python nearly 10 feet long which was spending its first day in the pond, disappeared into 12 feet of piping connected with an electrical pump for circulating water in the pond. It took many of the 150 spectators under the direction of a visiting engineer to jack the pump up with a motor car Jack and move it away from the snake without hurting its heart entangled in the works.

News January 1912
Floods lead to unusual snake problem on Murray
Apart from the general problem of flooding on the Murray a new problem has occurred with the rising waters. Many of the paddle steamers which ply the river waters have encountered an abundance of snakes upon their decks. Evidently the snakes are falling from trees along the bank as the vessels brush past whilst avoiding some of the faster water and debris midstream. This has led to many a scare. In a recent report John McWilliams from Morgan was attacked by an brown snake in such an occurrence. The young man was lucky as the snakes fangs did not penetrate his boot, a fate which leads to many deaths each year in our stockmen. Locals say that as soon as the river levels fall in the next few weeks the steamers will be able to travel along their more usual route and the problem will recede.

The Advertiser November 1941
Luring Animals To Take Their Own Pictures
WILD life photography has become such a popular sport in recent years that it is increasingly difficult to obtain pictures with an element of novelty. For this reason various methods and devices have been used with more or less success to produce nature photographs which are mostly outside the scope of the orthodox equipment. The first home-made gadget I used to secure flashlight pictures at night was a fearsome contraption of cords and springs, all ope rated by an alarm clock. Actually, some photographs were obtained by its use. but when it was proposed to picture animals which were awake and active it became evident that the alarm clock could no longer be used successfully. The apparatus as now modified is operated electrically when the animal itself makes contact with a sensitive switch. One of the earliest victims of this camera trap was a native cat, a small spotted animal which has never been popular with farmers because of certain activities in which poultry has been vitally concerned.