Yeah Straya!!

I saw this article in the paper today and it is very unusual because lizards don't usually attack or eat venomous snakes
This lizard is in the monitor family of goannas. Some goannas can grow to about 8½ feet long and being Australia of course they have a poison gland in their mouth The poison is similar to snake venom with toxic bacteria added and it flows out of their gums into whatever they bite. These lizards can run very fast on their hind legs for short distances and are extremely fast at scaling a tree

http://www.watoday.com.au/wa-news/g...tiger-snake-near-walpole-20160209-gmpeka.html

Here is some more info on goanna lizards in Australia if you are interested
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goanna

Failed tourism slogan
Come to Australia to see the scenic beauty of our continent and be very careful to avoid being killed by our toxic and dangerous wildlife

 

True…we do have some of the deadliest animals in Australia on land and sea:

http://www.australiangeographic.com...3/03/australias-dangerous-animals-the-top-30/

 

Yikes! Creepy creatures. I would never go outside. I don't even like the 6" lizard that runs across my back porch in warm weather.

 

I constantly rescue tiny lizards my cat proudly drops at my feet by returning them to the garden...but then they;re harmless.

 

Oh I would never harm it but I do not enjoy it's visits.

 

I've visions of you running back and forth screaming around the garden whenever encountering one of the many little lizards scurrying away as you approach.

Our area commonly has Red Back and Funnel Web spiders which everyone is warned to be on the look out. Only encountered the odd Red Back. My garden appears to just have normal run of the mill type spiders which I don't mind as they keep away nasties.

Haven’t seen any snakes, but have encountered different types of lizards sunning themselves when I’ve walked on coastline bush tracks. I’ve seen them in full pose for a photo, delighting the odd tourist who comes across them.

What I hate most are the Paralysis Ticks which cause fatalities amongst dogs and cats. Useless insects that seem to have no value while causing heartache over a lost companion. (Our vet’s 2016 chart this week shows 5 cats, 6 dogs fatalities, with a combination of survival stages of others caught in time. And we're only in February!)

I constantly run my hands over my cat to check whenever he comes from outside. On occasion I’ve found a tick. It doesn’t help having possums nightly traverse the garden (tick carriers – our vet had treated one carrying 50 ticks! It survived no problem. But it only takes ONE Paralysis Tick to kill a cat or dog within a few days if not found early). I keep my cat regularly spotted with product from the vet as a deterrent for safety.

 

Are these lizards called skinks or droptails? We have skinks over here too and they are fairly common in the suburbs and coloured glossy black or coppery bronze with a lighter colour belly. They are harmless and eat a lot of garden pests so they are good to have in the garden. We have a large skink that visits our garden and it is a large cunningham's skink. It is about 1 foot long and likes eating insects and sometimes snails and slugs. Here is some info https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cunningham's_skink

We have stink bugs here but they mostly hang around in the regions that grow cotton and they are classed an agricultural pest in these areas. Australia doesn't have any native big cats or grizzly bears (crocodiles are our biggest land predator) so it makes up for this by having all sorts of poisonous animals where size doesn't matter so much.
Over the years we have had highly venomous brown snakes, tiger snakes and copperhead snakes in our yard as well as a huge underground wasp nest and we still have redback spiders regularly coming into the house from the garden.

Luckily we don't get funnel web spiders down here and the nearest place with paralysis ticks is in Gippsland which is a two hour drive away. We use Frontline to keep fleas and ticks off our dog and it works great. One thing we do get in the forests around here are leeches so when we go bush walking we always bring some little packets of salt as this is much easier for kids than using a lighter to get them off.

 

Here it is.

 

They're normally very timid. Lizards in your garden are good as they get rid of undesirables.

We’ve had the odd goanna and blue tongued lizard but the most common are the “skinks” (drop tails) – cute really and clever little lizards the way they’ll play dead (which makes the cat lose interest) and/or drop off part of their tail which continues to wriggle violently while they try to make their escape. (The cat has long learned to ignore this little manoeuvre and keeps eyeing the lizard instead.

I try catching them as soon as possible and found they often play dead in my palm (flat on their back with no movement). But as soon as I rest my hand in a safe garden spot, they spin around and look up at me. I often have to nudge them off onto safe ground.

 

Leeches

Our coastline or Blue Moutains' bushwalks thankfully don't have such creatures. I'm content sharing the space with lizards, snakes and spiders intead...giving the harmful ones a wide berth, respecting their space.

The one thing that really bothers me is when I'm enjoying the surf then hearing the Shark Alarm and having to leave the water. On some occasions, after while, we get the all clear and shortly after entering the water the alarm goes off again and the beach is finally closed down for everyone's safety - you're responsibility if you ignore the warning and go back in.

I know, I know, we're in their territory and I respect that to the point where I'm against shark culling (surf board riders think likewise)...just having a moan here...

 

Nice pic katkat and it is a skink or drop tail. Note the bulge just before the tail starts getting much thinner, this is where the tail breaks to allow them to run away if a predator grabs them by the tail. The tail then grows back from this bulge and this lizard looks like he might have already lost his tail once as the markings on the tail are fainter than the ones on the body.

Yeah leeches and they hang about where the forest is really damp and with dense foliage with usually a lot of big tree ferns. When the leeches are hungry they drop out of the trees and on to you as you walk beneath and you don't really notice the first two or three of them bite you until after they have been sucking your blood for about 10 minutes and they try to burrow their head further into your skin. If you pull or cut them off then the sore always becomes really infected so people burn them with a lighter to make them release their grip. Using salt actually makes them let go almost immediately and also kills them in the same manner that it also kills slugs and snails. BTW If you get them to release their grip then the sore rarely gets infected

Personally I am not as worried by sharks as I am by the blue ringed octopus or box jelly fish. Luckily we don't have stone fish down here
Up in northern Australia the estuarine crocodiles would be pretty scary too. There are plenty of american and asian tourists that don't understand the dangers lurking in the water and ignore warning signs only to get a crocodile love bite

 

I wasn't aware they drop out of trees...creepy stuff.

I'll keep that in mind if ever I'm in leech territory.

We get the jelly fish, but it's the Blue Bottles which keep me out of the water as well as not walk on the sand. I've been stung by their tentacles to know to keep my distance

in the water....

and on the beach...when washed ashore!
Suffering the stings I found unbearable. The itch later of where the tentacles wrapped around you is enough to drive you crazy for a while.

 

Have a look at Africa's most dangerous animals.

And the list is far from complete...

Oops.. I didn't post the link.
http://goafrica.about.com/od/africasafariguide/tp/dangerousanimals.htm

 

Loooove Africa. It has been on my "Bucket List" forever...would love to go there on a photographic safari. So much to see (all those wonderful animals) and much to do. <sigh>

 

Put it at the top of your "Bucket List".
Less than an hour's drive from where I live, Port Elizabeth, is the Addo Elephant National Park - the world's largest elephant sanctuary, and home to the "Big Five".

 

Yeah. It is a worry. So far there are reports in our Victorian state and appears there are two pregnant women. No news as to where from overseas they picked it up. My heart goes out to them.

 

Ooooh! How envious I am of you...I looove African Elephants too, the big cats, the list goes on. It has been high on my list but continuously gets reshuffled with other priorities. It isn't a pipe dream, it will eventuate when the time is right <sigh>.

Reckon Africa wins hands down when it comes to the big ones...whereas we have many deadly species that are quite small in comparison as Joffa pointed out earlier.

 

Yep one case confirmed here in Victoria and unofficially she just came back from South America but authorities won't confirm or deny whether it was South America or Mexico.
Luckily it won't spread here as our mosquitoes can't carry or transmit the virus
Sheesh..... we don't need any more nasties over here as we seem to have more than our fair share

 

And the dangerous ones...

 

...and the ones that I'd be prepared to travel and pay to see...

 

Excluding #3.

 

#3?

Please explain.

 

3. Human
Mankind has been responsible for more deaths than any other animal on this list, except perhaps the mosquito. War, famine (often man-made), and environmental destruction have all played their parts. Millions of Africans have lost their lives (and continue to) in civil wars.
Some conflicts made the news, like the current conflict in Darfur and Rwanda's genocide.
But others you may not even have heard about:

• Angola's 27 year civil war claimed the lives of 500,000 people.
• Burundi's civil war lasted 12 years claiming 300,000 lives.
• The DRC's Second War officially lasted from 1998 - 2003 and claimed 5.4 million lives.
• The Second Liberian Civil War (1999-2003) claimed 150,000 lives.
• Mozambique's Civil War 1977-1992 claimed 900,000.

I rest my case.

 

Given the fact we're supposed to be at the top of the "food chain", we continue man's inhumanity to man and it becomes all the more shameful when being compared with the killing rate of a mosquito.

I still have faith in humanity. Humanity has taken painful baby steps through history to better things and there will always be people (as yourself) who are aware of what is happening with many trying to change/rebuild/improve lives where others desecrate and destroy.

We can only hope.