Tulka Fires 2012

After many decades without fire the Tulka area near Port Lincoln was dry and had a lot of built up undergrowth. In 2005 a fire broke out sweeping across 145,000 Hectares, it killed 9 people and injured 113. A total of 93 homes were lost along with 50 other buildings, 100 vehicles and 30,000 livestock. Huge areas were evacuated and no one will forget the pictures of people standing in the sea to escape the flames that drove them there as they watched everything they owned destroyed.

Our state was in shock for months and the result was a heavy upgrade of fire fighting equipment, contingency plans, escape routes and fire fighting water supplies.

Just a week ago it happened again…

It started close to the previous fire and followed a similar pattern, burning in inaccessible areas until it built up then sweeping across the roads to attack the built up areas.

This time though, with more money expended and our firefighters ready for the fight the statistics are far more reasonable. (unless you owned one of the houses lost)

Farmers had time to cut their fences to release stock, homes were abandoned early and firefighters manned (and womanned) every possible firefighting vehicle… the entire state held our collective breaths.

This time we lost 9 homes, 11 sheds and just 850 Hectares of land.

With the reduction in losses we were able to concentrate on the wildlife like never before.

Kangaroos simply hop over fences and get away, Wombats dig their burrows deeper and survive in the cool earth but Koalas cant run or hide and generally die a miserable death.

The last fire destroyed countless Koalas over a huge area, a rare and special sub species was lost forever. Thankfully there were areas with far too many Koalas so they were simply moved into the fire damaged areas as regrowth appeared to support them.

This fire killed many of the imported animals and so with the state already prepared for an onslaught of injured humans they swung into action to save as many of the injured animals as they could. 

 

 

*This little Kangaroo has burned feet and lost his mother in the fire, he's being cared for in the home of a wildlife warrior and will be released when possible.














*Heroes...

























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Busting Australian Myths

The humble Koala, cute, cuddly and friendly, so friendly you can cuddle a wild one which will simply cling lovingly to you. Ahhh!
They're just the thing to get the tourists flocking to every wildlife park for their fix.
The problem is that it’s just not true…it’s like saying the Skunk is cute and refreshing. (Well, maybe it is, I’ve never seen one)
The truth about the Koala is that it’s dumb, cranky and well armed. . . Oh, and it stinks really bad! The males have a gland rather like the Skunk so you wont actually see a male in the wild life parks and even the females are shampooed regularly to make them more pleasant. These park Koalas are almost always hand reared after their mothers were killed in road accidents etc and cant be returned to the wild, so they live out their lives being cuddled by tourists…even so they still tend to use people as their toilets. (when you least expect it)
The little female pictured was saved when her mother was killed in a bushfire, after she was finished posing for these pictures she was handed around to all those interested in being filmed with her and wanting to play Russian Roulette with the chance of being sprayed with excrement.




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The tale of the Drop Bear

It is well understood that the Dropbear has evolved over thousands of years. It's diminutive cousin the Koala was more often found in dryer areas of Australia where it's herbivorous lifestyle was a natural adaptation to scarce food supplies. Conversely, Dropbear prides were more common in sub-tropical forests, where larger mammals (a primary food source) were more prevalent. The population density along coastal areas accounts for the less than comfortable relationship shared over the years by humans and Dropbears. Due to habitat destruction, many Dropbear prides have divided over the years, some of which head further inland in search of more plentiful food sources, and safer environments in which to raise cubs. This in turn has displaced some koala populations. This in fact serves to provide the Australian government with a convenient cover story. They (and others) claim that coastal Koala habitats are being destroyed, thereby lowering the count of koala's typically seen around urban Australia. This is a fallacy, as koala's never inhabited coastal areas in any great numbers due to the Dropbear not being particularly concerned with matters of etiquette regarding the feeding on relatives. However, since many tourists tend to be disappointed that they do not see a koala in every eucalyptus tree, the government perpetuates this story of an endangered species in a shrinking habitat. As horrible as it is, it sounds a lot better than saying "Oh, those cuddly things? Yeah, the Dropbears ate them all".



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Glen Forest

One of my favorite places is Glen Forest Farm near Port Lincoln in South Australia.
It’s a tourist farm that specializes in close encounters with native animals and I’ve been bringing my girls here for many years. These days my girls are mothers themselves and we still like to visit now and then to expose the grandkids to the experience.
D3 (my youngest) took her own son recently for his first visit, as you can see, he had the best time. We also took her daughter (miss 2) who didn’t like the animals one bit….It will be better next time. She did provide many good laughs though as she freaked every time an animal came close. At one point a huge, nasty, vicious Budgerigar landed on her knee which had her convinced she was in danger of her life.
I’ve known the Kangaroos pictured since many of them were joeys themselves and now they have their own young. These are Wallabies or Euros which live in scrub or bushland and are similar but smaller than the much larger Red and Blue desert Kangaroos. As you can see they’re really quite friendly as are most Roos, so long as you don’t corner or threaten them.
Kangaroos have a sweet tooth and we always bring some dried fruit mixed with grain and animal pellets, this ensures you get plenty of new friends. The fences you see are to prevent the Roos following you around all day, not to lock them up in any way. They have safe places they can retreat to if they feel uneasy or threatened. (Usually by unsupervised children)
Of course you will be familiar with news stories of Roos kicking the shit out of people, but this only ever happens if they are mistreated or cornered. Kangaroos can’t hop or walk backwards so if you get in their face or surround them they panic with unfortunate results.
The aviary at Glen Forest is huge to say the least, about eight years ago there was a huge fire in the area with many people lost to the flames, smoke suffocated the parks thousands of birds before they could be released. It’s taken a long time to breed up the birds again and there is still a long way to go but what birds there are have already become friendly. The parrots you see all prefer the dried fruit mix and are happy to land all over you to get at the food treats. With a full belly they sit and preen your hair for ages, parting the strands and untangling any knots with great dexterity.
D3 has loved the aviary since her first time here when she was four (18 years ago) and she’s happy to sit for hours with the birds making friends and feeding them. Many of these birds are still quite shy, but in the end they all come to her for a feed.
There are many more animals including Emu, Dingo, Koala, Bulls, Cows, Buffalo, Camel, Peacock, Rabbits etc, etc. A more complete set of pics can be seen at my Flickr site if you’re interested.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/28816913@N08/



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