The Tassie Devil and the Tassie Tiger are only a few of the numerous and fantastic animals that live in Tasmania. Many more incredible animals hide in the mainland, as well as in the water. Seals and penguins are some of those animals. Sadly, animals of Australia face the day-to-day challenges of deforestation, drought and lifetime changes of bushfires. These destructive monsters destroy their homes and sometimes, they themselves with it. While the bushfires are a danger to them, so are hunters. Kangaroos, koalas, Tassie Devils, all are hunted and poached illegally for something. Maybe their skin. Maybe their teeth. Luckily, we have some zoos and associations that lend a hand to these resilient survivors. Although some animals have been driven to extinction by our species, we can still help others.
Let’s check what you already know: match each animal with its unique attribute (answer key at the bottom of this post):
a. Blue Penguin
b. Mountain Pygmy-Possum
c. Koala
d. Tassie Devil
e. Wombat
1.The Aboriginal name means “no drink” or “no water”
2. Does square poo
3. Eats 36 of its babies
4. When hibernating, its temperature drops from 37°C to 2°C!
5. Has a right to divorce her partner.
5/5 or 4/5: Gold. Fantastic! You are a Tassie animals expert!
3/5 or 2/5: Silver. Great! You are on the right path. Keep practising!
1/5 or 0/5: Bronze (actually, in reality: no prize) Yikes! You have some reading to do!
The Orange Live-Bearing Starfish
We were very excited. We were going to do a “finding ocean animals” workshop on the rocky beach. The first Tasmanian animal we found was the orange live-bearing starfish. This special starfish can only be found on three beaches in Tasmania, nowhere else in the world! Tesselated Pavement by Eaglehawk Neck is one of the them and we are very, very lucky to get to see one. We pick up the starfish and look at it closely. We then put it down and find a big purple starfish that needs our help! It has flipped itself over out of the water and will die soon if it is not helped! Luckily our merry ranger flips it over again and we find a nice spot in the water for its new home. The next animal we find is a little cushion starfish, Vyas’ favorite. It is also tiny, barely 1cm in diameter but it has a blueish, greenish color. Our last animal is a female crab, carrying eggs. When flipped around, little holes can be seen from which she lays 40-80 eggs at a time.
Answer key to animal quiz: a:5; b:4; c:1; d:3; e:2.