The Wandering Scot

An occasional travel journal

Tag: Australia

  • Australia Zoo Encounters

    I’ve been visiting Australia Zoo (aka Steve Irwin’s Zoo) near Brisbane. I’d arranged three interactive Animal Encounters.

    Naughty Wombat Encounter

    Elle the wombat was cool, and willing to be patted, but she also made it very clear she was really only in it for the snacks, and dragged her keeper off as soon as all the goodies were gone

    By Jingo Dingo Encounter

    The dingoes were a little more sociable, or maybe they were just sizing me up for a snack. These two have both been DNA tested as 100% pure dingo. (Apparently white is a normal natural dingo color.)

    The keepers said they behave more like cats than dogs, and can be either aloof or charming as they feel like.

    Spiky Little Echidna Encounter

    This short-beaked echidna is 24 years old and quite mellow. He was a rescue animal who was found sick. They discovered his illness was due to an allergy to ants (!), which isn’t a great thing for a wild echidna, so he’s living the good life on an ant-free diet at the Zoo.

    Bonus Crocodile

    The crocodile statue was a gratuitous bonus. Crikey!

  • Australia: Magnetic Termites

    Magnetic Termite Mound

    The Magnetic Termites of North Australia are extremely cool.

    Their mounds look rather like tombstones. They are some 5-8 ft tall, very thin East-West (about 4 inches) and long North-South (2-3 feet). They are aligned like this to reduce the impact of the sun on the nests.

    The termites are known as magnetic termites or compass termites because of this alignment. But the worker termites are blind, so how do they actually manage the alignment? By sensing the sun’s heat? No…

    Recently, Mad Scientists ™ experimented by using magnets to distort the local compass direction. The termites then obediently built a nest aligned with the magnets rather than with true North. So they really are magnetic termites, doing magnetic sensing! Way cool!

    Magnetic Termite Mounds

    The nests I saw were in Litchfield National Park. There is a large array of the tombstone like mounds in a small area, looking like a grave yard. This made me wonder if the name “Litchfield” might have come from “Lich Field”, but no, it turns the park name comes from a famous Northern Territory pioneer.