Close Encounters of the Wombat Kind (Critters of Tasmania)

I love critters and I was very excited about seeing some very odd critters while in Tasmania. I most wanted to see a Tasmanian Devil, an Echidna, and a Wombat. I'd read that Tasmanian Devils are endangered due to a transmittable face cancer, and knew that they would be scarce. I'd never even heard of an echidna until Brent mentioned them, and then once I'd seen some pics on google I knew I had to see one. We had also googled wombats and decided they were very cute critters - so cute that we wanted to bring one home and we would love it and pet it and we would call it George... until we discovered how LARGE these cute critters are.

Naturally, I expected to be greeted at the airport by an army of kangaroos and wallabys, but since Hobart is the most populous city in Tasmania, I was disappointed. We rode from Hobart to Richmond and then on to Triabunna seeing nary a live critter, although many many unfortunate road-killed wallabys and opossums.

We stopped for lunch after Richmond and while Brent was off... Brenting around somewhere... I did see quite a remarkable show. Where we'd stopped for lunch there were many horseflies which are just as vicious as the horseflies back home. One of the vile varmints was flying around me when it suddenly found itself trapped in a spider's web on the side of the picnic table. I watched as it struggled, tightening its own trap around itself. A relatively small spider walked down the web about half way, had a look, and then turned and went back up into its hidey-hole. I was disappointed at not seeing more action than that until I noticed that there were several teeny-tiny baby spiders coming down the web. As the struggles of the horsefly lessened, the baby spiders got bolder... many of them making their way closer and closer to the fly. As they approached, the fly would sometimes spring into a panic, struggling more. Occasionally, a baby spider would be flung off into the abyss, but it would always manage to leave a lifeline web trailing back up to the main web and it would crawl back up. It was absolutely fascinating to watch the advance of the baby spiders as they got bolder and the fly got weaker. Finally, they actually reached the fly and commenced their lunch. A very interesting bit of nature, and I was enthralled by the grizzly show.

Our next step after Triabunna was to take the ferry over to Maria Island (Maria pronounced Ma-rye-ah, not like we would have expected). Brent had read a blog from some campers bemoaning their time on Maria who had been ousted from their tent and treed by a band of vicious emus. So, of course, we thought we had to go to Maria to get treed by emus. Unfortunately, we learned after we got there that the emus on the island were extinct. But, we were greeted by an enthusiastic gang fight between two groups of Tasmanian Native Hens, and shortly after by some Cape Barren Geese. These birds are amazing and hilarious. They look sort of like dinosaurs with their sturdy heads, legs and feet. Their legs and feet look like they're wearing red leg-warmers and black wellies. The best thing about them is their sound... they make a grunting sound like pigs. I really enjoyed lying in our tent in the morning listen to the kookaburra's insane laughter from one side and the grunting geese from the other side.

We still hadn't seen any live marsupials about, so we asked Donna-Lea, the Maria Island National Park warden, who recommended taking our flashlights out after dark and walk up the hill by the camp site. After nightfall we set out, and I spotted what looked like a critter not far from our tent. The critter was basically rock-shaped, though, so I chalked it up to my overactive imagination until the rock started tottering away. It was a wombat... about the size of a large cat. We pursued the wombat around the camp site for a few minutes trying to get a good photo until we decided we'd traumatized it enough and set off up the hill. Along the way we saw lots and lots of the critters we'd been wishing for. A large group of wallabys on the grassy side, and lots and lots of... um... something-or-others on the tree side. The something-or-others turned out to be opossums. Australian opossums are WAY cuter than North American opossums with their big bushy tails. We thought they were cats a couple of times - they were the right size, moved very similarly, and had big fluffy tails. When we'd get a decent look, though, the body and face shape were just slightly "wrong".

Being experienced campers from North America, we weren't sure what to do with our food and other aromatic items over night. We asked about hanging stuff from a tree like we might do back home, but we were told that wasn't necessary. We could just keep the stuff inside our tent with us as the critters generally weren't bold enough to try to get into the tent for it. It's generally the opossums you have to protect your stuff from, and I was thankful to Lana for the tip about tying your boots together to prevent an opossum taking off with one for a good chew.

Across the island I also enjoyed hearing cicadas, which I loved in Atlanta as well. We saw some bats and tadpoles. I liked the little flounder-like dudes who skittered along in the sand on the beach in Swansea, and the little crab dudes who made the little rings of sand on the beach where they dug their little holes to sit in. As Brent and I were exploring the beach, we'd left the bikes tied up back at the parking lot and returned to discover that Brent's bicycle was an ant magnet. We did our best to rid the bicycle of ants before we continued on, but there were probably several hundred ants still on the bike (and on Brent) for the next day or so. Thankfully they weren't a biting variety of ants. While we were on Maria, I saw my first Huntsman spider, which I wish I'd known was harmless before I saw him. He was an impressive 3" or so across, and sitting on my panier. After we took several photos of him, we tried to get him to move off my panier, but the more I tried to encourage him to leave (with a stick), the more he tried to hide in a crevice of the panier. Finally we got rid of him, and we've seen a couple more since then. They don't even bother me now that I know they won't kill me. Our final stop in Tasmania was Devonport, where we were scheduled to take the Spirit of Tasmania ferry over to the mainland. A highlight in Devonport for us was the red-breasted cockatoos that were EVERYWHERE. On the grass... flying around... sitting on the power lines. I also enjoyed the Masked Lapwings around Devonport which have hilarious yellow faces and black caps which look like 1970's style toupees.

Unfortunately, the Tasmanian Devil and Echidna completely eluded us while on Tasmania. I guess we'll just have to come back and try again.