Australia and her scary and not-so-scary critters

In recent years, pelicans have started hanging out at Lake Burley Griffin

Fellow blogger, Cryptic Garland, recently did a post with a pic of a huntsman spider clutching her egg sac that most likely held a gazillion baby huntsmen.

It started a flurry of comments about Australia’s deadly creatures. We’ve got more than our share of snakes and spiders in the world’s top 10 most poisonous. And of course there are the sharks too.

We’ve hosted many exchange students and most of them come to the country terrified that they will encounter the ‘Three Esses—spiders, snakes and sharks’ probably all on the first day.

I always thought they should have been more concerned about liking school, making friends and fitting in with their host family. But I digress.

Another frequent visitor to the lake. This is a darter, rather than a cormorant.

The flurry of comments didn’t make a single mention of the prickly critter I saw while walking the dog.

Lately I’ve been walking Indi, our standard schnauzer, around Lake Burley Griffin, a manmade wonder that graces the centre of Canberra, the nation’s capital.

It’s a gorgeous and popular place to be when the weather is nice. We see plenty of people and dogs, as well as an array of birds and bunnies, but Saturday was the first time we ever saw an echidna.

An echidna on tour at Lake Burley Griffin

According to Wildcare Australia, echidnas are the oldest surviving mammal on the planet. Their page on echidnas is full of interesting info, so I’ll tell about our experience instead.

We got out of the car near one of the memorials scattered around the lake, and there it was trundling along with purpose. Of course, it was headed straight for the small road that runs alongside the lake, so Indi and I swung around in front of it in the hopes of directing it back towards the lake.

It did so obligingly and I was so proud of Indi (who was on her lead) for not barking or trying to torment the echidna in any way. In fact, we walked alongside it for 20 to 30 minutes, with Indi often sitting and gazing in wonder.

We kept a distance of about two metres and pointed the echidna out to all the passersby. It is rare to see them out in the open like this, and for many it was their first time seeing one ‘in the wild’.

One woman approached to say she had seen another one farther back along the path and had called the ranger to ask what to do. According to the ranger, this is the time of year when echidnas move about a lot and to not worry about them unless they are injured.

Our goal was to keep this one from getting in the road and getting run over, so our walk was aimed at getting it to a place much farther from the road.

Our little friend starts to disappear. See how close the road is

Almost gone

The echidna had other ideas. About 20 metres short of where I hoped we’d get to, it did a 90-degree turn and headed straight for the road. By then about 10 people were crowded around. I think our little friend had had enough.

As we watched, nervous that it might tumble into the road, it instead started to dig itself underground. I had no idea echidnas could do this, and apparently when they do, there’s no way of getting them out unless you dig a huge hole around and under them.

One fellow realised this very quickly. The echidna had only just started to dig, when this guy took the pillow out of his kid’s pusher and tried to pick up the echidna. He couldn’t budge it. It was as if its feet had grown clamps.

So we all stepped back and watched it bury itself completely. Wow! I guess they really are solitary, and certainly not very scary.

Indi and I went back on Sunday to check on it, but the echidna had moved on.

If you’re in a hurry to move on, you might check out another one of our lakeside walks or a recipe on my cooking blog.

I’m hiding so everyone can go home