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It's hard to tell by the photo what size they are...
At first sight, I though that by the four toes marks I'd say something canine, like a dingo, that maybe wasn't pressing down on the pads of his feet.
But then looking closer it's actually two toes of two different feet together. I'd expect a wallaby or something of the sort to leave a longer foot mark, but maybe one that was hopping/jumping, rather than walking? hence why there aren't any hand prints. That's just my guess though. I'm not from Australia so I'm not familiar with the animals
__________________ Alessia
Quote:
"Until one has loved an animal, a part of one's soul remains unawakened." -Anatole France
But then looking closer it's actually two toes of two different feet together. I'd expect a wallaby or something of the sort to leave a longer foot mark, but maybe one that was hopping/jumping, rather than walking? hence why there aren't any hand prints.
Brilliant deductive reasoning, Alessia, and right on all counts.
It's a wallaby, hopping - explaining why the front feet aren't visible and neither are the heels of the hind feet.
Here's a close-up of the first set of prints:
The reason these prints caught me off guard for a moment is their being so close together. This must have been a particularly dainty wallaby, as normally they hop with a bit more space between their feet. Here's a shot of a typical set of prints.
The tiny inner toes (which are actually two toes fused and therefore have two claws) are only used for grooming and are therefore held off the ground while hopping, which is why only two toes are visible in the prints.
Brilliant deductive reasoning, Alessia, and right on all counts.
It's a wallaby, hopping - explaining why the front feet aren't visible and neither are the heels of the hind feet.
Here's a close-up of the first set of prints:
The reason these prints caught me off guard for a moment is their being so close together. This must have been a particularly dainty wallaby, as normally they hop with a bit more space between their feet. Here's a shot of a typical set of prints.
The tiny inner toes (which are actually two toes fused and therefore have two claws) are only used for grooming and are therefore held off the ground while hopping, which is why only two toes are visible in the prints.
Yayyy I got it right!
__________________ Alessia
Quote:
"Until one has loved an animal, a part of one's soul remains unawakened." -Anatole France
The monitors get their own back during brush turkey breeding season by occasionally sneaking past the guarding male and stealing eggs. Brush turkeys are megapodes, so they lay their eggs in large ground nests and use the sun and decomposing vegetable matter to incubate the eggs, rather than sit on them. The males are pretty fierce protectors and will usually turn their back on the goannas and kick debris at them, but occasionally a monitor sneaks through when the male is preoccupied.
Away from mounds and outside the breeding season, the brush turkeys are still 'funny' about monitors and so peck them on the tip of the tail when they can.
Here's some more shots of the same behaviour, from a few years ago.
A brush turkey with a really small female monitor I've named 'Weenie'. Weenie clearly gets hassled a lot, for she curled her tail while the bird was still a long way off.
A larger, male lace monitor (Bluey, in fact) being followed by a brush turkey.
At one stage Bluey turned around to look at the bird, so the bird turned away with a look that said "nothing to see here".
From a purely physical viewpoint, if a really motivated monitor rushed at a brush turkey, it could kill it very easily and then eat bits of it at its leisure. However, nature is all about risk and effort vs gain. Like most predators, monitors are easily put off by threats and consequently don't even think about attacking an adult brush turkey because they just seem like a lot of trouble.
ha ha, awesome video! The guy sounds like Jeremy Clarkson off of Top Gear with the way he speaks.
Trust me David Attenbourgh and Jeremy Clarkson don't sound alike :-)
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0.1 partner 1.2 kids 0.1 grandkids 0.1 royal python 1.0 Butter motley corn snake 1.0 Bearded dragon 1.1 American green tree frogs 1.0 Labrador 1.0 Jack russell terrier 1.0 cat 0.1 rabbit
Your only young once, but you can be immature your whole damn life :-D