The Flying Wombat

I was chatting with my parents on Skype the other day and they asked if I had seen a wombat yet. I haven’t, at least not a live one (I’ve seen plenty of roadkill wombats though). And then my mom asked a question that takes the cake for hilarious questions I’ve been asked about Australia: “Wombats don’t fly, do they?” Can you imagine this thing flying around above you?
 

http://www.australiazoo.com.au/our-animals/animal-diaries/images/851one_250.jpg

A funny thing happened on the way to the store...

I headed to town today to get some groceries, and decided to pop into the bank to see if they had received my debit card yet (they said it would take 7-10 business days and it has now been 9, so I figured I’d check since I was there anyway). The teller took my information and began to look through the computer files to see what the status of the card was. We chatted a little, the kind of polite conversation you have while waiting for something. Then she said something that immediately piqued my interest. We had been talking about the caves at the park where I’m living, and she mentioned that she and her Guide group have been there. I stopped her and asked if she meant Girl Guides, which is part of the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS). She said she has a troop of 20 girls, aged 8 to 14. I told her that I’ve been a Girl Scout since kindergarten and that I’ve been interested in helping out with a local troop but I didn’t know where to look for information. My spur of the moment decision to pop into the bank had landed me right at a troop leader’s counter! We exchanged contact information and she seemed very excited about the idea of me helping out, and she even said they could pick me up at the park to come to meetings/outings until I get my own car. So hopefully I’ll be able to start getting involved with the local troop soon and continue my involvement with Girl Scouts/Guides!

A Broken Down Mule and Spider Sex

This evening started off like any other evening with me getting ready to head to Bat Cave to take a census. I used the mule (no, not the animal) to drive to the park office to check my mail first. I had three things! A postcard from Meredith in Africa, a letter from home, and my glassworks project from Canberra! What a great way to start my evening. I then drove down to Bat Cave to set up. The cave entrance is a hole in the ground about 25 feet by 25 feet. There’s a fence around it so people/animals don’t accidentally fall in. So far I’ve been inside once and the mounds of guano are quite impressive, although not quite as smelly as I though they’d be. The emergence tonight went well and seemed heavy. The past few counts have been between 25,000 and 29,000 bats. The resident owl came through a few times and swooped down into the cave to catch dinner. The resident possums (a mom with her baby clinging to her back) came out of the cave once it got dark. They use the ladder that goes into the cave to climb out every evening. After an hour and a half of recording I closed up shop at 7:45pm and went to the Bat Teleview Center to view inside the cave using the infrared cameras. There are five cameras set up in the cave that allow us to pan around and see the bats in the cave, and also to zoom in to watch their behavior. This will be especially useful when the pups are born (usually in early December). We can watch mother-pup interactions and also watch for pup die-offs and disease. After each emergence count, I check with the cameras to see if there are bats still left inside. After I finished that task, I got into the mule to head back home. I put the key and turned the ignition and got silence. It wouldn’t start. The battery has been giving me problems lately, but I had charged it before going out and it had been running fine today. But just my luck it putzed out on me when I had my equipment with me. It’s not too far of a walk back (about 15 minutes) and I have been walking back the past several nights, but I was looking forward to a speedy return and the ease of using the mule to carry stuff. Resigned to my fate, and with one final glare at the mule, I headed off walking in the dark (of course with my headlamp). I was slightly bemoaning my fate as I walked along when I saw small, glowing eyes on the side of the path ahead of me. I immediately knew they were spider eyes (a tidbit I learned in Girl Scouts!), so I stopped to have a look. It was a large wolf spider. I got closer and I realized it was actually TWO wolf spiders, one on top of the other. I sat and watched them for several minutes and realized I had the fortune of happening upon them mating! The smaller male was on the back of the female facing her hind legs. She held still while he used his palps to deliver his semen to her genital opening. After a few minutes he scurried off of her and waited about a foot away while she crawled several inches and started to tap the ground. She felt around and eventually lifted up a dirt door and crawled inside her burrow. The male then scurried away. I’m not sure if the female would have eaten him if I hadn’t been there disturbing them (in some species of wolf spiders the female eats the male after mating) but in this case the male lived to see another day. As I walked back the rest of the way home I realized how fortunate I was that the mule broke down. If it hadn’t I would have whizzed right on by that spectacle of the natural world!

Of Pubs and Parrots

Quite a lot has happened since I last wrote on my blog! Here are some highlights of my adventures over the last week:

I drove for the first time in Australia! I don’t have a car yet, but I’m allowed to borrow the park guides’ car after-hours to run to town for groceries and things like that. Thank goodness it’s an automatic, because although I did learn how to drive a manual this summer (thanks to Joe and Lauren!) the car is “reversed” here, so I’d have to use my left hand and be on the right side of the car (although the pedals are arranged in the same order). I’m not comfortable with that at this point, plus I had never driven on the left side of the road before! Driving on the left actually isn’t as hard as I thought it would be. It does feel weird, but it’s not difficult. The difficult part for me was parking. I’m not used to having so much car to the left of me, so I kept misjudging how close I was to the curb on the left. Also, the car I was driving was much larger/wider than my Subaru at home, which didn’t help. But I’ve made it to town and back twice with no incidents, so I think I’m doing okay!

This past weekend Cath Dickson, my Department of Environment and Natural Resources go-to, took me to the town of Robe on the South Australian coast, about an hour and a half from Naracoorte. The permanent population of Robe is about 1,300, but during the tourist season in the summer holidays (so over Christmas/New Years) I was told it reaches over 25,000. When I was there it was a pretty sleepy, but cute, little town. I was there for a shorebird workshop with Birds Australia. I got to go out birding in the coastal lakes and find out just how much I don’t know about Australian birds. I can figure out the general group that a bird belongs in, but that’s about it. It’s pretty neat to be in a place with a whole new bunch of birds to learn! We saw Sooty Oystercatchers, Latham’s Snipe, Whimbrels, and Masked Lapwings, just to name a few. Also part of the workshop was a free lunch, so I got to experience my first Aussie barbeque, a.k.a. sausage sizzle! I have decided that in order to get the full cultural experience (and also because it’s difficult not to here) I will eat meat while in Australia. I won’t most of the time, but at things like barbeques I will. So I had the Australian version of a hotdog, which was quite delicious. They don’t use hotdog buns here but instead put their sausages on a regular slice of bread or on a hamburger-type bun. Interesting but still yummy (so good I ate two). That night when we got back to Naracoorte we went to the local pub for drinks and dinner. The Rugby World Cup was playing on the TV (Australia vs. Ireland) and one of the guys I was with used to play, so he explained a lot of the rules to me. It was fascinating, especially watching these big, burly men wrap their arms around each other and headlock in the scrums. South Australians are all about footie (Australian Rules Football, or AFL) but some people were still getting into the rugby game and cheering the Australia team on. It was quite an experience to drink some Australian beer (Toohey’s Extra Dry) in a rural Australian pub and watch a rugby game while eating fish and chips. On a side note, I’ve discovered I like Australian/Tasmanian/New Zealand beers a whole lot better than American beers. Maybe I just haven’t had the right American beers, but all I know is that I’m actually beginning to enjoy drinking beer.

The next day, Sunday, was the Threatened Species Day event at the park. It was put on by DENR, so of course I got to help out! I gave a bat talk about my research during one of the cave tours, and afterwards the tour guide told me he had been a little nervous when he was told I’d be  tagging along on his tour because he didn’t want to say anything wrong about bats in front of me. Wow, it was so surreal to hear that he considered me an expert on bats. I have never thought of myself like that! That comment definitely put things in perspective. I just graduated from undergrad a few months ago, I am 22 years old, and people are listening to what I say and taking it for fact. Kind of puts the pressure on, especially because I’m still learning (and hope I always will be)! Later that day I got to do something I’ve always been curious about: dress in one of those giant theme park-type costumes and walk around interacting with people! The person originally slotted to do it had a last-minute conflict, so I jumped at the chance to dress as Ollie the Orange-bellied Parrot, complete with silver spandex and a giant head from which I could see practically nothing. I had a “minder” who walked around with me to make sure I didn’t trip over stuff (I tripped over my own feet once) and to make sure I didn’t overheat inside. I walked/danced around and tried not to scare the children too much. I was such a celebrity! One guy even tried to hand me his baby so he could get our picture, but there was no way I could hold the baby in my awkward giant wings. I wasn’t supposed to talk, so luckily Cath, my minder, came to my rescue and stopped him from dumping the baby on me. During pictures, I couldn’t help but smile even though nobody could see me inside. A natural reaction I guess. After about 20 minutes my time as Ollie came to an end. When getting in costume, I had been advised to strip to my underwear, and I’m glad I did because by the time I was done I was COMPLETELY drenched in sweat. The experience was hot and sweaty and stinky and ABSOLUTELY AMAZING! I can’t wait to do it again. Apparently at these DENR events they usually have a hard time finding somebody to volunteer to do this, so maybe I’ll become the official Ollie!

On a final note, I participated in an Australasian Bittern survey last night. This bird has recently been listed as an Endangered Species. Cath and I got a survey spot on a boardwalk at Bool Lagoon, about a 20 minute drive from my place. We sat and listened for the bitterns and looked up at the gorgeous stars. The Milky Way was the brightest I’ve ever seen it, like a thick fuzzy ribbon across the sky. Listening to the ruckus of the birds and frogs at twilight and seeing the stars reflected in the calm water made me realize just how lucky I am to be here and to get to see this part of the world while doing something I love!

One echidna, two echidna, three echidna?

I saw my first echidna today! Actually, my first two. I was taking a walk on the Stoney Point trail, about a mile from my place, and I heard some rustling in the grass along the river. I stopped and waited to see what it was, and right before me ambled out an echidna! He was going about his business seemingly oblivious to the fact that I was standing only feet away. I quietly pulled out my camera and snapped some pictures to document the momentous occasion. Little did the echidna know but he had just made my day! He continued on his merry way along the river with one of the funniest gaits I've seen in an animal. It was like watching a mat of prickly spines wobble from side to side across the ground.

Later in the afternoon, around 4:30pm, I was walking to the park visitor center down the little dirt "road" connecting my bunkhouse area to the main part of the park, and what did I see? ANOTHER echidna in the middle of the path! Unfortunately I didn't have my camera with me this time, but I did stop to watch him root around in the dirt and tear at the roots. I was tempted to poke him, just to see what he felt like, but thought better of it. He sauntered off with a dirt-covered nose and I continued on my way, thrilled that I had seen two echidnas in one day.

Echidna: check. Kangaroo: check. Wallaby: check. Platypus, (live) wombat, and koala: still on the prowl.

Australia, From an American's Perspective

From what I’ve experienced so far, life in Australia is very similar to life in the US. However, there are some things that have struck me as “odd” from an American’s perspective. Here are some cultural tidbits that to me seemed noteworthy:

Voting in Australia is mandatory. If you don’t vote, you will be fined.

When you apply to undergrad, you submit one application to a central place and rank your school choices. You get a rank based solely on your marks (grades), and then a university picks you.  There are no personal essays, interviews, or points for extracurricular activities. Wow!

Everyone asks me if I’m Canadian. Apparently Canadians are offended to be called American, so people just err on the side of caution.

Sessions of Australian Parliament are like verbal bashing sessions! I was lucky enough to get to sit in on one of these sessions, and I heard phrases such as “express my disgust,” “lack of integrity,” “what hypocrites!,” and “he’s incapable” shouted between both parties, accompanied by plenty of finger pointing. Members were also not afraid to interject their opinions while someone else was talking or to mutter among themselves. What an interesting way to run a country...

Vegemite is disgusting! I guess I can never be a true Australian.

You do not tip anybody (waiters, taxi drivers, bartenders, etc.). I found this out the first time I took a taxi when I handed over a nice wad of cash and said “keep the change” to the driver. I didn’t understand why he gave me such a shocked look until later that day when I was told you don’t tip here. Apparently service workers make good wages and don’t need tips to earn a living.

Australian houses are cold! Australians don’t insulate their houses well, and quite a few houses don’t have central heating. I’ve spent most of my two weeks here bundled up in five layers of clothing.

Grocery shopping is hard for a newcomer. While everything is in English, there are so many new names and brands to get used to. Searching for the right kind of yogurt (or “yoghurt”) is quite a challenge!

I know next to nothing about Australian history. When I visited the Australian War Memorial in Canberra, the tour guide occasionally said, “You’ve all heard about...,” and each time I had never heard of what she was talking about. When I’ve visited memorials and museums in the US I’ve always at least been able to say, “Yeah, I’ve heard that name before” or “I kind of know about that.” That’s not the case here. I have never once learned about Australian anything in school. Who knew that Japan bombed Darwin, Australia during World War II, or that Australian beaches were lined with barbed wired during the war? I sure didn’t.

Having a “partner” is much more common here than in the US. Many people I’ve met have been with their partners for many years and even have kids but are not married. I feel like there isn’t the same social expectation to marry here.

Cadbury chocolate is sold EVERYWHERE (vending machines, checkout lines, etc). I love it!

You have to stand on the left side of the escalator to let people pass. I learned that the hard way when I was almost barreled over by a woman in a hurry.

Wildlife carers paint pink crosses on roadkill kangaroos/other marsupials so people know they’ve been checked for a baby in the pouch.

Australians love their tea! Any break is an excuse to have tea. I do love this tradition but sometimes I feel like I’m going to float away.

Australians can be quite blunt, as evidenced by the following road signs posted by the transportation department to warn people of the dangers of drinking and driving (the first three of which I have personally seen):

                                                       - “Don’t drive like a

                                                                                                                 - “Don’t drive like a 

             

(knob is slang for a particular part of the male anatomy)

                                                                     

                             - “Don’t drive like a W

            

            - “Drive drunk and die”

            - “Drink and drive and die in a ditch”           

And now for some American to Australian word conversions:

            - float (like a root beer float) = spider

- cookie = biscuit

- biscuit = no translation. The Australians I’ve talked to have no idea what an American biscuit could be. My conversion for them = “delicious”

- raisins = saltanas

- granola bar = muesli bar

- barbeque = sausage sizzle

- yebi = crayfish

- shrimp = prawn

- liquor store = bottle shop

- drunk = pissed

- take out = take away

- McDonald’s = Mackers (pronounced “Mackas”)

- “My turn” (to pay for something) = “My shout”

            - fanny pack = bum bag or waist pouch (DO NOT say fanny under any 

              circumstances!)

- light bulb = globe

- battery died = battery went flat

- gasoline = petrol

- tire = tyre

- elevator = lift

            - to call = ring up

            - pharmacist = chemist

            - dorm = college

            - college = university (Uni)

            - poke fun at = take a dig at

            - underwear/boxers = jocks

            - You’re screwed = You’re stuffed

            - to root for (a team...) = something quite inappropriate

Okay, time to go do some work. Or maybe head to the sausage sizzle and eat some yebis and have a spider...

           

Hi, my name is Krusty. Why yes, I do have an accent!

Three important "updates":

1. My new nickname is Krusty. It was affectionately bestowed upon me when I arrived at Naracoorte Caves Park and I want to make it clear that I did absolutely nothing to earn it! But I've never had a nickname, so I guess it's about time for one.

2. I am a foreigner. This is a fact I keep forgetting. It's very easy to forget, since I don't look physically different from most Australians and everything here is in English. I have been specifically reminded of my foreigner status on two occasions since getting here. Once was last night when I was out at Bat Cave taking a census. A school group came through (probably early high school) and one of the girls asked me bluntly, "Do you have an accent?" Why yes I do! The other time was at the Fulbright Enrichment Dinner in Canberra. I was talking with two young women from Canberra and they kept asking questions about the US. They said it was great to be able to talk to someone from America. It hit me that I really am an “ambassador” for the US, which is both exciting and daunting. I definitely feel like I should be more up-to-date on current events in the US, but it feels almost like I'm in a bubble here.

3. I have finally arrived at my new home: Naracoorte Caves National Park. My flat is pretty sweet, with a nice kitchen and main room/bedroom. I almost feel like a grown-up with my own place! Almost. It does seem kind of empty here with no roommates, whom I really miss. The fridge is so big for just one person's food, the cupboards are nearly bare, and it's awfully quiet by myself (unless there's a school group or other people staying in the bunkhouse). I have noticed myself trying to keep things clean and tidy because for some reason I want it to look nice for when all my non-existent Australian friends come over. We'll see how long the tidiness lasts. Also, I have the use of a "mule" for work purposes (it's a glorified golf cart). So now I have a bat mobile!

So to recap, I, Krusty, am a foreigner with a bat mobile. Beware! ^v^