Night Critters

These two pictures represent the sorry total of our spotlighting success on this trip. In the past we've seen numerous species of possums, gliders, wallabies, and so on, while hiking at night with a powerful spotlight. This time, although we went out many times in suitable habitat, all we saw were a dingo, a bunch of agile wallabies, and these two fellas. This is a Bush Thick-Knee (or Bush Stone-Curlew), a 2 foot tall nocturnal predator who is apparently endangered. They make an eerie wailing call.




This guy is a Black Footed Tree-Rat. He was big; much bigger than your garden variety rat, and extremely agile, jumping back and forth from the trees to the ground. Check out his giant oblong ears.