tasmania
gregladen | January 8, 2013First, a word about the Australian Bureau of Meteorology's position on climate change, heat, and fires. It has been suggested (by a commenter here) that the BoM is claiming that the current heat wave is not related to climate change, but rather, a matter of natural variability and a late arriving monsoon. But that is not true. The BoM has a different take on the current situation. From Ben Cubby, an Australian journalist:
The heatwave that has scorched the nation since Christmas is a taste of things to come, with this week’s records set to tumble again and again in the coming years, climate…
gregladen | January 7, 2013Summer is coming on strong south of the Equator, and in Australia this has meant unprecedented record high temperatures, and in the state of Tasmania, severe brush fires that have destroyed numerous homes, adding to the bad news from fires in the southeastern mainland. Prime Minister Julia Gillard said "And while you would not put any one event down to climate change ... we do know that over time as a result of climate change we are going to see more extreme weather events." That is not exactly true, of course. There are no climate related events that lack the fingerprint of global climate…
bioephemera | June 25, 2009This may be the best BBC story EVER. Seriously:
Australian wallabies are eating opium poppies and creating crop circles as they hop around "as high as a kite", a government official has said."We have a problem with wallabies entering poppy fields, getting as high as a kite and going around in circles," Lara Giddings told the hearing. "Then they crash," she added. "We see crop circles in the poppy industry from wallabies that are high."
I have nothing to add. At a complete loss here. I can't even come up with a bad pun.
PS - Oops, I forgot to say this was courtesy of reader Jake! Thanks Jake…
bleimanb | May 1, 2008I met Chris Green on a boat in Lake Titicaca in September, 2007. Immediately we realized that we had something in common...Weird animals, well kinda. For starters, I just write about weird animals, and Chris actually works with them. Also because he lives on Tasmania, he doesn't really consider the animals he works with weird; they are pretty much the most normal animals he can think of...Whoa, that's deep.
Normal day at the office...
If Andrew and I were trying to make a joke about a typical Tasmanian person, we'd probably use Chris' resume as material. He has spent the last few years at a…
zooillogix | May 21, 2007The Thylacine was the largest known carnivorous marsupial and lived in Australia, New Guinea and Tasmania. Known as both the Tasmanian Tiger and Tasmanian Wolf, it is believed that thylacines were hunted to extinction in the 20th century. Although sightings are still reported, scientists are skeptical because, for the most part, people are idiots. Sharing a startling degree of physiological adaptations with canines and markings similar to tigers, the thylacine is an often-cited example of convergent evolution. It's closest living relative is the Tasmanian Devil, which, sadly, has also seen…
zooillogix | May 4, 2007One day at a time...Tasmanian Devil, Sarcophilus harrisii
Tasmanian devils are suddenly on the verge of total extinction, due to a mysterious facial cancer that is spreading rapidly through their population. Since the first sick animal's discovery, eleven years ago, the cancer has swept through Tasmania like a plague, sometimes killing every single Tasmanian devil in an area within 18 months of its arrival. "Once they've got a lump, it's a one way trip," says Menna Jones, an expert on Tasmanian Devils at the University of Tasmania.
Not only does the cancer cause the host to die, but it also…