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Australia 2011
Day 7 - 4th August - Alice Springs Desert Park (Part 2)
Then we entered the Nocturnal House. Most of the lizards were hiding.
Thorny Devil
Spinifex Legless Lizard
Desert Skink
"Arrente name: not known". Does this mean that Western Science is superior to native knowledge? Or that the Arrente don't disclose its name due to it being part of some secret ritual?
"Australian scorpions are relatively harmless". Somehow, this wasn't very comforting.
Desert wolf spider
"Arrente name: Impe (generic name for all spiders with a big bottom". So much for the superiority of native knowledge: just as the Eskimos are reported (falsely) to have a gazillion words for snow
Since this was the Nocturnal House, many exhibits were too dark for me to take photographs, and sometimes even to see what was inside. There was even a Mala (the animal sacred down at Uluru).
A picture of the Mala:
A picture of the Mala I saw:
A very cute Tawny Frogmouth. Luckily it stayed close to the glass and stayed still.
Spinifex Hopping-mouse. This is the sign only - I couldn't find it (IIRC)
Again the arrente name is "not known"
There was a ghost bat. I'm guessing it was translucent but in the shadows I couldn't tell.
Red-tailed Phascogale sign
"Extinct in Arrente country". Hurr so much for native peoples being good stewards of the land. The extinction was blamed on feral cats.
Australia has the world record for mammal extinction.
The audioguide narrator was very pissed off by cute rabbits, because they caused problems. A few years ago instead of the Easter Bunny one group used another, native, animal - the Aclilpa (or somethng like that).
Acacia stick insect
"Biological Septic System"
Biological = stinky
Insulting Aboriginal Epistemology - how come they don't talk about the Dreamtime?
They introduced buffalo grass to crowd out native ones like lemongrass. THey had good intentions - to control soil erosion.
The audioguide talked about the medicinal uses of plants - as if they were as good as aspirin. Bah.
Alcoholic moneyeaters
After the Desert Rivers and Sand Country was the last third of the park - Woodland.
Masked woodswallow
White-winged fairy wren
"The Witchetty Grub Story"
Kangaroos
There's a 5,000km Dingo Fence keeping dingos out of the Eastern states, so there're more kangaroos there.
On Red Kangaroos
Kangaroo
Another one
Kangaroos
Kangaroos refusing to hop
Kangaroos refusing to hop 2
"Togetherness"
This is a weird caption for a worm clusterfuck
"Working together"
Gneiss
Layers of Landscape
Walking on Ancient Land: "The wild dog then travelled a little way north and metamorphosed into a boulder (Akngwelye Thirrewe) embedded in the ground near the spot where the McDonalds hamburger restaurant now stands"
This was quite sad
Quartz veins and gold reefs
Toys strewn about. Huh?
Buy one get one free - except it's VHS tapes. In Japanese.
Amusingly instead of banning commercial photography they regulate it with a (presumably) light touch
Mini dry river
Bugs on car windscreen