Today, 31st October, Halloween is celebrated in some parts of the world: houses are decorated with pumpkins, skeletons, fake cobwebs; people dress up as monsters and scary characters; children get ready to ring doorbells and collect sweets.
In the animal kingdom, there's no need for a special occasion to find strange and frightening creatures, and Australia has one of the highest concentrations of dangerous species in the world!
A land full of venomous spiders, jellyfish, snakes, as well as 7-meter crocodiles and great white sharks. Even some frogs and fish are poisonous.
Talking about Halloween, there’s a category of animals that terrifies people’s imaginations, fuelled by countless stories and legends: bats!
And, of course, in Australia, even the bats are larger than those found anywhere else!
The Pteropodidae family, commonly known as flying foxes, can have body lengths of up to 30 cm and wingspans exceeding one meter.
The most common species in Australia include the black flying fox (Pteropus alecto), which is, as the name suggests, entirely black; the grey-headed flying fox (Pteropus poliocephalus), with its greyish coloration and distinctive orange band around the neck; the spectacled flying fox (Pteropus conspicillatus), named for the light fur around its eyes that resemble glasses; and the little red flying fox (Pteropus scapulatus), with its reddish-brown fur.
These are all nocturnal and social species that spend most of their day in large colonies, typically hanging upside down in trees.
You at least once in your life might ask yourselves: how do they hang upside down without falling?
They manage this thanks to the tendons in their hind legs, which allow them to lock their grip on a branch, enabling them to hang without any effort. When they decide to fly away, they simply release the mechanism and drop. Bats can’t take off from flat surfaces; they need to drop from a high place.
Coming across a colony of large, all-black bats can be quite an intimidating sight. However, beyond their color and size, there’s little to fear about these animals.
Flying foxes are also known as fruit bats because their diet consists primarily of fruit, nectar, and pollen from native Australian plants. They play a crucial role in the preservation and vitality of their environment. As excellent pollinators, they travel long distances in search of food, dispersing seeds and pollen, thus contributing to forest reproduction and regeneration.
Unfortunately, these species are experiencing significant decline. The rate of habitat destruction due to deforestation for agricultural areas, fires, and drought exceeds their ability to disperse seeds.
These animals are truly a secret weapon against climate change in Australia.
Now, let's talk about another well-known and peculiar animal, one that doesn’t look frightening but has hidden characteristics that can make it dangerous when provoked. To introduce it, let's conduct a little Frankenstein experiment, staying in the Halloween spirit: take a duck's bill, a beaver's tail, four webbed feet with sturdy claws, waterproof fur, and... a secret ingredient I'll reveal shortly. Put all these parts together, and if we've got our calculations right, the result should be a mammal.
Yes, but a mammal that lays eggs.
What kind of animal is this? Is it real? Yes, indeed! This creature lives in the waterways of eastern Australia, is medium-sized, measuring up to 50 cm in length, and is called the platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus).
How can an animal with a bill and that lays eggs be a mammal?
Firstly, its body is covered not with feathers but with fur, a dense, waterproof coat. Secondly, after the eggs hatch, the young are blind, hairless, and underdeveloped, and complete their growth by nursing from the mother.
These are two distinctive characteristics of all mammals and two indisputable proofs.
Now let’s go back to our secret ingredient: despite its odd but cute and friendly appearance, the male platypus has venomous spurs on its hind legs.
The venom is potent enough to kill small animals and is used more as a defense weapon rather than for hunting prey. It isn't lethal to humans, but a sting can still be very painful, so beware of underestimating these charming creatures.
Unfortunately, platypuses are also significantly affected by the same challenges faced by flying foxes, due to climate change. Fortunately, numerous conservation projects are active in parks, zoos, and specialized facilities across Australia to protect these animals.
Like the koala, the platypus is an iconic and well-known species and it becomes an ambassador for all other species living in the same habitats.
In the end, this wasn’t a particularly scary article, but you surely got to know some very unique animals!
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