Great snakes! Watch where you sit...

Funny how the job advertisements at these mines in Outback Australia always skim over the 'small' things, like having to live with hundreds of other sweaty, dirty men, paying a fortune to live in a caravan and...having to fish deadly snakes out of toilets!

This sequence of photos is doing the rounds in Australia, and supposedly harks from an unnamed workplace in the Pilbara region of Western Australia.

This fierce creature was found tucked up under the toilet, hovering just above the S-bend - thankfully before the photographer settled down on the seat.

Perhaps a redback spider would have been preferable after all!

And for the snake-phobic, there is really only one way to deal with such an inconvenience...but wouldn't have been easier going behind a bush?

No word on the snake's fate.

Tasmanian Devils on the lamb in WA

Three Tasmanian Devils have been enjoying the fruits of freedom in WA after escaping from Peel Zoo.

One of the devils has already been caught and returned to the Zoo.

The four-month-old male devils - Itchy, Scratchy and Genghis - escaped from Peel Zoo, on the outskirts of Pinjarra, south of Perth, after a tree smashed their enclosure on Tuesday.

Zoo owner David Cobbold said Scratchy was found at about 3am today but the other two hand-reared animals remained on the loose.

Mr Cobbold said two men chased Scratchy through the bush and trapped the animal against a fence before wrapping it in a towel.

They then secured it in their bathroom, but Scratchy clawed its way through part of the plasterboard wall.

Mr Cobbold thanked the men but said people should not try to handle the animals themselves.

"The capture proved devils aren't as dangerous as their reputation suggested,'' he said.

"The name is more about the noise than the behaviour.''

Mr Cobbold has urged members of the public who see the remaining two devils to call him on 0400 788 289.

A truckdriver reported seeing "little bears" crossing South West Highway near Pinjarra on Friday and paw prints were found around the town's golf course.

Monster pig no hoax - 2009 deja vu!

Doing the rounds since 2009, this powerful porker has captured the imaginations of many web surfers, however its sheer size has lead many people to label it a hoax.

In fact, the photograph is genuine.

At least that is what The Mercury newspaper in Tasmania is saying about this photo, rumoured to be of Pilbara pastoralist John Anick and his 'catch of the day' photograph snapped three years ago.

The 220kg beast was reportedly eating a cow when first seen by workers mustering cattle in a helicopter in Western Australia.

The paper said Mr Anick saw the beast again on a trip to check windmills on the property and shot it.

"I can vouch 100 per cent that it (the photo) was taken in the Pilbara and it is who I said it is," a source close to the Anick family said.

Back in 2009, WA authorities were clamouring to declare the photograph a hoax. Funnily enough, the Pilbara-Anick connection was also made in 2009 by an equally mysterious source - so we're not sure why it's news again this week. Perhaps it just takes a little bit longer for some stories to filter down south!

Anyway, if it's legit, then big cats and yowies aren't the only creatures to look out for in the Australian bush!

New species of albino spider found in WA

A new species of trapdoor spider has been found near Northam in Western Australia, identified as a member of the Idiopidae family.

Nicknamed the albino trapdoor spider, it was spotted by Grass Valley resident John Cornish on his back veranda in July.

The white-headed, black and brown-legged spider about the size of a 50-cent piece was captured in a jar and handed to the Northam office of the Department of Environment and Conservation.

Read more here.

Cat or dog? A WA conundrum...

What is it? Felis or canid?

Aussie Ira Fehlberg, who shot the footage above, writes:

"A coupla years ago I was driving down a remote bush track doing some fishing exploring. Now I do a bit of travelling all round WA & Aus and much of it in pretty remote areas, like everyone I've heard the stories of big cat sightings and its something that I've always taken an interest in, its always in the back of your mind anyway...

So here I am early one morning, just after sunrise, driving down this bush track in the middle of now where. We hit some pretty goods corrugations and I happened to ask the mate (who shall remain nameless to protect his gumbyness) I was travelling with if he would mind getting my video camera out and getting a few shots of the corrugations for the home video I usually make of my fishing trips.

He got the camera out, took a bit of video and I said to him just leave the camera on for a bit in case there are some more good ones. The track was sorta random, okay in some spots but rough as in others, anyway the track came into a hard packed sand section and there is my mate with the camera in his lap switched on and rolling. We cruised on for a bit, I was prolly sitting on about 40ish and then all of a sudden bang there it was!

The first time it came into our view it was actually in the air, a metre and a half off the ground in mid air, halfway through a leap! It hit the ground halfway across the road, took a bound and it was off into the bush quicker than you could say what the hell was that! It crossed the road directly in front of us maybe 20-30 metres away.

Now I'll be totally honest and say that it all happened so fast that all I really saw was a big tan animal bound across in front of me! I didn't see the head or the tail, there was enough time to sorta see the main body and that was it, it was gone.

We both looked at each other and said what the %$#@ was that?! I braked hard and stopped right where it went off the track and we could see it running through the scrub to our left, "get out & get it on cam I yelled at my mate" as I was braking. The scrub was pretty high and before we even stopped I knew that the best chance I had of a clean shot was from an elevated position so as we stopped my mate got out and shot some video which looks like someone having a fit falling off a building, basically he tried to zoom right in and this bit of the footage is so shaky you cant see anything.

So I've done the whole stop the car, jumped out and in one motion (yes I can still move when I wanna) I've jumped straight up onto the bonnet and onto the roof of the 4WD. My mate threw the camera up to me and I quickly zoomed out and managed to get a few seconds of it running off. I was hoping it would stop and turn around of course but it never did. The footage you see of it running off is from this elevated position.

My gut feel initially was big cat, probably more just hope than anything but it was the right size and colour and the way it ran looked like a big cat but we both agreed we couldn't be sure positive as it never stopped or turned around and neither of us saw the tail or head.

We easily found the spot where it jumped across the road and I got some good shots of the prints it left.

To have any idea what it was I knew I'd have to show the tape to someone who knew about such things and I have a mate who has done a lifetime of hunting all around WA and he really knows his stuff. I showed him the tapes and he and his shooting buddy basically came to this conclusion. They say it was most likely a wild dog mainly because of the tracks it left, cats don't run with their claws out apparently. Do they come out when they jump but? I don't know...

However they both did concede that they couldn't say wild dog 100% for sure and that there was a small amount of doubt from two things that were a bit unusual about it. They said in all their hunting days in WA (100 years experience) neither of them had ever seen a wild dog that colour and they had never seen a wild dog yet that was all one colour like that, they reckon normally they are blotched or mixed colours sort of thing. They are pretty sure from the tracks that it was a dog but. I'm not expert but I think they are probably right.

Still it was a cool experience and it made me realise that even with a camera turned on in the car it happens so fast you've got to be so lucky to get it on video, if it did happen and the camera was turned off you'd be virtually no chance of getting it."

So readers, what do you think? Cat or dog?

Fossil hoard uncovered in WA

A treasure trove of fossils up to a million years old has been found in three caves under the Nullarbor.

Palaeontologists returned last month from their fifth expedition to Last Tree Cave, Flightstar and Leaena's Breath, on the WA side of the Nullarbor Plain, where about 100,000 bones were collected during the past two field trips.

Flinders University palaeontologist Gavin Prideaux said the caves, discovered in 2002, were littered with fossils.

"There were a lot of complete skeletons of megafauna species just sort of lying on the cave floors," he said.

One of the most impressive finds was an almost complete skeleton of a Thylacoleo carnifex, or marsupial lion - a prehistoric animal that was the size of a leopard, built like a bear and able to stand up like a kangaroo. It had huge claws and the most powerful bite of any known mammal.

WA Museum documentary director Clay Bryce, who has been involved in the project since its inception, described the caves as a treasure trove of extraordinary fossil material.

"From one skeleton we suddenly went to 11 Thylacoleo skeletons, tree kangaroos, koalas, Thylacines, giant wombats, untold numbers of birds, giant kangaroos, Procoptodons, smaller species of kangaroo, horned wallabies, the list goes on and on," he said.

Dr Prideaux said the caves had acted as an animal trap, catching animals that fell through the entrance and birds that could not find their way out.

On the most recent expedition researchers rescued two live birds that had become disoriented in the caves.

Dr Prideaux said at least eight confirmed new species had been found in the caves and that was likely to rise to 15 to 20 new species as more bones were analysed.

The research was part-funded by National Geographic.

Clever dolphins teach each other to fish with shells

Murdoch University researchers believe a recently documented method of fishing may be spreading throughout a population of Western Australia's dolphins.

Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops aduncus) in Shark Bay were photographed engaging in ‘conching’ in 2007 and 2009.

The dolphins would trap small fish in large conch shells with their rostrums (beaks), then bring the shells to the surface and shake them, causing the water to drain out and the fish to fall into their mouths.

Murdoch Cetacean Research Unit Researcher Simon Allen says this previously rarely witnessed phenomenon might be on the increase, suggesting that the technique is spreading.

“In the last four months alone, the research team have seen and photographed the behaviour no less than six times, possibly even seven.

“If – and that is a big if – we are witnessing the horizontal spread of this behaviour, then I would assume that it spreads by an associate of a ‘conching’ dolphin closely observing the behaviour and then imitating it,” Mr Allen said.

“It is a tantalising possibility that this behaviour could spread before our very eyes – over a field season or two – and that we could track that spread.”

Aussie microfossils re-write the history books

Tubular microfossils found in 3.4-billion-year-old sandstone from WA.

Are these the oldest fossils on earth?

A team of Australian and British scientists think so - and date the blobby 'microfossils' at 3.4 million years old!

The findings of David Wacey, Matt Kilburn, Martin Saunders, John Cliff and Martin Brasier have been published in the latest issue of Nature Geoscience magazine:

"Sulphur isotope data from early Archaean rocks suggest that microbes with metabolisms based on sulphur existed almost 3.5 billion years ago, leading to suggestions that the earliest microbial ecosystems were sulphur-based. However, morphological evidence for these sulphur-metabolizing bacteria has been elusive. Here we report the presence of microstructures from the 3.4-billion-year-old Strelley Pool Formation in Western Australia that are associated with micrometre-sized pyrite crystals."

The honor of having found the most ancient microfossil has been long been held by J. W. Schopf, a paleobiologist at the University of California, Los Angeles. In 1993, Dr. Schopf reported his discovery of fossils 3.465 billion years old in the Apex chert of the Warrawoona Group in Western Australia, about 20 miles from where the new fossils have been found.

Prehistoric big bird discovered in Nullarbor cave

Fossilised remains of a prehistoric bird, possibly a wedge-tailed eagle, have been found in a cave on the Nullarbor Plain. The bird is more than 780,000 years old!

The discovery was made during a Flinders University-led expedition involving the WA Museum.

Flinders’ palaeontologist, Dr Gavin Prideaux said the almost complete skeleton was unearthed amid dozens of bird bones in a cave known as Leaena’s Breath Cave – about 70 kilometres on the WA side of the border with South Australia.

“We’ve only ever found one partial eagle fossil before so, given how complete this specimen is, it would be an exciting discovery,” Dr Prideaux said.

“We’ll need to get the specimen back to Flinders University to determine whether it is, indeed, an eagle and, if so, whether it is the same species as the modern wedge-tailed eagle or something new,” he said.

“It may be new given that it is at least 780,000 years old and probably much older. Surrounding these larger bones are literally hundreds of songbird bones, a situation mirrored through the rest of the deposit.

“This cave has been acting as a bird death trap for at least a million years, which is just one thing that makes this one of the most interesting and unique palaeontological sites in Australia.”

The discovery was made on only the second day of the field trip which is a collaboration between Flinders University and the Western Australian Museum.

Video and blogs of the expedition can be found at:

http://www.museum.wa.gov.au/cave/videos

http://www.flinders.edu.au/cave/

http://www.museum.wa.gov.au/cave/bloggers/gavin-prideaux

From the archives: Footprints of Dreamtime Dinosaur (1964)

New rare Australian parrot identified

Aussie scientists have identified a new, critically endangered parrot species in Western Australia after analysing DNA from 27 museum specimens - some as far back as 160 years old.

The discovery makes the Western Ground Parrot one of the world's rarest parrots, with just over 100 birds remaining in one known location in Cape Arid National Park on the state's south-west coast.

Australian Wildlife Conservancy ecologist Stephen Murphy led a DNA detective team spread across four states and territories.


"The discovery has major conservation implications," said Dr Murphy. "The Western Ground parrot has declined rapidly in the last 20 years, there are now only about 110 birds surviving in the wild and most of these are confined to a single national park. It is now one of the world's rarest birds."

WA Department of Environment and Conservation's Dr Allan Burbidge said: "A single wildfire through the national park or an influx of introduced predators, such as cats, could rapidly push the species to extinction. There is now an urgent need to prevent further population declines and to establish insurance populations into parts of the former range."

"Our findings demonstrate that museum collections, some going back more than 150 years, continue to be relevant and can provide critical information for understanding and conserving the world's biodiversity into the future," said team member Dr Jeremy Austin, Deputy Director of the Australian Centre for Ancient DNA at the University of Adelaide.

Director of CSIRO's Australian National Wildlife Collection, Dr Leo Joseph, said: "Even after 200 years of study, we are still recognising new species of birds in Australia. This finding highlights the need for further research on Australia's unique, and sometimes cryptic, biodiversity."

The team's findings have been published this month in the international conservation research journal Conservation Genetics.

To find out more about the parrot, visit Friends of the Western Ground Parrot Inc.

There's Tigers and Big Cats in WA

Thylacines and big cats still lurk in the South West forests, according to Alan Troode of Nannup.

He collects and collates stories of both big cat and “Nannup tiger” (thylacine) sightings, concentrating on reports from around Nannup .

Alan first became interested in the thylacine when reading newspaper articles published in the early 1980s.

He was intrigued by the thought that the South West forests might harbour such fabulous animals and his interest was reignited when he moved to Nannup in the late 1990s.

Work and family commitments allowed him limited time to pursue the stories but conversations with locals fortified his interest.

He quickly came to the conclusion that he was not only looking at stories and descriptions of the Thylacine but also large predatory cats, not wild feral domestic cats but an animal the size of the mountain lion, cougar or puma , Felis Concolor .

He reckons he has an unbiased point of view when taking down thylacine stories and he soon realised that anything that moved in the bush that was not easily identified was claimed to be the Nannup tiger.

Some incidents contributing to the Nannup tiger legend showed traits and characteristics that Alan can only describe as speculative. Still he came to the conclusion that both the thylacine and Felis Concolor — two distinct predatory animals — roam the South West.

Two distinct animals give rise to two distinct animal hunters, he said. Information about both animals has been diverse, controversial and stories have been at odds with each other at times.

There is very little information about the thylacine and some reported characteristics cloud the issue further.

Reports have the tiger ranging in colour from light yellow to fawn, light brown to dark biscuit and all black — and with or without stripes.

Vocalisations have been described as hissing, coughing, snarling, growling and snapping.

During mating the mysterious beast is said to have a blood-curdling scream.

Often caught in car headlights at night, the blue eyes are believed to be the black tiger and the amber eyes belonging to the yellow chocolate tiger, he said.

Habits such as scratching sticks and dirt over carcases, multiple kills and the size of some animals killed brings into question the weight to kill ratio.

On some occasions the animal is described as being rather inquisitive and in no hurry to move and other reports have the animal taking flight and gone in a flash.

All this conflicting information has led Alan to believe that both the thylacine and Felis Concolor are still at large in the South West.

“I am only starting to scratch the tip of the iceberg so to speak and have a lot of further work to do on correlating both types of sightings,” he said.

“There are sightings of both animals in many areas claiming both tiger and cat occurrences.

“It is my hope to be able to engage believers of both animals in a more comprehensive look at the predatory animals that roam the forests with an open unbiased approach — to give validity and authenticity, to clear up some of the speculation and misinformation.”

Alan believes this can only help to strengthen belief in the presence of both the big cat and the Nannup tiger.

http://www.donnybrookmail.com.au/news/local/news/general/true-believer-records-sightings/1961152.aspx