Wilderness, Wildlife and We in the Playground

[Amiel]

Agamid's picture of her frog has reminded me of how much I like them; I really wanted to get a frog when I was little, and still do. Indeed, I wanted to enter society as a field zoologist, earning my bread by studying and communing with nature. Alas such bright dreams, they were spoken in the same breath as "garbage collector," in my defense I was eight.

To this day, I really like nature and its wonders. We are lucky enough to have an abundance of bushland that is more or less pristine; what is somewhat saddening about our parks and parklands is that they have been "marred" by artificial gravel roads, playground equipment and introduced flora species. However, it is also heartening to know that there are efforts to revegetate these parks and parklands, to ensure that future generations will enjoy as near an analogue to what the bush was previously.

Yet still, there is also wildlife there, of abundance and stealth that flourish and persist, and have come to live with us side-by-side; you get to regularly see and hear possums (the screeching!), native parrots, native other birds, and all sorts of animals. In my uni, I have seen foxes, rabbits, monitor lizards, kangaroos, long-necked turtles, fish, native ducks, native swans, lots of other birds.
I really like wildlife, I really like our wildlife. I used to watch and still watch nature documentaries with an avid attention that is lost upon my studies. One is infinitely more interesting and exciting than the other.

In conclusion; wilderness and wildlife=win. What are your thoughts, playground?
Discussion go! :smallsmile:

Holy batman, that was a wall of text.

[Serpentine]

I agree, and would like to go bushwalking more often than I do.
I had a long-term idea of getting into herpetology. Turns out I'm better at Arts than Science, though.

Will no doubt add more as the thread progresses.

[Anasazi]

For most of the USA, its a great deal different. We rarely live in commune with our nature here, instead we tend to drive it out of 'our land'. The US has a bad history of doing that... Personally I hate it, the majority of states that live one with their area are the desert states, and thats mainly because they just cant get rid of all the wildlife, as most of them are burrowing creatures. Here in Colorado everyone freaks out when we have a bear wander into town, my own work tends to get all jumpy when we have a coyote wonder into our parking lot.
Personally none of the creatures bother me, I'm originally from Iowa, the heartland of the US, we tend to find a better balance with our surroundings back there.
I often find myself as a contradiction though, I'm extremely well learned when it comes to technology, but would drop just about anything to go camping once in awhile... thats another thing thats off.. our 'campgrounds' have gotten to the point where they're just not enjoyable to me, too much society, too built around appleasing the city folk who think they're ruffing it in their RV's and Colemen cooking sets.
For me and nature, less is more. less in this case is less human element, and more being more enjoyment. I'm content with sleeping in the sticks and mud, relaxing under the stars, and building a fire that my eyes will never forget.

[Serpentine]

There's a good range in Australia: cushy caravan park-type camping grounds, through places with a drop-dunny and nothing else, right down to... Well, my friends went on a several-day camping trip out in the middle of the bush, with an out-of-date map, from a different starting-point than they were meant to.
Sleeping in mud seems unwise, if you can avoid it...

I've been seeing a possum a lot lately, late at night next to the uni's kangaroo/deer park. Pretty adorable. There's often a koala around there, too.

[The Vorpal Tribble]

I love the outdoors and wildlife and photograph it regularly. Zoology will likely be my major if ever I can find the time for college.

However, dunno about your American animals, but here in my neck of the southeast predators get shot at cuz they kind of killed things. Skunks, opossums, raccoons, giant forest rats, fox and coyote have kill many of my pets. I know because I've had to run out with a stick or a gun to make them let go. The coyotes also have attacked my 'neighbors' (i.e. those within 5 miles of me) unprovoked.

Now deer, birds, hares, or anything that doesn't kill my kitties, peafowl or bunnies are free to trespass all they like.

I go into their territory, that's my lookout. They come onto mine and try to kill the critters I protect... that's theirs.

Australia may have more poisonous/venomous stuff, but here everything is a carnivore/omnivore. Even white tail deer aren't fully plant eaters.

[Agamid]

nothing makes me happier than being in the wilderness, surrounded by native wildlife. especially reptile and amphibians.

i'm lucky enough at the moment to live quite a way out of town and in a house full of animal-loving buddhists, so there's a lot of wildlife around, including a family of echidnas and plenty of frogs and birds.
And i recently discovered the courtyard in the middle of the biology building at uni has a pond that's brimming with tame turtles and not so tame water dragons. can see myself wasting away my study periods there now.

[Rappy]

I have the habit of attracting wildlife of various sorts. For instance, just earlier this month, I had an opossum decide that my porch was an appealing prospect. I managed to convince him to leave before my grandmother's laborador retriever gave him a less warm welcome, thankfully.

Less pleasant was a typically Southerner response to an Eastern coachwhip I found in the yard. It had just shed its skin, and...well, it decided to crawl from my yard into the neighbors', and its life was cut all too short on the virtue of being a snake.

[THAC0]

I carry my camera everywhere because I can regularly get great shots (http://focusconfuoco.blogspot.com/)of moose, eagles, Dall sheep, and other nifty things.

Yesterday about a dozen Tundra swans buzzed my head.

[waterpenguin43]

I approve of the challenge Vancouver has taken on; Be the greenest city on the planet.

[Pyrian]

Skunks ... have kill many of my pets.What kind of pet did you keep that a skunk preyed on it? :smallconfused:

[wxdruid]

We live in base housing and there is a huge ditch behind our house. The second year we lived here, catlover found tons of tadpoles swimming in the ditch during May. Of course, she brought them home to show me and that started a chain of events. Now we have a plastic bin outside that every spring I fill with ditch water. catlover catches the tadpoles and we keep them safe until they turn into little tiny frogs. When they start hopping around we release them back into the ditch for another generation of frogs. So far, we've done this for two years and I expect we'll have another round of tadpoles again this year. The frogs are very cute and easily sit on the tip of my finger. We have an older frog that lives around our house and he's about the size of my fist. I believe they are Southern Chorus Frogs.

[Morty]

I'm lucky to leave near a National Park, so while I'm not that much of a fan of wilderness, I can go and see it relatively easily. My father is especially keen on observing and photographing birds. Also, I live on the outskirts of a small town, so there're animals around my house too; I can see pheasants, hares, does and even foxes at times. One time, a hedgehog wandered into our garden. Sadly, nowadays it's just on weekends; I'm studying in another town where I stay near the centre so the only "wildlife" I encounter are pigeons.

[The Vorpal Tribble]

What kind of pet did you keep that a skunk preyed on it? :smallconfused:
Chickens, ducks, guineafowl and pigeons. Would hear them screaming and go out to see it have them by the throat and dragging them along.