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Australia

Australia, an island continent, cast adrift during the time of the dinosaurs. Isolated from the rest of life on island for millions of years, the animals castaway here are today like none elsewhere. This is a land of survivors. AUSTRALIA.

The jungles of northern Australia—the oldest of our planet. Unchanged for 180 million years. The animals and plants here are armed, built to live alongside dinosaurs. Now there is just one giant left!

With claws longer than a velociraptor and nearly two metres tall, the cassowary rules this forest. But the key to its success is not its stature, it’s the male’s abilities as a parent. This one’s chicks are six weeks old and he will raise theme by himself. Every morsel of food is valuable if his chicks are to grow up tall and strong. But in this forest, most of the fruit is too big for the chicks. It must be cut up for them. There is food to be gathered throughout their territory, but it’s not easy to find. He shows them how to cross the water. But when your legs are only ten centimetres long, a stream like this is very deep! One take the plunge, but the other, this is too daunting. He returns and goes back to the way he came. Out of sight and without his father’s protection, he’s vulnerable. Only half of cassowary chicks make it to adulthood, and for very good reason. Australia’s prehistoric forests are still full of predators. Many manage to survive here by eating almost anything that is smaller than they are. He needs to find his father, and quickly. The male hears his cries and answers using a special call that carries well through the thick forest. And then, a glimpse of some reassuring, bright colours. Their bonds are stronger than their fears. The male will guide and protect his chicks for another 8 months before mate again.

Australia was once part of the vast super continent of Gondwanaland, covered in forest and full of life. Dinosaurs dominated, animals had only just appeared. Then Australia began to break away, cast adrift on this new island. Were reptiles, birds and early mammals that then evolved in isolation from the rest of the world. None could now leave this giant island and very few could get here unless they could fly. A little red flying fox（小红狐蝠）. Their ancestors flew here, travelling along the chain of volcanic islands. That links Asia to Australia. But their huge wings, which stretch from their fingers to toes, make it difficult for them to walk or take off from the ground. So when they want to rest, they hang upside down in trees. But the bats have to drink every day, and they do so on the wing. They swoop just low enough to wet their bellies. And then, back in their roosts, they will suck out the water. Each evening ten thousand of them come here. Not all of them return.

Every two metres of river there is a crocodile. They were here long before the bats. Survivors from Australia’s prehistoric past. These dramas have been taking place for millions of years. Aerial agility versus patience and deadly speed.

Australia’s forests are hostile places in which to make your home. As you move inland the forest thins, the air cools and the land as it gets higher, changes dramatically. The Great Dividing Range, 2000 metres above the jungle. To survive here, you must be able to tolerate really harsh conditions.

Kangaroos-like nearly all of the continent’s native mammals, are marsupials. Mammals that rear their young usually in a pouch on the mother’s belly. And the young up here certainly need such shelter. No kangaroo can survive for long, higher than this. But there is an even tougher marsupial up here. A wombat. She usually shelters underground in a burrow, but now that is under a metre of snow together with all the grass on which she lives. She weights as much as a big dog and has the legs of a small one, not ideal for deep snow! Fragments of bark hardly count even as a snack and she’s hungry. She needs grass. But it’s several kilometers away, across a frozen river. Wombats might not be fast but then they don’t need to be up here, they can survive on next to nothing. A few mouthfuls will be enough food for over a week. And there’s not much competition for it in this small corner of the continent.

Snowy peaks are hardly typical of Australia, but the Great Dividing Range is a remnant of what were once some of the longest mountain chains on earth. They connected Australia and Antarctica. But then these sister continent broke apart. Antarctica, drifting southwards became lock in ice. Australia drifted northwards the equator and became hotter and drier. Woodlands developed and replaces where rainfall was low-open grasslands. On these grassy plains, animals had the space to thrive. These are also Eastern Gery Kangaroos and this is their true home. Here they are well fed and powerful. Adults can stand over two metres tall and travel as fast as a race horse. And on these open plains, you need speed. Because where there are large herds, there will be predators. Dingoes-descendants of wolves that were brought here over 4000 years ago by human visitor from Asia. This pack is led by a white female and they are hunting. Creating panic tests the herd. Mothers with young in their pouches might be slower, but they can still outrun a dingo. Maybe an ambush will work? But even young, newly-independent kangaroos seem uncatchable. Across these open, flat plains the dingoes are just not fast enough. But what makes the white female be their leader is her stamina and particularly her intelligence. She has run 30 kilometres today but still she doesn’t give up. A different group of kangaroos, this time on uneven ground. It’s what’s she’s been looking for. Driving them uphill she’s struggling to keep up with them. And as they hurtle down the other side, the kangaroos pick up the speed. They will easily outpace her if they stay in control. The white dingo has more than one reason to be so relentless. She is a mother. This is a rare slight. Dingo pups are hardly ever seen. With so much effort for just one meal, the open plains are tough places on which to raise young.

These are gum tress. They have leaves that are poisonous to most animals. But not the koala. They eat almost nothing else. There are echidnas in these forests too-mammals that don’t even have pouches but lay eggs like reptiles.

And there is an assassin here that has only recently been discovered. A Jotus jumping spider. She’s only 5 millimetres long but nonetheless, she’s a stealthy and ferocious hunter. She searches for prey among the grass stems. She is single-minded and focus on hunting. But today might be different. This is something new, something fast. And a little trickier. But what is it, is it food? It’s male Jotus, looking for a mate. He needs to catch her attention. But female Jotus only mate once. Is she mated before, she might kill him. He will need to seduce her with care. Waving his arms make his intentions clear. He’s a friend, not food. No sign of an attack yet. But she doesn’t seem particularly impressed. Time to try his best move-the double paddle. That surely will do the trick. One final wave and he’s tamed her. She stays still for just long enough. And then he retreats quickly before she has second thoughts!

If you travel still further towards the centre of Australia, the landscape changes yet again. Trees and grass disappear. The continent, throughout prehistory, continued to drift north and as it entered the tropics, it got hotter and hotter. Over thousands of years, the grasslands of the centre dried, and lakes and rivers turned to dust. The rocks have been reduced to sand by the hot blasting winds. Now Australia’s center is one vast desert. It’s immensity is almost impossible to comprehend. This train running north, is a kilometre long, travelling at 80 kilometres an hour, it takes almost 3 days to get from one side to another.

Australia today is the driest inhabited continent on earth. Rain hardly ever fall in 70% of it. From space, the continent is seen to be stained red by iron oxide, rust from its disintegrating rocks. In the surface are lines carved by winds over millennia. The very bones of the continent are now stripped bare. The foundation of what once were mountains. As its heart, stands the great rock mountain of Uluru. Scared to the first people to arrive here, sixty thousand years ago. There is almost no soil here, few plants, few animals and almost no permanent water. It’s a place where only the toughest can survive.

This is a land of reptiles. Australia has more species of them than any other continent. The perentie, two metres long, is the biggest here, and he is thirsty. It only rains here once or twice a year. And then there is’t any rain, perenties get their water from eating lizards. There are several kinds to choose from. Bearded dargons, blue-tongued skinks and thorny devils. All are on the menu. The thorny devil also gets its water from its food. It’s only the size of a mouse, but even so, it must eat hundreds of ants every day to get what is needs. Most storm clouds pass by without releasing any water. But sometimes, there’s a brief shower. Everyone makes the most of the opportunity. It’s so hot, the drops will disappear within minutes. But the thorny devil has a trick. He’s found a tiny puddle, only a few millimetres deep and he dips his toe into it. His skin is like blotting paper. It collects moisture by capillary action, sucking it up along inter-connecting grooves until he glistens all over. When the water reaches his mouth, he can collect it while still keeping his head up, on the look-out for danger. The perentie is two hundred times the size of a thorny devil. Tiny puddles and droplets are of no use to him. What he needs is a juice lizard！That was a bearded dragon that wasn’t quite quick enough. Even the perentie sometimes gets a chance to quench his thirst.

There is one species that has truly conquered the Australia desert. They don’t wait for the water to come to them. They sometime travel 500 kilometres in a single day to find it. Australia’s hardiest animal, the wild budgerigar. They most accomplished of all desert nomads. These are travelling together for weeks. And that has evidently caused a few domestic arguments. This is truly an immense community. There are over 10 thousand budgies in this flock. Every one of them is thirsty. But although they have found this billabong, they must be wary. A hawk and one that eats budgies. As long as it remains on the ground, the budgies will risk taking a drink. Once it takes to the air however, the budgies are in danger. And it’s not the only bird of prey here. The budgies have a simple but very effective defence. They all take to the wing at once. The aerial hunter needs to lock-on to a single target for a few seconds if it is to catch it. But in this swirl, that is very hard to do. Flying in a flock keeps the budgies safe, but they are still desperate to drink. As soon as a particularly brave one takes the plunge, they all do. But once on the water, they are easier to target. They must drink quickly and stick together. The last ones to leave will be the ones in most danger. Only one has been taken from a flock of 10,000. In a few days, they will leave the area on their never-ending search for the next brief opportunity to feed and drink.

As the continent continued to drift north, it eventually entered warm tropical seas. And here, in the crystal-clear sunlit water, just a metre or two beneath the surface, life proliferated. Coral grows into reefs in these shallow seas. This is Ningaloo. Today one of the richest anywhere in the world. Thousands of species of fish and all kinds of other organisms thrive in these coral cities. And they had attracted the most ancient of living predators. Sharks. They were around 200 million years before the dinosaurs. They are fast and agile, well able to pick off the small reef fish. But they come here for bigger rewards. These are the fish from the open ocean and every so often, for some reason, they swim over the reef. The small fish swirl like the budgies and for the same reason, it makes it harder for a hunter to single out a particular target. But in fact, the shark aren’t trying to catch them individually. They’re driving them to the closer to the shore, penning them against the beach. Slowly the sharks drive each new wave of fish into shallow water and the bait-ball grows. More sharks arrive, some from many miles away. And still the sharks don’t attack. They’re waiting for the right moment. Millions of fish are now trapped in these shallow waters. It only happens like this once in every decade or so. The time has come to strike! For the sharks, this is a bonanza. They work together, each shark now fills its stomach. These shallow seas are exceptionally rich in sharks. There are more species here than anywhere else on earth.

Australia is not only fringed by rich reefs, but girdled with islands-some big, some small. Off the south coast lies by far the biggest of them, Tasmania. And that has its own special marsupial. One that seldom appears until after dark. The Tasmanian Devil（袋獾）. Many predators inhabit a territory packed with prey. But here, there is nothing like that for them. Each may travel miles, night after night, prepared to eat anything it can find, dead or alive. The shoreline is a good place to search. It might be some small creatures to catch here, or maybe something that the tide has brought in. A carcass of a wallaby has been washed ashore. Tasmanian Devils can eat 40% of their body weight in one session, and they have huge powerful jaws. They tackle everything-even bones. Back the den, there are other hungry mouths. Her two youngsters are 6 months old. They still rely on their mother’s milk, but they’re feeling peckish! There must be something solid they can find for themselves while they’re waiting for a drink. Is this food? That possum smells tasty, but it is a little high up. This looks more promising. At last! A giant stick! Not bad for a first go. Their mother will protect and feed these youngsters for another 3 months. Their survival is important to her but also for us. Because these are one of the last Devil families in the world. Tasmanian Devils are now endangered, found in only a few places, such as this remote islet off the coast of Tasmania. But they once lived across the whole of Australia. Evidence that this was so, can be seen four thousands kilometres away from the Devil’s family den, on Australia’s northern coast.

This great stretch of boulders is covered by the largest concentration of prehistoric images anywhere in the world. Over one million pictures of wildlife. And among them, a Tasmanian Devil. It was engraved on stone, 60 thousand years ago, by some of the first human beings to reach to reach the continent. Then, just two hundred years ago, European settlers arrived with guns and dogs, foxes and cats. Together they decimated Australia’s unique wildlife. This was one of the continent’s biggest animal predators. A marsupial wolf or thylacine. The last-known remaining one was filmed in 1936-in a zoo just before it died. And so brought final extinction of its species. These rocks are now its memorial. And they may become that for the Tasmanian Devil as well. Mammals in Australia are disappearing faster than anywhere else on earth. They succeeded in adapting to life as their home changed around them. But now they face their greatest challenge-the change to their world brought by humanity, which of its unique species will survive the coming decades-now depends on us.

Dec 2, 2019

Version 1

By. MZL

Email：muzl0531@163.com