Of Snakes and Marsupials

Which [Rainbow Colours] are you?

Hmmm. Sounds a little bit like me doesn't it? :P

Welp, who's afraid of snakes? Not me definitely! In fact i'm more afraid of cute possums than tiger snakes.

Knowing how illterate we all are about Australian native wildlife, i thought y'all might like to know how these animals look like. This is a Brushtail Possum and this is a tiger snake.

I went for this marsupial trapping course at the Harry Waring Marsupial Reserve last night and it was so exciting! Trapped a couple of bandicoots (go look up the picture yourself!) and possums, and had a go at drawing blood from their tail veins and examining these little furries. Marsupials are basically animals with pouch, and i got to look into their pouches and had a play with they teats (hah, obscene right?). Didn't see any pouch youngs though, as breeding season is round about April. It was a really great experience all in all, can't believe what a whale of time i'm having in my final year. Heh.

I finally got to handle a venomous snake!! My first first first virgin experience with a venomous snake *hiiissssssss*. The tiger snake is ranked the world's 4th most deadly snake! SCARY, right? Didn't have much time with it except learnt how to pick it up with a jigger. Briefly picked it up by its tail and returned it to its container too. Dr. Spencer asked me if it was an adrenaline rush for me (cos he was sweating so much just watching me!) but i told him HELL NO! I was more scared handling the possums which were rather rodent-like and would have a go at you if it had a chance to. I preferred handling the snakes rather than those small furries though, although they're really quite cute. Dr. Spencer said i was morbid because the possum will only take a bite and let go, whereas the tiger snake will bite and not let go until it has injected whatever venom it wants to. HAHAHA! I loved every minute with the snake.

We went spot lighting for hunting spiders as well. It's so cool the way you do it, just hold a light source below your nose and you'd see this blue luminous glow which was supposedly the spider's eyes (erm, i think). It was really fun cos the only spot lighting i've ever done was when we went for the fox hunt at the Parker's farm (but that's another story).

I'm having a ball man!!! What about you?