9 Outstanding Facts About Aussie Animals

like everything else about kangaroos is perfect. I mean, it's one of those weird things like crocodiles can't chew. They can bite and swallow big chunks, but they can't actually chew their food. And kangaroos are kind of similar, like their tails aid their balance and their mobility, but it prevents them from moving backwards. But Australia has embraced it in that like they're constantly moving forwards and this symbolizes progress.

It's a good way to look at it. They could have picked the shark though, right anyway, That's just one of nine facts we've got for you today. About Australia's animals, So let's dig in a their podcast. Listeners, welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm Will Pearson and as always I'm joined by my good friend Man Guesho Ticketer and sitting behind the soundproof glass, he just taped a crocodile Dundee poster to actually whoa crocodile Dundee two as well? Taped

to the wall. That's our friend and producer Tristan McNeil's a busy guy. So you know what's funny is I looked up crocodile dundee because I thought would be fun to slip in as an animal fact. And uh, and Roger Ebert hated those movies. I thought he didn't like the sequels, like he called the last one less fun to wash than attacks on it. But I actually pulled a quote of his review for the first movie, which he barely gave two stars. And here's how it ends.

The ending of the movie involves a love scene on a subway platform. If these were two lovers, we really cared about. The scene as written could have had the impact of that moment in an Officer and a Gentleman as it's acted in this movie. Last the scene is so unconvincing that the lovers are upstaged by the other people on the train platform. Alright, well, Mango, before we keep going with facts, we've actually got Gabe on the line. Hey Gabe, Hey, guys, how's it going. So I'm curious

from both you guys. Have either of you been to Australia? Mango, have you been to Australia And I haven't been there? Gabe, you no, I've never made it. Well, I'm glad that's the three of us are are going to be talking about animals from Australia, none of us having been there. But but we've done our homework. So all right, well, Gay, why don't we throw the mic to you and lets you share your first fact? Yeah? Absolutely so, since you started with Kangaroo's, I'm gonna go with the fact about

their diminutive cousins, the Wallaby. So in two thousand nine, farmers in Tasmania started noticing these strange crop circles popping up and they were wondering, you know what was trampling down their crops into these really unusual patterns, And it didn't seem to be the work of aliens. It wasn't you know, it wasn't that precise as aliens are with their crops circle right, But when they looked a little closer, the farmers discovered it was actually the work of wallabies,

and not just any wallabies specifically. It was wallabies who had been getting high on opie. They were eating these wild poppies and then just going crazy, jumping in big circles in the fields all night long. Yeah, it wasn't just the wallabies though either. They were also local sheep who were also getting high and going on these strange walkabouts through the crops, and the wallabies were the primary offender. That's pretty good. I've never heard about that, all right,

why don't we keep them our supial talk going. I've actually got a kangaroo fact as well, and I've never heard this before, but this is from our pal Eves. She's been on the program before and she told me that she said that during the gold Rush, people started importing all sorts of animals as food, you know, partially because there wasn't enough local food for the people hunting

for gold. So there were things like tortoises, cod turkeys, but a few kangaroos were also imported, and the funny thing is that people didn't want them for food though. Instead they were imported live and kept around for entertainment. They were kangaroo petting exhibits. They were sold for quick cash as pets. I can't imagine having a kangaroo as a pet. And there's even an ad from a saloon at the time that offered, quote peach and honey, brandy

by day and night a genuine live kangaroo. That's pretty funny, and I kind of love the discriminating clientele who looked for a place and think, oh, it's got a pool in a great view, but no kangaroo. I can't say that. No, not not acceptable. All right, mango, what's your next fact? Well, I mean, if we're talking strange Australian animals, you know, I'm going to talk about my favorite insect of all time, the Lord Howse stick insect. Of course, what is that?

I mean, it's a funny looking critter with the best nicknames on Earth. It's also known as the tree lobster and the walking sausage, which gives you a sense of you know, how awkward it looks. But the story is kind of amazing because it's also known as a Lazarus species. So those are the ones that everyone thinks are extinct but then then came back from the dead, right yeah,

and they're too great. Taxonomy is the Lazarus species, which is animals that everyone thinks are dead and come back, and the elvis taxon, which is animals that are dead. But then you see an animal impersonator in the wild, one that looks like the original. But that is not that actually a real thing is I thought that was a big set up to this joke. But back to the stick insect. So it was supposedly made extinct by

an invasive rat population. But then in two thousand one, on this pretty harsh island with really strong winds, scientists found about twenty four of these tree lobsters in the wild. They were like under a rock or something, and they've slowly been bringing them back. But the cutest thing about this totally disgusting species is how they sleep. The males actually cuddle up with the females when they sleep, spooning

them with their six legs curled around them. But scientists are quick to point out that this might be an evolutionary measure and not the mark of of I mean, I find that a little cinical. There's such a romantic mega. Alright, well, gab, what do you got next? Alright, so you probably know Australia has a reputation for a lot of dangerous animals. You know, there are sharks and sidewinders and poisonous spiders and even the cuddly little platypus is dangerous. You know,

they have these venomous spurs on the bottom webb. But here's a super weird fact I didn't know before this. More Australians have been killed by horses in recent years than all of the country's venomous animals combine. I don't think that I'm not buying that gay. We're gonna have

to fact check this well. According to a recent study, UH, from the year two thousand to seventy four people were killed by horse trampling or being tossed by horses, while only twenty seven were killed by snakes, bees or spiders you know, during that same period. And of course the hospitalizations from animal bites was was far greater. You know, are like thirty five thousand people hospitalized for bites and

stings in Australia. But because there's so much anti venom available, and also because a lot of those were just you know, allergic reactions. Deaths from snakes and spiders isn't that big a thing. In fact, there was a death from a red back spider in and it was the first spider bite death in Australia since nineteen seventy nine. So I was looking this up all Gabe was sharing this fact because honestly, I just didn't believe it. You know, sometimes

he makes stuff up. We don't ever let that on on the actual show, but this is I mean that that's pretty impressive. Gave good job on that one. Alright. Well, since Mango was talking about the Lazarus species, I've got one from my own to discuss, and that's the Tasmanian tiger, which also might be back from the dead now. The Tassi tiger is the largest carnivorous marsupial and it looks like a big striped dog, but it has a kangaroo's

tail and this small pouch. It also is one of the only two marsupials were both the male and the female members have pouches, and I didn't know this existed among any of them, but I guess the other is a water possum. Anyway, that the tiger has been extinct since nineteen thirty six, but there have been some recent sightings reported. Sometimes the creatures are confused for dingoes or wild pigs, but the reports have had similar descriptions and

they've actually come from two different people in the same location. Now, one of the key things that's convinced some skeptics that the species might still be alive is that the Tasmanian tiger's eyes shine differently from a wild pig or a dingo, so they actually reflect light back in a very different way. And it's generated enough excitement that a number of scientists are now camped out in this secret part of Australia with hundreds of cameras all trying to locate this tiger.

That's really exciting. I hope they find it. Anyway, We've got a few more facts for you guys, so stay tuned and we'll be right back after this break. Welcome back to Part Time Genius where we're talking about Australian animals. And then go, am I misremembering this? Was there some

story about your sister and Australian ants? Yeah, good memory, So My sister actually studied in Queensland and college and as a kid she was kind of squeamish about insects and arachnet so I was talking to her about it when she came back, and she was saying that you just find these crazy bugs in your room every day in the dorms, but you kind of got used to taking a magazine or whatever. I'm flicking them outside. But the weirdest thing she told me was the story about ants.

And there's a type of ant there that tastes like lemon lime, so people actually crunch up the ants and eat it for that flavor, or use it in lemonade, like you can crush them and add water and get your protein in as well. Well. I asked her, you know, knowing she was vegetarian, like, did you actually tried these ants? And she said, you know, I refused to eat them,

but I did lick their bum. This reminds me of when you briefly went from being vegetarian and the first thing ate was ribs in the state of Alabama pretty much just licked at them. This must run in the family. You don't want to eat the meat, but you just, oh, gosh, let's just move on from that. But so, how did they taste to her really like lemon lime? I'm not sure that counts, is your fact. But but do you want to do you want to kick us off with one last one mango? Yeah? So I've actually been a

little obsessed with camels this year. I've been reading about this camel scandal in this camel beauty pageant in Saudi Arabia where a number of the camels had been given botox, and how Joe Camel came from France. But well, one of the things I only recently realized is that Australia

has the largest feral camel population in the world. And apparently they were brought over as be suburden to help transport things, but then once they were that useful anymore, they were let loose into the wild and they just went crazy. Like they're awful because they're so hardy and they can walk like forty miles in a day, and there aren't any real natural predators out in the outback.

So I'm gonna say they're like seven thousand or eight hundred thousands of these beasts just wandering around, drinking up all the water from wells and causing camel coos. I have to be honest, if you had told me name twenty animals in Australia, I wouldn't have thought tonight, camel. That's not where I would have assumed they were from. So is there anything that can be done about them? Yeah? So like Australia is still trying to figure it out.

I read one account of a guy who's been rounding them up for meat, which is apparently pretty good, but also to try to sell the camels for camel races and also beauty pageants, Like people will come to Australia to like scout aussee camels for their thin necks. Apparently, like I don't know what makes a pretty camel, but apparently that's part of it. Wow, all right, well that that is very interesting. Okay, Well my fact is about the wombat, and there are lots of cool things about wombats.

You know, their pouches face the wrong way for some reason, so you know, instead of looking forward, a baby wombat will face out back as the mom wombat is scurry. Also their superpower, it's their big butt. It's full of cartilage and totally resistant to snake bites and dingo bites it's kind of like a shield for them, so when they jump into a burrow and their butt sticks out,

it's totally safe from predators. But my favorite thing about the wombat is that you can tell if you have a wombat infestation by looking at their scat, So their poop comes out in perfect little cubes. So funny and so nerdy and so gross. I also love the names of wombats, like all the different species, just they're all really cute sounding. So there's the Southern hairy nose wombat and of course the Northern hairy nosed wombat. There's also

the common wombat. Yeah, that one kind of got screwed, you know, get the Southern hairy nose and the northern hair. I'm curious to see the difference between the northern hairy nose and the Southern hairy nose. Alright, Gabe, so I think it's time for you have one last fact, right, yeah, yeah, My last fact is is about black swans. And this

is pretty great. So for centuries, Europeans for some reason, like to ponder the existence of black swans, and some by the sixteenth century, the idea of a black swan became an idiom for an impossible thing, something that couldn't exist. But that had all changed in the late sixteen hundreds when Dutch explorers actually found black swans in western Australia,

which you know, just completely killed the idiom. But it gets more interesting from there because about a century later, Napoleon sent an expedition to Australia and in addition to bringing back, you know, various animals and plant species, he asked for a special collection of animals to be brought back for his sweetheart Josephine. So thirty five live animals were shipped back in all, and this was parrots, EMUs, kangaroos, and two black swans. So sadly, the animals started, you know,

dying on the longboat ride at home. They got so bad that the captain actually kicked his crew out of their cabin so that the kangaroos could be more comfortable. But you know, he was worried that they'd get back and none of the animals would have survived the trip. But really, honestly the problem was they didn't have the

right food. In desperation, they gave animals wine soaked bread, which, as you might guess, not a great idea, but two animals that definitely survived and made it back were the black swans, and Josephine became the very first person to breed black swans in captivity. That's another good fact. I don't know about you, man Go, but I feel like Gabe coming up with that whole murdering horses and us

not believing it. The names for wombats like species of womb he was, he was on his game and it's early in the morning out there in l A right now. So Gabe, I'm impressed. So I think we're gonna give you this week's Fact Off Trophy. I'm honored. Thank you guys. Well, thank you guys for listening. We would love to hear from you. We We've been hearing lots of ideas from listeners on future nine Things episodes, so feel free to send those two part time genius at how stuff works

dot com. You can also call us on our seven fact hot line. That's one eight four four pt genius. That is still seven fact. Okay, Yeah, we thought about cutting call going seven, but we're going to stick with it. So so anyway, thank you guys for listening. We'll be back with a full length episode tomorrow.