Tropical Winter Wildlife

Winter in the tropics, it can't be beaten - it really can't. The nights cool, the sun shines with a little less ferocity and the lawns don't need to be beaten into submission as often. The best bit though, is that winter or not, the critters are still around - perhaps not quite as numerous or as active, but they're still present.

Here are some snapped in the yard and the wider area:

Brown Tree Snake

Graceful Tree Frog

Orchid Swallowtail instar

Abandoned bag-moth cocoon

Mantis laying her eggs

Massive rain-forest snail (size of a small apple)

Crab in a Pandanus plant

Rain

Portuguese man o' war (Physalia physalis)

Known as a 'Blue-bottle' here in Oz

We came across literally dozens of these Physalia the other weekend while exploring a local beach. They were marooned following a storm. Rumour has it that there's a great Aussie tradition of stomping on these animals to hear them pop, (yeh, I know). However, the nematocysts (stingers) can remain active for some time after the poor 'jelly' has expired, resulting in some painful - and if you ask me, well deserved acts of retribution by the Blue-bottle.

And now for something completely different.

Chickens. Yep, you read that right - chickens.

And yes, I realise this requires an explanation - and no, this blog isn't going to degenerate into some hobby-farm type of deal complete with pictures of obscenely large vegetables and detailed musings on the benefits of seaweed fertiliser. I promise.

That said, chickens are quite interesting and a hell of a lot of fun to observe ... These guys belong to our neighbours and last night, while Jo and I were over at theirs having some lite refreshments, I snapped some pics.

Personality plus

Rockin' the 'do

A foppish kinda fella

Professor Darren Griffin and a team at the University’s School of Biosciences have conducted research that suggests that chromosomes of the chicken and turkey lineage have undergone the fewest number of changes compared to their ancient avian ancestor, thought to be a feathered dinosaur.

What they're saying is that chickens and turkeys are more closely related to dinosaurs than any other bird ... although, I do wonder where the Cassowary fits in to this? ...

Anyway, there's a wealth of info on the humble old chook should you choose to have a shoofty on the interwebnet.

Take care

Domestication of the chicken dates back to at least 2000 B.C. The domestic chickens' ancestry can be traced back to four species of wild jungle fowl from Southeast Asia. However, the Red jungle fowl (Gallus gallus or Gallus bankiva) is the most commonly found wild species in the world today and is considered the main ancestor of the domestic chicken.

The chicken belongs to the genus Gallus of the family Phasianidae. Domestic chickens are simply classified as Gallus domesticus.