Locals share news of rare sighting

WHEN Alison G and her friend were walking west along one of the Reserve’s tracks yesterday, you can imagine their surprise when they came across a bundle of spikes that turned out to be an echidna.

The Dawn Road Reserve is teeming with wildlife, but these shy creatures are rarely seen, certainly not around suburban areas.

I’m in my late 40s and I’ve only seen one live echidna not in captivity ... on a remote road in southern NSW on our honeymoon 21 years ago!!

Echidnas are monotremes – that is they mammals that lay eggs which the female raises in a pouch.

There is only one other monotreme in nature, the also shy platypus (rumoured to frolic along the banks of Albany Creek in a section that runs through Bridgeman Downs).

Echidnas are sometimes referred to as spiny ant-eaters and, indeed, ants and termites are a favourite fare.

Not a problem! The Dawn Road Reserve has no shortage of either, as many residents already know. (Although, as our teenage daughter observed this morning, we haven’t seen as many black ants around the house this year, so perhaps our echidna and his/her family are performing a useful service.)

According to the excellent NSW Parks and Wildlife Service website, in Australia’s northern, hotter regions, echidnas are lighter than their southern cousins and have slightly less hair under their quills (spines).

In our warmer climate, the site says, they will tend to feed during the cooler early mornings and evenings and sleep during the hotter parts of the day.

Alison and her friend saw our echidna about 100m in along the east-west track off the south-eastern end of FCD.

I’ll be heading out with Alison and my camera soon to see if we can see/photograph our echidna in action. If you decide to do likewise, don’t try to approach or pick up these shy little critters or you might come off worse for wear.

The Queensland Museum’s excellent guide Wildlife of Greater Brisbane notes that the echidna’s spiky quills can be up to 18mm wide and 130mm in length while young females and males have a sharp spur on the inside of each ankle!

By the way, after not seeing any wallabies around much recently, I happened upon one grazing late at night on the north-eastern edge of the Reserve near our place a week or so ago. Of course, as soon as it heard my car approaching, it shot off back into the safety of the bush.

When we first moved to the estate in 2000 - and there were fewer neighbours or fences - the wallabies would traverse our front yards freely late at night and leave little calling cards.

But they became pretty scarce around the same time that we had some dingoes wandering around our end of the Reserve (which the Brisbane and Pine Rivers councils trapped). We assumed they'd fallen prey to the wild dogs.

It was rather reassuring to the see one - possibly a black-striped wallaby - back grazing on the dewy grass verge. If you're eagle-eyed, you might see their smallish, elongated scats (droppings) here and there.

So, if you're walking in the Reserve during the daytime and hear a sudden scramble, you'll have probably disturbed a resting wallaby. Then again, it's always worth looking up, because it could equally be a spectacularly patterned lace monitor (there is at least one pair in our neck of the Reserve). They can shimmy up a 30m tree in nothing flat but they are magnificent creatures.

Happy wandering.

TrinaMcL