Faunaverse.com.au

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Everything Wildlife. Fauna surveys, photography, books about Aussie wildlife in poetry, educational field days, getting people to engage with Earth and learn about the ecosystem we live in and the ecosystem that lives in (and on) us. Read the Alt text!

With long antennae and green wings bearing a striking similarity to leaves a Katydid sits on a Eucalypt.
A dark, brownish-grey bird with a rufous face, long, sharp bill, a pale throat, white streaks on the breast and a black-barred tail sits on a branch.
A Fleay's Barred Frog with yellow flanks, rich brown skin, large black eyes and black bars on the limbs perches on a small rock by a rainforest stream.
Adult female wolf spider looking at camera while absolutely covered in tiny babies.
Two Blue-banded bees with black abdomens striped with pale blue, fuzzy brown thoraxes, legs with long grey hairs and black tarsi, and greenish eyes grip the stem of a dead vine in their mandibles. This is how they sleep.
A gecko hangs upside down beneath a narrow branch, its rear limbs wrapped tightly, its front legs extended, its head bent towards the branch with a slightly open mouth. The lizard has a pale belly with small, regular scales, and where its head is bent towards the branch the skin is folded at its throat. Its eyes are like black jewels and each of its toes has a rounded pad at the end, with a small claw sticking up from near the end of each digit. Only the gecko and the branch is illuminated by the small flash, leaving the background mostly black, apart from some of the closer leaves.
A huntsman spider munching on a beetle. The underside of the spider's hairy legs are strongly-marked with black and white.
A suspicious lump of seaweed moves across the bottom of a rock pool. Or IS it a suspicious lump of seaweed? Decorator Crab (from “Faunaverse Wildlife in poetry Tasmania”) Those creatures in the rockpools have to put up with a lot, like stormy seas producing waves that crash, or a low tide on a summer's day that makes the water hot, it's a wonder they don't come out in a rash! Look in these water gardens and you may be quite astounded, that so many things can live in such a place; You'll see algae-grazing limpets that to the rocks are grounded, sea-anenomes that wave their arms with grace. But predators patrol these pools, there's gulls and hungry fish, that are quick to spot and eat unwary prey, but if you're quick or clever, you might not end up as a dish, or breed before you do so anyway. Let me introduce a friend, a master of disguise, who you might find in Tassie, if you seek, but you'll have to look so carefully, as this beast can fool your eyes, with its mastery of camouflage unique. The Decorator Crab is really very hairy, and each hair on his body bears a hook, and by this short description, it sounds a little scary, but you'll only see one if you really look. They use the hairy hooks to hold their camouflage in place, seaweeds plucked from pools that they inhabit, and although perhaps not pretty, like silk or bits of lace, a gull that cannot see it will not grab it.  So they don't attract attention, these crabs are never swift, and look just like the seaweed moving there, and to the most observant they are an unexpected gift, a clever crab with seaweed in its hair. ©Alexander Dudley
A small, pale, copper-brown skink with irregular darker blotches leans diagonally from a rock crevice. It has raised its slender body to avoid the heat radiating from the rocks and is looking at the photographer with its right eye, which is very large for the lizards size but covered in a transparent scale to avoid moisture loss. This scale is the remnant of its lower eyelid which is permanently closed, and one of the common names for this group of skinks is Snake-eyed skinks, because, like snakes, they can't blink.
A scene of differently-sized, slightly-rounded pebbles on a surface of clay. Some pebbles are yellowish, some are reddish, some ar shades of brown. There are scattered narrow leaves and small sticks on the ground, and amongst this chaotic scene is a small male reddish-brown gecko, which has twisted itself into a very un-gecko-like shape, its short fat tail curved into a sideways hook. The lizard is very easily overlooked among the other colours.
A large brown skink with scattered white spots, keeled scales and an expressive brown eye surveys its future with some trepidation. It is the last of four siblings to be kicked out of home as it reached maturity, and as it is now 21 months of age it knows it is well and truly time to go. But the risks are huge- it faces a gauntlet feral predators such as domestic cats and dogs, feral foxes, cats and pigs. Native predators such as kites, eagles, goannas, pythons, Spotted Black Snakes and Eastern Brown Snakes are dangerous predators. And when this lizard finally does find a log- if it is already occupied, the chances of taking it over are slim, and if it finds it's own, then fires, firewood collectors and being able to forage safely and return to the log are all issues. This explains why once these lizards secure a territory, they tend to stick to it for their whole lives.
A badge huntsman spider with alternate half-bands of yellow, black and blue beneath its legs, and black shiny fangs. It is clinging to the underside of a plantain leaf.
A Box-patterned Gecko in an upright position clutching onto thin grass stalks looks at the photographer with large eyes. The upturned corners of the mouth make the gecko look as if it is smiling. The gecko is reddish brown above with a pattern of milk-coffee reticulations on the head and dots and dashes along the back. The belly is nearly white.
Hooded Plover (from Faunaverse Wildlife in poetry Tasmania) The waves rush in with crash and hiss, leave bubbles on the beach, I run on tiny legs ahead, barely out of reach. Then I chase receding foam, probing sand with short stout beak, it's tiny beach invertebrates like sandhoppers I seek. Up above the seaweed line, my partner, with bent legs, camouflaged amongst the sand, is shading precious eggs. The sun is very hot today, she's diligent and dutiful, and as my Hooded Plover wife, I know she's also beautiful. Our beach is quiet and sheltered, but lately we've seen change, the waves are reaching higher, the weather's getting strange, When we fly around the headland, we meet less 'Hoodies' every year, and sometimes we hear barking dogs- now that's a sound we fear. We're tiny little shorebirds, we live on ocean beaches, there's nowhere else for us to go, we're not like other creatures. When you head off for the beach, you can help the Hooded Plover, by walking on the wet sand with your family or your lover. You'll know us by our smart black capes, we're small, but we can run, but running from people or their pets is dangerous, not fun. We can't leave our eggs to cook or freeze, so please, for our survival, look for shorebirds on the beach when you make your arrival. Don't let your dogs run on the beach if you see us about, although you won't see our eggs, your dog will sniff them out. We know you really love the beach, but we need it more than you, so I hope that you will love the little Hooded Plovers too. ©Alexander Dudley/Faunaverse
A Musk Lorikeet, a small, green parrot with a yellow shoulder and a red mask and beak, peaks out of a hollow in a smooth-barked gum tree.
A brush-tailed Possum in a tree hollow. A finger of air surrounded by wood, I'm not really there, but golly I'm good I'm nothing but space, but space can be filled, And my mere existence stops things from being killed. Over one hundred years it will take me to form, For an hour, or decades I'll keep something warm And many beings use me for safety and shelter, Where they're safe and snug from the rain and the swelter; Goanna and tree frog, python, Corella, Boobook, Black-cockatoo or a Rosella, Possum and Glider, small bat and Woodswallow; Have you guessed what I am? I'm a tree hollow! ©Alexander Dudley/Faunaverse
A Badge Huntsman Spider chewing on a small Scarabid beetle. The otherwise brownish spider's legs are strongly banded with black and white on the underside, and it is hanging from the phyllode (leaf-like structure) of a wattle above the photographer. The spider is manipulating the beetle with small leg-like appendages called pedipalps on either side of its chelicerae.
A large rough-scaled brown skink lounges lazily in an open crevice made by two planks of wood. She has white spots on her lips which fade along her body which is covered in keeled scales which form small ridges running along her obviously swollen body. Her tail is relatively short and tapering, and the keels are much more spinose. Her left front limb dangles lazily over the edge of the wood. Her demeanor is relaxed but her eyes are alert.
A dumpy brown gecko with a white belly, large, black eyes and a pale brown ragged-edged vertebral stripe, breaking into dark edged irregular blotches on her swollen, rounded tapering tail.
A bee with red eyes, a greyish hairy body and a black abdomen banded with grey, its wings blurred by speed, hovers outside pieces of hosepipe jammed into a short length of plastic agricultural pipe.
An adult female Eastern Grey Kangaroo gazes pensively to the left of frame. Her left ear is angled back at 45 degrees and a huge, grey tick about the size of a marble is fastened to the base of her ear. Nobody loves the tick. Some love the Echidna’s four headed-dick Or like the phasmid that looks like a stick, Or respect the Shark that swims so quick, But, Nobody loves the tick. Some people admire the role that ants play, And some really like snakes at the end of the day, And though spiders are cool, some make you sick, I’ve never met anyone who likes the tick. Is it because they can cause Lyme disease? They dig into your skin with such consummate ease? They carry scrub typhus, Q fever and Rickets, When a tick seeks applause there is nothing but crickets. It’s clear these arachnids make some people quite sick, Perhaps this is why people don’t love the Tick. The response to a tick meme never goes well, They’re all “Kill it with fire!” or “Burn it in Hell!” When posting their hating, the memers are quick, Cause nobody, nobody favours the tick. ©Alexander Dudley/Faunaverse
A slender pale silvery-brown python with irregular brown blotches and a large head is loosely coiled over a sandstone boulder, exactly as it was found back in 2002. At that stage the photographer, Alexander Dudley had been looking for this elusive python for many years. This remains the only specimen he has ever seen in the wild.
A jumping spider, identified by two large forward facing eyes, clutches a tiny fly to its face with elongate dark and shiny front legs. The spider has a black head with a rich brown band on either side and across its face which encloses its six eyes. Its abdomen is a metallic brown colour. The spider is small, about 14mm in length and is clinging to a vertical leaf. Much of its lower face is hidden by the fly it is eating.
A purplish-grey gecko with almost flourescent yellow bands across its back and a plain, grey tail. The gecko has very has large dark eyes and the upturned corners of its mouth make it look as if it's smiling. Which it isn't. When you live in a harsh environment and everything wants to eat you that is more likely to be a grimace than a smile. Besides these geckos eat centipedes and scorpions, and not many people smile when chowing down on something with too many legs that can bite back.
A small insect with semi-transparent heavily-veined wings three times its body length, held up at about 80 degrees. It has compound eyes and well-developed legs and a hunched body shape.
A black wasp with cream bands drags a paralysed Wolf spider through the grass by its belly. The Spider's limbs are relaxed, raised behind it, its limb-like pedipalps on either side of its head are raised, giving the spider the appearance of having its head thrown back. Beware the wasp, little Spiderling, for she is your nightmare, She'll sting you and bite off your legs, then drag you to her lair. Within that darkened crypt my child, she'll lay a single egg, And when that egg should hatch, my child, for death you'll surely beg. You cannot move, you cannot scream, you cannot scratch or bite, You can't escape this horrid dream, this larval parasite. And as you shrink her young will grow, nestled close and feeding, All your thoughts, and all you'll know, is pain, and fear and bleeding. ©Alexander Dudley/Faunaverse
A Turquoise Parrot, a bird with a turquoise blue face, green back, turquoise-blue wings, yellow belly and green tail looks at the photographer.
A panel of eight differently coloured snakes, all of the same species. The first is reddish brown with a dark grey head, the second is brownish with dark edges on the scales and a flattened neck, the third is cream- coloured with a fine pattern across its body, the fourth has orange scales with dark patterning and is emerging from an upright piece of plastic pipe; The fifth snake is dark blue-black with no pattern at all, the sixth is brown with a black head and upper neck, the seventh is shiny black with a flattened neck, and the eighth is dark blackish brown.
Three Daddy Longlegs spiders have wrapped up a small huntsman spider in silk and are eating it.
Two sulphur-crested cockatoos on the ground, white birds with yellow crests, black eyes and hooked parrot beaks. The nearest bird has its wings raised, it's head thrown back and its beak wide open, and is almost certainly screaming.
Female Daddy Longlegs spider with a cluster of about 40 spiderlings suspended below her jaws. The spider has a small body and ridiculously long legs and is suspended in a web against a white background.
Photo of Glenda, a heavily built, rough-skinned lizard with a short spiny tail. She has longitudinal ridges from keeled scales along her back and white spiny scales at the front of her ear. She looks fat, but she's just pregnant.