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Volume 90%

Australia's Animal Mysteries

by: National Geographic Society (U.S.); WQED (Television station : Pittsburgh, Pa.); National Geographic Society (U.S.). Educational Services

Publication date: 1983

Topics: Zoology, Animals, Plants, Zoology, Wildlife conservation, Animals, Plants, Zoology

Publisher: Washington, D.C. : National Geographic Society, Educational Services

Language: English

Title from data sheet

Camera, Joe Seamens ; editor, Lisa Palattella ; music, Gerald Fired

Intended audience: General

Issued also as videorecording

Shows animals found only in Australia, such as the kangaroo, wallaby, koala, the flying possum, the platypus, and an array of lizards and frogs. Describes the unique features of these animals and the efforts of scientists and conservationists to preserve them

Addeddate: 2015-08-01 00:11:00

Boxid: IA1130119

Curatenote: color: Good sound: Good synch: Good notes: Background music sounds distorted.

Identifier: australiasanimalmysteriesreel1

Lccn: 83700676

Ocr: Spending their daylight hours here in Charlotte have any to see. The only way he has been able to observe them successfully is to remove them from their regular aquarium. Intent was the frogs will be unaware of time was present. Because many have died in captivity and in recent years no more have been found in the wild these to remain to unlock the mystery most unusual and a movie a low action like this report and on explain it is the animal's reproduction that has most electrified the world. What is so unusual about the casting parading frog is the fact that it carries its young and stand like super conception follows the growth of some two dozen tadpoles until at roughly eight weeks the female stomach is completely distended with fully developed frogs ready to be bought when she by this pop up from the stomach one or two at a time and sit upon the town and then I said look around look at the world outside and then just very very gently step out. Tyler's rare photo of an actual birth has made headlines around the world. Here we have an animal which can switch of acid being produced in the stomach and an awareness that that would be an extremely novel way of being perhaps I will to treat people who might need to be able to make use of that as an advantage for example during the treatment for and to councils will be so useful to be able to switch off gastric acid secretion tartly for period of time into it very very readily. I sent a long long why between the what we've done so far in such a thing as a possibility but are in a matter of few years ago now I'm would have drained the existence of this frog with his habit could possibly once I was that in mind I don't think it's impossible or too far fetched to turn one time hopes that in my have political application. In the reptile world was spread of stands out as the Continent with the largest proportion of venom snake. The death of pad is one of the country's most poisonous snakes without treatment. Top of the two men victims go dark. By call snakes the death had a speech primarily on small animals like listen its approach is neither timid nor aggressive but in the end it relies on an extraordinary device print typing this king within range. Wriggling its tail tips as a you're the snake unlike quietly always. Attracted by was must appear to be a squirming insect the skink throws news. Lebanon five times more powerful than that of its cousin making progress. Paralyzes the muscles that control breathing and the victim dies of this victory in. The Australian reptile park was pounded by Eric Warroad who has worked with snakes for more than fifty years. People overseas always think of a stunning animals as being tell ours or Kingery I don't think very much about ass likes and I'll rip told him and we have the dailies retards in the world. Robin war over is an experienced snake handler with careful concentration combined with skill she has been between only once in ten years. So his snake milking demonstration may draw a curious crowd the primary goal of our work lies in the realm of science and medicine. One over here is the mainland targets like probably about seven or eight different types of targets likeness tried It's the third deadliest we have in this trial. What I'm actually doing now is just and tossings that bought over the rubble. I thank the penetrating through that rubble and the Ben and I came a lot from the bottom of a cat generally we came over the years you have been a mess collected at the park have proved invaluable to laboratories developing snakebite Q What we do here is bottle in that. It has been estimated that we sigh one live and die from Smike. That during a snake said he sees in which this site from September tenth I probably And I think that works at something around that twenty thousand more than this organization the sigh. Since we started. Thanks largely to the world's work there are now enter venoms both all Australia's poisonous snakes. In addition to snakes were strangers reptiles includes some four hundred species of losing lacking venom is protection against predators they depend on an impressive array of defenses and block. Looking like some creature from the dinosaur age. The born a double belongs to the group aptly called Dragon loose is. Actually a squat slow moving and eating lizard The devil is found throughout the Arab regions of Central and Western Australia and has adapted to some of the continent's fascist conditions but perhaps its most notable adaptation is its coat of spine a barricade of daggers warning all that my company. That has. This is a bomb throughout Australia the most famous and Babs the most spectacular roams the far east of the woman northern region. Understood the frilled lizard looks on this enough but in the face of an enemy it but friends with remarkable block. Them out around you. It's all else fails it's need only make a hasty retreat. Now we've got the entire. A range of Australian wildlife is the domain of these two naturalists. Together they are known as mantis wildlife films. Individually they are Australian Jim Frasier and his British born partner spends a client. For the past twelve years they have specialized in building behaviors the naked I can barely see. Today the an answer on the. Wow the Carolina running something into the mix what is it quite a bit of. I think this is about an inch long the screen of the formidable bulldog and inflict a powerful and painful sting but to film their behavior. Djimon dancing must collect the entire colony. Perhaps as many as four hundred Lance. Armstrong Yes I got stung. Not favor of. To take on the barging answered with servers must be collected that only then can Jim and N.Z. dig into the next which maybe three to four feet deep. The reason why I think that Jim and I worked so well together is plea have slightly different backgrounds and we both being slightly different skills to the partnership it's a really good reciprocating arrangement having between us. We just have this continual reports and I am I tend to be critical of her work and she is very critical of my way and I think it's good as a team. Thanks. Even the lobby must be taken with Jim's film sequence to be complete. Oh you have. Got to dismantle Yeah where is it today. At Dens he's home the headquarters of mantis bill means Jim has built a plaster model based on his knowledge of the nest in the wild card. In this. Case. Can have a very. The slippery white coating at the top will prevent the events from escaping. Running. Wow you can actually see the sting. Coming up trying to US thing that by going in between the elections a plus for this one he can have a sting in one happy all very. Well if I had my ham operators like that I would move a have. Jim I think although the end of the paddock now the queen settled in one of the chambers they'll be all right. Yes yes they're starting to slide and now they're not quite as friends because they know they're not well some of them have found the love you and few of you don't. It will be three or four days before the end settle down sufficiently But Jim to begin filming. I worked at the Australian Museum for about seventy and in that time I learned how to manipulate the environment as it were in making me need to dharmas and it seemed a natural thing to combine photography with the filling of small animals. All of the life centers around the queen whose primary function is to lay a few may produces pew was one a day or as many as one every two hours. Using the show up meant it was to gently picks up the egg looks pretty safe place to lay it down. She must be careful that the parishioners developing large they do not steal it for food. Indeed this time it is a lot of the twins out. To complete their development into adults and the larvae will seal themselves inside a cocoon they make by spinning silk around debris from the tunnel plume. Having adjusted to them then made environment the ants go about their routines. That included into this I would be neutral world to pray for the feels privileged to have witnessed little known behavior of one of the most recent. Millions of years of isolation in Australia ever protected a group of animals that today has no living relatives on the sharing features of both ancestral reptiles and early memories they may offer a glimpse of how more modern them lose a ball. One of the use egg laying mammals for monetary union is the kidney the spiny anteater. This small unaggressive feature as only a tiny amount that the end of the stick like snow and no teeth. In the daily search for rents it relies solely on the long sticky tongue as its means of getting food. The kid knows only defensive and very effective ones they are are needle sharp spines and the ability to sink out of sight in the face of danger. Digging rapidly into the harder the powerful the kidney can disappear within minutes. And almost impenetrable shield will be or that the names above ground. The female a kid neck areas a single leathery egg in a pouch that forms on her belly at the beginning of the breeding season in about ten days the egg will have. A tiny baby nurses in the pouch for up to two months. By definition a memo is a long blooded head animal that suckles its young kid not bother flies in or respect but it retains the distinctly reptilian characteristic of laying eggs. When and why other mammals. Stop playing eggs and began to bear their young lives. Remains a recurrent riddle of W. yet to be solved. In eastern Australia streams rivers and lakes is down the kidnappers only living relative on earth. Outwardly looking nothing whatever like it's finally thousands the platypus does share its reptilian traits including the laying of bags although it is often called the duck billed platypus it's Bill exactly saw pliable and rubbery quite unlike a duck's filled with sensitive nerves it is a specialized adaptation for feeling out the insect lobby in crayfish on which the platypus be. Lacking T. adults grind their food between large Forney plates in the jewels. Because the platypus spends much of the time borrowed in riverbanks little of its life cycle is known so unlike other animals is the bad at first it was considered a hoax when discovered in the late seventeen hundreds. Laymen still gaze politically at an animal that appears to be partly mammal part reptile but bird. At an early date it was named cattle DOCSIS so much of a paradox is the platypus that almost two centuries later it remains a creature shrouded in mystery. One reason so little is known about the platypus is the extreme difficulty of keeping it in captivity. One. Of Australia's bore most naturalists David play has been studying the platypus book close to fifty years. Today at his boner reserve in Queensland. Visitors can enjoy an assortment of Australian exotica but it is the platypus most tourists come especially to see well he he's going through the whole very rudely and now he's out. Painting in swimming and that when he's had enough of that which because of about ten hours not the guys back into these tunnels. Tales of go to sleep. It was almost forty years ago that play again worldwide same as the first person to breed a plan to piss in captivity. It began in one nine hundred forty three with a couple named Jack in jail. Taken from the wild they adjusted well captivity and became unusually take. This tune to meet at the ridges Jill stopped eating and disappeared into her nesting. Places Specter she must be ready to lay eggs. Lovely night weeks. Before we thought as as the information was at that time of night weeks leave the baby should be able to crawl about and swift. So we took the risk I bring up the tunnel. Please this this point and I'm having a lot I felt somehow when they were doing the wrong thing as a plate was the wrong thing we've found you had one. Probably young nice and settlement and in good order but to do blind and helpless and on the sequences are those friends although we've opened up much too soon. We left things alone and just watch carefully for that point on and then at another a fellow right but sixty weeks altogether. We opened the the back of the tunnel again and found that the baby because it was alive and well. Tremendous really. Well it was reliable round or welded it was announced I think in New York and London the plan to draws a fabulous salad is always played with a lot of attention and it was considered impossible roundabout the 1930's from. On the live in captivity them on the field right after all the years of effort it was a tremendous thrill we put the flag up that night. For decades later not even play has managed to breed the platypus again. With his assistance from the University of Queensland. Dr Frank Carrick works after dusk and dawn when the platypuses most active that he has been studying the animals ecology since nine hundred seventy two. You'll go on a good night they may catch as many as six but on a bad night then nets may turn up empty. Calories less with the water going on like this and I want to bring us to an unrelated fishing net has been laid parallel to the river bank. Rocket scientists check the net at regular intervals. Guided by a light from show. Although the net is designed so the animal can set this and breathe there is always the danger of untangles know Gary I think there might be an animal on the native bit further from mass they would you like to just put the spot on it. Excellent he's gone under that not getting mad. Stays in the future. Here is it will be eighty three man in the back to go. That's a mile back. Because the male planted those has been I'm a spurs on his hind legs he must be handled with extreme care. Although it's not certain scientists speculate the Spurs are used against other males gone for any competition for females at making time. You got to. Put him in any guy. That's. Stunning. And talking to you the title of a. Good boy. Once the animal is lightly sedated doctor character and safely begin his examination. Although the platypuses existed the millions of years. Significant information on its ecology has been gathered only within the last decade and so even the most basic data on weights and measurements are invaluable. On that the. Batting one twenty one I think really the platypus is one of the MASH. Crucial animals all in all the Australian animals that we need to know much more about. For the interests and saying have patents in the modern mammals evolved and whole side of well of course in helping us in a rational why to ensure the platypus times continue on into the future is a stand for many millions of years. Starting running with. Thank you. And I'm not sure Mennonite of. Levels of gloom moans in the blood. Help the scientists to determine when and how often the male platypuses sexually active. In any wildlife study many of the important findings come from animals that have been captured before and then followed over time. Because platypuses for the most thought remain in a relatively small home or a carrot folks to entrap this animal again a metal band. Identifying him as number eighty nine. It's truly. Now marked and identified by his captors. Number eighty nine is ready to be set free to return to his borrows his secret ways. We're going to go down with it. Awfully nice and everyone getting wet. With dew surge of scientific research in Australia over the past two decades. Assassinating Tablo of life as I'm told it's unlikely we'll do the explorers who saw only a topsy turvy world of improbable looking animal scientists of today understand how isolation and geography helped shape be able. You from The Wall Street is wildlife. But suppose we just saw them complete and so it remains haunting questions of an ancient past echo still across this remote exotic last. Bag some day one small animal with a strain a metal band may help on long some of the Long as the secrets of Australia a land that's time for Ghost. When. You. Lose the to the. This. With the coming of each new dawn shadows of an ancient past echo across Australia land a victim list. Alien and remote accomplice in trees. It remains today an almost mystical land a land only recently just to by doing right movement. You. Long before the time of name there appeared here creatures among the most bizarre on the. So unlike other animals of a that many early European explorers could hardly believe they were real. Even today three centuries later many of the questions the animals posed to science remain unanswered. Throughout Australia. Investigators and scientists probe the secrets of this infinitely buried wild like. Animals ones living parcels at been properly identified and categorize their revolution every relationship is better understood. Yet inevitably there remain more questions than answers on Team age old mysteries that beck and call who behold the spectacle of life unique to a stranger on the them. Washed by the South Pacific on the east in the Indian Ocean on the West Australia stretches for almost three million square miles it is the world's smallest content the largest on a self contained biological laboratories unique in the world. Science has long been puzzled by how and why this island continent became home to what is probably the most distinctive assemblage of features found anywhere in the world. Part of the MC lies in Australia's remote has its geographic separation from the rest of it. Cut off from the Earth's great land masses. Australia has a bald in sea bound isolation for some fifty million years its wildlife relatively understood by influences from the outside but the world as we know it today does not hold all the answers to a straight is pounds we must look to a distant time in the Earth's geological history when the continents would join. Scientists believe that some where in the continents we know today as the Americas Antarctica and Australia the earliest most soupy Ozy bald and fanned up. When the land mass split apart the continents carried their life forms with however in South America. Predators and competitors before would eventually wiped out a great number of marsupial species in Antarctica they became frozen out of existence only in Australia. Safely cut off from competitors could these unique creatures plotters and until the relatively late arrival of man they evolved for the most part understood for millions of years. Even today. Strangers human population is only fourteen in a million and because much of the interior is a harsh added to and the large cosmopolitan centers cluster on the coasts. Of common myth about down on them is that one can see kangaroos hopping down the streets of said yet it is quite likely that many of these people have never even seen one. And taps never will outsiders a. Zune same juries are popular attractions throughout Australia. Here tame animals provide the opportunity for an intimate look at some of the country's most treasured resources. Most of the gang a ruse at this sanctuary had been raised here is or their mothers the victims of automobiles are a hunters gun. Under the watchful eye of a keeper the Joeys as young kangaroos are called can be cared for until old enough to be on their own in the park. Pillowcases an ample substitute for the mother's box. It's scary to him is one of the top of the other perhaps number one on any popularity poll is Australia's pride and joy the cultural some koalas you know right out of your shell the tools like. A misstep. Watching made flames I know you've got a beautiful fall day for. Nothing happening now laughing. At my. Head that I am here to. Us. Captured young fellows come to accept humans even in the wild they are basically unaggressive if understood. Life for the wild koala revolvers in and around far as to view clip to strays throughout the east in Australia. On the ground just to move from tree to tree the koala spends almost all its time high in the branches it has developed highly specialized adaptations where it's arboreal life long arms well padded paws and opposable thumbs with a vice like grip. Not only home and shelter eucalyptus trees provide the koala with its primary food it eats about two pounds of leaves a day. Despite superficial resemblance to the so-called koala bear is not a bear at all but a true marsupial about animals like the kangaroo. After birth the young will stay in the mother's pouts for about six months. When strong enough to leave the boat it will do so only intimately and for the next few months will travel everywhere with its mother. Clinging either to her back or chance. To go is inspired myriad reactions from of Jabbers over the centuries. One ought to has written the koalas expression always reminds me of the Byzantine Madonna or some dollars. Dodges rather more well bad well bred. But many Aborigines so something quite different to them. A koala represented the reincarnation of the spirits of lost children. The same. A research team from Queensland's National Parks and Wildlife Service is studying the koalas ecology and reproduction in the wild. This study area is roughly six hundred acres where thirty to forty koalas normally lives and he was my first story. Led by Dr Greg Gordon the researchers have been capturing and tagging koalas since one nine hundred seventy one it is by no means a simple task. First they must get them down and as the wary animal climbs even higher the ball must be extended to resist. On the already greatness kind of. Conduct is near the edge of the bank and. Experience has taught the scientists that the procedure is basically say for the koalas it's sturdy building thickly padded grump seem to protect it against the poor. Disallowing now. Yes you're right. It doesn't you know again I come down on the range that. A rude awakening when you know the easy going by nature a koala may become aggressive on the stress of the bag as a precaution against his powerful claws and to nations like. Sought for its first in the early decades of this century the slow moving koala was hunted to the very brink of extinction. Today thanks to government protection. Koalas are once again secure. Recently however in this area of Queensland there is been a puzzling decline in the birth rate. By tagging the animals and studying them over a period of years the scientists photo to pinpoint the cause for some in the meantime thorough examination xox band their understanding of growth patterns and general states of health. Color coded tags make the animal easily identifiable even when high in the trees which this one was Dag originally when still in his mother's part and much about him is already known. To where is about the most reliable indication of a. This mail is roughly three years old. You know wonderstruck and on the chest must all male koalas have a scent gland which exudes a distinctive odor. By rubbing the gland on tree trunks and branches they announce their presence to others in the area. We're going through and so. It's not going to go. Momentarily. Disoriented after his release from the bag the young go alla seems on sure what to do next. But within seconds he had to back quickly to the same tree from which he'd been captured. All. That. Talk and rather well. Sensing only that he is safely back where he wants to be a co-op I cannot possibly realize how today's encounter the strangers may well help determine the future of this country. Perhaps the very symbol of Australia the gang the roots remains as fascinating today is when the first live specimen reached England in the seventeen hundreds. Handbill announcing the event proclaim that to enumerate its extraordinary qualities would far exceed the common limits of the public notice. Now almost two centuries later a rare piece of film documents one of the Kangaroos most extraordinary qualities of or. After a just a superior the bottom up this red kangaroo prepares to give to. Those scientists now understand the biology of must to peel the it is no less remarkable to behold. Almost two peoples are born in an undeveloped state their gross to be completed. Inside the Box. Defenseless can blind pertaining you born completely unaided by the mother must navigate through the big to toward the pop. If it loses its way to die. Once inside the pot. Guided only by its sense of smell the newborn finds one of the mothers Nikki. Here it will remain attached. Suckling for more than six months. Now the Joey will be strong enough to leave the pout intimate but even when it is old enough to graze it will return to the pouch to lose for several months now. Amazing in their adaptability some kangaroos or is it home in the trees as others are bounding across rocky slopes there are about fifty species of kangaroos in Australia. Ranging from up to seven feet in height to the size of a common rant. But one trait they all share is that they hope. Though it may weigh as much as two hundred pounds the kangaroo is a picture of grace when it takes to like it can reach speeds up to forty miles an hour and cover as much as twenty five feet in one week. Recently scientists were amazed to discover that it certain speeds the kangaroo actually uses less oxygen The first risk. Is this birds that like the spring in a pogo stick. The candles leg muscles and tendons store energy which is then released without it and the enemy next this is zero. But the cable Lou is no doubt the most famous most who feel the strain your post as many as one hundred fifty species of post and. The furrows just looking Tasmanian Devil is one of the few that eat meat exclusive. Yes. One can only imagine the astonishment of early explorers when they so approached and most take to the. These possums do not actually fly like the but they're quite like membrane enables one to glide the distances of thirty yards or more to the. Only in small patches of Western Australia. Well one find the number of small gentle most who feel now extinct in other parts of the country. Shop clause the number that routes out to Mike's its primary food. Its longs in use sticky tongue can capture thousands of the insects a day. With its distinctive bands of white and its bottlebrush tails the number that is considered by many to be Australia's most beautifully marked most of. The majestic blue Mons live forty miles west of Sydney. Here beneath the vivid blue haze which gave the mountains the name areas a pristine wilderness of bones. Nestled in the hills and historic a state called Yan go spreads across twenty five acres. For the past twelve years it has been a private reserve dedicated to breeding endangered animals. Really heavy I'll tell you that the owner is businessman Peter Pigott one of those trailers promos conservationists through his wife and son he is transferring a warm bath. Injured in a fight to a safer enclosure. Are. Not like the boss. Bigots breeding success with wombats is considered the nominal better than any two and is attributed to his concern for creating the most natural setting possible in a captive environment. While I was has always had a very special place in my last that I was having been a conservatory. When I was a quite a young child at the edge of five I lived in the country with my forefathers came from and it was a normal normal thing for families to shoot cameras. And I remember at the age of seven and bite going out and participating in kangaroo Homs where hundreds of kangaroos will be shot and one by. And whilst I didn't wield a gun at the edge of seven or right I did at the ides of nine and I remember shooting a kangaroo arm relatives property and I watched that animal by so I asked myself the question why am I doing this I think that on a very young mind had lost in effect. I guess that my first opportunity of doing something very constructive in the field of conservation was the rediscover a whole wall of the that we thought was extinct the bomb a wallaby a small kangaroo only about fourteen inches tall was abundant until early settlers destroyed its habitat and introduced new predators both thought to be extinct. A small colony was discovered in one nine hundred sixty five starting with only eighteen animals take it has increased the population here to more than two hundred in ten years. Law People say to me I was should we conserve our life why why should we be really concerned I mean people more important than bollox. We are all part of the six hundred million years of evolution and I suppose one of the great things of separates mankind from the animals is our sense and appreciation of the aesthetics a love of literature a lot of vast poetry and of nature itself. Often think that if we lose this we disregard the world around us from the animals that are right here. We might like up one morning found ourselves on the endangered list. The sky is ablaze with come the spring has been called the foremost land of. More than three hundred species are unique to her sure. One of Australia's most distinctive birds the Malleefowl is a prodigious engineer to incubate their eggs in a harsh environment that is generally dry and subject to shop temperature changes they build moms up to fifteen feet across and several feet high. Working together male and female have laid down a better weapon leaves and twigs. To seal in the more secure and heat of the commenting compost they cover the mound with sand. The egg chamber itself lies at the heart of the mound beginning in the spring and continuing for three to four months. The female will come about once a week to lay a single egg. The mentally regions are marked by sharp temperature fluctuations between day and night and as the seasons change but the egg change must be kept at an almost constant ninety two degrees. Once the female has laid her eggs she will leave the tending of the mountain or make to determine the temperature he probes the same with a sensitive spot either in his bail auto and he gets a reading as accurate as any the moment of. Regulating the temperature by removing sand to release heat or adding sand to conserve it is an almost constant job for the a consuming task to which he dedicate himself brought up to nine months of the year. Roughly every two months a check will work its way up through the thick soil and wander off never to see its better and so again. From the depths of the farthest echoes a haunting in the memorable scene. Alive going to muster a vocal mimicry. Seemingly endless in its variety the library's repertoire includes other bird calls as well as manmade sounds. The mating ritual is highlighted by a shimmering display of the birds in many Stanley like. In Central Australia heavy rains have flooded the desert but storms are few and short lived in this harsh arid country as the clay pans begin to dry up the water holding frog demonstrates a remarkable adaptation. Increasing its body weight by as much as fifty percent with water absorbed through the skin the frog burrows into the soft way to a deaths of more than three feet. Once on the ground it will enter a sleep like state its active life is centrally over until the desert once again sees ring. And taste in a cocoon like bag of dead skin. The frog will remain in this chamber sealed beneath the now draw in hardened. In times of drought. These amazing creatures have been known to stay buried for two years. Only when the rain has finally come and the earth begins to soften in the frog begin to emerge. It must meet quickly so that its young woman during time to soak up their own water supply and bury themselves until the next rains come. It's in the forests of southeastern Queensland a major scientific discovery was made in one nine hundred seventy two. Since that time a bizarre and the most unique in the world has been making history. The first noteworthy fact was that it existed at all. So straightens it always believed that in their country that was no such thing as a problem with lived in water. Since the time of the original discovery. Captured animals have been sent to there's a wallaby departments at the University of Adelaide for study by Michael Tyler one of the country's foremost experts on brought. Up.