Common Misconceptions

I watched a kids TV show about animals the other day. It was an American show (or maybe Canadian, not sure) and there were SO MANY mistakes. I would like to clear some of these up.

Koalas are called koalas. Not koala bears and in reality they have nothing in common with bears. Okay? Moving on.

Onto the magnificent platypus. It is not called a duck-billed platypus. Yes, it may have a bill that looks like a duck, but it also has a tail that looks like a beaver and we don’t call it the beaver-tailed platypus, do we? Also when talking about them, we say one platypus, two platypi. Not platypusses.

I used to go fishing with my Dad in a certain river close by and if I sat very quietly I was pretty much guaranteed to see a platypus. They truly are amazing to watch in the water. Unfortunately they have a tendency to try and steal your bait (and hence, get caught in the fishing line) so in the end I sat and watched and gave up on the trout.

Echidnas. Pronounced E-kid-nah. The show I was watching called them extrememly rare and told us that you weren’t likely to see them. Maybe in some places echidnas are rare, but here in Tassie I see them all the time. Not quite so often that I have stopped paying attention, but probably one a week through Spring Summer and Autumn.

Echindnas and Platypi belong to a very small (ie: they are the only animals in it) group of mammals called monotremes. Basically, they lay eggs like a bird, but they suckle their young like a mammal.

Kookaburras. Pronounced Cook-ah-buh-ruh. Not any of the other mangled ways I have heard it said. Yes, they are native to Australia, but not to Tasmania. I reserve the right to hate them greatly.

Now for the contentious issue of the Kangaroo. Yes, we eat the Kangaroo. Yes, we cull the Kangaroo (not nearly enough, my freezer is SO empty). YES, okay I get it. We are the only country that kills and eats it’s National emblem.

You do know that the kangaroo (and it’s smaller [and tastier] counterpart the wallaby) is at plague proportions, right? That there are thousands of them stripping farmers land of good stock feed, eating the crops and generally making a nuisance of themselves. WHILE we are in the middle of a drought.

We NEED to cull them, or risk being over run like we were with the rabbits (which incidentally are havoc creating animals and taste delicious roasted [with bacon]).

Also? Unlike Skippy, kangaroos do NOT call for help. They do NOT run back to the farm and raise the alarm when you have fallen down a cliff and they do NOT make clicking sounds. They make look at you a bit oddly as you lay there crying for help at the bottom of said cliff, but they are not in essence, helpful animals.

They may also beat you up if you annoy them, or intrude onto their territory.

So there you go. I am sure there are many many more things that I will discover wrong in TV shows as Amy and I watch them. Don’t worry, I will keep you posted.