Bush Care and the Echindna
On Tuesday morning last week Tom and I discovered an echidna that had been hit on the road. It was too late and the beautiful native animal had died. We stopped the cars in both directions on the Bulwark and moved the echidna to the footpath. Tom went back to tell Lorraine our neighbour, a fellow bushcarer and one of NSW first women Rangers working with NPWS.
By the time I had dropped Tom off at the bus stop. Lorraine was on the scene with the echidna. We carried it back to her table and I learnt that the only way to move an echidna is to carry it by it's right hind leg. The echidna weighed 6kg, and was a fully grown adult female. Apparently echidnas are believed to live for around 50 years. They are monotremes - or egg layers. However they feed the hatched young with a secreted milk until they can eat insects. The knowledge that their are echidnas living in our neighbourhood is very exciting.
Today the bush carers buried the echidna in the reserve at morning tea. Under a large sandstone boulder covered with the soil from the floor of the rainforest and topped with rocks, a new planted tree and some angophora seeds.
http://www.abc.net.au/schoolstv/animals/ECHIDNAS.htmTonight was Earth Hour
We went to a nearby oval and viewed a drumming performance with fire dancers. Afterward we took a little detour to star gaze at Tower Reserve. Planet Earth is trully awesome.
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