"Desert birds & other creatures" Top 5 Page for this destination Australia and Oceania Travelogue by Kate-Me

Australia and Oceania Travel Guide: 73,486 reviews and 150,575 photos

Desert birds & other creatures - Australia and Oceania

A baby camel, taken near Alice Springs.
Camels of course aren't native to Australia. They were brought here in the pioneering days of the 1800's, along with Afgan camel team trainers, and were so suited to the desert lifestyle, that they took the place of the horse in exploration, and their stock now is still so good and strong that they are exported back to Arabia.
Some escapees are loose in the desert, in quite large numbers in some areas, in which case they have to be rounded up (sometimes by helicopter, due to the extremely remote terrain).

In Alice Springs each year, they have the Camel cup - like a proper horse race, but with camels.

a rather clever Galah (species related to Australian cockatoo, found all over Australia, not just in the desert).
These ones were at Alice Springs, and as you can imagine, water is hard to find (in the dry season there may only be small puddles, nothing more).
These had devised a way to get water - literally on tap, by catching the drips to drink.

I?ve never seen a tame hawk outside a zoo...but the ones we found at our campsite in Mungo National Park were (see Broken Hill, NSW pages). In some cases this is due to hunger, but for these hawks, their attraction to us was thirst - they just wanted to drink some of the water we'd put out in a small container for hand washing (as there was only very limited water supplied from a small rainwater tank in the park)

Page Updated Apr 4, 2004
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Comments (51)

syl62 Mar 18, 2006 at 10:45 PM Report Abuse

hi Kate, Your writing on Aboriginal Australia was beautiful and very interesting. This is part of Australia's heritage which is very under rated and not valued enough. Cultural sites run by Aboriginal people are wonderful to visit. Syl62
sayedaburas Oct 7, 2005 at 9:26 PM Report Abuse

What a lovely stuff. Congratulatons. :) :x :))
Tripack Mar 30, 2005 at 11:04 PM Report Abuse

Remember me so many great memories of my past Down Under trips. Hope to be back soon to discover more... Thanks for your Birthday wish. G'Day from the Swiss Alps;-)
tini58de Feb 13, 2005 at 3:54 AM Report Abuse

What a great page, Kathryn!! You really introduce Australians very well - loved reading the cultural tips - including the Vegemite!!! And I love those travellogues!
ginguba May 20, 2004 at 8:00 AM Report Abuse

U have a very, very interesting page. Many thanks. :D
Daja123 Apr 21, 2004 at 12:40 PM Report Abuse

Splendit page, excellent photos and great tips. Thanks for sharing Kate.
gcmm Apr 21, 2004 at 12:05 PM Report Abuse

Great pages and info on Down Under...We are planning to visit there some day
guybert Apr 18, 2004 at 10:05 AM Report Abuse

You've got some facinating info in these pages. It really helps us to understand the Australian culture. Thanks for the great info.
irisbe Apr 17, 2004 at 12:12 AM Report Abuse

A most interesting page Kate! hey Ian (Housso44) told me about those spiders ! brrrrr scary :-) Your writings about the aboriginals is really informative! You are lucky with such an aunt guiding!
karim55555 Apr 6, 2004 at 4:51 AM Report Abuse

u are wonderful i like ur bage