Saurday wrap-up : the wildlife report

I started the weekend with my own personal wildlife.Only people with working dogs are silly or desperate enough to be out in the dog park at 6.30am on a rainy Saturday morning.

We exchange bleary, resigned monosyllabic exchanges or simple nod

s of recognition with one another. 

The secret special club.

We are the ones with the high maintenance dogs that after about 36 hours indoors with no exercise (it's been raining non stop here) greet you at dawn like a chorus of deranged Muppets on crystal-meth. 

And out you must go.

Now, by popular demand

(and by popular what I actually mean is one person . . . well she is popular, so I guess that counts)

needle's edge brings you . . .

Marsupials!

Asleep!

specifically some Tasmanian devils

who I've gotta say are pretty damn cute when they're still babies like this little guy and their heads aren't covered in gouges and open wounds from where they've savaged each other over a bit of food. 

These guys are vicious.

Maybe  not as vicious as, say, a funnel web spider which will punch it's way out of a plastic container if it's in a bad mood*

But put it this way, I would not be picking a devil up and giving it a cuddle, unless I really wanted to lose my arm

They seems so genetically hard-wired into them to fight one another over food even in this conservation park** where food is plentiful.

Yet once it's nap time there they are happily snuggling in a big post-prandial pile. 

And . . .

some Eastern Spotted Quolls.

Asleep

(note the feet :  squee )

And . . .

a Tawny Frogmouth.

Half-asleep

All images you can clicken to embiggen of course, or see more here. 

*Apparently this is true! Andrew says so, so that's good enough for me.

** more on the plight of the Tassie devils later. What I found out about the disease that's threatening the population of them would make any caring person's blood boil, but considering my current state of sleep deprivation-addled mind best not written about right now lest this post dissolve into a polemical/political rant.

oh, and Blogger? fyi you are currently giving me the right royals. Note to self must change blog service pronto.