Wild

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EDITOR-IN-CHIEFRoland Handel, editor@wild.com.auEDITORJames McCormackEDITOR-AT-LARGECampbell PhillpsPRODUCTION CO-ORDINATORAnja FuechtbauerSOCIAL MEDIASteve BlackburnCONTRIBUTORSSam Gibbs, Nick Stubbs, Aidan Williams, Andrew Findlay, Margus Riga, Alexis Buxton-Collins, Ben Lans, Dan Slater, Chris Armstrong, Ryan HansenDESIGNSam Grimmer, Tamara Romčević, Miljana Vuković, Ivana BrkićFOUNDERChris Baxter OAM@wildmagazinewild_magwild.com.au/newsletter/ADVERTISING AND SALESRoland Handelm 0458 296 916@ sales@wild.com.auSUBSCRIPTIONSTo subscribe call 0458 296 916 or see the advert in this magazineCONTRIBUTIONSWant to contribute to Wild? Please email contributor@wild.com.au While every care is taken, no responsibility is accepted for submissions. Articles represent the views of the authors and not necessarily those of the publisher.ALL CORRESPONDENCE TO:Wild BunyipPO Box 416Northbridge NSW 2063Australiat 0458 296 916@ contact@wild.com.au…

into the wild

“What was that?”No one answered. No one dared to. For an hour—well, perhaps minutes—not a word, not a murmur passed our lips. Instead, at three in the morning, we huddled together in quaking fear, drew close to the campfire, and listened.It was out there.What it was, though, no one knew, except for the fact we could hear it—in the bushes, thrashing around, prowling through the impenetrable darkness.Our heads filled with fearful thoughts we dared not utter, and raced with beastly images we struggled not to imagine. Little was certain in my mind, save this one insight, crystal clear in its import: We were being stalked.But as the group’s leader, I couldn’t share that horrendous fact with the others. Instead, I bravely motioned we move nearer the fire. When the noise…

wild letters

END OF THE ROADI had previous history with boots disintegrating whilst bushwalking, but must admit it still caught me unaware. The fact that most boots nowadays are made in China and are constructed with soles glued to the upper rather than being stitched I have learned to live with; it keeps the cost down. But back in 2004 and on Tassie’s Overland Track, when the front of the sole started flapping loose, it came as a complete surprise. The boots may have been over ten years old, but they’d served me well till that point.Without any string or rope available, I cut a strap from my pack to tie the offending sole down. By the time I’d got into camp that night, however, the heel had also gone, and there…

gallery

Andrew Houghton and David Littlejohn-Carrillo hucking the last of the seven teacup waterfalls on the Rio Claro, Chileby Anja FuechtbauerSony 7M2, FE 24-70 f4, f8.0, 1/1000, ISO 200Western Arthur Range skyline from West Portal, Southwest Tasmania. See also Bob Brown’s column on Page 19by Grant DixonNikon D800E, Nikon 60mm f2.8, f9.0, 1/250, -1 EV, ISO 100…

blink and you’ll miss them

There’s no beating around the rapidly depleting bush: our koalas are in big trouble. Eighteen years since the Australian Koala Foundation launched its ‘No Tree, No Me’ campaign to fight koala population decline, the most recent WWF Living Planet Report estimates that koala numbers on our east coast are dropping by 21 per cent every decade, and that NSW koalas—the less than 20,000 that remain—are on track for extinction by 2050.While South Australian and Victorian koalas face long-term battles against a lack of genetic diversity—a legacy of early 20th century patch-ups after the decimation that was koala hunting and pelt trading—it’s the officially-threatened populations of NSW, Queensland and the ACT that are really in the trenches. Western Australia, Tasmania, and the Northern Territory contain no wild koala ranges.“There were an…

tasmanian tree skink

To the casual observer, there may be little to choose between the photographed creature and the near-ubiquitous garden skink (Lampropholis guichenoti), yet the Tasmanian tree skink is only found on its namesake island and a few associated neighbours.Often overlooked in Australian backyards, both the garden skink and the Tasmanian tree skink are notable for belonging to an incredibly diverse lizard family—the Scincidae—along with over 1,500 other described species. In Australia, Scincidae species can range in size from less than ten centimetres to over 70 and includes iconic lizards like the land mullet, bluetongue and shingleback. As such, skinks are found the length and breadth of the country, living in all kinds of habitats and with a commensurately broad array of diets.This particular skink, at the smaller end of the Scincidae…