Wildlife

One might say that there would not be a lot of difference between the wildlife around us in Katherine as compared to Kununurra but there are subtle differences which we are noticing about the animals themselves and people's reactions to them.  The cane toad, which is just as much of a pest here as across the border in WA does stir different reactions in the community.  Cane toads have been in the NT since the mid 80's and people are less reactive to them here in Katherine although there are still programs in place to control them.  They have become more of a sport as locals dream up new ways of eradicating them although welfare groups are quick to deter such behaviour.  In WA however, there was almost panic about cane toads being in Kununurra.  In some respects it was a natural reaction as their migration across the border was something that WA had been trying hard to prevent and so their appearance in Kununurra was seen as a disaster.  There are signs up everywhere in WA for travellers to keep watch for 'stow away' cane toads in their vans or vehicles.  In reality, the numbers of cane toads that have crossed the border via vehicles is minimal compared to those that have just migrated under their own steam over that invisible line in the bush.  As a newcomer to the state, cane toads have instilled a totally different reaction in the community of Kununurra as compared to Katherine's more low key reaction due to the cane toads long term habitation of NT. 
Size was another interesting factor.  Some toads we have seen around our caravan park have been of a size which we rarely saw in Kununurra.  There are some monstrous examples of 'dinner plate' sized toads but the numbers of toads visible around the area are less than what we saw in Kununurra.  At night, if we walked around the caravan park in Kununurra, toads would be moving around and be quite visible but smaller in size.  In Katherine we see less toads in general but their sizes are markedly bigger.

Little frog on a 2kg gas bottle

Our toilet frog on a towel rail

The effects of cane toads on another amphibian of the Top End are also different.  Green tree frog sightings around us here in Katherine are greater than in Kununurra.  During our first wet season in WA, we saw green tree frogs around our site and over at the toilet block but once the cane toads had established themselves, the green tree frogs virtually disappeared.  They were still around but their numbers seemed much less than the previous year.  Here in Katherine it is almost as if the cycle of frogs versus toads over 30 years has come full circle and they now cohabit without one or the other being affected.  Our ensuite building has a regular green tree frog resident sitting on our towel rail or on the bench and they frequent our undercover gazebo at night catching the bugs which are attracted to our lighting.  When it rains, a male GTF calls to anyone who's listening from on top of our annex and makes a raucous noise.  Many people of the Top End consider GTF's a pest themselves because they clog up drainpipes and toilets and poop everywhere.  This is true of the little green critters but as a relative newcomer to life in the tropics, I still like having them around.

Our gazebo insect catcher

The next little critter to have impacted on our lives again is the ant.  In Kununurra, our site under three massive trees meant that it was inevitable that ants were going to be around.  We were most affected by green ants which built huge nests in the tree branches from dead leaves and their own sticky concoction of glue.  They eventually used our caravan as an ant highway travelling from one tree to another along the roof, ropes, tarps and whatever else was available.  There were times when I would go out to hang washing on the line only to be swarmed by them on the ground as they searched for new leaves to add to their nests.  One time Steve put and empty dog food tin in the outside rubbish bag we had hanging in the gazebo.  By the next morning we had been overrun by green ants which had swarmed our entire bbq area seeking out the meaty treat in a tin.  It took days for them to finally get the message that there was no food available anymore during which time we could barely use our cooking area due to the swarm.  We had been warned about the dreaded green ant and it's nasty bite but in all honesty, it wasn't as bad as it was portrayed.  The green ants we cohabitated with didn't have a sting but instead would bite and then squirt formic acid from its abdomen into the bite which would cause some discomfort but not the excruciating pain that everyone talked about.  These ants however, would rarely come into the van.   They were not ants that sought human food as their main diet was other insects and grubs. 
Here in Katherine however, we have discovered a new ant to cohabit with.  Ginger ants (or the tropical fire ant) are tiny little brown ants which have become quite hard to live with since we arrived on our site.  Whenever we have stayed in the cabins at Knotts Crossing in the past, there have been signs placed in the cabins asking guests to put all food in the fridge or in airtight containers to prevent ginger ants contaminating food.  Now I understand what they meant.  My pantry has become a little treasure trove for these annoying pests.  In the past, I have put any half opened packets into a sealable glad bag to stop ants and keep the food reasonably fresh.  Potato chips, biscuits, coconut and sugar products kept fairly well in these bags until I had room in my containers.  I have only a limited amount of space for plastic containers to hold food so sometimes the bags were the best alternative.  Ginger ants are the 'houdinis' of the ant world and have managed to breach my sealed bags and spoil the food inside.   Now I will have to use airtight containers to store items I never really had to separate before.  This means that the jigsaw puzzle that is my pantry will go to a whole new level.
I had another rather unpleasant experience recently with ginger ants which I wasn't expecting.  I grabbed my towel after a shower and started to dry off before feeling like acid was burning my skin.  When I looked in the mirror, I was covered in ginger ants which were on my towel.  They had been attracted to something on my towel and were lurking in the pile so I didn't see them.  I brushed them off quickly but then came up in huge lumps where they had bitten me.  My neck, face and under my arms were red, itchy lumps within minutes and today I am covered with noticeable bites.  Not only is this annoying little ant a human food scavenger but it seems to have a nasty bite which causes a severe reaction.  I can only imagine that there must have been something sweet like toothpaste on my towel which attracted them but the experience was not nice.  I'm just grateful that they weren't on the girls towels when they used them after showering because it would have been nasty for them.  So it has become apparent to me that size definitely does not mean savagery in the ant world.  Small and mighty seems to be more appropriate in this case with the tiny ginger ant being far more nasty in bite and habits than the green ant.  It's going to be a continual war with these little critters I'm sure until we can find some way to live together without them annoying me or causing harm.

Mean green prickly critter

Recently, Becca was investigating another little critter when she received a nasty and painful sting.  There is a little grub or maybe a caterpillar which can be found around our site with all the armoury to demonstrate danger but also the stinging punch to back it up.  In nature, caterpillars tend to look fierce and threatening to keep predators away but in reality it's just a bluff.  Not this little green critter though.  It looks nasty and it feels nasty too.  Becca and I have come up in swollen whelts where this critter has touched our skin and caused a painful sting as well.

Not a grasshopper but a large dive
bomber nonetheless

Insect life here seems to take on either a miniature form or gigantic proportions.  Grasshoppers which congregate under the gazebo at night are huge.  Big enough to knock one senseless if they come your way as they do so frequently while I'm sitting outside at night.  I must have a target on me somewhere.  Brindle takes great pleasure in trying to chase one down while Karki regularly makes a meal of one.  It's far more acceptable finding a half eaten grasshopper on the annex doorstep as opposed to geckoes which have been unfortunately preyed on by our little tiger cat. 
Speaking of reptiles, we have not seen many lizards at all since settling here but Steve did come across an 8 foot brown snake one night just outside the park's boundary fence while walking the dog.  It had a girth of about 10 cm in diameter and it wasn't a python.  It was laying across the grass path outside the fence in the pitch darkness.  It was lucky that Steve was carrying a torch so he skirted around the large critter especially making sure that the dog didn't attempt to investigate. The snake wasn't interested in moving either.  Steve said that Brindle didn't appear to be overly interested in it which was lucky.  This experience just demonstrates that snakes are likely to be out at night in the tropics because it is still warm enough for them to be active.
The birdlife doesn't seem to be as prolific around our site in Katherine but then we were living near a national park in Kununurra so that's a no brainer really.  We are lucky enough though to have a nice outlook again from our site in Katherine.  Over the back fence of the caravan park is a massive open space which was once Katherine's airstrip.  From 1945 to 1975 air traffic landed behind our site and the once busy terminal is now the site of the towns' aviation museum.  All air traffic shifted to Tindal Air Force base when that was established in the 70's.  Having a great open space behind us allows us the opportunity to watch a different bird which we regularly heard but seldom saw in Kununurra.  The rainbird or pheasant coucal flits around in the long grass during the morning and evenings calling the rain.  It isn't a very good flyer because it has a very long tail but can fly in short bursts between low trees and shrubs.  It is reputed to bring rain when it calls which sometimes feels true but it's not consistent.  Little finches and wrens perch in the boundary fence wire at the back of our site and parrots frequent the trees around the caravan park.  The greater bowerbird also can be seen and heard around the park although I haven't found a bower yet.  I think it would probably be on the ground of the open space over the fence.  I did however find a very interestingly placed bower on a recent drive out to Edith Falls national park where a bowerbird had built his bower under a picnic bench.

A clever Edith Falls NP
bowerbird

No shortage of macropods

Having such a lot of open land behind us attracts wallabies by the dozens.  In the evenings they are everywhere around the old airstrip and graze during the night on the grass that surrounds the caravan park.  I wouldn't know what they are doing in the morning as I am up before the sun and bleary eyed for at least an hour by which time the wallabies would be all in the shade.  I know that they graze close to the boundary fence behind us because while I was sitting outside one night reading I heard the thump, thumping sound of them hopping nearby although it was too dark to see anything.
Perhaps our most fascinating encounter with wildlife since arriving in Katherine has been with fireflies.  We took the dog for a walk one Friday night after dark and did a circuit down the airstrip and across Gorge road then behind the cemetery and hospital.  There was no lighting on this path and the lightning was the only light flashing around us from a distant storm.  As we walked along I noticed what looked like escaping embers from a fire.  Our walking along the path was disturbing the fireflies and sending them flying into the air and glowing as they went.  Neither myself or the girls had ever seen them before and it was fantastic to watch these little glows of light flitting around us as we walked.  Becca decided that they were little 'Tinkerbells' flying around us.  Again we have experienced some new wildlife but also seen the usual suspects of the tropics but with different antics and habits as compared to our last home in Kununurra.  Let it continue.