by Scarlett Fox, with help from Hannah Schardt Dear Rick, G’day from topsy-turvy Australia! It might be late fall back home, but down here it’s almost summer. (Australia is in the Southern Hemisphere, so seasons here are the opposite of ours in the United States.) Seasons aren’t the only things that are different Down Under. I’ve never met so many strange animals in my life. There are mammals that lay eggs! Birds that are taller than humans! And it seems that everywhere I turn, there’s an animal with a dangerous bite. Naturally, I LOVE it here! Can’t wait to show you all the photos I’ve taken of my new Aussie friends. More later—time to head back to the Outback! (That’s the dry, wild ASIA NORTHERN middle of the country.) HEMISPHERE

EQUATOR Wish you were here,

Scarlett AUSTRALIA SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE

ANTARCTICA

black-headed python eastern water dragon sugar glider emu quokka dingo

ALL PHOTOS FROM MINDEN PICTURES, PAGES 6–13: JÜRGEN FREUND/NPL (6L) >; BROOK WHATNALL/NGCREATIVE 6 (6M); THOMAS MARENT (6R); ROB DRUMMOND/BIA (7L); KEVIN SCHAFER (7M) >; MARTIN WILLIS (7R) 7 TO : G’Day, Zelda! Zelda Possum The cat-sized spotted- Australia is full of your cousins— tailed quoll is the largest marsupials! As you know, marsupials 101 Oak Tree Lane meat-eating marsupial (mar-SOO-pee-ulz) give birth to tiny, in mainland Australia. Deep Green Wood, USA (The Tasmanian devil is helpless babies. Most have pouches for bigger but lives on only carrying their babies until they are old one island.) The quoll is enough to follow Mom around. Opossums happiest in Australia’s like you are the only marsupials in the rainforests, where there United States. But Australia has more than are plenty of trees to 150 kinds! climb and insects, birds, Love, Scarlett and snakes to hunt. MARTIN WILLIS

A numbat is only as big as a squirrel. But it eats as many as 20,000 termites a day. Its long tongue and sticky spit are just right for slurping up the ant-like insects.

JOHN CARNEMOLLA/AUSCAPE > Like its kangaroo cousins, this yellow-footed rock wallaby hops from place to place.

HEĄR IT! Its long, striped tail helps it keep its balance in steep, rocky places where other JÜRGEN & CHRISTINE SOHNS/FLPA SOHNS/FLPA CHRISTINE & JÜRGEN > animals would struggle to get around. A Tasmanian devil makes a loud, growly

LUC HOOGENSTEIN/BUITEN-BEELD scream when it feels threatened. It’s the size of a miniature poodle, but it can catch prey as large as a small kangaroo. 8 9 Dear Rick, TO : Did you know that most of the Ranger Rick Raccoon animals in Australia’s oceans are found nowhere else on Earth? The Hollow Oak Tree rivers and streams here are also Deep Green Wood, USA packed with amazing critters. Just today, I got nose-to-bill with a platypus. I’m just glad it wasn’t a crocodile! More soon, Scarlett

ROGER POWELL/NIS

ALEX MUSTARD/NPL These guys may look fierce. But Australia’s This weedy sea dragon looks showy up close. But from a distance, those crocodiles are smaller and calmer than thefreshwater more famous “weedy” bits along its back and tail look just like pieces of kelp. So this seahorse saltwater crocs. A “freshie” spends its days lounging in an relative blends right in with the waving seaweed around it. inland creek or river. But when a tasty fish swims by The croc’s bite is lightning fast. —snap!

With the body of a beaver and The blue-ringed the bill and feet octopus is smaller WATCH IT! of a duck, the than a grownup’s platypus is an hand. But it is one animal oddball. of the deadliest It’s a mammal— animals in the sea. but the female When it flashes its platypus lays bright blue rings, eggs. And the watch out! It may male has sharp bite —and its little points tipped with body holds enough poison above his

venom to kill 10 back feet! ROLAND SEITRE SEITRE ROLAND

people. > ALEX MUSTARD/NPL ALEX

10 11 Hey, Boom, I saw an echidna today! It was TO : When a frilled really cute, but you wouldn’t want Boomer Badger lizard is relaxed, the flaps of skin to give it a hug. Here’s a joke for 19 Dusty Burrow Road around its face you: What did the echidna say to just hang loosely. the cactus? Answer: Are you my Deep Green Wood, USA But when it’s mother? scared, the frills I can’t believe I’m going home pop open like a tomorrow. I’ll really miss this place. sideways umbrella. — Australia is weird and wonderful That makes the just like you! lizard look bigger and scarier. If that Love, doesn’t work, the Scarlett lizard turns tail and races for the nearest tree. Over 2,000 species of grasshoppers SYLVAIN CORDIER/BIOSPHOTO > live in Australia, but the Leichhardt’s grasshopper must be the most beautiful. It doesn’t get around much, If the platypus isn’t strange though. It lives its whole life on a enough for you, meet the single plant, working its way higher echidna (ih-KID-nuh). Like the and higher as it snacks on the leaves. platypus, it seems to be a mish-mash of other animals: Like a bird, it lays eggs. Like a koala, it has a pouch for its babies. And like a hedgehog, it has sharp spines on most of its body. When it spots a HEĄR IT! threat such as a dingo, the

echidna uses sharp claws MARTIN WILLIS MARTIN The laughing kookaburra is known for its to dig a shallow hole for its call, which sounds like a cackling laugh. The soft underside. Only its sharp kookaburra is so popular in Australia that it prickles stay exposed. That was picked as a mascot for the Olympics held dingo may decide to have here in the year 2000. something else for dinner! =

INGO ARNDT D. PARER & E. PARER-COOK E. & PARER D.

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