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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

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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 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! Australia is full of your cousins— Zelda Possum marsupials! As you know, marsupials The cat-sized spotted- 101 Oak Tree Lane tailed quoll is the largest (mar-SOO-pee-ulz) give birth to tiny, Deep Green Wood, USA meat-eating marsupial helpless babies. Most have pouches for in mainland Australia. carrying their babies until they are old (The Tasmanian devil is enough to follow Mom around. Opossums bigger but lives on only like you are the only marsupials in the one island.) The quoll is United States. But Australia has more than happiest in Australia’s 150 kinds! rainforests, where there Love, Scarlett are plenty of trees to climb and insects, birds, 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. Like its kangaroo cousins, this HEĄR IT! Its long, striped tail helps it keepyellow-footed its balance in rock steep, wallaby rocky hopsplaces from where place other to place. JOHN CARNEMOLLA/AUSCAPE > JÜRGEN & CHRISTINE 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 crocodiles are smaller and calmer than thefreshwater more famous weedy sea dragon looks showy up close. But from a distance, those “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 The blue-ringed of a beaver and octopus is smaller WĄTCH IT! the bill and feet than a grownup’s of a duck, the hand. But it is one platypus is an of the deadliest animal oddball. animals in the sea. It’s a mammal— When it flashes its but the female bright blue rings, platypus lays watch out! It may eggs. And the bite —and its little male has sharp body holds enough points tipped with venom to kill 10 poison above his ROLAND SEITRE SEITRE ROLAND people. > back feet! ALEX MUSTARD/NPL ALEX 10 11 Hey, Boom, I saw an echidna today! It was TO : really cute, but you wouldn’t want Boomer Badger When a frilled to give it a hug. Here’s a joke for lizard is relaxed, you: What did the echidna say to 19 Dusty Burrow Road the flaps of skin around its face the cactus? Answer: Are you my Deep Green Wood, USA just hang loosely. mother? But when it’s I can’t believe I’m going home scared, the frills tomorrow. I’ll really miss this place. pop open like a Australia is weird and wonderful— sideways umbrella. just like you! That makes the Love, lizard look bigger Scarlett and scarier. If that doesn’t work, the lizard turns tail and races for the Over 2,000 species of grasshoppers nearest tree. live in Australia, but the Leichhardt’s grasshopper must be the most SYLVAIN CORDIER/BIOSPHOTO > beautiful. It doesn’t get around much, though. It lives its whole life on a single plant, working its way higher If the platypus isn’t strange and higher as it snacks on the leaves. enough for you, meet the echidna (ih-KID-nuh). Like the 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 HEĄR IT! of its body. When it spots a MARTIN WILLIS threat such as a dingo, the The laughing kookaburra is known for its echidna uses sharp claws call, which sounds like a cackling laugh. The to dig a shallow hole for its kookaburra is so popular in Australia that it soft underside. Only its sharp was picked as a mascot for the Olympics held prickles stay exposed. That INGO ARNDT here in the year 2000. dingo may decide to have D. PARER & E. PARER-COOK something else for dinner! = 12 13.
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