Tuesday, April 23, 2013
quicko: deer
The last of this small series of MIA Australian animals (which, alas, I have just realized I alluded to ages ago when I first came ... but never mind, I'm sure you can do with a reminder) -- deer. I saw one in the zoo (!!), but am pretty sure there are none, shall we say, naturally occurring here.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
Here in America, we only get to see kangaroos in the zoo, but deer aplenty in our back yards. I imagine there is a good reason God didn't stick deer in Australia, probably similar to the reason He didn't stick rabbits there or koalas here. Think how boring it would be if all the animals lived everywhere; there would hardly be reason to travel to exotic places!
We apparently have lots of feral red deer in various forests in Queensland (not that I've seen any but then I don't go bush-walking a lot). I've heard that they really like the gardens of western Brisbane residents and are a danger on those roads at night.
Some silly person brought them here and then let them loose. They became so ubiquitous that they ended up on our Coat of Arms.
Hmm, seems the silly person who sent them over was Queen Vic. According to Wikipedia: "The red deer has a more regal origin; along with being a traditional and classic beast of heraldry, Queen Victoria gave the newly created colony a herd of deer from the royal hunting ground—hence their inclusion upon the arms."
There are plenty of deer in Australia. Deer Park is a campsite in the national park that many camps are held at - it's called that for all the deer. They are not as widely spread as kangaroos though.
Post a Comment