Eastern grey kangaroos are known locally as foresters in Tasmania. These two were getting into a bit of a scuffle late in the afternoon. As soon as they started, it seemed they were back to grazing side by side again. Photographed in Narawntapu National Park. Nikon D810 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 350mm) ISO 400, f/5.6 at 1/320th of a second.
I took this photo fifteen years ago when I was just starting out in wildlife photography. I regret that I didn’t take more than just one shot and that I didn’t get down on the level with this mudskipper to isolate the subject and blur out the background. I haven’t seen another one since. I consider this more of a document-of-seeing-the-animal type of shot than anything else. Mudskippers are interesting little creatures. They’re fish, in fact. But they are amphibious and live inside and outside of the water. As the name would suggest, they spend most of their time skipping around in mud flats. This one was in Daintree National Park in the northeast corner of Australia. But there are 32 different species of mudskipper and they range throughout the Indo-Pacific, from Africa, through Polynesia and into Australia. I figured after fifteen years, it was worth a post for the interest of the animal itself if not the skill of the photographer.Nikon D200 with Nikkor 600mm f/5.6 lens, ISO 200, f/5.6 at 1/13th of a second.
I used just a touch of off camera flash to illuminate this Tasmania pademelon coming out of the darkness on a pre-dawn morning on Maria Island, which is just off the east coast of Tasmania. Pademelons are very small macropods (the family that kangaroos and wallabies belong to). Nikon D810 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 260mm) ISO 800, f/8 at 1/160th of a second.
It’s a little messy down there in the undergrowth, but that’s the way echidnas like it. These Australia natives seem to always have that snout in the ground routing around for ants. Echidnas are monotremes, one of the three groups of living mammals — the other two being marsupials and placentals. Platypus are also monotremes and like the echidna they do something that no other mammal does — they lay eggs. I photographed this one in northern Tasmania while on a hike. Nikon D810 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 400mm) ISO 800, f/4 at 1/200th of a second.
These guys are big, robust lizards with short limbs. And they have a pretty cool tongue. Actually a really cool tongue. You can kind of see it in this picture taken at the Bonorong Wildlife Sanctuary in Tasmania. Nikon D800 with Nikkor 105mm macro lens, ISO 800, f/4.5 at 1/250th of a second.
Always a bonus to capture wild mothers with their babies. Here are a few from around the globe:
Lion mothers with their cubs, Botswana (Nikon D300 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens at 240mm, ISO 400, f/5.6 at 1/400th of a second).
Coastal brown bear and cubs, Alaska (Nikon D500 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens at 400mm, ISO 800, f/4 at 1/2000th of a second).
Hanuman langur mother with baby, India (Nikon D300 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens at 350mm, ISO 800, f/4 at 1/400th of a second).
And Bennett’s wallaby mom with her joey, Tasmania (Nikon D810 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens at 340mm, ISO 1600, f/4.5 at 1/1000th of a second).
Bonorong Wildlife Sanctuary is a rehabilitation center in Tasmania for orphaned and injured animals. During my visit, I was able to get some nice daytime pics of the usually nocturnal eastern quoll. Their cute appearance belies the fact they are a carnivorous marsupial in the same family as the Tasmanian devil. Nikon D810 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 200mm) ISO 1600, f/4.5 at 1/400th of a second.
Even though they waddle along at their own pace, short-beaked echidnas can be hard to photograph because they rarely lift their snouts from the ground. This one seemed to have hit the mother load of ants somewhere inside that mossy patch. Photographed near Cradle Mountain National Park in Tasmania, Australia. Nikon D800 with Nikkor 17-35mm lens (at 35mm) ISO 800, f/4 at 1/1000th of a second.
Eastern rosellas are another of Australia’s many spectacularly plumed birds. There are six species with many more subspecies of these colorful parrots. I actually spotted this one on the grounds of the airport in Tasmania’s capital city of Hobart, just as I was about to return my rental car and fly home. The low angle actually hides some of the color — there’s more green and red behind the blur of grass. Nikon D810 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 400mm) ISO 400, f/4 at 1/400th of a second.
I’ve posted a few of these rare white wallabies before. Here’s another one carrying a joey. The white morph isn’t always passed on to the babies. In fact, more often than not, the joey is born without the genetic anomaly. Bruny Island off the coast of Tasmania is one of the best places to see white wallabies. Nikon D810 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 350mm) ISO 1600, f/5.6 at 1/250th of a second.