I live in Tasmania, and it was very nice to see my two favourite Tassie animals make an appearance here. Echidnas, with their little backwards feet and cute waddle have longer fur and have bouts of torpor over the winter down here (in some parts of the mainland, they're essentially nocturnal to escape the daytime heat - for an "ancient species," they sure seem adaptable). Nothing makes me happier than hanging out with one in the wild. I love the way that yellow tailed black cockatoos contrast against the character and behaviour of many of our other larger parrots. Sulphur crested cockatoos are known to be boisterous and destructive, constantly shrieking, and there's a reason that "pack of galahs" is an Aussie idiom. The yellow tailed black cockatoos though, seem shy and sound like a creaky barn door. It's very nice to sit and enjoy their quiet company. Thanks for showcasing some of our beautiful forests!
So cool you got to bond with a local Echidna! I've only read that Tassie Echidnas love German house, so it's nice to get confirmation on that, getting into the deep convos down there, it's appreciated, thanks!
Watching these has made me realise how little I knew about Tasmanian flora. I'm a New Zealander and studied botany here. It amazes me how much similarity but also difference there is, but of course that makes total sense. The tree ferns and coprosmas are so familiar, but it feels weird to see them with eucalypts instead of just podocarps and beech.
My family holidayed in TAS back in 82. We spent a month traveling around the Island in a 78 Fairlane towing a caravan with three in the front, four in the back. My parents argued the whole time, it was great.
I live about an hour away from mount field, and it's so nice seeing your commentary on this area. Loved the echidna too! Keep up the good work. Also, the cockatoo you're hearing at the end of the video is a Yellow Tailed Black cockatoo, Anda funerea, relatively big for this area of the world, with a wing span of 2 feet.
@@Jack-mf5lw We are so lucky. We need to take it a bit less for granted (and stop doing what we're currently doing: being the biggest deforestation hotspot for a developed country), and do a bit of therapeutic urbanism for good measure (for people to more experience our nature day-to-day, which reduces stress & increases productivity, etc)
@@betula2137 Absolutely, don't give up and keep on fighting deforestation in every possible way! Peaceful or not just make it work, I live in an antinatural hell hole where every valley is filled with concrete, we spend a lot of gov money just to keep what's left of our biodiversity intact. There is no such thing as a first-growth forest here and people go to other countries just to "see nature", you cannot afford to lose this battle!
So much of what I pick up on this channel(other than the casual profanity and social critique) is bits like "Worlds largest Angiosperm"(Eucalyptus Ragnans) or "Only Parasitic Conifer"(Parasitaxus) etc. Stuff that sticks in your head and makes you curious enough to go look it up later to see what's what. I know a tiny bit about an incredibly vast subject that gets more and more interesting as I snoop around. Curse you Tony! And your pal Al too! I was perfectly happy messin' around with Musclecars until you got me into this shit
I used to live in Australia and I've been to Tassie 3 times. It's a gorgeous area, and the plants are just amazing. The rainforest of the Tarkine, in the North West of the island, is just stunning. You may read that it's hard to go there, but a few areas are within walking distance of some pretty good dirt roads. If you like temperate rainforest, there is also the Otways near Melbourne (North of the Great Ocean Road) which has stunning flora. And since you like desert plants too, I really urge you to explore the Mallee country (if you're still in Australia at the time of this video being released), with national parks like Hattah Kulkyne, Murray Sunset, Little Desert, and for plants, especially Wyperfeld. Most of the land surface of these parks is only accessible with 4WD, but the 2WD accessible areas are still enough to have an amazing taste of these desert plants. The australian desert has no cacti, but they make up for it with the gorgeous mallee style eucalypts, and the amazing diversity of birdlife.
The outback is so full of life. Also, the Tarkine is kind of under threat (currently being logged and mined and the money sent away from us too), even though it's worthy of being heritage listed (as the TWWHA is the highest-rated UNESCO site on Earth, and you only need 1 criterion to be listed)
So this is Tasmania. Read a bit of the history, it's original inhabitants and the arrival of the British. Sad story, we finally had our way. with an indigenous culture. Interesting plants and an amazing Cockatoo, as well as the Echidnae. Material culture-wise, I just got a new tv, and seeing your videos makes it even more worth-while, besides the video games I play on it.
A slightly more heart-warming story, though it's a tiny light in a sea of ineffable tragedy, is when the D'Entrecasteaux expedition visited Recherche Bay twice in the 18th century. The members were moved by the natural beauty, as one would be, and planted a garden. The second time round they met the local Lyluequonny, who had documented and named the plants in the garden in a scientific manner; one of the reasons the French were there was to document stars for navigation (the first written experiment done in Australia, of course science had been done for 40k years on Tasmania), and discussed with the unrivalled local knowledge. So many interesting stories too, of course, most are lost, but even the ones which come from few sources provide a bit to the imagination beyond the sense of loss. In a way war memorials should hold strongly, we had Tarenorerer who united formerly-warring nations to defend this Land (and got the closest to winning militarily, though she died after exile during the genocide), or Tongerlongeter who led his nation to help protect the ancient alliances and trade routes in the south-east. Sadly we know least about the west except for the sturdy villages built to withstand difficult weather, and as people who had lived in isolation for longer than the east.
You never fail to have me laughing and learning new things about our beautiful plant 🌍 thanks for high energy, realness and cute conversations with 'the only egg laying mammal' 🌟
love your videos , you should have popped over to New Zealand while you were close and looked at some of our ancient Kauri trees that are still standing . Keep doing what you do !!! bringing nature to the armchair
I went there today! Great spot. In the morning I was at the Big Trees walk in the rainforest, then drove up to the alpine area and spent the arvo there. What an awesome national park!
Loved Your previous video on Huon "Pines", I never knew it was a misnomer. Thanks for Your insight, You're a bloody legend, and from all My fellow Taswegians, I'm sure we appreciated having You here on the island, come back anytime :D
I love the mental transition from "some dude in the USA with the fast talk and the accent" ... "in Tasmania". Gives me a whole new way of looking at the country.
Oh man, I came back through Blue tier forest reserve after a trip to Bay of Fires when I visited Tasmania, and I gotta say it can't be understated how fucking cool it is to see a half Dozen Echidnas just chilling by the side of the road. Wish I spent more time there, but you can say that about just about any place in Tasmania!
I watched half, watched the rest a few days later, and watched the beginning again. Love the friendly echidna and cockatoo heckling, the giant eucalyptus, the orchids in the mass on the laaags....
@23:51 the mushroom you picked up looks to be from the family Russulaceae, but I'm not sure. I'm saying this based off of the fact that a lot of Russulas have similar gills, stems and characteristics. It has to be ectomycorrhizal as you said.
16:17 that is Chlorociboria aeruginascens, turquoise stain. I had to check its distribution to make sure. It is. Same stuff as in the states. The color is a compound called Xylandian. Used in medieval European inlay as "green oak". Not good for much, too punky. Stabilizes ok but a lot of color gets pulled-out in heat cure resins. Haven't tried alumilite and pressure yet.
The LIST Map is a handy resource by the way, with tasveg layers to spot some nice little spots, including the wet sclerophyll forest (with or without rainforest understorey), and temperate rainforest (Nothofagus or Atherosperma, or both). Some of the 'parklike' stands are at higher elevations, like near the Vale of Belvoir or the Rattler Range
😄"It's so funny what the British accent morphed into . . ." says the man with the very strong N.Y. accent! I cannot for the life of me figure out what you're saying about the carpark, even RU-vid subtitles are bamboozled. "A lot of people huffing fats in these car parks" is the first iteration, and "... huffed any fats in a cat pack" is the 2nd.🤣🤣🤣 Nevertheless, I love your videos. 🥰 (Disclaimer: my family moved from MI to AUS in 72. I've been in Tassie since 86.)
In the past week, I've been to SF Botanical Garden 2x, after never having gone before. Made me happy for you to reference a tree there that I (assume) I've seen.
Bird says: "hell yeah I can do this. Can do whatever I want here, Mr. Tourist from wherever, I am goddamn native, so... go fuck yourself, bye." And he does mean it in a friendly way❣️ Also, what Joey says about ppl not liking him after 15 minutes is the opposite of my impression from videos with guests. They almost all seem kind of shocked, certainly wary, and uncomfortable at first, then warm to him until they hate to see him go in the end. 😂
I also grow some stuff from South America because North America has kind of came in contact with it for a long time so it's not as bad and most are nightshades which potato beetles are great at controlling and they benefit native bumble bees but not the invasive honey bee
I really need to know how you seem to have all this amazing information ready to go. How are you so well-versed? I’m sure practical experience is essential, but do you have any reading/resource tricks or recommendations? That or I’m assuming you have a photographic memory haha
Alright, I said: Mr. Santoro, please restore my failing sympathy for humanity! Of course he did. And then we met an Echidna to boot! I feel fortified now, thanks.
Do you know what thirsty cement is if not would be ok looking it up and letting people know in your next video how useful it can be. Ok so if cities used it will reduce sand mining and help ecosystems and reduce flooding and increase groundwater aquifer and soil levels in cities.
Tasmania is definitely on the bucket list. They really could use a few tiger beetles, but still on the list. The birds and plants though, and can't argue with monotremes just waddling around
Have to tell you Tony, don't let an echidna climb into your car. Had to pick one up off a road up the hills near Melbourne once upon a time, which had an injury to its nose, a blood nose. Appeared healthy enough to release an hour or so later back near where I picked him/her up. No further bleeding and pretty feisty for an echidna, but I had to unbolt and remove the rear seat the SW Ford Cortina to get it out of the car after it had climbed under. Was maybe a junior, a little one, about 30cm or a foot from its arsehole to breakfast, and I have seen them much bigger. They're peaceful critters. Never met an angry echidna, which unlike the platypus male, do not have the venom spike on their rear ankle, which gives them a right to throw their weight around, so to speak. Not exactly like an angry moose or a hungry bear if you happen to be tied to a tree... Sometimes it is not a good idea to be a tree hugger protesting logging of habitat, because you may only tempt a hungry bear once. Or, so I am told by people with much more experience with large omnivores than I.
20:20 bird calls were corellas or cockatoos, not the rosies. Rosies are much quieter, more like chattering. (I also need to stop commenting before the end of the lesson 😇)
Hi great video also I was watching one of your other videos where you were planting trees in California illegally makes me happy can you do more of that?
I love those tree ferns I've tried to have them and I think my place is too dry, they croaked :( you showed a lot of restraint not petting the echidna, I think I would've tried lol so cute!
I was just in Baja and there was a tree with 3 cacti growing off it. It looked fake or something but the cacti were naturally growing originating as bird doodoo no doubt.
These southern temperate forests resemble the highland moist forests found in central america, with both contributions of ancient Antarctic flora and neotropical-australian elements. Maybe how earth looked 50 million years ago, when Antarctica still had forests. There not many broad leave evergreen temperate forests, most are deciduous or conifer evergreen. Southern china and Japan have them.
