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Real Deal BearsThis is what I found the other day in my garden near the house. 
I thought he was so cute, he even lifted his head up for me to take a pic of him 
Hi Chris,
I had one of those little fellows in mine a few weeks ago, just love it when they eat all the ants....great pic, I know how hard it is to get one of their face....they're usually so shy!
LutonOh how cute!!!
Claire
puca bearsWow - that's really something!!! In all the eight years I lived in Oz, I only ever saw ONE echidna
huggies
Mar 
ia
Melbourne, AustraliaChris I love echidnas...we have one of those too at Beechworth.
We call him SPIKE!
Tami Eveslage Original Teddy BearsThank you for saying "echidna". I was thinking "Awe, cute! What is it?" It looks like a hedgehog.
LutonI thought it was a hedgehog too!!!
D'oh!!!!!!!!!!
LOL
Claire
Oh, how cuuuuuute!!!
Bears by Jodi
Chaska, MinnesotaYou lucky duck!! How fun to find this little guy in your yard....
We don't have those here, except in zoos. How fun to find one wandering in your yard. Cute!
*laughing* Tami, Im with you...I had no idea what it was..I was thinking hedgehog or small porcupine.
Ok, so here is a new question...what type of animal do we have here that they dont have there. You know, something we take for granted because we see it all the time......
Bear Hugs,
Kim
puca bearsBEARS , Kim????
huggies
Maria
LuxembearsI thought it was a hedgehog too. How cute...but I have never even heard of an echidna.
When we went to Disney World in Florida a couple of years ago we were walking to our hotel room when my husband said, " Look! There's a pig-looking thing in that bush" (he had only caught a glimps of the face)...it was an armadillo. It was so darn cute. We don't have those types of animals in our neck of the woods...or hedghogs or echidas.
Neither Australia or New Zealand has racoons, beavers, skunks, chipmunks, or squirrels, badgers, moles....or moose (ok so mixing up european and american mammals here!)
We do have possums....the ones in Australia are smaller and cuter the ones here are big ol' nasty things and I feel the way about them that Shelli does about racoons. We don't have foxes but I think Australia might??
Australia has the most fantastic animals: all those fab mammals and marsupials like echidnas, koalas, wombats, kangaroos, platypus etc etc
New Zealand has only one native mammal - two species of bat which are tiny and live in really remote parts of the bush. We have loads of introduced mammals and as in Australia many of those have had destructive effects on the environment - rabbits in particular but also things like stoats, ferrets, rats, thar, wallabies here in NZ (aussie imports) and domestic and feral cats.
Unlike Europe or America, there's nothing higher in the food chain to eat these things and so they thrive and are incredibly destructive to the native birds and insects.
Interestingly here in NZ, because we had no mammals our insects and birds tend towards gigantism - thus birds like the kiwi and takahe who are heavy non flying birds, and big insects like giant weta. Oh we also have the oldest type of reptile in the world - the tuatara.
I would love to see some of your Northern Hemisphere animals - especially those little ones. They have formed so much a part of my childhood reading but they are almost mythical to me!
oh...another import that did make it here and I never realised wasn't in aus or the US is the humble little hedgehog. I love hedgehogs - they are very cute.
Wow...I have never heard of half of those animals...didn't realize I was so "uneducated" about animals in other countries! Boy do I feel dumb *hanging my head in shame*
I never thought about you not having pesky raccoons. I have 6 that visit my house often and actually sit at my sliding glass door and knock on the glass for more cat food!
Aww your missing out with the chipmunks and squirrels! I have several that reside in my backyard. I swear they stick around just to drive my dogs nuts with their chirping *grin* I'll trade ya a squirrel or raccoon for a koala!
I have attached a pic of some of our raccoons..note the one in the back "washing" his hands in the water bowl before he starts to eat.
puca bearsOh I am SO jealous!!! I just love racoons, with their "bandit" masks....they are certainly NOT native here, but some are kept as pets, and I believe there are some escapees now living wild. We have plenty of squirrels around here (red ones), and one of my all-time favourite animals - pine martens...I'll have a look for a pic tomorrow and scan one in.
huggies
Maria
Posts: 1,836How cute is he?! Look at that loooonng nosie!! 
Well, squirrels I have plenty of!!
Oh I am so jealous!!! Look at those racoons and those squirrels. You are so lucky. And I still can't get my head around the fact that some of you like Daphne and Dilu have real live bears visit your back garden.
awww great pic Chris! You must have been patient to get him to lift his head like that!
I see them sometimes on my dog walks, or beside the road, but they are such masters of camouflage I am sure more see me than I see them 
Ahh Squirrels, they are SOOOOOOOO soooooo cute! lol they aren't good pet material are they? They look like they would be the cutest pets- as well as chipmunks. Raccoons are adorable too.... Deer are so pretty at a distance (had a close call with a deer last time I was there- poor Deer:( )
Yes we do have Foxes Melissa- there are now foxes in Tasmania and are trying to eradicate them before they decimate the wildlife there.
I always feel so fortunate to see wild creatures, even the bunnnies and foxes that are technically pests here.
Real Deal BearsOh I just adore squirells, I had never seen any untill I had a holiday in England.
I could have watched them all day
Mellisa, that was so interesting reading about your animals in NZ, I had no idea what you had besides the Kiwi of course
Kallie, I love those racoons, I haven't seen a real one only pics, and thats a great shot. :photo:
I sometimes have Koala's in the yard and Kangaroo's wander through.
But this little achidna is a resident. I shouldn't say little because he is big for an echidna.
It is really great seeing animals from our yards across the world. 
WienChris, I guess, even at your place this is a rare sight, right? And so sweet!
Kim, your racoons are adorable! Is it true, that so many of them have rabies?
Gaby
Chris
Last time I came to Melbourne I went to the zoo. I was totally excited to see the bears - extra special because when we arrived their area the keepers were there hiding food in barrels and in rocks in the river and trees etc so we got to see them in the water, and climbing and so forth.
I was most excited to see the Aussie animals...tee hee all I saw was a Koala's bum! I'm sure they heard our Kiwi accent and hid deliberately. Not a single echidna, wombat or koala would come out to say hello. Found the snakes section fascinating. Apart from an encounter with a water snake when I was in New Caledonia, I've never ever seen a snake. We're a complete snake free zone - as far as I'm aware none of our zoos have them either.
I might be coming to Melbourne again in a fortnight's time for work. If I do go I might have to see if I can fly in early the day before and go to the zoo again.
As you can see by the photo, I just dropped some food out there for them so I could get some good pics. As far as rabies, I dont think they do, but I certainly dont want to find out. I havent heard of a case of rabies in years!
You should hear these critters eat! They snort and hiss at each other and sound so mean, but in reality, I can stand out there with them and I never feel threaten at all.
Well I'm off to get some work done.
Bear Hugs,
Kim
