Araucaria Wildlife: what you might see

On the Araucaria 3-day Wildlife Tour, we spot the animals listed below with varying frequency in the wild (some always, some often, some occasinally).

PLEASE NOTE: Although we can guarantee you will see wildlife, we cannot guarantee any particular species on any particular tour (although there are some we would be very surprised not to see!).

Mammals

• platypus (more often than not in warm months, less often in the shorter days o winter)
• echidna (occasionally)
• brush-tailed phascogale (very rarely)
• yellow-footed antechinus (occasionally)
• long-nosed bandicoot (occasionally)
• northern brown bandicoot (occasionally)
• koala (often in wild – almost always in Koala Information Centre)
• greater glider (occasionally)
• yellow-bellied glider (very rarely)
• sugar glider (occasionally)
• squirrel glider (occasionally – it’s a possum, not a squirrel)
• feathertail glider (only seen once so far)
• brushtail possum (almost always)
• bobuck or mountain brushtail (occasionally)
• rufous bettong (occasionally)
• red-necked pademelon (occasionally)
• red-legged pademelon (occasionally)
• red-necked wallaby (always)
• whiptail wallaby (almost always)
• eastern grey kangaroo (always)
• swamp wallaby (occasionally)
• red-legged pademelon (occasionally)
• red-necked pademelon (occasionally)
• other small bats (fairly often but briefly)
• black flying fox fox
• little red flying-fox (a fruitbat: always)
• grey-headed flying-fox (a fruitbat: always)
• bottle-nosed dolphin – usually
• humpbacked whale – (occasional,distant, May – Oct)

Birds

• brush turkey (fairly often)
• brown quail (occasionally)
• black-breasted button-quail (very rarely)
• pelican (fairly often)
• little pied cormorant (often )
• black cormorant (fairly often)
• little grebe (often)
• black duck (always)
• black swan (often)
• grey teal (fairly often)
• plumed whistling duck (fairly often)
• wandering whistling duck (occasionally)
• wood duck (always)
• magpie goose (occasionally)
• dusky moor-hen (always)
• Eurasian coot (always)
• purple swamphen (always)
• Lewin’s rail (very occasionally)
• nankeen night-heron (occasionally)
• cattle egret (always)
• intermediate egret (fairly often)
• black-necked stork (occasionally)
• yellow-billed spoonbill (fairly often)
• royal spoonbill (fairly often)
• white ibis (almost always)
• strawnecked ibis (always)
• glossy ibis (occasionally)
• pied stilt (often)
• comb-crested jacana (often)
• masked lapwing (always)
• red-kneed dotterell (occasionally)
• black-fronted dotterell
• white-faced heron (almost always)
• Lathan’s snipe (occasionally)
• white-faced heron (almost always)
• white-necked heron (fairly often)
• brown falcon (fairly often)
• peregrine falcon (occasionally)
• Australian hobby (occasionally)
• nankeen kestrel (almost always)
• Pacific baza (fairly often)
• wedge-tailed eagle (fairly often)
• black-shouldered kite (often)
• white-breasted sea-eagle (occasionally)
• brown goshawk (occasionally)
• brown cuckoo dove (often)
• wompoo fruitdove (fairly often)
• crested pigeon (always)
• bar-shouldered dove(almost always)
• crimson rosella (almost always)
• eastern rosella (almost always)
• pale-headed rosella (always)
• galah (always)
• king parrot (fairly often)
• rainbow lorikeet (always)
• red-tailed black cockatoo (fairly often)
• yellow-tailed black cockatoo (fairly often)
• scaly-breasted lorikeet (always)
• sulphur-crested cockatoo (almost always)
• channel-billed cuckoo (often in warm months)
• koel (often in warm months)
• pheasant coucal (almost always)
• shining Bronze-cuckoo (rarely)
• fan-tailed cuckoo (fairly often)
• barn owl (often)
• boobook owl (often)
• tawny frogmouth (often)
• marbled frogmouth (very occasionally)
• owlet nightjar (occasionally)
• white-throated nightjar (occasionally)
• dollarbird (almost always in warm months)
• forest kingfisher (fairly often)
• laughing kookaburra (always)
• rainbow bee-eater (fairly often)
• Sacred Kingfisher (fairly often)
• azure kingfisher (fairly often)
• noisy pitta (occasionally)
• varied sitella (occasionally)
• white-throated tree-creeper (fairly often)
• red-backed fairy-wren (often)
• variegated fairy-wren (often)
• superb fairy-wren (often)
• buff-rumped thornbill (occasionally)
• striated thornbill (occasionally)
• brown thornbill (often)
• white-browed scrub-wren (often)
• striated pardalote (often)
• spotted pardalote (often)
• bell miner (always)
• blue-faced honeyeater (often)
• Lewin’s Honeyeater (always)
• noisy miner (always)
• noisy friarbird (almost always)
• yellow-faced honeyeater (often)
• white-throated honeyeater (often)
• scarlet honeyeater (occasionally)
• eastern whipbird (almost always)
• grey-crowned babbler (occasionally)
• eastern yellow robin (almost always) – not related to Northern Hemisphere robins
• grey shrike-thrush (often)
• little shrike-thrush (occasionally)
• golden whistler (fairly often)
• rufous whistler (fairly often)
• crested shrike-tit (very occasionally)
• black-faced monarch (occasionally)
• spectacled monarch (occasionally)
• magpie-lark (always)
• grey fantail (almost always)
• rufous fantail (often)
• willy wagtail (always)
• leaden flycatcher (occasionally)
• spangled drongo (fairly often)
• figbird (almost always)
• olive-backed oriole (often)
• catbird (fairly often)
• regent bowerbird (occasionally)
• satin bowerbird (fairly often)
• blackfaced cuckooshrike (always)
• varied triller (occasionally)
• Australian magpie (always)
• pied butcherbird (always)
• grey butcherbird (always)
• pied currawong (almost always)
• Torresian crow (always)
• welcome swallow (always)
• Richard’s pipit (occasionally)
• double-bar finch (occasionally)
• chestnut-breasted finch (occasionally)
• red-browed finch (often)

Reptiles (mostly in warm months)

• short-necked turtle (almost always)
• robust velvet gecko (occasionally)
• bearded dragon (often)
• southern angle-headed dragon (occasionally)
• eastern water dragon (often)
• other dragon lizards (occasionally)
• lace monitor (fairly often)
• land mullet (fairly often)
• pink-tongued skink (occasionally)
• wall skink (almost always)
• delicate skink (often)
• secretive skink (occasionally)
• other skinks (often)
• small-eyed snake (occasionally) – shy snake, usually seen from bus window at night
• yellow-faced whipsnake (occasionally) – shy snake, sometimes suns itself on grass
• red-naped snake (very rarely)
• Stephen’s banded snake (rarely)
• golden-crowned snake (occasionally)
• green tree snake (occasionally) – nonvenomous
• brown tree snake (occasionally) – has venom but being rear-fanged cannot easily bitre humans
• carpet python (fairly often) – nonvenomous
• spotted python (very rarely) – nonvenomous

Frogs (mostly on warm wet nights)

• broad-palmed rocket frog Litoria latopalmata (fairly often)
• eastern sedgefrog Litoria fallax (fairly often)
• green tree frog Litoria caerula (often)
• stony creek frog Litoria leseuri (fairly often)
• striped rocket frog Litoria nasuta (fairly often)
• naked or purple tree frog Litoria rubella (often)
• emerald-spotted tree-frog Litoria peronii (occasionally)
• striped marsh-frog Lymnodynatses peronii (fairly often)
• spotted marsh-frog Lymnodynatses tasmaniensis (fairly often)
• ornate burrowing frog Lymnodynatses ornatus (fairly often)
• scarlet-sided pobblebonk Lymnodynatses terraeginae (occasionally)
• great barred frog Mixophyes fasiculatus (heard fairly often, seen occasionally)
• (plus others we hear at night, varying with season and weather but always something calling)
• (also the introduced cane toad Bufo marinus, almost always

Fish

• long-finned eel (often)
• eel-tailed catfish (also called dewfish) (often – sometimes in summer we see their nests)
• Australian smelt (often)
• freshwater mullet (often)

Butterflies

• wanderer (not native, the “monarch” of North America) (almost always)
• lesser wanderer (often
• blue tiger (fairly often – sometimes in large numbers)
• common crow (often)
• common brown (fairly often)
• common eggfly (fairly often)
• blue triangle (occasionally)
• orchard swallowtail (fairly often)
• Richmond birdwing butterfly (very occasionally)
• evening brown (often)
• jezebel (occasionally) – picturerd above
• caper white (fairly often – sometimes in large numbers)
• common yellow (often)
• various blues (almost always
• various others

Spiders (mostly harmless, many only active at night)

• huntsman spiders (big but not dangerous)
• wolf spiders (bright eyeshine at night, big but not dangerous)
• golden orb-weaver (sometimes very big, but not dangerous)
• other orb-weavers
• leaf-curl spider
• water spider
• giant water spider
• spiny spider
• crab spiders
• jumping spiders
• St Andrew’s cross spider
• trapdoor spiders (burrows seen on some tours)
• funnelweb (funnels seen more often on day-tours to Lamington NP)
• various oters

The only dangerous spiders in the district – red-backed and funnelweb – have so far not been seen on tour (we do sometimes see funnels of funnelwebs in the forests, but they are not generally active during the day, and even at night you’d have to try pretty hard to get bitten).

Other invertebrates

A red and white freshwater cray is sometimes seen in the rainforest creeks below the border, very similar to the blue ones we sometimes see on day tours to Lamington NP

Small crabs of various species are seen in the mangroves near the David Fleay Wildlife Park

Land snails, or more commonly their shells, are sometimes found in the rainforest, including some of Gondwanan ancestry. Patterns made by traingle slugs are seen on eucalypts, and occasionally the slug itself

Various molluscs, jellyfish, spnges and other creatures are sometimes washed onto the beach at Fingal, jellyfish are sometimes seen in the sea, and at low tide we can see chitons, galeolaria worms and other rocky shore animals

Flatworms, large earthworms and other creatures turn up from time to time in the forests