Another garden buddy

[Scotts1au]

I have a couple Eastern blueys here in Central Victoria (South Eastern part of mainland Australia) that frequent my garden. Occassionally I'll hear rustling and there is another one.

I think it helps for folk to get a better appreciation for locality specific traits by actually just posting photos of local animals. This one was in my garage the other day, but I caught him shamelessly eating my strawberries a few days later.

I'm guessing another male.

Note that he is missing a front leg. Sorry about the mobile phone quality photos.

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[Jeff]

Great pictures Scott. Please don't stop posting any wild ones you come across. That one looks like quite a "tough guy" with the missing body parts and all.

[Scotts1au]

Yeh missing the end of his tail too. It is not unusual for them to have multiple scars.

Here is a local Shingle for good measure too. From Wellsford Forest just out of Bendigo. R.rugosa aspera

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[Jeff]

That looks like a nice healthy one too. I still can't really imagine seeing wild ones. They would just look so out of place here. I can't wait until I get to go herping in OZ some day.

[Scotts1au]

Actually just a quick note on the photo above. Just in front of this girls face is a hole. This is a "bush yabby" (a crayfish that digs down in to the clay) hole which are littered through T.rugosa habitat - it is not uncommon after a rain in summer to find these yabbies throughout the bush - often they just die in the bush, I'm sure they form part of the rugosa diet.

[Jeff]

Now you have me interested in "bush yabbys". How can they live on dry land? Don't they need to be in the water?

[Katrina]

Great photos - thanks for sharing. That Eastern does look tough!

And really cool about the crayfish.

[Scotts1au]

Yeh there is not a lot of information about them. I think they are also referred to as burrowing yabbies or black yabbies. I note reference to them on the web as being in Western Victoria etc but here the kids have great fun going through the bush picking up yabby shells etc. Anyway I have dug them up before (years ago) basically they can be down a metre or so and live in a muddy hole in the clay for much of the year. I imagine they are a good source of protein. Even their cast off shells would provide a food source.

[RoryBreaker]

In most parts of Queensland, holes like that contain spiders with the lovely name ," Bird Eater" in front of it .

[critterguy]

Crayfish can breathe on land so long as the gills remain wet. Those holes they dig need to hit the water table for them to survive. I'm sure the occasional one gets eaten by blueys.

[Richard.C]

Nice pics scott,he looks alot like the old warhorse male eastern living at my folks place,missing a third of its front leg to and tail tip,with lots of scarring down body,your wildy looks alot lighter though,the stumpy looks like a gravid female,if not gravid,in great shape female prepping for next season