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Photo slideshow of
Australia
Photo highlights from
Australia
. More pictures from
Australia
are available at
Australia
images. Unless otherwise specified, images were taken by Rhett A. Butler and are copyright mongabay.com 1994-2009.
This slideshow presently lacks captions. In the meantime, captions for all the photos are available at
Australia
images.
If you are interested in buying prints or high resolution downloads of any of these images, you can do so via the
Australia
photo gallery. Prints and high resolution images are "clean" — they don't carry the "PROOF" label.
Buy prints/high resolution downloads. Find the caption/description for this image at
Australia
images.
Slideshows:
Alaska |
Amazon |
Argentina |
Australia |
Belize |
Borneo |
Brazil |
Cambodia |
China |
Colombia |
Costa Rica |
Croatia |
Gabon |
Grand Canyon |
Guatemala |
Honduras |
India |
Indonesia |
Italy |
Kauai |
Kenya |
Laos |
Madagascar |
Malaysia |
Maui |
Mexico |
New Zealand |
Oceans |
Panama |
Peru |
Slovenia |
Sumatra |
Suriname |
Tanzania |
Thailand |
Uganda |
Utah
News on Australia
Pygmy hippo shot and killed in…Australia
(11/17/2009)
Hunters going after pigs in Australia's Northwest Territories got a big surprise when they shot an animal they mistook for a pig, only to find out it was a pygmy hippopotamus, reports the Northwest Territory News.
45 new snail species discovered on Australian islands
(09/17/2009)
Surveys on islands off the coast in the Kimberley region of Western Australia have discovered at least 45 new species of snail.
Oil spill off Australia potential 'disaster' for marine wildlife
(08/30/2009)
Oil is leaking from an offshore drilling rig in the Timor Sea near Australia's Northwest coast. Authorities say it will be weeks before the leak is plugged: they are awaiting the arrival of a drilling rig from Singapore to plug the leak.
Loss of Great Barrier Reef due to global warming would cost Australia $37.7 billion
(08/12/2009)
A recent study reports that the loss of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef due to climate change poses a catastrophe not just for marine life, but would cost $37.7 billion during the next century.
Tasmania gets Australia's first CCB-certified REDD deal
(07/27/2009)
A forest conservation project in Tasmania has become Australia's first Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) project to meet Climate, Community and Biodiversity Standards.
Temperate forests store more carbon than tropical forests, finds study
(07/17/2009)
Temperate forests trump rainforests when it comes to storing carbon, reports a new assessment of global forest carbon stocks published July 14th in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). The findings have important implications for efforts to mitigate climate change by protecting forests. Sampling and reviewing published data from nearly 100 forest sites around the world, Heather Keith, Brendan G. Mackey, and David B. Lindenmayer of Australian National University found that Australia's temperate Eucalyptus forests are champions of carbon storage, sequestering up to 2,844 metric tons of carbon per hectare, a figure that far exceeds previous estimates. These forests, located in the Central Highlands of Victoria in southeastern Australia, are dominated by giant Mountain Ash (Eucalyptus regnans) trees, which can reach a height of 320 feet and live for more than 350 years. They are also favored by the timber industry. Mountain Ash forests have been widely logged across Australia, with only limited old-growth stands remaining.
A Tasmanian tragedy? : How the forestry industry has torn an island apart
(07/02/2009)
This is by no means a new battle: in fact, Tasmanian industrial foresters and environmentalists have been fighting over the issue of clearcutting the island’s forests for decades. The battle—some would probably prefer 'war'—is over nothing less than the future of Tasmania. Some Tasmanians see the rich forests that surround them in terms of income, dollars and cents; they see money literally growing on trees, or more appropriately growing on monoculture plantations and government owned native forests. They see the wilderness of Tasmania as an exploitative resource.
The living dead - Australia's disappearing landscape
(06/24/2009)
Gum trees dot the hills and valleys of south-eastern Australia, a vivid fixture of the rolling landscape. But despite the seeming health of these iconic trees, they have earned the morbid nickname "the living dead" among ecologists, who say natural changes and human actions are threatening the next generation of gum trees. The gum trees that are scattered through the landscape are naturally dying off at a rate of one to two percent each year. With no replacement, researchers fear more than 100,000 square kilometers of land could be virtually treeless within the next 100 years.
Will jellyfish take over the world?
(06/16/2009)
It could be a plot of a (bad) science-fiction film: a man-made disaster creates spawns of millions upon millions of jellyfish which rapidly take over the ocean. Humans, starving for mahi-mahi and Chilean seabass, turn to jellyfish, which becomes the new tuna (after the tuna fishery has collapsed, of course). Fish sticks become jelly-sticks, and fish-and-chips becomes jelly-and-chips. The sci-fi film could end with the ominous image of a jellyfish evolving terrestrial limbs and pulling itself onto land—readying itself for a new conquest.
Extinction of Christmas Island Pipistrelle bat predicted in less than six months
(06/03/2009)
The Australasian Bat Society predicts that the Christmas Island Pipistrelle bat has less than six months left until extinction, unless measures are taken immediately to set-up a captive breeding population.
Australia delays climate measures, but raises targets
(05/06/2009)
Australia on Monday abruptly shifted its climate policy to give polluting industries more time to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
New Australian dolphin spits at food
(04/13/2009)
Only recognized as a new species in 2005, the snubfin dolphin has been observed spitting jet streams of water at schools of fish. Spitting at the fish helps the dolphins round them up into groups where they are easier to catch.
Revolutionary new theory overturns modern meteorology with claim that forests move rain
(04/01/2009)
Two Russian scientists, Victor Gorshkov and Anastassia Makarieva of the St. Petersburg Nuclear Physics, have published a revolutionary theory that turns modern meteorology on its head, positing that forests—and their capacity for condensation—are actually the main driver of winds rather than temperature. While this model has widespread implications for numerous sciences, none of them are larger than the importance of conserving forests, which are shown to be crucial to 'pumping' precipitation from one place to another. The theory explains, among other mysteries, why deforestation around coastal regions tends to lead to drying in the interior.
Have Australian cane toads finally met their match?
(03/31/2009)
This weekend in Queensland, Australia the government held the first 'Toad Day Out' where hundreds of locals went hunting for the invasive cane toad, catching an estimated 10,000 toads to be euthanized. At the same time, researchers announced in the journal Functional Ecology that they may have discovered a native Australian species that will finally rout the cane toad—and it's not man. The meat ant is a notoriously aggressive and abundant insect which is known to consume anything edible, including the scientists argue, cane toads.
Ebay bidders to decide new shrimp's name
(03/24/2009)
A new way to raise conservation funds has captured attention worldwide. The Australian Marine Conservation Society (AMCS) has auctioned the naming rights of a newly discovered species of shimp Ebay. "The shrimp is in the group or genus of shrimps known as Lebbeus, but is awaiting the addition of a unique species name," said Anna McCallum, a Melbourne scientist who discovered the new species in deep waters off the Southwest coast of Australia.
Time to give up on Tasmanian tiger, says DNA expert
(03/02/2009)
Money and energy spent on finding the Tasmanian tiger should be used for other conservation purposes, according to Dr. Jeremy Austin from the University of Adelaide’s Centre for Ancient DNA. The Tasmanian tiger, or Thylacine, has captured the imagination of cryptozoologists ever since the last known individual died in the 1936 in the Hobart Zoo, which closed the next year. There have been several unreported sightings throughout the island since the 1930s, including inconclusive photos taken by German tourists.
Little-known flatback sea turtle receives extra attention at symposium in Australia
(02/17/2009)
Beginning today in Brisbane, Australia, the 29th annual Symposium on Sea Turtle Biology and Conservation will feature the flatback sea turtle, native to Australia and probably the least-studied of the marine turtle species. For a hundred years biologists debated as to how closely the flatback marine turtle was related to the green sea turtle. Several unique attributes of the flatback came to the forefront. The name ‘flatback’ describes the turtle’s distinct flattened carapace. The species also lays the largest eggs of any sea turtles, proportional to their size. However, perhaps most distinctly the flatback is the only marine turtle to call one nation home. The flatback forages, mates, and lays eggs along Australia’s coats; its penchant for swimming, rather than riding oceanic currents, keeps it from migrating across oceans as other turtle do.
Japanese paper firms contribute to destruction of old-growth forests in Tasmania
(02/15/2009)
A new report released by Australian conservation groups The Wilderness Society and Still Wild, Still Threatened shows that despite claims to the contrary, Japanese paper manufacturers are the purchasers of wood chips derived from the destruction of Tasmania’s old growth forests.
Ocean acidification is killing the Great Barrier Reef
(01/01/2009)
Since 1990 the growth of coral in Australia's Great Barrier Reef has slowed its lowest rate in at least 400 years as a result of warming waters and ocean acidification, report researchers writing in Science. The finding portends a bleak near-term future for the giant reef ecosystem as well as calcifying marine organisms around the world.
A cure for the Tasmanian devil's strange and fatal cancer?
(11/21/2008)
Researchers have announced that two Tasmanian devils have survived a cancer devastating their species after receiving inoculations of dead tumor cells, according to the International Herald. However, the inoculations have not worked on every devil – despite being inoculated four devils died from the cancer during the work.
Two new species of gecko discovered in Australia
(10/31/2008)
Two species of gecko have been discovered in the southern deserts of Western Australia and South Australia, report researchers from the Western Australian Museum.
Extinct since 1963, wild eastern quolls discovered in Australia
(10/16/2008)
Two eastern quoll have been found as roadkill on the Australian mainland. Although considered extinct in Australia since 1963, these carnivorous marsupials remain abundant on the island of Tasmania.
Kangaroos at risk from climate change
(10/16/2008)
A 2°C-rise in temperature could trigger significant range contraction for kangaroos in Australia and put one species at high risk of extinction, reports research published in the December issue of Physiological and Biochemical Zoology.
100 new species of sharks and rays discovered in Australia
(09/19/2008)
Scientists have described 100 new species of sharks and rays in the seas around Australia.
Thought-to-be-extinct frog rediscovered in Australia
(09/11/2008)
Scientists have rediscovered a thought-to-be-extinct species of frog in a creek in Northern Australia. The find offers hope that some species have survived a fungal epidemic that has devastated the amphibians of Queensland.
For Australian beetles bigger is better; while American beetles don't care about size
(09/03/2008)
Researchers have discovered a dung beetle that may be evolving into separate species in a few decades rather than thousands or millions of years. Separated geographically, sub-populations of the species show large differences in the size of their genitalia and horns. Such distinctions could create new species in a short time, because beetles with largely different genitalia cannot successfully mate.
40% of Australia is undisturbed wilderness
(08/27/2008)
More than 40 percent of Australia—three million square kilometers—is undisturbed wilderness, reports a new study by Pew Environment Group and Nature Conservancy. The extent of Australia's wildlands ranks with the Amazon rainforest, Antarctica, Canada's boreal forest, and the Sahara as the largest on the planet.
Google, Australia give big boost to geothermal power production
(08/20/2008)
Geothermal energy got a big boost this week with Google and the Australian government announcing multi-million initiatives that make use of Earth's heat as a clean and renewable source of power.
Humans - not climate - drove extinction of giant Tasmanian animals
(08/11/2008)
Humans — not climate change — were responsible for the mass extinction of Australia's megafauna, according to a new study published this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Woolworths drops contract with APP, activist group remains wary
(08/10/2008)
Last week Woolworths announced it was dropping its contract with Asian Pulp and Paper (APP). Woolworths had come under considerable fire for carrying APP, which has a notorious record of environmental degradation on the Indonesian island of Sumatra. Previously APP has lost contracts with several other large companies including Office Depot, Wal-Mart, and Staples. APP has also fallen foul of several environmental groups like the World Wildlife Fund, the Rainforest Alliance, and the Forest Stewardship Council, which certifies sustainable wood products.
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