The Stump Tailed Skink is a wayside lizard that looks like the remains of an exhausted draft stopper. In some parts of the country it's known as "the double header" because it looks the same at either end. The stored fat in its tail, gives it a shape similar to its head.
The Spider
How often the site of an unsightly spider, suspended of an Australian morning across some pathway, has been graced with the whooshing sound of your angry umbrella or arm, helplessly flinging it into the adjacent vegetation. Yet the repulsive spider may secretly be the object of admiration of those who regard self-sacrifice as the highest of virtues.
The reason for this admiration lies in the fact that Australian scientists have identified a species of mother spider who far from being vicious or eating her husband, turns around and does just the opposite, encouraging baby spiders to bite off her limbs and then slowly dine on them over a period of weeks. This lovely maternal sacrifice is to keep the young from eating one another.
The Koala
Koalas suffer from inbreeding in numerous areas as their habitat shrinks. Their demise will not be from lack of gum leaves, however, but due to a predilection for incest.
Male koalas, unless they find themselves a harem of females, perish of sexual frustration. Their plaintive grunts can be heard for miles in the bush slowly fading as the poor outcast bachelors lose all hope.
The Rabbit
A "mixo" is not at all a nice thing to happen to a rabbit, but then that is their life. "Mixo" is short for Myxomatosis, a virus, a disease, an epidemic spread to rabbits by ordinary mosquitoes looking for a drink. Whatever form it takes - swellings at the site of the bite, tumours in the connective tissue, buboes around the eyes and mouth - Myxomatosis is a rabbit affliction which causes them to lose their eyesight then die of hunger.
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