Deadly Animals

Q. Except for the "crazy chicken" that, it seems, is scary more due to size and mannerisms than aggression, per se, are any of the 'wild' animals you encountered ones that are threats to humans?

A. From all the animals I have encountered so far, there are some that are threats to humans, but within certain categories. Obviously if you threaten most animals that have any mass at all, they can be dangerous, but here are the other interesting ones. In my opinion, emus must be a threat, but since I don't have much info on them, I'll leave them out for now.

Kangaroos and wombats are a threat to drivers. Kangaroos are similar to deer - they come out at dusk, are overpopulated, and can be bad news for your car in a game of chicken on the road. Wombats are a lot smaller, so I was surprised to hear that they also pose significant road risk. They are like mini tanks, I hear, and can cause a car to flip if you hit it right.

Dingos (wild dog-type animals) can be a threat to humans, though they actually pose more of a threat to sheep and similar animals. In fact, the southeast quarter of Australia (primarily Victoria and New South Wales) are protected from dingo invasions by a huge fence that runs through the country and into the Outback to keep the dogs out. Kind of like the Great Wall of China - on a budget. The fence is just post and wires, so don't plan to take many pictures in front of it. So, who let the dogs out? From what I understand, Asians migrating to Australia way back in the day brought some sort of dog across, which mixed with some native dog-like animals producing the dingo.

Now, for what you really want to know - deadly animals. Yes, they are here. I haven't run into many, but they don't have to be far away. Some of the deadliest (if not THE deadliest) snakes and spiders live here. The spiders actually can be nearby here too. And they aren't the big, hairy ones similar to tarantulas (which are also not deadly) - they are ones that sound oddly reminiscent of black widows or brown recluses: medium sized, indicative stripe of red.

Crocs and sharks and stingrays, and deadly fish are also around, but I haven't been to the beaches that much yet, so I don't know much about them right now.