Australian Pines and the Dinosaur Tree

At home in Nova Scotia, a windbreak of eastern white pines borders my yard, the trees having grown from sturdy saplings into robust giants during the nearly twenty years my family has lived on the pro...

Dingoes, Wild Dogs, and the Australian Dog Fence

When European settlers herded the first flocks of sheep onto Australian grasslands, they encountered a predator that quickly caught on to the fact that the woolly beasts made a good meal.1 That predat...

Ruminations on the Tropics

Two huge paperbark trees on my street are in blossom, pumping out waves of ‘boiled-potato’ fragrance and attracting hordes of nectarivorous (nectar-feeding) rainbow lorikeets. The lorikeet...

Needing a Python

I need a python. A big one. And a wild one. I want it to assume residence on my roof and eat every possum within sight or smell so I can sleep. The past few nights in our rental house have been like l...