Book Review
Australian Backyard Naturalist
Lauren & Oberon Carter 2019. Pan Macmillan Australia Pty Ltd., Sydney.
Be a naturalist-in your own backyard! Australian Backyard Naturalist will bring the natural world alive for you and you’ll be amazed at the number of both big and small creatures around you once you start looking.
You’ll find out how cuckoos persuade other birds to bring up their chicks, how spiders turn their victims into soup and how leeches help surgeons reattach fingers. And did you know that fleas on dogs are really cat fleas and that there’s a giant earthworm up to two metres long-or that there’s a caterpillar which never turns into a moth?
Make a pit trap to catch small animals or learn how to keep slaters. Find out how to catch ants to feed to ant lions or watch how a spider ties up its prey. Observe how seagulls behave in a riot or construct a worm farm to recycle your food scraps. Make the equipment that every backyard naturalist needs-a humidity jar, a Berlese funnel, a pooter and a flycatcher-all out of everyday objects. Phasmids, springtails, velvet worms, green grocers, killer snails, ant lions-you might not know what these look like but you soon will and they could be lurking in your backyard!
All information taken from Australian Backyard Naturalist
This book is available for loan from the Fleurieu Environment Centre