animals – Dr Myfanwy Webb

My new book WILD Life Death Encounters with Wild Animals, true stories, is soon to be launched as both a Kindle E-Book and Paperback version. Launch Date is Monday 4th October 2021

This book is a compilation of my blog post series of encounters with wild animals.

I’d just like to thank all of you who have been reading my posts over the years. You have helped inspire me to write more and make sure my writing ‘fire stays alight.

The book description is;

“The compelling, dramatic series of white-knuckle encounters with a medley of wild animals keeps you turning the pages, feverish to know how Myfanwy manages to escape alive. A risk taker, she likes living life on the edge and in this adventure-packed memoir, you’ll discover how in the remote forests, deserts, and oceans of Australia, she sidestepped death not once but multiple times. If you fear snakes, spiders, sharks or dogs, this book is for you.

These stories span her childhood to adult encounters. They include incidents while traveling with her family to remote locations in Australia, to close calls with wild animals during biological fieldwork in Kakadu National Park in the Northern Territory. Other incidents happened while surfing and riding her beloved horse.

Myfanwy’s curiosity and depth of understanding the behaviour of animals, is reflected in the way she describes these contacts with wild animals. Her stories interweave a love of animals and nature, with adrenalin and adventure.”

Some of the comments from my series, posted here include;

Maria said of Cujo- the Attack “I could picture it as if I was there”.
John said of El Toro – “Very clever and brave – El bloody Toro made me laugh aloud. What amazing bush experiences of wildness you have had – so exceedingly rare – I am jealous. I also learnt that you need agility to catch Rock Possums, so that’s one career lost to me.”
Ben – “Great stories about spideys, I love them myself!”
Bronwyn said of Eaten Alive- “Fantastic story!”
Angela said of Eaten Alive – “Oh wow a compelling story! Interesting behaviours demonstrated in the part of both fish and human!”

If you’d like to write a Review for this book send me an email at myfanwy@myfanwywebb.com and I’ll send you a free electronic copy.

(To be eligible to contribute to Amazon reviews, you need to have purchased $50 worth of books from Amazon in the past year).

Please share this link if you know someone who would enjoy these stories.

Choose a tree that grew there naturally before. By growing original plants you create an ecosystem that provides housing and food for native insects, birds, amphibians, mammals and reptiles. It will attract original animal species that evolved to live on that particular piece of ground. This also means your tree will grow easily because it is pre adapted to the microclimate and soil conditions that it grows in. This translates to less work for you such as less watering. Original plants are known as provenance plants.

For a thriving tree, it is best to grow seedlings germinated from plants currently growing as close to your patch of ground as you can. If you can’t raise the seedlings yourself or convince a nursery or farmer to help you, then try and choose identical species from nurseries with stock sourced within the local region.

Peron’s Tree Frog (Litoria peronii) Photo: Jonathan Webb

To resurrect an intricate ecosystem, choose a few of the dominant local tree species and a few understory species that once grew there. This will provide the structure for the ecosystem to grow from. Birds may spread additional types of local seeds over time. As your ecosystem expands and grows denser you may notice an increase in diversity of animal species visiting and inhabiting it. The number of animals should increase too.

Photo: Myfanwy Jane Webb

If you are not sure which area to start on and you have more than one vegetation community on your land, begin at the closest interface of them. Begin planting one vegetation community plus the second community next to it simultaneously if you can. This will provide resources to a higher diversity of native species than what live in just the one habitat type.

You may have only a balcony. Choosing a true native from your local area to grow in a pot will create habitat for local insects and may even entice nearby original bird species to feed or perch from it.

Tiger Moth (Amata marella) showing warning or aposematic colouration. Photo: Jonathan Webb

Street trees, verges of roads, degraded land and development sites are excellent opportunities to provide habitat for animals that originally lived in an area. Birds flying through suburbs use trees to rest, feed and nest. If the original provenance trees and bushes grow throughout a suburb, this helps the original bird species that live close-by rather than other native but non-local types. For instance, growing native grevillieas along streets and in gardens where they never grew naturally can encourage the non-local wattlebird honeyeater to dominate. This bird species can be highly aggressive to other birds.

If you cannot identify the plant species growing nearby, you can use a plant ID App that allows identification from photos, or send photos preferably with fruiting bodies or flowers to a botanist, local land care or gardening group to help you.

If most of the land near you has been cleared, you may need to hunt around your local area to find the nearest natural remnants of original vegetation. Look for changes in geology as this is usually reflected in vegetation differences. You’ll want to match the same remnant vegetation to the geology and soil type on your land. Old photographs can help with identifying what grew before clearing occurred. Your local library may have historical books showing photographs of vegetation for your area.

Forest foliage Photo: Myfanwy Jane Webb

So next time you ask yourself what tree do I plant? By choosing true original natives and resurrecting your natural ecosystem, you have the power to provide homes and food for a flourishing community of native animals and plants. This goes a long way to caring for our planet.

Have a look at my article; Fencing off farm land to grow ecosystems for biodiversity, if you’d like information about that topic.

If you’d like more information about resurrecting ecosystems, have a look at Methods for Resurrecting Ecosystems.

Or you can read stories about my connection to the land. One is titled Minimal Me.

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