Wet and Wild

Feathers, Fins & Things in the Wet & Wild

2015, Session 2, Week 3– Clues

  1. I am used as bait by fishermen.
  2. I have hard, horn like jaws, which can inflict some damage if provoked.
  3. I live on the bottom of the pond where there isn’t much oxygen, which is why I have lots of haemoglobin and look red.
  4. I am aherbivore, which is why I have adapted a long neck to reach deep water with my bright red bill.
  5. I grow in wetlands in water from 30cm deep to a meter and will not outgrow my water area.
  6. I hatch from an egg, buried in the ground around or near the water, and need to make my own way to the water.
  7. I make many musical sounds, one being a bugling sound, another is a whistle.
  8. In my adult stage I am that tiny I can fit through screen doors, and am attracted to light so am a nuisance to people who reside near wetlands.
  9. When flying in a group we fly in a V shape.
  10. I am a carnivore and my long neck is used to strike at passing prey.
  11. I often look like another animal of my kind, when swimming, as only my neck shows.
  12. As an adult I do not bite.
  13. Aboriginal people collected my dried spores, ground them from the outer casing, moistened and roasted them as damper or cakes.
  14. I have a river named after me in WA, as this is where I was first sighted by Europeans in the 1690’s.
  15. I have strong claws which I use to grab and rip apart larger prey.
  16. I look like, but am not a clover and look like, but am not a water lily.
  17. I lose all of my flight feathers at once after breeding; therefore I can’t fly for about a month.
  18. I am related to a fern.
  19. My body, shell and neck will all end up approximately the same length.
  20. I may look dead and dried up, but I come alive with winter rains.
  21. I am an insect, in the larval form and eat the debris on the bottom of the pond.
  22. I am born white and change to black with some white underneath as I grow older.
  23. I have no pests or diseases and am a native to Australia.
  24. I have four stages to my life cycle, three in the water and one terrestrial.

Wetlands Environmental Education Centre – Wet and Wild 2015