A rakali, an Aurora, and Bruny
On a winter's night on Bruny Island, there was the most extraordinary Aurora Australis. Under the light of the Aurora, I went for a night-time walk along a remote beach. As I was walking along, I saw something out of the corner of my eye run along the beach and jump into the water.
I turned on my head-torch and quickly looked in its direction. Then I saw a magnificent rakali.
rakali are a native terrestrial based but aquatic hunter, that is native to Australia and from the rodent family. They are two to three times the size of the feral black rat – with a body size up to 30cm and a tail size up to an additional 30cm long. They sometimes get mistaken for a platypus. You can tell the difference between a platypus and a rakali by its wake. The rakali paddles with its back feet, whereas the Platypus paddles with all four feet. The rakali has a golden belly and a beautiful white tip on the end of its very long tail.
As I caught sight of the rakali in the water - it breached and then dived down into the water out of sight. Moments later, it came up with a fish in its mouth. Then it looked at me directly. It had the food in its mouth, and it effortlessly repositioned the meal so it could swim effectively without losing its meal. It swam up to the shore, ran up the beach to its preferred picnicking site and had a good feed.
This was all under the green light of an aurora. The aurora was so bright that night, that I actually gave myself a fright with my own shadow.
After watching the rakali, I walked up the beach, sat myself on an 80 million year old rock, and spent several hours marvelling at the otherworldly inexplicable beauty of an aurora in this incredible place.
James Bunker
independent researcher, BIEN
On a winter's night on Bruny Island, there was the most extraordinary Aurora Australis. Under the light of the Aurora, I went for a night-time walk along a remote beach. As I was walking along, I saw something out of the corner of my eye run along the beach and jump into the water.
I turned on my head-torch and quickly looked in its direction. Then I saw a magnificent rakali.
rakali are a native terrestrial based but aquatic hunter, that is native to Australia and from the rodent family. They are two to three times the size of the feral black rat – with a body size up to 30cm and a tail size up to an additional 30cm long. They sometimes get mistaken for a platypus. You can tell the difference between a platypus and a rakali by its wake. The rakali paddles with its back feet, whereas the Platypus paddles with all four feet. The rakali has a golden belly and a beautiful white tip on the end of its very long tail.
As I caught sight of the rakali in the water - it breached and then dived down into the water out of sight. Moments later, it came up with a fish in its mouth. Then it looked at me directly. It had the food in its mouth, and it effortlessly repositioned the meal so it could swim effectively without losing its meal. It swam up to the shore, ran up the beach to its preferred picnicking site and had a good feed.
This was all under the green light of an aurora. The aurora was so bright that night, that I actually gave myself a fright with my own shadow.
After watching the rakali, I walked up the beach, sat myself on an 80 million year old rock, and spent several hours marvelling at the otherworldly inexplicable beauty of an aurora in this incredible place.
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