Friday 23 May 2014

Karatha Mud Skippers

We are at Karatha on the Pilbara Coast. We got to see Aboriginal petroglyths, a natural gas plant and we also searched for Mudskippers in the mangroves.


Dad, Jacob and I at Hearsons Cove searching around the mangroves for Mudskippers. I have been fascinated with Mudskippers since I was 2, when I first saw them in Darwin.


Mudskippers are amphibious fish that can use their pectoral fins to walk on land. They have the ability to breathe through their skin when they are wet. Their habitats are intertidal among mangroves and they dig deep burrows in the soft sediment.


Here they are jumping around. They are so beautiful. Jacob finds them interesting too. This is his first view of them other then on a documentary.


This is my first time seeing them in their natural environment. I’ve seen them in enclosures before but I’ve never held one; it was wonderful. They cant be out of the water for very long as they need to stay moist.


Dad, Jacob and I walking through a mangal or mangrove forest. We found a mud crab on our walk also.



Mum found something new that we hadn’t seen before; a mangrove slug. Once again, Jacob was really fascinated with it. He touched it and observed it for a really long time.


This is the mangrove slug close up. When it is laying in the mud it is well camouflaged. You wouldn’t even notice it as it just looks like a rock or clump of mud.

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