Wildlife education

Whether it’s your backyard or a remote national park, one thing is certain: there is a native animal somewhere nearby. It may be as inconspicuous as a tiny spider tucked up in the corner of your ceiling or something more imposing like a three metre carpet python coiled around a roof truss in your carport.

We cross paths with wild animals throughout our lives—from our first encounters with storybook animals to those chance meetings with wildlife in the wild places where they live.

These encounters are most likely to be with animals that attract our attention: the colourful, the big, the unusual—and the few that find ways to annoy us or even put our safety at risk.

But there are the many animals we don’t notice and these are often the ones that are so common that they simply blend into the background noise of daily life. These animals are just waiting to be ‘discovered’—all you have to do is stop and look. Curiosity and wildlife go hand in hand.

This part of the website is all about learning: learning how to understand and appreciate the wildlife around you and, more importantly, how to live safely alongside it.

Learning starts by asking the right questions:

• Where can I find out about Queensland’s native wildlife?
• What wildlife is living around your home?
• Are any of them dangerous?
• How can you learn more about your ‘wild neighbours’ and how to live alongside them?
• Where can I see wildlife?
• Are there any threatened species facing extinction right on your doorstep and what are we doing to ensure their survival?
• What threats do our wildlife face?
• What happens if you find a baby wild animal on its own, or one that’s sick or hurt?
• What native animals can I keep, use or collect?
• What can you do to protect the wildlife living in Queensland?

This website will help you answer these questions. But no website has all the answers and, when it comes to learning about wildlife, you will need to link up with other ‘sites’… like your backyard, your local bushland, or your nearest national park.

Related information

• Wildlife Online—species lists for Queensland
• Licences and permits—Plants and animals
• Contact details—Permit and Licence Management
• If you witness or suspect an offence to wildlife please complete the Wildlife complaint report form (DOC, 167KB).