Both remote areas, both need to keep workers safe and able to keep the snakes safely under control. One paramedic at another site has reported fifty, yes fifty snakes sighted in just one night. Local bushfires are bringing all the local wildlife into camp for shelter and water. She had some amazing photos from an office window of the snakes thick on the ground – well you could see about six on a few meters of ground - like something out of most peoples' nightmares.

One Pilbara mine in just one week alone had to call in two emergency evacuation flights due to suspected snakebite. Neither incident ended up requiring treatment with antivenom.

So happy – it has taken years of looking for a characterful property to live in that was surrounded by native wildlife and bush, but that is also within easy access to a main road and the city.

I've seen snow petrels and despite all the fuss made about penguins they were my absolute favourite bird on my Antarctic trip. Along with a few other birds snow petrels produce strong stomach oils that can be used to:

1. Feed their young
2. Feed themselves on long journeys, but also...
3. Sprayed out to deter predators

Mumijo is the term used for accumulations of these regurgitated stomach oils – these get mixed up with poo, dirt and grit and harden into thick layers in some parts of Antarctica. Mumijo needs to be collected using a hammer and chisel. Studying it will help scientists look at 'the movement and changes in snow petrel populations over geological time scales'. In Antarctica where it is being collected by field biologists Marcus Salton and Dr Anna Lashko, it is then wrapped in kitchen foil, kept frozen before coming back to Australia for radiocarbon dating.

"Previous work has shown that some mumijo layers go back thousands of years" said Dr Louise Emmerson an Australian Antarctic Division Seabird ecologist.

"Because snow petrels only nest in ice-free areas, we can date these layers to work out how long it took for the snow petrels to occupy the landscape after it had been deglaciated."

"As the birds usually nest within about one day's flight from feeding grounds, the mumijo also provides information on changes in the coastal food web and sea-ice conditions over geological time."

So from Antarctic snow petrels on to little swiftlets in Vietnam where bird saliva is farmed as a delicacy. There is a huge market for edible birds nests especially in China. The edible-nest swiftlet (Aerodramus fuciphagus) is a small bird that uses solidified saliva to make its nest. Several other swiftlets also use saliva that can be harvested for human consumption. One species is even endemic to northern Queensland.

You can even buy the farmed nests in Australia. I found "Dried Golden Orange Bird Nest" for $499.97 per 100gms online. It is expensive stuff with many purported medical benefits from the minerals and proteins found within – such as amino acids like lysine, histidine, cysteine, arginine, humin and amide.

In Vietnam's Mekong Delta this demand has encouraged some family businesses to farm the nests – encouraging swiftlets to come to their specially built cavernous outbuildings where incessant swiftlet bird calls are played to reassure and lure in the birds. Once their nest has been built and the young reared then the nests are harvested, the birds are not harmed in any way. If you are successful in farming, each year it is hoped more swiftlets will return to breed at the same location. I can but hope this type of farming is sustainable and benefits the species or at the very least ensures the survival of the species, as once seen as an asset we are more likely to preserve than persecute. The swiftlets may well keep a farm's neighbourhood pest free and healthy for humans as well, amongst the many insects the swiftlets consume are mosquitoes!

Many years ago whilst working for Bio Pet in Richmond we helped source a few interesting and rare reptiles for his collection and I would on occasion delight in packing and posting special fluorescent lights, mealworms and other zoological materials to the Les Augres Manor address in Jersey. Gerald could at times be quite controversial - at one stage 'blackballed' by London Zoo, hence almost unable to work in British Zoos. Various older animal trainers I have met didn't always speak kindly of his exploits. I was however fully entranced by his books – I lay the blame at the feet of inspirational figures like Gerald Durrell and David Attenborough for my career choices thus far.

I loved his books about his childhood in Corfu and he was quite a prophetic and forward thinking conservationist who set about acquiring endangered species for breeding and reintroduction programs. Changing the ethos of most zoos and wildlife parks from places of entertainment to more serious enterprises. Jersey Zoo and the Conservation Trust offer many training programs for those interested in endangered species management.

I think they realized many species needed protection away from where they originated to have any chance of long-term survival. He was also into protecting rare reptiles such as the little orange tailed skink Gongylomorphus sp of Mauritius, whereas many zoos at the time only really sought to save 'popular' more photogenic mammals like the panda. Gerald Durrell's Jersey Zoo was apparently the world's first to house only endangered species for breeding and reintroduction. His principles for animal housing at Jersey Zoo were

1st Comfort for the animal.
2nd Convenience for the keepers.
3rd Viewing ease of the public.

His zoo had hidden shelters for the animals – so there was no guarantee the visitor could see any given creature. At the time most if not all zoos worldwide based everything on public seeing animals as the first priority - not the ability for the animals to behave and hide in a more natural manner. His legacy lives on. I just loved Jersey Zoo on my visit way back in the 1980s.

David Attenborough said on the 50th anniversary of the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust in 2009 "I do assure you, the world needs Durrell".

Malaria has been transmitted only rarely in Australia. We are considered a malaria free country. This wasn't always the case and many early colonists in the 1800s died from malaria in the extreme north of Australia. With decades of continuous mosquito control measures the Northern Territory and thus Australia was finally declared malaria free back in 1981.

Well known as vectors of disease Australian mozzies can still spread amongst other things: Dengue fever, Australian encephalitis, Ross River (RR) virus and Barmah Forest virus.

What we all know is that mosquitoes can be capable of spreading disease but they also cause considerable annoyance and disruption to social and recreational activities. We sure get heaps in my garden at certain times of the year.

Mosquitoes are insects with 6 delicate legs, 2 scaled wings and a projecting proboscis that conceals the piercing mouthparts familiar to most of us. They are actually a type of small fly and members of the Culicidae family. The females will feed on blood but both sexes will mainly consume plant fluids including nectar.

The average adult life span is short with females living 2-3 weeks and males just 5-7 days.