Australia | A-Z | Alliterative Poetry

Amazing Australian Animals

GiaB prompt #20: animalia

Agile antechinuses applaud athletic amphiboluruses (lizard) in Arkaroola Bashful bandicoots breakfast with bragging brolgas in Bendigo Comical cockatoos carouse with crotchety crocodiles in Cooktown Dunn-haired dunnarts dart around dozing dingoes in Darwin Empathetic emus embrace embarrassed echidnas in Echuca Flamboyant flying foxes fling frisbees at Freycinet’s frogs in Freemantle Gregarious galahs greet geeky goannas in Gooloogong Hysterical hypsiprymnodens (musk rat kangaroo) hide from hideous hadronyches (funnel web spider) in Habana Ingenuous iguanas imitate imbibing ibis in Ipswich Jabbering jabirus juxtapose jet-streaming jaculatrix (archerfish) in Jindivik Kitschy koalas kiss kinky kookaburras in Killiekrankie Loquacious lorikeets laugh at lyrical lyrebirds in Langwarrin Maniacal magpies manoeuvre mangrove monitors in Moree Nimble numbats navigate around notorious notechis (tiger snake) in Narrogin Owlish owlet-nightjars orchestrate operas with olive-backed orioles in Orange Playful platypuses paddle past pottering potoroos in Pooginook Quizzical quokkas question quadrupedal quolls in Quindalup Rambunctious rosellas rock’n’roll with ritzy rose robins in Robinvale Skittish Stokes’ skinks skittle skimpy scorpion spiders in Scamander Tree-dwelling trichosuruses (brushtail possums) trick timorous tadornas tadornoides (Australian shelduck) in Teddywaddy Uppity underwoodisauruses (lizard) upstage unassuming upeneichthuses (goat fish) in Unley Virtuous vanessa itea (Australian Admiral butterfly) venerate valorous varanus varius (lace monitor) in Veradilla Wandering wombats waddle around watchful wallabies in Wallanbah Xenial xenicas xenograft xenophobic xanthotis (honeyeater) in Xantippe Yobby yabbies yell at yellow-bellied gliders in Yellingbo Zippy zebra finches zoom over zoetic zygometis (flower spider) in Zeehan

© Carolyn Hastings 2021

It was a foregone conclusion.

As soon as I saw that Genius in a Bottle’s #20 prompt was Animalia, my brain went into word association mode — animalia ➝ alphabet ➝ alliteration ➝ assonance ➝ Graeme Base’s 1986 classic, Animalia.

Genius in a Bottle. Graeme Base. Get it?! 😜

Graeme Base is an English-born Australian and an award-winning author and artist. Animalia is his second book. He has author-illustrated over 20 children’s picture books since then. All of them exquisitely, distinctively, intricately illustrated in a style that has become his trademark.

In case you don’t know, I’m Australian too. Australia, as you probably already know, is home to an amazing array of animals. Graeme acknowledged our iconic ‘k’-kritters — kangaroos, koalas, kookaburras — in Animalia, but devoted the remainder of his book of alliterations to animals of the world, both real and mystical.

It was as if he’d left me a baited hook; one that I couldn’t resist taking — A-Z alphabetised, alliterative Australian animalia! 😆

Once hooked, I couldn’t let the idea go no matter how much I wanted to give up. It took me longer and was more painstaking than I expected. As you can see, I’ve had to resort to a combination of common names and scientific nomenclature to fulfill my self-inflicted quota of two animals per letter. I also expanded the linguistic formula to include an authentic Australian location for each alphabet letter. Luck was on my side when I discovered that Xantippe is the only place in Australia that begins with ‘x’. 😅

Thank you — I think! — to Victor Sarkin for setting GiaB’s #20 prompt: Animalia. Thank you also to Josie Elbiry for tagging me into the prompt. Please check out her fascinating story about riding camels in the African desert -

If, after reading Josie’s or my stories, your animal instincts compel you to contribute to the prompt, you’ll find everything you need to know right here –

I’d like to invite these nature-lovers to share their animal stories — Whitney Rose | Annelise Lords | William J Spirdione | Dennett | Rhonda Marrone | Steve Williams | Erika Burkhalter 🙏 😊

Thank you for reading. 🙏 💕 I think it will be a long time before I try another A-Z alliteration poem! 😉

Image credits

Sugar glider — Image by andyround62 from Pixabay Emu — Image by gayleenfroese2 from Pixabay Rosella — Image by pen_ash from Pixabay Koala — Image by Angelo Giordano from Pixabay Echidna —Image by pen_ash from Pixabay

Note: this post contains affiliate links. If you use the links to purchase a product, I may receive a commission at no cost to you. Thank you.