North West Star top 10 animal stories of 2021

1- Normanton Police take in an orphan as part of the family.

Norman, a brahman calf who was orphaned at birth was saved from euthanasia after the Normanton Officer in Charge, Senior Sergeant Mark Corry, agreed to adopt the calf from Maggiville cattle station.

2- North west Qld suffering influx of gidyea bugs.

A seething mass of insects descended upon north west Queensland in February soon after the rain. Residents from Winton to Julia Creek and all points in between reported an influx of the infamous gidyea bug, clogging up rest area toilets where night lights shine, splitting power poles with their weight, and spilling out of ceilings.

3- Sparky is star of the show at Mount Isa's new Animal Management Facility.

When Queensland Attorney-General Yvette D'Ath came to Mount Isa for the opening of the new Animal Management Facility one of her highlights was petting tiny Sparky the cat.

Ms D'Ath spotted the four week old kitten as it was about to leave Mount Isa's new Animal Management Facility after Jennifer and Matthew Crombie gave it a home. The Crombies' old cat had just died of kidney failure and it was love at first sight when the couple saw its photo on the Council animal refuge's social media page.

4- A tale of two freshies.

Editor Derek Barry tells the tales behind him spotting two fresh water crocodiles, one at the Cobbold Gorge and one at Mount Isa's Clearwater Lagoon.

5- New marsupial lion called Lekaneleo found in Riversleigh Fossil Field.

North West Queensland's extraordinary fossil site has delivered yet another new species to science. The latest creature found at world-heritage listed Riversleigh Fossil Field was a small marsupial lion that lived 23 million years ago.

6- Bob Katter ziplines over Goliath the croc to promote tourism.

Bob Katter's cunning stunt in February had him sliding down a Cairns zipline above a pond which held a four-metre croc named Goliath.

Mr Katter's office doctored this photo of Goliath versus Goliath, with the croc getting nowhere near the 74-year-old politician as video of the zipline shows.

7- Northern Australian eaten eels burst through predator stomachs.

In a scene akin to a horror movie, Australian scientists have discovered that when swallowed by predators, snake eels are sometimes able to burst through their captor's stomach.

Unfortunately for the snake eel, their unique escape mechanism does not send them to freedom, but traps them to be eventually mummified in the gut cavity of their captors.

8- Merlie the turtle's non stop swim from Mon Repos to the Gulf.

The 50-year-old loggerhead turtle, Merlie returned to her home in the Gulf of Carpentaria and wrote herself into the record books in May 2020.

Merlie completed a massive non-stop 2670km swim from her breeding site at Mon Repos near Bundaberg to her home foraging warmer waters of the Gulf.

9- Feral cat makes meal of a sand goanna in Simpson Desert.

The damage feral cats cause to native wildlife was brought home in an image released on social media in May.

University of Sydney researcher Emma Spencer posted an image on Twitter of a large feral cat with a sand goanna (Varanus gouldii) in its mouth taken in the Simpson Desert.

Ms Spencer, who studies animal carcasses in the wild, said the photo was captured on "CarcassCam" at Bush Heritage Australia's Ethabuka Nature reserve 150km north-west of Bedourie.

10- No Pause for Paws Hoofs and Claws in the pandemic.

Paws Hoofs and Claws Sue Carson is struggling to transport adopted animal out of town during pandemic.

"We were moving two or three animals out of Mount Isa every week, all over Australia but mainly to Victoria and South Australia," Ms Carson said.

"We have not been able to get an animal out on a plane for six weeks. We predominately used Virgin because they were cheaper but that disappeared overnight and Qantas went from 14 flights to two and with all their freight they probably can't take an animal on."