Northern Territory wildlife

The Northern Territory is the tropical Outback. Simultaneously one of the wettest and driest places on the planet, it’s a jigsaw of Red Centre deserts, Top End monsoon forests, and watery arteries that feed deltas, floodplains, rivers, waterfalls and gorges. So it stands to reason that wildlife in the Northern Territory is as downright bizarre as its landscape.

Car-sized saltwater crocodiles recline along the Adelaide River, confident in their throne at the top of the food chain. Oversized flying foxes cloud twilight skies in their thousands in Kakadu National Park. Scrub fowl peruse their kingdoms from three-metre-high nests, while magnetic termites turn their nests to the compass points. There are 25 species of venomous snakes – but the four-metre pythons are harmless (unless you’re a rock wallaby).

But while the Northern Territory wildlife might include some of the toughest creatures on the planet, they’re incredibly vulnerable to human interference. Widespread mining cracks up land and wildlife corridors, while climate change has kicked off drier wet seasons. Leather and meat farms swipe thousands of crocodiles out of the wild every year and non-native feral camels gulp Aboriginal wells dry.

Read on to find out more about responsible wildlife holidays in the Northern Territory – and about how your trip can help some of the most curious creatures in Australia.

Forget the dawn chorus – Kakadu National Park has a dawn cacophony. It’s home to around a third of the bird species in Australia. The lanky jabiru stork is the symbol of the park, but you’ll also get the chance to hear cockatoos sing in the sunset and voyage Jim Jim Creek for magpie geese and comb-crested jacanas.

The South Alligator River, meanwhile, does what it says on the tin. The king of the crocs lives here: the inimitable estuarine (saltwater) crocodile. Over 200 million years, it’s been hewn into the perfect predator – think double-lined teeth, a bite that’s three times as strong as a tiger’s, and the lethal “death roll” assassination technique. And they really do sleep with one eye open. Unpredictable and dangerous – and really quite magnificent – you’ll need to travel with a guide who knows how to treat salties, and the distance they require, with respect.

Water pythons and buffalo also turn up in the wetlands and waterways of Kakadu National Park. A great guide will take you on the surrounding footpaths to look for a range of NT specialities – antilopine or short-eared rock wallabies, perhaps, or flying squirrel-like sugar gliders and olive pythons. Termites are an unexpected wonder; the magnetic termite builds huge mounds that angle themselves north to south. You might even get the chance to watch the sunset blacken under the nightly exodus of flying foxes.

The Red Centre is more famous for Uluru and Kata Tjuta (previously known as the Olgas) than its wildlife line-up. But a great tour guide will tear your attention away from the sunset and set your sights on emus, peregrine falcons, pied butcherbirds and black-breasted buzzards. In typical Northern Territory fashion, the monitor lizards (AKA perenties) grow up to two metres long. You can also watch out for dingoes, Tasmanian devil-like mulgaras, woma pythons and… Arabian camels. These camels are the biggest – and most destructive – wild camel herd in the world, originally imported for hard labour in the 19th century.

“Australia's rarest kangaroo is the black wallaroo of Arnhem Land and Kakadu, Northern Territory. We had travelled through Kakadu several times, and like most people, had not seen one. We did our research and heard that people sometimes saw them at Nourlangie Rock Art site. So we went there ourselves, morning, midday and evening. Always looking and listening, never finding.”

“Part of our tour is the Guluyambi cruise on the East Alligator River that separates Arnhem Land from Kakadu. It is run by the local Aboriginal People, and it is both cultural, educational and great for wildlife. It was our third cruise with guide Neville, and he knew we loved wildlife.”

“Neville, a Traditional Owner, invited us to step off the boat and onto Arnhem Land. This is an honour – Arnhem Land is fully owned by the local Aboriginal People, and permission is required to enter. We walked around listening to white-lined honeyeaters and channel-billed cuckoos in this bountiful place.”

“Quietly, Neville beckoned us over. ‘Look there,’ he said, pointing high up in the escarpment above. ‘There's a friend watching.’ Framed by the sky, in a hole in the cliff in Arnhem Land, was a beautiful black male wallaroo, shown to us by our fellow Australian – a man from the oldest culture on earth. It still makes me teary to think about it. Since then we have seen several other black wallaroos (it's like that moment broke the dam), and I always think of that first sighting.”