What can you ask us?

search & discover gets thousands of enquiries each year, via phone, fax, email and from Museum visitors.

We can:

provide help with identifications
provide information about Australian animals and environments
provide information about Australian Indigenous culture

We can help with information about:

biology including behaviour and life-cycles
endangered, threatened and extinct species
ecology, conservation and the environment
biodiversity and geodiversity
Indigenous peoples of Australia and nearby regions
general information about Australia
information about the Australian Museum

Find out more about:

Seasonal enquiries
Unusual enquiries
Big bone enquiry

Seasonal enquiries

Male and female Sydney Funnel-web Spiders

Green grocer cicada. Photo: B. Rudman

Australian Magpie. Photo: R. Major

Many of search & discover's enquiries are seasonal. This is because the types of animals you are likely to see change, depending on the time of year. Many animals also behave differently at different times of the year.

search & discover gets more enquiries as the weather warms up. This is because spring and summer is a time of increased insect activity, and many different types of animal are breeding and nesting. People are outside enjoying the warm weather on bushwalks, picnics and in the garden, so they are closer to nature and observe natural events they wouldn't normally see.

Some typical summer enquiries include:

spiders - male funnel-web spiders wandering around or in swimming pools
insects - large numbers of swarming, noisy cicadas
fish - tropical fishes sighted in south-eastern Australian waters
birds - Koels and Channel-billed Cuckoos calling, many birds mating and nesting

Winter often brings enquiries about birds. Many birds begin their breeding season in the colder weather. Mammals are also seen enjoying the winter sunlight. Insects and spiders become fewer in number as the colder weather kills them or forces them into shelter until the spring.

Some typical winter enquiries include:

birds - Australian Magpies and Masked Lapwings (Spur-winged Plovers) begin nesting and attacking intruders
- eagles nesting
mammals - wombats seen in the winter sunlight
- antechinus breed and males die off
spiders - funnel-web spiders continue breeding into autumn while the weather remains humid

Unusual enquiries

Some questions we are asked can be quite unusual. If the enquiry relates to the Museum's interests, we try to answer the enquiry as best we can. If not, we refer the person to another source of information.

Some examples of unusual requests and our responses:

Does the Australian Museum have a program which would let someone donate their body to science? (We don't.)
Where can huntsman spiders be seen to help people overcome arachnophobia? (There is usually a live huntsman on display in the Biodiversity exhibition. There are also freeze-dried huntsman spiders in search & discover)
A student wanted information on famous percussionists. (We suggested some sites on the Internet and the Conservatorium of Music.)

Big bone enquiry

Here in search & discover we sometimes get unusual letters about exciting finds. One example was a letter we got from a kindergarten teacher and her class. They had dug up a giant 'bone' in their sandpit and wanted search & discover to help them identify it. They sent us a paper tracing of the bone which Information Officers, Ondine and Emma, measured and compared with some of the bones in the Museum's collections. They replied to the students with photographs of the methods they used and some suggestions about what the bone might be.