Our Wildlife

Mum and I took Amy to the wildlife park yesterday. Well actually, Mum wanted to show the ‘Flat Stanleys ‘ the animals and Amy and I were just tagging along. (Mum’s Flat Stanleys came from 2 little boys in America who requested to please please show them the animals)

We’re good like that.

So firstly we saw the Blue Tongue Lizards. I personally adore Blue Tongue’s and we used to have one living in the yard (in the old house). I miss her.

We got to see Koalas and we were so pleased to see them awake. They must just have been given new eucalyptus leaves to munch on.

Then, the big rarity, an albino wallaby. Albino animals never survive for very long in the wild, because their stark whiteness makes them stand out to predators. If I remember correctly, this one was actually born at the park and made headlines.

As we wandered into the free-range wildlife area, Mum and I found ourselves increasingly nervous. Unlike the tourists that were around, we know how vicious kangaroos can get. Yes, I KNOW these ones have been all hand raised and are used to people feeding them, that still didn’t stop me wanting to walk away (quickly) as they snuffled all over Amy looking for feed. (The park gives out small bags of pellets especially for the wallabies/kangaroos/geese/peacocks that are about.)

See? Very very nervous. We ended up throwing some pellets on the ground and seeking a spot that had a few less kangaroos (which are very big) around. Maybe some wallabies. Wallabies are nice and small.

This one that I am feeding (and photographing. Watch me multitask!) wasn’t backwards in coming forwards. She placed her front feet on my stomach in her quest to get more food, making me more nervous because her claws! You should have seen her claws! And she was looking for food! On me! Eeek!

Anyway we walked away unscathed (OBVIOUSLY!) and I took a photo of her claws just to show you HOW kangaroos can disembowel a person or a dog in a matter of seconds.

The wombats were rather sleepy as they are a nocturnal animal, but this one did eventually wake up and wander around. My photographs of that sucked though.

Now, I couldn’t do a post about wildlife without showing you a real! live! Tasmanian Devil.

Oh wait! That was the boring information. Sorry. What they don’t mention on there is that Devils are mostly carrion eaters ie: roadkill. They also say how uncommon they are. The last place we lived at we had devils hanging aroung quite alot. I never managed to get a photo though. We must have been living in a devil hot-spot!

Don’t be fooled by how cute they are, Devils are vicious! Devils are also suffering from a Devil Facial Tumour Disease that is killing the population. The DFTD is actually a type of cancer, unfortunately the devil population has become so inbred that the cancer doesn’t differentiate between different devils. So when they fight and bite each other, they pass the disease along. Very very nasty.

The Devils here at the park though are all clear for the disease. Thank goodness.

Amy had good fun, until she realised that there was a sausage sizzle that we weren’t invited to attend (it was for carers who bring up the injured animals) and she wasn’t going to get free food. She rather liked patting the kangaroos ears, even though my heart was thumping lots. The paths at the park weren’t really conducive to Toddler walking (very knotty and bumpy. Also quite steep in places) I tried to let Amy wander as much as possible.

Here she is, running away.

What I haven’t shown you – The Emus , because my photos weren’t fantastic. The Sulphur Crested Cockatoo , whom I swear was trying to dig an escape hole. The Yellow Tailed Black Cockatoos who had been hit by cars and can’t fly anymore.

Even worse were the Wedge Tailed Eagles . The pair (only one was in the pen, I know there used to be a second one, but now I wonder if it has died?) were victims of shooting attacks and were unable to be rehabilitated because of the extent of their injuries. There are only 70 pairs of Wedge Tails left in Tasmania and they are a distinct strain of their species.

There were Quolls. One Spotted Tailed Quoll (which I hadn’t seen since I was a kid) and one Eastern Spotted Quoll (which we used to see alot of).

Amy also got to say hello to the Peacocks and the Cape Barren Geese . She insisted that the geese were ducks though.

Amy does love her ducks.

As we headed home, Amy was tired and sulky. However she fell straight asleep as soon as she got into her bed.

Poor sulky girl.

Hee!