More Australian Wildlife

Have you ever seen a Wombat?

or Sleepy Koalas in a Eucalyptus tree? Did you know that Koalas sleep...
and sleep...and sleep some more? They wake up to eat for a bit,
then go find another comfy spot in their tree and keep on sleeping.

Have you ever stood right next to them
and watched them in their slumber or stroked their soft fur?

Have you ever seen a sheep being sheered? Do you know what they do with the wool from the sheep?

Have you ever heard a Kookaburra? I think they sound like monkeys.
They are very loud. This is a Blue Winged Kookaburra (if I remember right).

I'd seen an Emu before, but I had forgotten that they live in Australia.

Did you know that there are black swans too?
They are black in Australia. (I am sorry I did not get a better picture of the swan.)

I think you've heard of and maybe seen barn owls.
I thought they were quite handsome. Some of us thought of Harry Potter.

The birds here have been fun to watch. I haven't seen these in the wild yet...

But I have seen these, flying around the neighborhood!

The middle peachy bird liked to say "Hello".
The right colorful bird reminds us of our Norway pet, Chippy. We miss our bird.

All of these we saw at the wildlife park with the Kangaroos. The sheep bit was a little Australian ranch section, where they had a fun show about the Australian sheep ranch and how they work with the animals on their ranches. They had a few dogs, who helped round up the sheep, a horse, a cow to milk and baby sheep to feed. They had pigs, chickens, rabbits, a donkey and some guinea pigs. Sounds a lot like another fun ranch we like to visit.
We had fun seeing a lot of other Marsupials too. There are many more than the kangaroos and koalas. A lot of them were sleeping and hard to find, so I didn't get good pictures of them.

Kangaroos...

Ever met one of these?

We did!

A few weeks ago we went and watched, fed, touched, observed
and took lots of pictures of Kangaroos. We saw other Australian animals too,
but I think the Kangaroos were the kids favorite part.
We had to go feed, stroke and admire them twice.

In the morning (our first Kangaroo stop), the Kangaroos were hungry
and eager to be fed by any willing visitor.
The Wilderness Park had a big barrel of food for us to feed them.
The kangaroos would find whomever was visiting at the time
and if you had some food for them, they came up really close,
stood on their hind legs and put their noses your way
sniffing out the food you had for them.
If you didn't have any food, they moved on to the next person.



The kangaroos were very tame
and their fur was very soft to touch...and a bit dusty.

Our second stop at the kangaroos was later in the day.
Most of them were lazily lounging about, enjoying an afternoon snooze.
It was hard to find a kangaroo that wanted more food. They had been well fed.
They were still a bit curious though and willing to have a nice rub.

It was fun to see these hopping critters so close.

Their hind legs and feet are huge!

It was fun to watch them move...

and hop.

They looked extra cumfy when they sprawled out to sleep.

Their tails reminded me of a rat's tail, only very large.
They used them to walk and to balance when they were on their hind legs.
If they feel threatened in the wild when approached,
they will balance with their tail and punch you with their large, strong hind legs.

They used their front feet/paws to eat, scratch and clean their fur.


This one made some funny faces for me while he ate and
looked to see if I had some more food.

And...

it was fun to spot the mommies with their babies.
Their pouches bulged underneath them and if you were lucky,
you'd catch a glimpse of the "joey" inside.
(A baby kangaroo is called a joey.)

Usually you saw their feet or tail poking out
because they jump into their mother's pouch head first.

A mommy cleaning her baby.

When she was done, out popped her babies head.
It was the only one I saw with it's head out.
It was a fun moment to catch while mommy scratched her tummy!

There were a range of sizes, but the average size was that of a small deer.
Their colors varied from albino, to a pretty red-brown, to dusty gray.

Their faces resembled a deer,
or were like Rabbit's face in Winnie the Pooh with extra whiskers and fur.

We had fun meeting these kangaroos...

Maybe you can come and meet one too!