A day with wildlife

Hobart- 2/18/13

feeding a kangaroo

Our second stop in Australia was in Hobart, Tasmania.  We were able to get a tour through the tourist information office to go out to the Bonorong Wildlife Sanctuary.  It was a wonderful place.  They had food all around the property in buckets to let you feed all the kangaroos that are roaming there freely.  They tell you to scratch them on the chest as it is a spot that they have difficulty reaching on their own.  “C” went all around feeding every one of them.  They even let you feed the joeys.  They were much softer than I expected.  The other funny thing was the joeys go into the pouch with their legs sticking up and even their heads at times. 

mom and joey

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

they are a very friendly animal

 

 

 

infamous tasmanian devil

We were also fortunate enough to see lots of other animals that are native to Tasmania. The most famous of course is the Tasmanian Devil.  They are a small but vicious animal.  They are almost so ugly they are cute.  One of the young ladies from the ship even got to feed some the raw meat- we didn’t witness this though. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

wild parrot we spotted

 

One really cool thing for me was to see a wild parrot land in a tree while we were looking at other animals.



 

 

 

 

 



 

At the end of the circular path around the property we came to a koala.  Bert was hanging out on a branch and the keeper talked to us about koalas in great detail.  They are the marsupial with the smallest brain and marsupials have small brains to begin with.  He explained that they eat gumtree (eucalyptus) and are immune to the chemical effects of the leaves.  The reason they are usually viewed as being dopey has to do with the fact they sleep 20 hours out of the day, the other 4 hours (spread throughout the day) are spent eating enough food to sustain them.  They are a bit loopy from having a low energy level due to the quantity of food they get. 

posing with bert

bert chilling in the tree

The keeper explained that as koalas age, they lose teeth which means they are less able to chew up the food.  So basically they end up dying of malnutrition.  Bert is now only one of a few koalas they have at Bonorong.  Therefore they don’t have as many koalas to share the load of spending time with the tourists.  This means they don’t have as much interaction with guests as they used to.  But, “C”, dad, and I were lucky.  We were around at the end after everyone had wondered off so he allowed us to stand and take a picture with Bert and touch him.  His fur was much coarser than I expected but it was still wonderful to get to touch a koala. 

We headed back to the town of Hobart and wandered around a bit before heading back to the ship. The coolest thing was how they decorated their public utilities boxes.  They also had a cool schooner where a grandpa and his grandson were hopping on board to do restoration work.  The little guy reminded me of “C” from when he was younger.

cute boy helping his grandpa

a decorated utility box

 

"mailing" a letter

 

The highlight of the day for “C” was getting to try a Segway.  He had spotted a tour earlier in the tourist shop and had wanted us to go there but of course we overrode that activity.  When we returned to the pier there was a man with a few Segways he had unloaded from his truck.  He allowed the local police to take a spin and then asked “C” if he would like a try.  Well the word yes couldn’t come out fast enough.  So a few signatures and a helmet later he was aboard getting instructions on how to control it.  He took a spin around the parking lot for a few minutes and really got the hang of it real quickly. 

segway boy

I think this might have been the best day for “C” so far.