Awesome Aussie Animals!

How ya goin’?  Before you read this post, how many native Aussie animals can you name?  We saw some awesome ones and I’m here to share our fantastic experiences!

Koalas

Koala bears aren’t actually bears, they are marsupials which means they carry their babies around in a pouch. A baby koala is called a joey and stays in its mother’s pouch for about 6 months, and then will ride around on its mother’s back until it is about a year old.

Koalas sleep for 18-20 hours a day, so when they aren’t sleeping they’re eating. Sounds like a nice life to me! Koalas main food source are eucalyptus leaves. Since eucalyptus trees absorb a lot of water, koalas are able to stay hydrated by eating the leaves. Koalas have a special intestine which helps them digest the tough leaves and they aren’t affected by the amount of eucalyptus oil, as too much of this is toxic. To properly feed one koala, 100 trees are needed, but due to deforestation their food is running out.

We had our first koala encounter at the Koala Conservation Centre on Phillip Island. We saw about 6 sleeping in the trees. They looked so cute, I wanted to pick one up and hug it! That probably wouldn’t be a good idea, so I refrained from doing so.

The next time we saw them was at the Healesville Sanctuary with Teta Alice, Uncle Michael, Marlon, and Grace. Here, we saw them in the four or so hours when they were active! It was very exciting watching them eat and move around.

Kangaroos

Kangaroos are also marsupials. In fact, the red kangaroo is the world’s largest marsupial. Like the koalas, the babies are called joeys and ride in their mother’s pouch for about 10 months. A group of kangaroos is called a mob.

The feet of the kangaroo are very important. Along with getting the animal where it wants to go, kangaroos also use their feet to defend themselves and box other kangaroos for mates. If they are being chased by a dog, they go into water where they grab the dog and keep it underwater or they old the dog and kick it. Strangely enough, kangaroos can’t move backwards or move one foot individually.

We have seen a lot of kangaroos in the wild. My mom saw some while she was going for a run, one has hopped across the lawn at Teta Alice and Uncle Michael’s house, and we saw a big mob in the forest on a walk with Teta Alice.

We also saw some kangaroos at the Healesville Sanctuary where we had the chance to feed them! The food was tree needles which looked like pine needles and kangaroo “chocolate”, which was dried corn and carrots. The kangaroos could also be pet on the back, and they were really soft and furry!

Kookaburra

Kookaburras live in tree hollows where they lay their eggs. The parents and older siblings take care of the new birds. When the babies grow up, they stay in the hollow to take care of the next little ones.

Kookaburras are nicknamed “the bushman’s clock” because they sing every day at dawn and dusk. These birds are also called laughing kookaburras because they make a sound which sounds like the bird is laughing. There is also an Australian children’s song about this bird.

“Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree,
Merry, merry king of the bush is he,
Laugh, Kookaburra, laugh kookaburra
How gay your life must be.”

We saw a couple of these birds in the forest in an old tree where I think they lived while on a walk with Teta Alice. There were signs around the forest saying how the kookaburras would steal your food just like seagulls! Fortunately, nothing of ours was taken and we were able to have a great time watching the cool birds.

Wallabies

Wallabies are from the kangaroo family, so they look the same, except on a smaller scale. Baby wallabies are also called joeys and travel in a pouch. There are different types of wallaby named after their habitat, behaviour, or appearance. For example, there are shrub wallabies, brush wallabies, rock wallabies, and hare wallabies.

Surprisingly, we saw wallabies at the Koala Conservation Centre. At first we only saw a few, but when we were leaving, we saw a group of about 10. They were scared of us so they hopped away. They reminded me of the gazelles we saw on our game drive in Tanzania because they both have big, beautiful eyes, and they are really sensitive to sounds around them.

Echidna

Echidnas are small animals which look like a cross of a porcupine and an anteater. In fact, an echidna’s front paws are adapted for digging into ant and termite nests, while they use their back feet for grooming in between the spikes.

A really interesting fact about echidnas is that they are monotremes. Monotremes are animals which are mammals but can lay eggs. There are only three kinds of monotremes in the world: the long-beaked echidna, the short-beaked echidna, and the platypus.

There were echidnas at the Healesville Sanctuary in the koala pens. The echidnas even had their own little houses where they lived. Echidnas are really cute and I would like to have one as a pet. (I think a good name would be “Fluffy”.) 😀

Bird Show

This show was put on at the Healesville Sanctuary and is called “Spirits of the Sky”. This performance highlighted Australian birds and their abilities. There were different kinds of owls, parrots, macaws, and other big birds of prey. Some of the birds flew over us and some got so close to us, I was afraid they were going to take my hat!

A bird of prey

A bird in flight

A cockatoo

A flying owl

A type of cockatoo

I had two favourite birds in the show. The first was Beatrice the brown breasted buzzard (try saying that 10 times fast!). The keeper explained how buzzards like to eat emu eggs. He put a fake emu egg on the ground and Beatrice immediately started pecking and scratching it. The keeper then put a small rock on the ground, which Beatrice picked up and used to smash the egg in about 20 seconds. It was amazing to see how Beatrice was able to use the rock as a tool.

My next favourite bird was Kevin the cockatoo. He could talk and had a conversation with the keeper! He could also dance and “roar” like a tiger. It was amazing to watch because Kevin didn’t repeat what the keeper was saying, he responded and interacted with the keeper. I would love to have a bird as well trained as Kevin. 🙂

It has been amazing to see some native Australian animals both in the wild and in captivity. It was the best of both worlds! It is interesting to see how different the wildlife is from Canada. To start, there are no squirrels or chipmunks and kangaroos are just like seeing deer. I love all the animals we’ve seen here and now I will be able to recognize more of the Australian animals at the Toronto Zoo.