Australia Part II: Weird Animals

Of course, Australia is known for having weird ass animals. The second day we were in Sydney, we headed straight for Taronga Zoo to check them out. This was just the first of many animal visits during our three week trip. We visited Sydney's Featherdale Wildlife Park a week later, and went to a Tasmanian devil sanctuary in Tasmania.

Both Wacky Chinawoman and I were in agreement that we didn't really care about seeing non-Australian animals; after all, we've seen plenty of giraffes and elephants at the local zoos (and of course, when I was growing up, it seemed like we had a field trip to the Cincinnati zoo every other year).

Here are a few of the Australian animals we saw. The first is of a wallaby. From what I could tell, it's some sort of kangaroo (and yes, that's his TAIL, so get your mind out of the gutter). The second is of a long-necked turtle. The third is your run-of-mill koala (Featherdale). And the last is a Tasmanian devil, taken when we visited Cradle Mountain in Tasmania. The reflection of my camera flash in his eye makes him look more menacing than he really is.






Both Taronga zoo and Featherdale wildlife park have a bunch of Australian animals, but Featherdale actually lets you interact with animals that have been acclimated to being around humans. So we were actually able to feed the animals and pet them. This didn't seem like the best thing for the animals, but I have to admit that most of them looked pretty fat and happy from being constantly fed all day. This guy actually stole the cup of food from my hand and wouldn't give it back:



And lastly, the Tasmanian devil. This creature is pretty cool. One of the few carnivorus marsupials, they are also solitary creatures, yet they are not territorial nor are they particularly aggressive. They tend to feed on the carcasses of animals that others have killed, and though they do not hunt together, they often call out to share food. At the same time, they have weird rituals where they snarl and hiss at each other over their food, though no real damage is ever done. In fact, the only real injuries are inflicted during mating, where the female claws up the male pretty badly. Basically, it's some seriously kinky sex. Males only live for about 5 years, at which point they are pretty much worn out, with tons of visible scars on their body. It's a pretty fascinating, unusual animal.

The devil population is seriously dwindling and has quickly become endangered, though not because of humans. Apparently, a disease called Devil Facial Tumors has popped up in recent years and is ravaging the already small population. The Tasmanian government is selectively breeding devils with a resistance to this disease in the hopes of saving the species. This brings up an interesting question in my mind: if the species is being threatened by natural forces, is it really appropriate to intervene? Isn't this the natural course of evolution?

At the sanctuary in Cradle Mountain, I took this video of Tasmanian devils feeding on some roadkill. At the end, one of the little guys decides to get aggressive and steal the food away:



Notice how loud they squeal. These guys pretty much make loud, piercing noises all night long to let each other know when they've found food. That and their feeding habits make them seem like a terrifying animal, but for the most part they are quite harmless.

More Australia stuff to follow...