Saturday, October 9, 2010

Koalas, Kangaroo and Dingos oh my

Welcome to the wild.

A was a little worried after my first week in Australia. It had been nearly ten days, and I hadn't seen a single kangaroo. You can't really count the ones dead on the side of the road as "seeing" a kangaroo. My parents had been traveling separate of me but they were also in the same boat. No kangaroos. We were beginning to think that the kangaroos are everywhere stories that our Aussie friends had told us were just a ploy to get us to come and visit their country.
So after the World Simmental Congress when my parents and I met up with each other and some Canadian neighbors of ours we decided that the great kangaroo hunt was on.

We headed to Cleland Wildlife Park for a more hands on close up wildlife adventure. Cleland is located in the Adelaide Hills, in the middle of wine and produce country.


I knew the experience would be great, but I had no idea that we would be able to get so close to the kangaroos.


You could walk right up to the kangaroos and pet them. Their fur is like a rabbits, extremely soft. These kangaroos were on the small side, but their are larger species in the wild.


I was amazed by the little joeys jumping in and out of their mothers pouch. Here is a joey with just his claws sticking out.


And now he has decided to turn around and stick his head out. Kangaroos are really interesting in the fact that if there is extreme weather conditions they can make their pregnancy go longer. They can also be pregnant, be nursing a joey, and still be taking care of their previous progeny.

As I spent more time on farms I have now seen many more kangaroos in the wild. They kind of run around like the deer that we have in Alberta, and can be quite a problem to farmers as they can ruin fences and dig big holes under fences, allowing sheep to escape.


We also got to get up close with the koala bears. We could only pet them on their back. Koalas actually sleep the majority of the day, and will only be awake for a couple hours of the day. Must be nice.

2 comments:

  1. How cute are they?!! Especially the little baby! Love the Koala too:) What a great adventure you are on!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I also saw quite a few kangaroos when I was in Australia. I wasn't crazy about them. I preferred the koala bears. So soft - I just wanted to cuddle them! Did you eat any kangaroo meat?

    ReplyDelete

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