What you all want to see!

Kangaroos, wallabys, wombats, koalas. devils, and emus oh my!

Last weekend I went to a wildlife park and met some of Australia's finest. The Bonorong ( or Bono's Wrong as Kyle has mentioned) wildlife park is about a half hour drive out of town and totally worth it. Let's begin:

When you get to the park they give you some kangaroo feed to feed the animals around the place. I tried to feed them all but as you walk around you find out there are like a hundred kangaroos there and it's impossible to feed them all. Smart wallabys like this guy are near the entrance, which is why he looks a little chubby probably.

A wombat! He is the real reason I came down to Australia. Sure they have a nice art school here and the accent is lovely to hear and the beaches and weather, but wombats c'mon. They win. This little guy, and I say little because they get twice as big as that, is an orphan; his mother hit by a car. Someone found the small guy and brought him to the park where they keep good care of him until they release him back into the wild. He is shy as you can see because they have a strong affection towards their mothers until they reach adolesence, then they bugger off and do their own thing.

Here he is again having a good scratch.

and again with me patting him. I don't think you're supposed to reach into their pens, but he came right up to me and was begging for a pat, so who am I to say otherwise. We are best buds now.

This is a yellow tailed black cockatoo. He doesn't seem very impressive especially after hanging out with a wombat, but I read his little card and this guy actually got shot and someone rescued him. He's the gangsta of the wildlife park, because he got shot, and because he's now in jail until he dies. I blame the school system.

Peacock, natures attention whores.

This is Barnaby, the sixteen year old Koala. Koala's only live for about 12 years, so he is way past his prime. Some Koala facts:
1)They are really stupid (the zoologists words not mine). Because they only eat eucalyptis leaves which are nutritionally awful their brains haven't developed too well.
2) They sleep 20 hours a day
3) They have a hard plate on their bums like wombats. Wombats use their plate to defend themselves in their burrows, squishing enemies heads against the roof of the burrow; Koalas use theirs as a seat.
4) Because they are stupid if you scratch them they think an earthquake is happening. Really. I was petting this guy and accidentally scratched him and he kinda freaked out in slow motion (probably really quickly in Koala time)
5) I was going to try and eat some eucalyptis but apparently it's poison to humans. Actually, even after I found that out I was still going to eat some, but I couldn't reach it in their pen.
6) They have this weird bald patch on their chest, which for lack of a better description looks a lot like female genetalia. This is a scent gland which they rub on trees to mark their territory.
7) They make a weird grunting noise which sounds like an elephant with the hiccups.

They may be stupid but they are pretty cute.

A wallaby and a kangaroo. I think it's a wallaby anyways, that's what I have been calling them and nobody has corrected me yet. Small kangaroo if I am wrong.

Pretty sure all native Australian animals are cute and or funny looking. These are Tawny Frogmouths, I want one on my shoulder.

One of the perks of the job must be naming animals and giving them wierd personal ads.

I felt so bad for this guy. These birds are flying around freely all over the park, but this one was in a cage.

An echidna. I really hope he was just having a nap in the sun because I was watching him for like ten minutes and he didn't move.

Roos are all over this place! As you can see they are super tame, and actually pretty lazy. You pretty much have to walk up to them and stick food right in front of their noses to feed them. the kangaroo doing the aerobics had an itch, and the one Naemi is feeding you can see has a joey in its pouch which always seems cuter in kids books then it does in real life. Kinda looks like a huge spider is trying to get out of its stomach. Ick.

A goose type thing and a very sleepy tasmanian devil.

The enormous emu. What to say about this thing... well, I don't really like it. You could feed it the same stuff as the kangaroos but they aren't nearly as gently, whatsoever. I tried feeding it but he tried to beak me to death and scared the crap out of me. Also, their feathers aren't like normal feathers. They're oily and feel like sticks. Lucky he was behind a fence, because I hear they can kill people with their talons. They jump on top of you and just stomp you to death. I don't like emus.

So these guys are supposed to sleep twenty hours a day, but not one of them was sleeping the whole time I was there.

And lastly a Cookaburra! Look at him sit in that old gum tree. Laughing.

After the wildlife park we went to Richmond, a tiny touristy town. I will post those pictures in a few days. Hope everyone liked the animals, I know I did!