Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Walk on the Wild Side

Back at the end of July, my coworker heard that I wanted to see some kangaroos and volunteered to take me to Featherdale Animal Park with her nephew. I was a little hesitant, because I thought I would see kangaroos in the wild and it would be a waste of money. Well first of all, you really have to get out into the bush to see them. And secondly, Featherdale was actually really cool, because they had all kinds of Australian animals, including those you wouldn’t normally see in the wild because they are shy, nocturnal, or endangered.

Australia has a lot of cool birds, and at Featherdale I got to see them up close. These rainbow lorikeets actually live in my neighborhood, but I only catch glimpses of them as they flit from tree to tree.


Here’s one of the famous “monkey bird” Kookaburras.


And a cassowary, which lives way up north in Queensland and looks like something left over from the age of the dinosaurs with the giant ridge on its head.

Of course, my favorite part was the animals. There were areas where they were roaming around and you could pet them. Here I am, petting a koala (I was actually looking at another camera at the time).


In part of the park, you could feed the animals alfalfa out of an ice cream cone (just the cone part, that is). We found out later that we were supposed to have paid for that. Oops. Guess they should have made the sign a little bigger.

In that part, there were kangaroos, wallabies, and emus. The emus were a little intimidating. Try standing still while a giant bird stabs its beak at your hand, I dare you. I dropped my cone every time.

I also got to check out a wombat

an echidna

and some dingoes.

I didn’t pet the echidna or the dingoes. There was even a giant croc! (He was behind glass).


Overall, I thought the animal park was awesome, and my coworker’s 9-year old nephew “didn’t play [his] Gameboy the entire time!” Well worth the $23 entry fee and definitely something I’ll take visitors to in the future.

7 comments:

Kelly@TearingUpHouses said...

No way! This is SO neat! You got to pet a koala AND kangaroo?!

Kelly

Unknown said...

Do any bite? I think so...

Anonymous said...

cool, I was wondering about biting koalas too.

Uncle Carl

L said...

Kelly, I got to pet an emu as well! They aren't so intimidating when you aren't holding food.

Carl and Joel, the koalas do bite, I guess, but usually they are pretty docile. They were kind of slothlike -- very slow moving. I didn't try to pet it on the head, though.

eaf said...

You petted a koala and lived to tell the tale! So cool.

The koala does look a little grumpy, though.

Alpha Monkey said...

This looks so cool! Can we go here when I visit? :)

Your photo reminded me of this Seinfeld quote:
"Maybe the dingo ate your baby."

L said...

AlphaMonkey, I think of that Seinfeld quote a lot. :) And I love that you're saying "when" you visit, not "if"!