Caversham Wildlife Park

Last week I went to Caversham Wildlife Park with other international students at UWA.
Two of you answered correctly to my question from the last blog post. Yes, it was a close up of koala fur.

I got to see some snoozing koalas and was told they are not "koala bears" because they are marsupials. Koalas are not naturally found in Western Australia and they sleep about 20 hours per day. Because they only eat eucalyptus, koalas do not receive very much protein in their diet and have a very slow metabolism.

They were all very sleepy, probably because it was the hottest part of the day, and they just hugged the trees. We were allowed to pet them and they were very soft.

Here I am with a new international friend.

We also saw other native Australian animals including the Spotted Quoll (Dasyurus maculatus) below. It is the largest marsupial carnivore in on the AUS mainland.

Here is a Quokka (Setonix brachyurus) which lives on "Rotto" or Rottnest Island off the coast of Perth. When people first arrived on the island they thought the Quokka was a breed of giant rat and named it "Rat-nest Island." The name has now been changed.

Robin and I with our new friend the wombat. Surprisingly, they can run up to 40km/hr and are mostly muscle.

Other wildlife highlights included the Long-nosed Potoroo (Potorous tridactylus) and a Perentie lizard. I love the names of animals and places in Australia! Maybe I will change my name to Annaroo.


My favorite part of the park was the kangaroo exhibit. I got to feed them out of my hand! There were several types of kangaroos in the park including the Western Grey Kangaroo (Macropus fuliginosus). I thought the kangaroos walked oddly because they drag their tail behind themselves and then use it to balance. They also look really funny when they scratch their sides.

Notice the paw resembles the "Kangaroo Paw" flower I mentioned in a previous blog post.

This one tried to eat Gumby!

Look! A joey in the pouch! Later, I saw one with just a leg sticking out.

After Lunch we went to a farm show demonstration where I saw another sheep shearing and donkeys, goats, chickens, tiny pigs, guinea pigs, and this baby ostrich.

Australian Chickens! The white one had a blue head.

Here is another bird I saw. The one glaring at me below was a Bush Thick-Knee (Burhinus grallarius). I also saw black swans (featured on the emblem of Perth), ducks, geese, emus, cockatiels (Leptolophus hollandicus), a Rufous Night Heron (Nycticorax caledonicus) and a laughing blue winged kookaburra. The other day I saw one in Perth in a gum tree whist I was swimming (just like the song)!



After the wildlife park we went to another Margaret River Chocolate Factory where Gumby hung out with a giant chocolate rabbit.