Finally – Australian animals… On a Saturday that initially looked as if it was going to be very windy and rainy, I went to Featherdale with some friends. A very nice place where a lot of Australian animals can be seen. It was probably a good thing that the weather was rather cloudy, as all animals were out, including some that may otherwise only be out and about during the night, but sometimes make exceptions for overcast days.

To begin with – the cuddly koala’s, doing what koala’s do best:

• 

• 

Eucalyptus has a very low nutritional value, and are even poisonous to most animals. Koala’s have a very low metabolic rate, allowing the food to stay extremely long in the digestive system, which enhances the amount of energy that can be extracted. At the same time, the low metabolic rate means that less energy is “spent” on digestion, which, taken together with the amount they sleep (about 18-22 hours per day!), means they don’t need that much energy, and they can survive on the very poor diet of eucalyptus.

With the koala’s lived a pair of tawny frogmouths:

Not to be confused with tawny owls, which have similar colours, wide eyes and are also nocturnal, however, the frogmouths have a more forward-facing beak to catch insects, whereas the owls have downward-facing beaks with which they tear their prey apart.

Over to another famous Australian animal – the kangaroo:

• 

• 

So, here you go – my first kangaroos… On the right, the joey was drinking from his mum before hopping back into the pouch… shame I wasn’t quick enough to capture that moment.

Let’s take a look at some water birds:

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

The little black cormorant is not very friendly – at least, when I tried to take this photo, I had to lean over the fence as Mister (or Missis… don’t know, really…) decided to get as close to the fence as possible. But he (or she) didn’t act very friendly when I stuck my hands with camera over the fence… Camera shy perhaps… But even then – no need to make such a fuss!

I’m not entirely sure if the sea gulls were actually part of the animals kept by Featherdale, however, they were there, and I took a picture regardless… Reminded me of fish and chips at Manly… although, I must say – they were just minding their own business here.

Apparently, little penguins can be seen at Manly in the wild, but we didn’t see any on our visit there… And what about these black-necked storks: see how their “knees” are bent the wrong way…!

Look, Dad – they have “witte tijgers” here ☺ For the non-Dutch (and the Dutch who don’t get this family joke): this literally translates to “white tigers”. The issue is that the Dutch word for heron, reiger, is somewhat difficult for (Dutch) toddlers to pronounce, the more so if they haven’t quite mastered the “r” yet… that became a “t”, and so the “reiger” became a “tijger” – a rather different animal altogether…

Like the cormorant, the magpie goose didn’t quite like the attention he/she got from me either… On the other hand: look how aristocratic and important that pelican is walking around!

Here are two other famous Australians:

• 

• 

• 

… the echidna (top photos) and the wombat (bottom photo). The echidna is like a hedgehog: it has spikes, and when it feels threatened, it will roll into a spiky ball. It eats little insects. The wombat is one of those animals that are typically not awake during the day time. However, overcast and cloudy days make them come out, which was good for us. They dig big extensive burrow systems – a little like moles and rabbits. For that reason, they are not farmers’ best friends… Interesting fact: they have backward facing pouch, so that when they dig, they won’t get the dirt into their pouch and onto their young. So many clever things in nature!

Let’s go to some birds now:

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Like the plants that we keep in our window boxes inside the house, there are also birds that we typically know as pets in cages inside our homes, but that fly freely round in Australia: cockatoos, parrots, finches… The cassowary perhaps not so much – but that’s probably because it is an animal as big as an ostrich… Apparently, it is not advisable to get very close to one if found in the wild: it has very strong legs with which it can kick very hard!

Finally – how about the following “friends”:

• 

• 

• 

Really getting to the kind of animals I’d rather not meet too closely without a solid piece of glass between them and me… Not sure if they are really that harmful, but even so…

That was a very nice afternoon, filled with seeing all these Australian beauties. Next time – Blue Mountains…