At this time two weeks ago, I started posting about the Down Under vacation that my partner and I went on in early November. Part 1 included a tour of Sydney, Australia and nearby areas, ending with our cruise ship sailing away from Sydney Harbour. Last week, Part 2 focussed on a ship-board attraction, blowing hot glass at sea. Tonight, we stop by to visit the Tasmanian Devil and some other fascinating animals from Down Under.
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TONIGHT’s Feature Presentation: THe Tasmanian Devil
No, not this guy:
I’m talking about this:
I’m getting just a little ahead of myself here.
After we left Sydney behind us on a beautiful Monday evening, we had a full day at sea before stopping at the first port of call. I used that interlude in last week’s photo diary to talk about the Hot Glass Show, sponsored by the Corning Museum of Glass. We arrived at the port of Hobart, on the Australian island state of Tasmania, early Wednesday morning.
The organized tour we had pre-booked was called “Richmond and Tassie Devils”. Our tour bus first took us to Bonorong Wildlife Sanctuary, where most of their wildlife runs free-range. Many of the animals here are rescues that cannot be left in the wild, and some are species that are the subject of conservation efforts. Though not a huge sanctuary, the keepers apparently take loving care of their animals.
The scenery in and around Bonorong is spectacular:
Almost as soon as you enter, you come across a few species of birds in cages. First up, we have Rainbow Lorikeets.
The mesh of the cage is fairly small, and getting a good shot isn’t easy. Let’s see if we can clip something out of that big 6000x4000 image for a closer look:
The nearby sign says, in part:
Rainbow lorikeets are a faithful lot — they’re monogamous and pair for life. In fact during breeding season, the male will go to extra lengths to make sure his girl is happy. When she is feeding, he will puff his feathers up and hop around to warn off any other bird that might interrupt her meal.
Here are two mates, at least I think they are, sharing a romantic meal. The cage bars are responsible for the fuzziness, but I tried to keep the bars as out of focus as possible.
The next sign introduces someone very old:
HELLO, FRED!
MEET FRED, HE’S WELL OVER 100 YEARS OLD
Fred was a lifelong pet and was inherited by Bonorong after his owner passed away. He is old … like really old.
Some things that have happened since Fred was born:
- The first and second world wars (1914-1918 and 1939-1945)
- Aboriginals were recognised as Australian citizens and given the vote (1967)
- Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walk on the moon (1969)
- In fact, Fred was learning to fly around the same time as the human race
Fred’s century has seen the very best and worst of the human species. But Fred doesn’t care about that, he just wants another peanut!
WHAT CAN I DO?
Remember many pets, especially some birds, are pets for life. Fred’s favourite saying is “Hello Fred!” (go on try it). Could you deal with him saying it for 100 years? Make sure you are ready for the huge commitment of looking after your pet’s needs in order for it to be happy and healthy.
Ladies and gentlemen, the Sulphur-crested Cockatoo named Fred:
Here is a Yellow-Tailed Black Cockatoo. When confronted with a cage, but a desire to photograph through the cage, try as best you can to isolate the eye(s) and focus on that. Use your depth of field to fuzz out the cage bars as much as possible. There’s still something I like about this shot, despite the cage.
There are at least a couple of peacocks roaming the grounds, free-range.
Here is Randall the Echidna, who has a story to tell.
As his sign explains:
HELLO, MY NAME IS RANDALL!
I used to live out in the wild but I was attacked by a dog and was injured so badly that I had to have my right front leg amputated.
This means that I cannot dig properly and protect myself from predators. As a result, I now live here at Bonorong permanently where I can be safe from predators.
If you see me wandering around my enclosure please be quiet as I do get scared quite easily!
Bonorong is home to several koalas, who really take little interest in much aside from eating. The eucalyptus leaves that they feed on provide very little energy, so they keep their movements to a minimum.
From another angle:
Bonorong also has many free-range kangaroos:
They feed, they hop around, they lay down in the sun, and they shit everywhere.
And the kangaroos are free-range, as are the tourists. I mostly try to keep humans out of my photographs; once in a while I give in, and show what a zoo people can be.
(Photography is actually quite challenging with the group of relatives I was travelling with. When they see a camera lens pointed in their general direction, they quickly line up to pose in front of it. I indulge them to keep them happy, then go about my business. They are used to it by now.)
As we all know, the young ones (we are back to the subject of kangaroos, are you with me?) hang out in their mother’s pouch up to several months of age.
Sometimes, it seems, a joey manages to crawl into the pouch upside down, or sideways, or however the hell it got in there. Maybe this one has grown enough that he will soon be out in the real world for good.
Did you think I’d forgotten about the Tasmanian Devils?
The devils we saw on this day seemed rather docile, and enjoyed laying in the spring sun.
In the wild, they can be scrappy, and they tend to bite each other a lot. That has been working against the species in recent years, with the rapid spread of Devil Facial Tumour Disease (DFTD). Don’t laugh; that is actually a thing, as you can read about here. DFTD is a form of cancer that spreads though animal-to-animal contact, and is 100% fatal. As a result, Tasmanian Devils are declining rapidly in the wild, and are on the Endangered Species List.
Bonorong participates in an “Insurance Population” program to ensure that a permanent population of healthy animals survives, kept safe from the disease.
After leaving the Bonorong sanctuary, our tour bus stopped in the town of Richmond. Here you can find the typical assortment of bakeries, candy stores, souvenir shops, and so on.
Of the five of us family members travelling together, three are type-2 diabetic (myself included). This is not helpful:
Souvenirs, anyone?
Have I mentioned before in this series that our adventures take place in what is, for the southern hemisphere, spring time? The lush varieties of trees and flowers are in full bloom everywhere.
After a few hours of touring about, the bus took us back to our hotel.
Later that evening our hotel, 14 floors high and 3 NFL football fields long, packed up its things and began moving to a new location. We would not set foot on land again until the fourth day after this one. But oh, there was plenty to see ………………………..
(to be continued)
TOP COMMENTS FOR MONDAY DECEMBER 7, 2015
From Indycam:
Many users have been reporting that comments go missing, especially today. In TobyRocksSoHard’s diary “Is DailyKos broken for anyone else?”, Relevant Rhino notes how this situation sucks, and Thumb replies with a trick. Indycam wishes s/he had thought of that.
I’ve learned to CtrlC every comment before posting.
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