Attack of the Native Wildlife

 Aussie term of the day...

"Dodgy" - You will hear this term used quite often here when describing any number of things.  "The way that person acted was rather dodgy.""This chair is rather dodgy, but I'm going to sit in it anyways.""Do you think my milk is a bit dodgy? It's been sitting in my fridge since before break..."

Another lovely Townsville sunset.

            First off, I cannot tell you how tired I was after my week of field trips! They were fantastic and I would totally do them again, but I definitely think my days of incredibly early 5:00 mornings and fairly late nights were starting to catch up to me by the end.  When I got back home at the end I think I spent the next day or so just sleeping and doing nothing particularly productive. Essentially I became a vegetable.  Which brings me to how awesome my roommates are.  It was just Michelle, Dot and I for a couple of days at the lodge on our own since everyone else was still off doing their lecture recess related activities.  Michelle took me along on Friday to Good Friday service at the church she and Shane got to despite my slowness in dragging myself out of bed and really waking up that morning. Then she went to the store later on and got me flowers just because. How sweet is that??

            Monday was my roommate Blessings birthday and to celebrate the occasion and take advantage of our added day off, we headed off to the highly anticipated Billabong Sanctuary.  I seriously LOVED it there, which you would kind of expect from a “tourist,” if you will, studying wildlife as a degree…

            They had numerous talks and demonstrations interspersed throughout the day, the first of which was the cassowary talk and feeding were we actually got to feed one of their male cassowaries.

            There were the wombat and koala talks as well which were both awesome and topped off by the fact that I actually got to hold one of both! I will say about wombats that those are solid creatures.  I understand now what they mean about one of those things totaling your car if you were to hit one while driving…

             The koalas were really cool as well but rather out of it if you will.  I guess that’s kind of what you would expect from an animal of such diet and habits though… Essentially, the food they eat (eucalyptus) is extremely low in nutrients and actually a bit toxic. It’s so limited in nutrients and calories in fact that koalas sleep an average of 20 hours a day and are relatively antisocial creatures.  They don’t have any natural predators either so they quite honestly have not a care in the world.

            Later on they had the dingo talk where I actually got to pet a very friendly and well trained dingo from their resident pack.

            We got to witness their crocodile feeding show for a number of their crocodile pairs as well.  Those are some BIG reptiles right there.

            I really loved how hands on the whole thing was and they really wanted to get the visitors to interact with the wildlife. They had some of the common ‘around town’ birds sitting on perches throughout the park; like the red-tailed black cockatoos. And there were ducks EVERYWHERE. No joke. They were all over the place and loved getting the attention we often gave with the handfuls of birdseed we were given when we got our tickets at the entrance.

Feeding the red-tailed black cockatoo

            There were tons of kangaroos hopping around too and some of them with fair sized joeys sticking out of their pouches, or should I say, practically falling. They were so tame that you could essentially just walk up to them and start petting them. Some of them even let you pet the joeys in their pouches.

            Later on in the day, they had a bird show to showcase some of the more common Aussie birds around.  There were a couple birds they just released and let fly around the audience a bit like the barn owl and the black kite. For the kite, the handler just threw bits of food in the air and the thing would swoop in and catch them mid throw then land and eat it on some tree.  They brought out a rainbow lorikeet and a young curlew as well.  I have seen SO many curlews around town and on campus now that they are really nothing new but it was actually kind of funny with this particular one that was trained to see it follow its handler around and chase after bits of food he tossed out for it.

            I got to see the three deadliest snakes in the world as well and now I know more or less what to avoid if I see it! Of course, two of those three live right around the town I currently live in... As seems to be a recurring theme for me the past several months, I am choosing to avoid a good amount of the wildlife for obvious reasons. If I were at home I would totally pick up most any snake I see because, well, I know nothing is really going to kill me. But then I get here and I realize it's usually a bit safer to just assume anything can kill you.

Coastal Taipan during the snake show

             I did get to hold a non-venomous water python and a very small saltwater crocodile as well during one of the reptile shows.  That was fun J.

            By the end of break I had smacked the opposite end of the spectrum with my body well rested and my mind becoming a little restless even with sitting at home not doing much for a couple days.  The rest of my housemates started coming home, much to my joy, and at one particular point my enthusiasm got the better of me as I solidly smacked my toe into the side of the sofa while greeting a returning housemate.  I’m sure I looked utterly ridiculous as I ‘ran’ one legged up and down the hallway. I did finally sit down and ice the thing after getting handed chocolate and told to do so. I fear my pinky toe has seen some far better days...

            This coming weekend is another long one, Friday being another free day in honor of Anzac day. During this next extended break I will be heading off again on another field trip, this one for my Coral Reef Geomorphology class. We will be heading out to Orpheus Island, the research island belonging to the university, and I am thoroughly looking forward to what we will be learning concerning the reef out there!  I am not however looking forward to getting up at 3:30 tomorrow morning in order to make it to the 4:15 bus ride we will be taking to get on the boat before the tides change... A necessary evil I guess :).