Macropus Rufus and other animals
Jamilah: Today we drove over the Sydney Harbour Bridge and I was quite scared and surprised because I didn’t think I would be able to go over it, and as I have mentioned in one of my recent blogs the bridge is only held up by four big round metal More...
Jamilah: Today we drove over the Sydney Harbour Bridge and I was quite scared and surprised because I didn’t think I would be able to go over it, and as I have mentioned in one of my recent blogs the bridge is only held up by four big round metal pins. We arrived at Taronga zoo where we met a zoo keeper called Jane and we went to see some Koalas. We actually got to go inside their enclosure and I got to look right up at one very close - she was really cute. We couldn’t touch them because they don;t like being touched and if they were asleep you would wake them up. Koala babies are born the size of jelly beans and are all pink; Koalas have a pouch facing backwards to put their baby in, but they can close it with their strong muscles to stop the babies falling out when they climb. Koalas sleep for 20 hours a day and the rest of the four hours they don’t spend at once, they spend a few minutes at a time and then go back to sleep. The difference between a male and a female Koala is that the males have a scent gland on their chest which stains it brown because it is constantly giving off oil - that is how you tell the difference between a male and a female Koala.
Then we went to the Tasmanian Devil enclosure where we saw two Tasmanian Devils, except I don;t know why they are called Devils as they aren’t at all like Devils. Apparently they are in danger of becoming extinct because of a type of face cancer. The Devils when they give birth have their babies clinging onto their teats and then the mothers drag them around. The trouble is that the mother’s only have four teats, so that only four out of about forty survive. The mother eats all the other 36 - pretty gross!
We saw some ducks on a pond and I particularly liked the blue billed duck because it was a beautiful shade of brown with a fluorescent blue beak. Then we went and saw some Dingos and we saw a male and female cuddling and licking each other - it was really cut. Then we went to see all the nocturnal animals and then we went behind the scenes. Jane showed us a freezer of frozen dead animals and all of them were vertebrates. We got to hold some meal worms and they weren’t slimy at all, they just kept trying to wriggle between your fingers. Then we went into a little room where there was a feather tailed glider and it jumped onto me and it did a little pee on me, but I just wiped it off with a wet towel. It was really fun holding it and once it climbed onto my head and I had to close me eyes. Mummy and Daddy had it all over them too. Then we went to feed the Echidnas and I got to stroke one even though they are pretty spiny and they have really long tongues. We also went into the Long Nosed Potoroo enclosure and I gave Eddie a bit of sweet corn and a banana whilst he was on my lap. He was really clever because the banana skin was still on and he ate inside it.
Then we went to see the kangaroos and I patted a Red Necked Wallaby. I managed to catch a quick glimpse of the baby inside her pouch which was really cute. The baby was all pink and sort of curled up. Then we fed an Emu and we fed it flowers and I had yo hold onto the flower very tightly as the Emu snapped at it very hard. Then we went to see the Platypus, except that we didn’t see any, so I’ll guess I’ll just have to go home saying we didn’t see a Platypus in Australia. Then we went to see the big red male Kangaroos - they were big and one of them waved at us. The Latin name for them is Macropus Rufus. Then we had a quick snack and took the water taxi back to our hotel.
We quickly dropped off all our bags at the hotel and went out shopping. There was a lady entertaining people on the street and she managed to squeeze herself into a little 16 inch glass box.Back
