Day 7 – Townsville

 
We had a great day today having spent the morning at the Billabong Wildlife Sanctuary. They have lots of animals there including:

· Koalas, Kangaroos, Sugar Gliders, Wallabies, Snakes, Wombats, Possums, Cassowarys, Turtles, Ducks, Swans, Emus, Owls, Cockatoos

Ryan thoroughly enjoyed himself (as did we!!) as most of the animals are roaming around free and can be hand fed!!

He absolutely loved feeding and patting the kangaroos and wallabies (although he kept wanting to ‘cuggle’ them instead which made them a little scared). Some of the kangaroos were quite large!!





We also got to feed the ducks and swans (with the same food interesting enough – a mixed seed that you can buy in small bags from the café for 80c a bag):



While I was feeding "Jacko”, a large Magpie Goose snuck up behind me and tried to grab the bag of seed out of my hand!! Is this one a Gallah or a Cockatoo?



The highlight of the morning was a walk through the Koala Peninsular where we learned all about Koalas and we even got to pat and hold them too!!







Did you know that a baby koala has to eat diarrhoea from it’s mum in order to get the bacteria it needs to digest eucalyptus oil that is otherwise poisonous?

The other main ‘interaction’ of the morning was with one of the local wombats:





Ryan loved the wombat so much that he talked us into getting him a wombat teddy bear from the gift shop on the way out – he hasn’t let go of it since and he’s just taken it to bed with him too – he’s normally very fussy about which teddy bear he wants to take to bed!!

Quiz Question – What does a Koala use its SECUM for (say it slowly)?

Quiz Question – The Koala and what other marsupial decent from the same ancestor?

Quiz Question – How many million years have koalas existed for (between 0 and 50 to the nearest round million)?

Accommodation – Woodlands Holiday Park (Big 4 Caravan Park)