Bradley took me and Parag (another conference attendee) to the
Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary
in Brisbane, about a 25 minute or so drive.
They have lots of native animals, including koalas (since they are a
koala sanctuary), an emu, kangaroos, wallabies, wombats, cassoary
(though we never saw it in it's enclosure; Bradley called it a
casso-nowhere-y), bats, platypus, lizarsd, and more.
And people can buy bags of food to hand feed the kangaroos or wallabies
(or see someone they know who is leaving and gives them half a bag
of kangaroo food). It's a great place.
And it marks the end of my photo highlights of the Great Australia Trip
of 2024. The trip back was uneventful, smooth, and unremarkable.
Saturday October 26, 2024
001-DSC_9606-header: Caged things (bats, birds, and lizards)
001-DSC_9606-headertext:
The first sectiono has a bunch of things in large cages, most of which fly, specifically big-ass bats and birds. 001-DSC_9606: Flying fox facts! 002-DSC_9605: Flying fox bats which are pretty damn big (almost 1 ft long)! 003-DSC_9608: A red-tailed black cockatoo. 004-DSC_9609: A lizard that wandering around the area. (It wasn't monitoring anything.) 005-DSC_9610: A gang-gang Cockatoo. 006-DSC_9613: Lorikeet facts! 007-DSC_9612: A rainbow lorikeet. 008-DSC_9616: Kookaburra facts! 009-DSC_9614: A laughing kookaburra (though it wasn't making any noises then). 010-DSC_9615: A laughing kookaburra (think: jungle sounds from old movies). 011-DSC_9617: A sulpher crested cockatoo. 012-DSC_9628-header: Playtpus 012-DSC_9628-headertext:
I finally got to see an active platypus up close. The glass enclosure let us see it when it was above or below the water. But it was hard to get the camera to focus properly and the low light meant the longer exposure times could lead to blurry pictures. So these aren't great, but they're what I have. 012-DSC_9628: Platypus facts (they're egg laying mammals)! 013-DSC_9619: It's all about the duck-bill. 016-DSC_9622: The platypus swimming on the surface of the water. 017-DSC_9623: The platypus was doing vertical circles in the water. 018-DSC_9626: I can't be sure it wasn't just an otter wearing a fake duck-bill. 019-DSC_9629-header: Koalas and Germans!! 019-DSC_9629-headertext:
After leaving the platypus building, we were in the area with a lot
of koalas. As we were looking at the tree where the first koala was
sitting, on the far side of the railing around the tree, we saw a group
of people from Germany from the conference we had just attended. I just
wanted to make it clear they were not part of the exhibit. They
were just wrapping up their visit to Lone Pine and about to leave the
area. One of them, Lena, had a bag of kangaroo food and only half of
it had been used and gave it to me. I made use of it (feeding kangaroos,
not eating it).
Koalas like to try to make themselves into as perfect a sphere as
they can manage. Often it's egg shaped but still impressive. They
have freaky double-thumbs that let them get a good grip on branches
where they spend so much time sleeping... Their diet is like just
eucalyptus leaves from a certain species of eucalyptus tree. And
they're picky about what leaves they eat. They're really painting
themselves in a corner here. But they're also tripping balls on
those leaves so it probably seems like a good idea to them.
019-DSC_9629: Germans, including Lena and Jan.
020-DSC_9630: Let's get this out of the way: a koala
with a baby on its back. Super-cute.
021-DSC_9631: Got an itch? Why scratch with your arms
when you can awkwardly use your feet?
022-DSC_9632: Awkwardly comfortable: Fold yourself in a ball,
feet against face. Don't fart.
023-DSC_9634: This koala's got a good oval shape going.
024-DSC_9635: Note the odd double-thumbs to help grip the trees.
025-DSC_9637: This one looks like he'd be annoyingly sarcastic.
026-DSC_9638: "Comfortable up here?!? Now I know why your
wife left you."
026a-DSC_9663:
026b-DSC_9664: More of a teardrop-shaped koala.
026c-DSC_9690: A surprisingly active koala, slowly relocating.
027-DSC_9639-header: Kangaroos and Friends
027-DSC_9639-headertext:
There was a large enclosed area that had various animals including emus, kangaroos, and wallabies. Since it was around 3pm, and the kangaroos had been fed by people all day, they mostly weren't all that interested in handouts. They were all pretty mellow and weren't the huge 7 foot talk monsters that are totally pumped up. There were also some dingos in their own enclosure. My theory is that if they weren't isolated, then people would realize they're just dogs... 027-DSC_9639: An emu wandering about, looking like a feather duster with legs. 028-DSC_9640: A kangaroo in a very poised pose. 029-DSC_9641: A lot of kangaroos that are tired of the food handouts or just tired. 030-DSC_9642: Many seemed to prefer grass to the pellets we had. 031-DSC_9644: Frank offers food to a kangaroo that politely declines. 032-DSC_9645: Frank, with a mob of kangaroos. (Yes, that is their collective noun.) 033-DSC_9654: The wallabies stare on in disbelief—they have some serious 'roo FOMO. 034-DSC_9655: Kangaroos seem to enjoy lying around back-to-back with each other. 035-DSC_9657: I finally found one interested in Lena's kangaroo food. 036-DSC_9659: A jackaranda tree. 039-DSC_9666: Information on Talon, the wedge-tailed eagle. 040-DSC_9665: A wedge-tailed eagle. See the previous photo for more information. 041-DSC_9667: Two dingos that are not dogs even if they look and act like dogs. 042-DSC_9668: Maybe, unlike dogs, dingos are marsupials or poisonous or something... 043-DSC_9669: Weird blue fruit that is not a berry, on a tree that might be called a blue quandong, silver quandong or blue fig. 044-DSC_9671-header: Reptiles (and birds…same thing) 044-DSC_9671-headertext:
There was an enclosed pool, and on one side there was a rather narrow
tunnel (like a ventilator shaft) that ended in a circular glass bubble,
big enough for two kids and one Frank to be in at the same time.
Just outside of the bubble was a pretty big-ass crocodile. Mostly,
it was just lying on the bottom of the pool, watching us...and waiting.
I took a few pictures, but space was limited and the two kids there
were blocking some of it. One of them didn't like how "loud" the
shutter on my camera was. It's not that loud...
We also walked by the area where they put food out for the rainbow
lorikeets twice a day. They are very brightly colored (or coloured).
At some point bush turkey decided to get in on the free food. It would
never be mistaken for a rainbow lorikeet for so, so many reasons.
Finally, there was a building that housed various reptiles (and amphibians)
behind glass. Some were frogs, others were snakes. I think all the
snakes were deadly because it's Australia. Speaking of which, platypus
have venomous thorns on their hind legs which can kill some animals.
044-DSC_9671:
045-DSC_9670: A mertens' water monitor lizard. (It doesn't monitor the water.)
046-crocodile_Panorama1: A multipart picture of a crocodile underwater
through a glass dome.
047-DSC_9675: The crocodile looks like it's just waiting for an opportunity
to eat something.
048-DSC_9676: Lots of colorful rainbow lorikeets in the tree.
I count at least 13 of them.
049-DSC_9678: They are quite pretty birds in a tie dye way.
050-DSC_9679: Twice a day they put food out for the colorful lorikeets.
051-DSC_9680: And of course people like to take pictures of them.
052-DSC_9683: Of course
bush turkeys
can't read signs…
053-DSC_9684: I count at least 14 rainbow lorikeets in this tree.
054-DSC_9686:
055-DSC_9685: White-lipped tree frogs are aptly named.
056-DSC_9687: I feel like the collective noun for spendid tree frogs
is a glob.
057-DSC_9689: Some kind of snake, maybe a carpet python. It's
in Australia so it's unlikely to be one of the, like, two species
that aren't deadly.
060-DSC_9693: It looks like they're trying to prevent a beaver from emerging
from this tree.
061-DSC_9694: Some animal fun facts!
062-DSC_9695:
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