Australia certainly has a plethora of zoos and wild life sanctuaries. If you search for Melbourne Zoo you get directed to the website for all the zoos of Victoria. There happen to be three, the Melbourne zoo (in the city), a free range safari style African drive through zoo, and
The Healesville Animal Sanctuary happens to be an hour outside of the city in the Yarra Valley, wine country. Ina and I drove up to the sanctuary. It was a little cold as Ina and I spent the day talking about how cold we were especially our feet. The zoo happened to have quite a few demonstrations/talks. The first that we could catch was the kangaroo feeding. Ina and I lined up along the ropes of the free range kangaroo habitat. It had not only grey kangaroos but also red ones.
A zoo staff member introduced us to the kangaroos, only the grey ones, and started handing out corn kernels and carrots. Ina and I patiently weighted for our turn. When a kangaroo eats from your hand they get every little piece with their tongue. We also got to pet them, not on the head as it might trigger a boxing match. They are soooooooo soft.
Next we moved on to a bird of prey show. It was pretty neat, but my camera is not the best at video. They brought out an owl which flew inches above our heads. We also got to see the biggest bird of prey in Australia, the name escapes me. At the end of the bird show a native (well half aboriginal half Scottish) did a digerado and boomerang demo. I bought my only souvenir from him, a boomerang that actually works, well I need to try it out actually.
We passed a few pelicans as they were being fed on the way to the Tasmanian Devils. Before we got to the main exhibit we passed a lone devil doing laps around its cage. I couldn’t get a picture as it moved too fast, oh I wish I had a DSLR.
In the devil exhibit a zoo staff member told us what she was going to put some treats in the exhibit and then come back and talk to us. We were fortunate enough to see a first, the staff member put a Emu egg in the exhibit. We got to see the devil, that does not live on the same island as emus, run around with the egg and eventually open it up.
His name is Lucifer!
We walked around the rest of the zoo, nothing to important. I apparently piss Emus off, as they grunt at me but not Ina when we approach them. Lastly we went to see the Dingoes, well we saw the koalas last, but really they are a bit dissapointi8ng once you see one walk.
Dingoes are pretty cute, especially this species, there are three. They used to be domestic dogs that got away from south east Asian seafarers. At the end of the talk the handler, who had been petting the dingoes the whole time, got them to pose for us. How cute is this?
We drove back home, I really do like that V6. As usual we had our evening meal with the family. As a super fantastic bonus Ina’s uncle had purchased a dozen Oysters. We ate them the only way I know, raw. There is a lemon tree right outside of the kitchen so we had great fresh lemon. Ina and I were a little wii’d out and retired to her room for other computer games.
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