The Australian Reptile Park

A Tasmanian devil

The kangaroo who realized all the food was coming from the bag.

An echidna

Today, we woke up early, and started our next long stretch of driving.  We are hoping to make a very quick stop in Brisbane in the next few days.  On the drive, we stopped in another zoo, called the Australian Reptile Park, to see more native fauna.

Some things that we saw were: a platypus (it and the echidna are the only remaining monotremes left in the world; that means that they are the only mammals that lay eggs), another echidna, Tasmanian devils (as well as in Tasmania, these used to thrive in mainland Australia, but dingos (wild dogs) competed with them for water, food, and land; the dingos won, and now the devils only live in some parts of mainland Australia where there are no dingos;), dingos, a Galapagos tortoise (obviously not from Australia, but amazing nevertheless), a cane toad (an invasive species introduced by Europeans), lots of spiders, lizards, snakes, and a few birds.

We also got to feed and touch kangaroos, who were wandering around the park looking for guests who had bought a small brown bag of kangaroo food.  One of the smart kangaroos even took the bag from us and started eating right out of it.

After the zoo, my brother and I practiced our violins for an upcoming orchestra audition, and later, we continued driving.  We have a few long drives ahead of us, but we are enjoying observing the beautiful scenery.