Can You Guess What This Is?

 Let's see who can guess what the following pictures represent:

Maria's Island

Maria’s Island served many roles since the 1800s, notably as a whaler camp and a penal settlement in which the Irish nationalist leader William Smith O’Brien was incarcerated. It is now a tourist area with camping sites and beautiful walks. The island can be accessed by ferry from Triabunna and it has no cars, shops or anything of the like. Visitors must be entirely self-sufficient.

Landscapes on treks

 (A wild wallaby)

 

It is now home to many endangered birds and animals, including as of recently (November 2012) Tasmanian devils. The Island is looked after by rangers. Among the staff is a Discovery Ranger, charged of leading activities to educate the population about different subjects. I was lucky enough to attend an activity on birds and the means by which the general population can help protect them. An example of measure would be to ensure that dogs are kept on a leash when on the beach, to avoid disturbing nesting grounds.

Birds

(When I was on Maria's Island, many of these birds were washing up on shores inexplicably. Rangers were working intensively to figure out the cause of death and put a stop to it.)

 

 

The Discovery Ranger loved her work so much, she made me envious. You should have seen her when she started talking about albatrosses!  

But in the end, I am left with one main question: Was it wise to introduce Tasmanian devils to an area filled with endangered birds? The Discovery Ranger assures that populations are being monitored and that there has been no impact so far… But one can’t help be worry about long term repercussions of this initiative, even if there is strong reasons to maintain “insurance” populations.

Bones of a whale that washed up on the shore, they are now exposed all year long.

Wineglass Bay and Bay of Fires in 7 Pictures

What am I telling this kangaroo?

Would love to see what type of caption you can come up with for this picture!

A Thought For A Special Someone Back Home...

from the Outback of Australia.

Bonorong Wildlife Sanctuary

The first step of our roadtrip on the East Coast of Tasmania consisted in a stop at the Bonorong Sanctuary, not far from Hobart. There, dedicated staff takes care of injured animals before their release into the wild. I hesitated between visiting this sanctuary and visiting the Tasmanian Devil Sanctuary. I opted for the first because I thought it would allow me to see a wider variety of animals and because I was curious about the conservation efforts undertaken to protect different endangered populations.

Needless to say I enjoyed this visit. I had a chance not only to feed kangaroos, but to actually observe their interactions. I learned more about wombats, koalas and devils as well. For example, wombats and koalas both have a hard bone plate on their bottoms.

Wombats’ plates serve as a protection against predators. In case of danger, wombats will run to a burrow and block the entrance with that plate. As they have no nerve endings in that area, they will not feel the bite. If the predator is too persistent, the wombat will lower the plate and ram it back up crushing the head of the animal that would have tried to seize this opportunity. If this fail at crushing the skull, the wombat will wait for the asphyxiation of the predator. Many settlers got caught the same way when they stuck their hands in a terrier. The wound caused often opened the way to gangrene.

Adult wombats would have been the most aggressive animal of the sanctuary. They are sweet and cuddly until the approximate age of two when they have to be released in the wild. A wombat can chew through basically anything, including doors and walls. This means that if a caregiver doesn’t release the animal in time and that the animal figures the home of its caregiver to be its territory, it could cause lots of damage trying to get back in. Finally, in Australia, it takes a special permit to care for a wombat.

(Can you spot my Australian travel partner?)

Koalas are equipped with the same plate, which has a different use. A koala will use this plate in order to be able to jam its butt on a hard branch and remain there for hours without discomfort. A Koala feeds on eucalyptus, which I will grant is poisonous. However, it is untrue that koalas are high all day long from the ingestion of eucalyptus. In truth, a koala has special enzymes in its stomach that allows it to break down the eucalyptus and to neutralize the poison. A koala will be awake for about 4 hours in a day, which it will spend eating. There isn’t much to be taken from eucalyptus in terms of nutritious elements, this is why a koala’s metabolism needs to be slow in order to use as little calories as possible. The lifespan of a koala depends mostly on the region it lives in and the nutritious content of the eucalyptus trees to which it has access. The koala is not a member of the bear family, it is a marsupial just like kangaroos.

Kangaroos are marsupials, which means they have a pocket where they keep their newborns until they are grown. The presence of kangaroos near and on roads after dusk makes it relatively unsafe to drive outside the cities after sunset. Funny anecdote, a full grown kangaroo gave a little girl a real fright when he crept from behind and put his two front paws on her shoulder, hoping to get some food. All and all, he was really gentle and the situation was more comical than anything.

Finally, the Tasmanian Devil has very little resemblance to its Loony Toons’ version. The sound made by a Devil is relatively strange, the animal is quite small and is a scavenger. Supposedly a Tasmanian Devil will not eat the part of a prey that is submerged in water. It makes me wonder if there is a link between this and the myth of the vampire, which can’t cross water. I do suspect it is a myth since other sources say the devils actually like water. The specie is in danger, in big part due to a transmissible cancer-like disease that spreads quickly among the population and kills it off. Preservation efforts are being made and parks everywhere are trying to quarantine healthy populations.

As you can see the visit was quite informative and I was truly inspired by the dedication of the staff and the love they have for the animal under their care.

Bicheno's Penguins

While on a road trip up the Tasmanian East Coast, on our way to the Bay of Fire, we made a pit stop in Bicheno for the night. We were lucky to be in Tasmania for the mating season of the fairy penguins, in time to see the nightly penguins walk. Thankfully while in Bicheno, we managed to get in on the Bicheno Penguins Tour even if there were no more spots available. We are starting to get used to being on stand-by. 

While the tour may appear expansive, as it’s a mere 5 minutes’ drive to the nesting site, it was all worth it in my opinion. The fairy penguins, or the little blue penguins as they are commonly called, stand between 20 and 30 cm. Their bellies are white and their back are a dark blue, almost black. It was quite a sight seeing them regroup and walk up the beach on their little wobbly legs (which have no knees).  

(Photo Credits : Bicheno Penguins Tours)

This tour, in which we walked along a path in the dark, was guided by a knowledgeable guide who provided us with many anecdotes and facts. Notably, that the female penguins swim 40 kms out at sea to go fish for small fishes like sardines and anchovies. They then come back at night to feed the family. A female will lay two eggs at a time, the first to hatch being the dominant youngster. This position gives all sorts of privileges, like getting larger portions of food. The father’s task on the other hand is to protect the nest and regulate the body temperature of the youngling. A chick will stay in the nest for 10 weeks after which they would go on their own.  If a female was to die, the male would try to go out at sea to provide for the family, thus being unable to take care of its other tasks, which reduces greatly the chances of survival of the little penguins. Once the mating season is over, they will all go back to sea and only to come back the next mating season.

This late night walk allowed us to see up close the females returning from the sea, their mates waiting for them and the chicks begging to be fed. There was really a sense of anticipation as we were waiting for the penguins to make their way up the beach on their wobbly legs. The children who were present really enjoyed the activity, as did the adults. Just a thought, but I would love to be able to come back here later with my future family.