DAY TWO!  Day one is here, here, and here.  This is the last one, I promise! So….we liked our day at the Billabong Sanctuary so much that we opted to come back the next day.  You can get your ticket stamped before you leave to visit the next day for free.  We came back the next afternoon to see some of our favourite things.  We headed back over to see the cassowary and got a good look at these black cockatoos.  The colours on their tail feathers are gorgeous! We watched this young water hen being fed.  There were several chicks, as we watched we realised that several of the adult birds were feeding them. There’s that pretty cassowary! We enjoyed the cute turtles basking in the sun.  Until we came here I didn’t realise that ‘basking’ was the actual term for what reptiles do to warm themselves.  I thought it was just a saying: They are basking in the sun.  But you can use the term by itself: Look at the turtle basking!  Who knew?  (Okay, everyone but me!) I watched a ranger and their volunteers administering medication to the echidnas.  They had sore feet for some reason (they hadn’t yet worked out why) and needed cream applied to the bottom of their feet twice a day.  The first one was easy enough and after he (she?) was done he happily enjoyed some food, sticking his snout into the container. The second echidna was not so willing.  He was affixed to the ground with superglue, apparently.  I had no idea they could burrow themselves in so well.  The ranger dug and dug around him, but it took quite some time before she could wiggle him free.  He just dug those feet in with his spikes pointing out and there was nothing for her to grab onto.  When he finally did come out he rolled up into a ball and they had quite the task getting to those little feet that were in there somewhere. We went to the bird show again, so we got turns holding the lorikeet again. This time I remembered to take pictures of the tawny frogmouth.  He was hiding in the tree behind the audience.  They pulled him out during the show and afterward he backed himself right up against the tree again.  He blends in so well. And we got to see another turtle race!  TurboBug’s trauma with the turtle the day before was forgotten.  He was a little hesitant with the turtles at first but by the end he was fine. Back to the dingo show, where this time I learned that dingos aren’t considered native to Australia.  What?!?  They are a cultural icon!  Apparently they were brought here at least 4,000 years ago (or more).  We’re wondering how long a creature has to live here to be considered native!  They brought out the male with the familiar dingo colouring for pictures. We wanted to see Psycho in action again so we waited near his enclosure before the crowd arrived.  At first he was basking but as the time drew near we saw him disappear into the water.  It was very creepy!  He was so silent, we could make out that he had positioned himself near where the ranger would feed him but then he disappeared.  The water was not deep at all, it doesn’t take much to conceal a croc.  They can hide in the water for an hour without surfacing, tricking their prey into thinking it must be safe to approach the water. This time I got a video of that awesome snapping sound.  So. much. force.   Some kangaroos were hanging out near the croc enclosure, they happily ate from our hands.  TurboBug loved feeding the kangaroos.  The only downside was that about a week later we saw some wild kangaroos that came right up to us and TurboBug didn’t understand why he couldn’t give them a pat! We went to the afternoon wombat talk and the kids got to give Tonka another pat. TurboBug was delighted when he moved his foot after he’d touched him.  One last time.  That croc couldn’t stay away from my kids.  Or vice versa.

Here’s part one and part two.  I wish I could remember the details about this (stuffed? preserved?) croc.  (Bad tourist!  Always take a picture of the sign!)  This was a real crocodile that had lived at the Billabong Sanctuary (I think) and he’s huge.  We were careful not to touch him (as requested on the sign I forgot to take a picture of).  I was surprised he was out where he could potentially be mishandled but he’s been around awhile so they must not have too many problems. Look!  Pademelons!  We hadn’t seen any since leaving Tasmania.  They seem so small now compared to the wallabies and kangaroos we’re used to seeing. I’m not sure if we were supposed to feed them, but there were no signs saying not to and they were very keen to be fed!  TurboBug absolutely loved them, they were just his size! I don’t think I’ve ever seen pink cockatoos before.  Aren’t they gorgeous?  I think there were three, one was flying back and forth between perches. There was even a free flight bird show, we learned about kites (I seriously did not know there were birds called kites), owls, curlews, and more. At the end we were all able to hold a rainbow lorikeet.  He especially loved JitterBug.  The ranger would move him from person to person (the bird, not JitterBug!). Then the kids went and got eaten by a crocodile again. We got to feed the turtles again in the afternoon session.  It was in a different spot this time and the turtles could more easily climb ashore for some tasty fish.  There were a couple of eels as well, which they advised us not to feed to keep our fingers intact.  As I mentioned in a previous post, turtles don’t have teeth so even if they do get a finger they can’t do too much damage.  Thank goodness I knew that or I would have panicked that afternoon.  It’s hard to see but this picture below records the exact moment a turtle latched onto TurboBug’s thumb instead of the fish skin he was holding out.  In the moment I wasn’t quite sure what to do, I didn’t want to bash the poor turtle in the face to get him to let go, though that was my first instinct.  I squashed that instinct because of the no teeth thing, I knew no one was going to lose a thumb to this creature.  TurboBug was screaming and got quite the fright before the turtle let go.  After some cuddling he recovered and was happy to join in on the turtle race with the others.  (Wait.  Did you say turtle race?  Yes.  Yes I did.) The turtles could move surprisingly fast and knew just what to do.  With so many turtles in the lake I wonder how many times each turtle has raced?  (I didn’t realise until later that all four of my kids are in this picture, though at varying degrees of visibility!) Then it was time for the dingo show.  The sanctuary has two females (both white) and one male.  I hadn’t realised dingos from different areas of the country can have different coloured coats.  They are all the same species, just variations on colour.  The white dingos are alpine and found in mountainous regions.  They brought the girls out for a meet and greet, it was lovely to be able to give them a pat.  See the other colours on the sign?  The rust coloured one on the left is the most common and is found in the outback.  The black dingo is much more rare and lives in forest areas.  Next was the croc feeding.  How exciting was this!  They took us around to a few of the enclosures and we got to see them feed several estuarine crocodiles.  They were able to get some to really launch themselves out of the water.  Crocs are amazingly fast and powerful.  And scary.  The ranger was talking the whole time, they gave us lots of information about crocodiles, including that saltwater crocs are not only found in saltwater!  They prefer the term ‘estuarine’ since that better describes their habitat.  Look how big they are!  See his tail sticking up out of the water? It took several tries for some of them, but we got to see some jumping crocs! These are freshwater crocs.  They are much smaller.  I wish I’d asked why it was they could all be kept together in the same enclosure- are the males not territorial?  All the estuarine crocs were either by themselves or with their mating partner.  We enjoyed the croc feedings so much that we went to both sessions that day.  This croc is called Psycho.  Unlike the other enclosures where the rangers went right in, this one had a special fenced area for the ranger to stand in while feeding the croc.  Even the viewing fence was higher at this enclosure.  Psycho is young and very powerful and they don’t trust him to keep his distance.  We learned that if there is any chance crocs could be in the water, don’t risk it.  You won’t be able to see them, they will hide very still until their prey comes close enough to the water for them to grab.  Look. at. those. teeth.  They told us their jaws slam shut with a force of over 3500 lbs psi.  Wow. I had to grab a picture of this sign listing aboriginal names for the animals.  There are so many different aboriginal language groups that the names vary greatly. Just when you think we’re done…we went back to the Billabong Sanctuary the next day for more!  One more post to come.

Part one is here! We were so happily feeding the roos and ducks that we missed the wombat talk.  We got there just at the end, just in time to get to give one a pat.  This is Tonka.  He was rescued from his mother’s pouch and has grown up at the Billabong Sanctuary.  Tonka loves to greet his adoring public each day.  (The woman holding Tonka was a volunteer, she told me she was doing an internship for her studies.  She had no idea how many photos she’d end up in that day!) In fact, Tonka loves his cuddles so much that when the park closed for ten weeks after Cyclone Yasi hit in 2011 he became depressed.  He lost weight and moped around.  They were seriously worried about his health and had all kinds of tests done.  Once the park opened he bounced back and gained weight.  He had missed his pats and cuddles from his adoring fans. There were a couple of gorgeous cockatoos nearby that also loved to be fed. I had never seen a black cockatoo before!  Look at that gorgeous red spot on his tail! We dubbed him a Bombers bird since he was sporting the team colours.  That’s JitterBug’s team, and he happily reminded his siblings. This bird knew his seed.  We’d hold up a handful and he would carefully pick out the sunflower seeds and crack them open in his mouth, dropping the shells. Next it was time for the koala talk.  After our visit to the Koala Hospital we were well versed with our koala information.  We did learn something new…a koala’s brain is only the size of a pea or a grape (we can’t remember which).  Everyone was able to pat the (sleeping) koala. Then my kids were eaten by a crocodile.  Every last one of them. Check out the goose coming in for a landing on the croc’s back! They all seem to be excited about the croc eating their siblings! The youngest had a turn too.  Finally we could move on. Wait, just one  more! We stopped for yet another photo on our way out to the car for the lunch we’d brought. After lunch we made our way to the reptile talk.  It was fascinating.  A ranger was inside a caged area with a snake slithering around.  The enclosure had some glass panels for closer viewing.  We learned that the only accurate way to tell a snake species is by their scale pattern.  Not just colour, but actually counting the scales.  He told several stories of misidentification because snakes can vary so much.  Given that Australia has the most venomous snakes in the world, it’s better to assume any snake you see is venomous and stay away from it.  It’s not like you’re going to stop and count the scales to figure out what kind of snake it is when it’s coming at you!  Of course, a talk like this wouldn’t be complete without the chance to hold a snake.  A non-venomous snake, that is. There were other reptiles to hold, too!  This is a shingleback lizard. Ah, here’s his good side! Then the most exciting one…a baby crocodile!  After the reptile talk most people headed straight for the croc so there was quite a line.  We visited the others first, saving this guy for last. The croc was surprisingly soft underneath.  I hadn’t expected that.  Still more to come!

One of my favourite stops on our trip so far was the Billabong Sanctuary in Townsville.  It’s a unique zoo experience, full of Aussie animals with scheduled talks and hands-on sessions throughout the day.  When we arrived we headed straight for the cassowaries where the ranger talk had already started.  There are two cassowaries and we were lucky to be able to feed them grapes! Cassowaries are the third largest bird in the world, behind the ostrich and emu.  They are flightless.  It’s estimated that there are only 1000 or so left in the wild.  They caution people not to feed wild cassowaries as it causes them to become aggressive, and they can be quite vicious. Who me?  Vicious?  No idea what you’re talking about. Right.  Can you imagine those feet coming at you?  We read that middle toe has quite the claw. I must confess that before we visited Queensland, I had no idea there were cassowaries in Australia.  They live on a very small part of the Queensland coast.  Their appearance is so striking, I was enamoured. See the black bin over there?  It was full of fruit.  Cassowaries love fruit, we read they will even eat a banana whole.  They are considered a ‘keystone species’ because there are many rainforest plants that will only germinate once the seed has passed through the cassowary’s gut. Cassowary eggs are a gorgeous green colour!  Then it was time for the turtle feeding.  The turtles knew just what was happening and clamboured over each other in the hopes of some tasty fish pieces.  They were a bit clumsy and we had to wait patiently while they tried multiple times to grasp the fish in their mouths.  Too often the turtle would try so, so hard and then the food would end up in the water or snatched by another hungry turtle.  They assured us that turtles don’t have teeth.  I was thankful for that information at the next turtle feeding session that afternoon when TurboBug ended up with his thumb in a turtle’s mouth! Just hold it still…I know I can get it. This is more turtles than I’d ever seen in one place in my life.  They were so cute!  On the way in to the sanctuary we had purchased our bags of seeds to feed the roos.  We were all enchanted by this one with the joey hanging out of her pouch.  This one made sure that hand full of seed wasn’t going anywhere until she was done! Look at the pouch from behind!  (Are you saying I look fat?  That is all baby weight, honey!) Dude.  ‘Sup?  Got any more food?  (Or maybe that should be G’day mate.  Any more tucker?) This is a magpie goose.  I’d never seen one before.  They are huge.  We’d feed the ducks right out of our hands and these guys would come over for some.  Um, no thanks.  You might take a finger! Speaking of feeding the ducks!  I love this picture.  They were quite ticklish. So we all had turns! Watch out for that goose!  He wouldn’t harm a Magpies fan, would he? So ticklish, but the kids kept going back for more! TurboBug was a pro at it by the end of the day! These frilled neck lizards were happily enjoying their patch of sunlight.  Look how long their tails are! Our next stop was the wombat talk.  Way too many pictures for one post!  More to come.