Yesterday was the busiest day so far, so this post is going
to be a little long, but I promise not to ramble too much. In the morning, we
visited the Caversham Wildlife Preserve, an educational preserve located north
of Perth. On the way back to Murdoch, we stopped in Perth to visit King’s Park,
the main park in the city.
This is the Caversham Wildlife Preserve, where Ranger Jess,
our guide for the morning, met us. She was very helpful and told us all sort of
interesting facts about the animals, the few of which I remember I’ll share
with you here. The first stop was to
visit the kangaroos.
There were three kinds of kangaroos in the pen, red
kangaroos, grey kangaroos and a special white pigmentation of the red
kangaroos. Jess was quick to point out that they were not albino, as their eyes
retained a brown pigment. She gave everyone some kangaroo feed, and we were
able to get close enough to pet and feed them. My favorite kangaroos were a mom
and her joey. The mom was very sweet, and the joey was hopping in and out of
her pouch. As we were leaving the pen,
Jess opened the gate so they could hop into the adjoining field. I caught a
video of a white kangaroo hopping by me into the space. While his brothers and
sisters lounged in the sun, he was eager to stretch his legs.
Kangaroos lounging in the sun, feeling like celebrities
Mom and her joey
Me feeding mom while her joey shies from the camera
Look at this guy go! He is one of the white (not albino!) variety.
Next, we visited the dingo exhibit. Jess shared that dingoes
arrived in Australia by Asian trading vessels, where they were originally
wolves kept as pets by merchants. Purebred dingoes are actually very shy. When
dogs arrived in Australia, however, they began to interbreed. The offspring
retained the pack-like tendencies of the dingo, but also the boldness of a
domestic dog. The hybrid dingoes are the dangerous ones. Unfortunately, those
are mostly all that are left.
We also passed a European fox exhibit. They were brought to
Australia to hunt for sport, but apparently the Europeans weren’t good enough
at hunting. They spread like wildfire over all of Australia, from one coast to
the other in a hundred years. To compare timelines, the koala and wombat have
been in Australia for millions of years, and their habitat is restricted to the
eastern states.
You can tell he's sly. Look at those eyes, hes plotting something.
Lastly, we visited the koala exhibit. Jess informed us that
although many people compare them to sloths, koalas actually move quite
quickly. Luckily for us, they were sleeping, so I had a chance to pet them. Their fur is as soft as it looks.
He's so fluffy!
A close-up of the little guy behind me.
After Caversham, we went to King’s Park near downtown Perth.
I would describe it as a souped-up version of Eden Park in Cincinnati. There
was a WWII war memorial, gardens with plants from around the world (including
California!) and a treetop glass bridge, where the view of downtown Perth is
best. There was a beautiful water garden, with a waterfall cascading down the
enormous hill into a pond. In the summer, Kings Park holds concerts by that
garden. The gift shop was beautiful as well, with artists providing glasswork,
jewelry and pottery to be sold as a fundraiser for the park.
The Swan River, with the Swan River Brewery in the foreground.
The entrance to the treetop bushland trail
The glass bridge overlooking the city
A zen garden/meeting area
A small part of the water garden waterfall
The water garden pond, with the glass bridge in the background
Christine frolicking in the field nearby
Tomorrow through this weekend, we are going south to
Denmark, Australia for a nature hike and a swim in the southern ocean. I can’t
wait to share it with you!
Check
back next week,
Sarah
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