Playing with Animals From the Outback

Yesterday after writing on my blog, Carmen and I went to the Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary. It was a great place and an amazing experience to say the least. So far since starting my own business I have swam with stingrays (yes, that is the same thing that killed Steve Irwin in a freak accident), went Snuba Diving with tropical fish, played with sea turtles, climbed exotic waterfalls in Jamaica, witnessed dolphins playing in the ocean, went cave tubing through the rainforest of Belize, and now I can add to the list fed and played with Kangaroos and Wallabees, held and had a picture taken with a Koala, I have pet an Emu, and feed wild Lorikeets.

Yesterday was phenomenal to say the least. We created many exciting memories. When we were with the Kangaroos, we actually went into this extremely large enclosure with about 30 Kangaroos and Wallabees. These animals had obviously been around humans a lot. We were actually able to freely walk up and pet these animals as if they were dogs. We watched the little Joeys climb in and out of their mother's pouches. Scratched the larger males and females on their heads and stomachs. Fed them some sort of food they had there, as they ate from your hand it was surreal just thinking about what we were doing. The Emus were in the same enclosure and although these are in the US, it's not like I have them in my backyard or nothing. So I have never actually touched one until yesterday and I had Carmen take a picture as it allowed me to pet it.

When we had our picture taken with the Koalas, that was also very neat. These things look so cute. I had never seen kangaroos nor koala's before except in pictures and on TV. These koalas work 30 minutes a day for 4 days a week. 100% of the money they earn from posing for pictures goes right back into the Sanctuary which is a non profit organization. In the America we say koala bear, here they laugh at that and pointed out that these animals are not bears at all but instead marsupial (animals that carry their young in pouches, like possums and kangaroos). So in Australia they simply call them koalas.

The last thing we did yesterday was fed Lorikeets. Lorikeets, are in the parrot family. These lorikeets are wild but return to the Sanctuary each morning and each evening for the feeding that occurs. They are beautiful animals with bright greens, blues, reds, and purples on them. They are not shy of humans at all. Some Australians actually have these birds around their houses and can feed them the very same way we did. We fed them a nectar mixture from a small shallow pan. They would fly right to your hands and the pan often landing on your head, shoulders, and arms. We only had about 100 show up for our feeding but the volunteers at the Sanctuary said that was due to the time of the year. Usually there are hundreds and hundreds of these magnificent animals feeding all at once, covering the persons feeding them in a storm of color.

Today will probably be a day of relaxation. So I am off to relax...

Prosper alway,
Jackie