My adventure with befriending Australian wildlife began on Saturday when our group went to the zoo. I made two animal friends that day: An emu and a kangaroo. If you had asked me last week which animal I thought would be more exciting, I definitely would have said a kangaroo, and I would have definitely been wrong.
The kangaroo was cool, of course. When we started walking through the exhibit near the koalas, we knew we would be able to see the kangaroos up close, but I'm sure no one expected a kangaroo to be sitting on the middle of the path with a rather intimidating zoo keeper standing guard, letting the visitors pet it.
It was a little hard to work up the courage to pet the kangaroo, especially since the zoo keeper was standing right next to me, barking really encouraging things like, "You definitely need to be careful! That is a wild animal!" and "You should be scared of petting it! Be careful! It is a dangerous animal that could kill you at any moment!" But lo and behold, I worked up the courage, ignoring the spiteful words of a way too invested zoo volunteer, and befriended a cool little kangaroo.
Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of me with my real best friend, the emu, just a video of me following him around probably a little too much. But I'll post a picture of another lady with an emu that I found with a quick Google search just for reference.
Pretty big. I would consider myself a fan of these birds.
I have to say though, encountering an emu just wandering around an open enclosure at the Taronga Zoo was...shocking, to say the least. Especially because we couldn't tell if it was supposed to be out walking around or if someone had managed to let this giant bird out of its cage. Either way, I did have a staring contest with the emu multiple times (and won) and while I couldn't build up the courage to pet this gigantic scary animal, I do feel like I got a little closer than most people would want to and we did have a truly spiritual connection. I miss him so much already.
The day after the zoo, a small group of us went to Palm Beach, which is about two hours away by bus from where we're staying. The reason we went to Palm Beach? A wallaby reserve. That's it. That was the only reason we made the two hour journey and it sure was worth it.
The first animal I encountered at the wallaby reserve was not a wallaby, however. Instead, it was the biggest lizard I have seen in my entire life, other than the Komodo Dragon I saw at the zoo the day before. This one, though, was definitely able to come right up to me and eat me if he felt like it. The picture below is one that I stole from Sarah because I'm a mess and haven't had time to upload my pictures to my computer yet. So thanks Sarah.
I followed this big lizard around for way too long. I'm not sure what I was expecting it to do (Eat a mouse? Eat a bird? Eat me?) but it didn't really do anything other than walk around and stick its tongue out in a pretty spooky way. I fell in love with him though and will miss him dearly. I even read the entire Wikipedia page on his species as soon as I got home. He's a monitor lizard called a Goanna, in case you were curious.
After moving on from my distant lizard friend, I hugged a wallaby. For real.
She was a baby wallaby that we named Chip for reasons that I will not reveal. She was the best friend I have made in my entire life. Chip the Wallaby is #1. Scary emu was knocked down a peg to #2.
We hung out with Chip for about an hour. We learned from one of the workers that she had actually been taken from her mother's pouch after her mom had been hit by a car and killed and that they were in the process of rehabilitating her so she could enter back into the wild. I have never become so emotionally attached to an animal so quickly. Saying goodbye was very difficult.
Would I consider myself an Australian wildlife expert now that I've touched a kangaroo and a wallaby and been stalked by an emu and giant lizard? Yes. Definitely. 100%. I can only hope that soon I can start befriending the weird poisonous animals as well. Stay tuned, friends.
No comments:
Post a Comment