We headed to the 'Tasmanian Devil Conservation Park' as seeing in the wild is very uncommon these days...
The plight of this poor carnivorous marsupial is just plain awful. Populations are down 80% and the species is on the ENDANGERED LIST.
State and Federal Governments are fighting hard to save the species. The extinction of the Tasmanian Tiger is only fairly recent (1930's) so another extinct species would be so tragic!
The Devils are often on the airwaves down here...locals were devastated as they had found the first case of the cancer on the west coast the other day. This area was previously disease free. There is also talk of a 'fence' around this disease free area.
The populations have 'crashed' due to a highly contagious facial cancer. This disease is easily spread because of their natural behaviours. They are scavengers and 'brawling' over food (and lots of aggression during mating) means that the cancer is so easily spread.
The conservation park was also at the Tasman Peninsula and was set up 30 years ago. The park was formerly an old farm...
Some old gorgeous pear trees..
and a gorgeous trickling brook flowed throughout the park...
We arrived at Devil feeding time so they were quite active....
This enclosure holds (3) 18 month old brothers...
This boy was obviously quite hungry....looking out for the keeper and constantly sniffing the wind...
Waiting, waiting...
Finally...
The park had this great enclosure where you could really get close and personal to the Devils.
Bindi was extremely chuffed...to say the least....
The boys kept themselves entertained in other ways whilst Ella was enjoying the views...
They have put their heads in alot of these on our trip around Australia...LOL!!
The Bird show was also quite entertaining....the birds had either been orphaned or disabled.
Tawny Frog mouths...
A Peregrian Falcon who (despite efforts) has lost one of his wings. These birds are the fastest birds in the world and can fly 300km/hr..
If looks could kill...
These guys are also carnivorous marsupials and are much better hunters than the Tasmanian Devil.
Numbers of Quolls are down around Australia but they aren't on the endangered list.
Bindi and I had a lovely time with the very tame Kangaroos....
This gorgeous Mum let us scratch her for ages...
It was amazing, we had never been so close to a joey!!
His ears, feet and tail felt amazing!! So soft!
Keeping fingers crossed for the Tasmanian Devils!!
as usual stunning photos megan. it looks like a fantastic place to visit. will have to put it on the 'to do' list
ReplyDeleteSo super cool, all of it, but especially the last part with the kangaroos. AWESOME! (to throw out a true American expression) So cute that little joey and then that cool dude at the end: priceless! :-)
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