Ever seen a Was-A-Roo?

We have spent the last couple of days on Kangaroo Island which is 30 miles south of mainland Australia near Adelaide. KI has the largest concentration of native Aussie animals including wallabies, kangaroos, echidnas, and koalas. We stayed at the Kangaroo Island Wilderness Resort near Flinders Chase National Park.

Here are pics of some of the animals that we saw. Most of the animals were nocturnal and come out at dusk.



Koala—you can smell them before you seen them due to the pungent eucalyptus smell. The males also make the most interesting sound, kind of like a motorcycle. This island has 14,000 koalas.














Kangaroo—there are 3 varieties on the island and this one is extinct on the mainland








Wallabies – there are 800,000 thousand on this island. Some are very tame and will eat from your hand. They have interesting reproduction: one young joey, one in the pouch and a fertilized egg on stand by.







New Zealand Fur Seal—they are in breeding season now and are very territorial. These two males were fighting for their mating territory.






Australia Sea Lion-we were able to walk down on the beach and see them up close. This is the only place in the world where you can see them this close. They swim 75 miles out to sea for 3 days at a time then come to this beach to sleep. They just went on the endangered species list last month.








Ring tailed Possum—these are rare and we were lucky to see one.












We also saw some amazing scenery:






The roads on KI are littered with animal carcasses. As we were heading back to the ferry this morning 3 kangaroos jumped out in front of the car. I was able to avoid two of them but the smallest one went right under the car and became a Was-A-Roo. :(

We have enjoyed this island and wish we could have stayed longer. We are now on way to Melbourne via the Great Ocean Road and will spend a few days on the road.

M