Deane & Jack's Motorcycle Trip in
Australia and New Zealand
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Deane & Jack's Motorcycle Trip in Australia and New Zealand |
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March 29 - Bicheno to Devonport, Tasmania 295km (183 Miles) And, Take overnight Ferry to Melbourne, Victoria |
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Another fun day with the animals!! Today we visited a more scientific animal park, the "Trowunna Wild Life Park". This is a park run mainly for the benefit of the "Tasmania Devil", but for study of other Tasmanian marsupials, such as Kangaroos, Wallabies, Koalas, Quolls, and Wombats. The Tasmanian Devils have developed a disease that is cancerous tumors of the face, and this has reduced the population of the Devils by 30% in some areas of Tasmania. The Park directors are trying to develop a strain of the Devils that are more resistant to this disease. Here are some of the Devils.
These little "Devils" are about 11 and 12 months old, and have reached the stage of being mean little guys, capable of crushing bones and eating them, like their adult relatives. They are really fierce, and let you know that they don't want to be handled by anyone but a skilled zoo person. This park also has some Wombats, and Deane got to hold one, while looked after by Bill Flowers, a zoo director who gave us a wonderful tour of the animals and programs they have going. (And this Wombat is not fully grown - it will get about twice this size!
Deane and Jack had made arrangements about two months ago for Bill to give us a VIP tour of the Trowunna Park and animals. This was to be a major reason for us to come to Tasmania. And Bill gave us a very informed tour, explaining many things about the various marsupials. This was a real treat for us. One of the Koalas they have is shown here.
And some of the Kangaroos are shown here.
It was fun to get to feel the fur on each of the animals, and to appreciate some of the special characteristics of the different animals. The riding on the island today was quite good, especially in one heavily forested area, mainly of eucalyptus trees, which was really beautiful. Also, grazing areas held many sheep today, with us seeing maybe two or three thousand sheep all told. With all of this, we made it back to the ferry landing, to catch the "Spirit of Tasmania II" ferry, going back to Melbourne. It's been quite an exciting time in Tasmania, and now we'll continue on with our ride to the south side of the mainland. |
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