Exotic animals - Aussie style!
Only a few more days to enter my contest! Then I will leave you alone.
Picture day today takes us to Healesville Sanctuary, "Australia's premier wildlife park." (Hey, I'm just quoting the promotional material from the web site.) It's a cool place - you get to see a bunch o' animals in their natural habitat, and they do a good job providing plenty of room for the critters to roam. So buckle yourself on in for some weirdo creatures!
To ease you in, we have a koala. According to the site I linked to, "even the hardest human heart melts when it comes in close contact with them." Well, I think they're cute and all, but a lot of Australians can't stand them. Why? say you. Aren't they adorable? Well, sure, but they live in backyards, eat all the leaves off the eucalyptus trees, and shit everywhere. Surprisingly enough, this bothers a lot of homeowners.
Okay, moving on to a slightly more exotic animal, it's a Tasmanian devil. Yeah, I know it's not the greatest picture, but if the only experience you have with one of these is the cartoon one, this is better than nothing, right? Cool little animals. They don't spin. They do shriek, however.
Ah, now we're getting a little weirder. This is a duck-billed platypus, possibly the strangest animal on earth. It's a monotreme, meaning it lays eggs instead of bearing live young (that's not what "monotreme" means, but both monotremes in the world lay eggs). It also is the world's only venomous furred animal. Another lousy picture, but what are you going to do? I couldn't ask the damned thing to pose, could I?
This horrifically ugly bird is a cassowary, the second largest bird in the world (after the ostrich). Look at that thing. God, it's ugly. They kick with those legs. Apparently you don't want to be too close when a cassowary gets pissed off.
Here's an echidna, which is also known as a spiny anteater. This is the other monotreme in the world. This guy was cool. He was just rolling around and chillin'.
This relaxing fella is a monitor lizard. If anyone saw the movie The Freshman, a Komodo dragon is a kind of monitor. Big-ass lizard would be what I call it.
This chunky dude is a wombat. He was down in the main area outside of the vast acreage set aside for wombats (they like to roam) so that tourists could see him. Wombats are cool. Right above their butt they have a large, round piece of bone. When they run from a predator, they scurry into their burrows and push the area with the bone against the opening. The predator claws at the bone for a while but can't budge it, and eventually goes away. The park ranger encouraged us all to punch the wombat in the butt, and a lot of us did. It's a bizarre experience. "Punch the wombat in the butt" should be a euphemism for something. Any suggestions?
Finally, up in northern Victoria there is a town called Yarrawonga. These dead trees were in the lake near town. I just thought they were eerie.
Well, that's all for today! I hope you enjoy the pictures! Last week Scott mentioned that he likes the pictures, although they make him angry because he has never been there. I don't mean to piss anyone off! I swear! I just like to share!
Picture day today takes us to Healesville Sanctuary, "Australia's premier wildlife park." (Hey, I'm just quoting the promotional material from the web site.) It's a cool place - you get to see a bunch o' animals in their natural habitat, and they do a good job providing plenty of room for the critters to roam. So buckle yourself on in for some weirdo creatures!
To ease you in, we have a koala. According to the site I linked to, "even the hardest human heart melts when it comes in close contact with them." Well, I think they're cute and all, but a lot of Australians can't stand them. Why? say you. Aren't they adorable? Well, sure, but they live in backyards, eat all the leaves off the eucalyptus trees, and shit everywhere. Surprisingly enough, this bothers a lot of homeowners.
Okay, moving on to a slightly more exotic animal, it's a Tasmanian devil. Yeah, I know it's not the greatest picture, but if the only experience you have with one of these is the cartoon one, this is better than nothing, right? Cool little animals. They don't spin. They do shriek, however.
Ah, now we're getting a little weirder. This is a duck-billed platypus, possibly the strangest animal on earth. It's a monotreme, meaning it lays eggs instead of bearing live young (that's not what "monotreme" means, but both monotremes in the world lay eggs). It also is the world's only venomous furred animal. Another lousy picture, but what are you going to do? I couldn't ask the damned thing to pose, could I?
This horrifically ugly bird is a cassowary, the second largest bird in the world (after the ostrich). Look at that thing. God, it's ugly. They kick with those legs. Apparently you don't want to be too close when a cassowary gets pissed off.
Here's an echidna, which is also known as a spiny anteater. This is the other monotreme in the world. This guy was cool. He was just rolling around and chillin'.
This relaxing fella is a monitor lizard. If anyone saw the movie The Freshman, a Komodo dragon is a kind of monitor. Big-ass lizard would be what I call it.
This chunky dude is a wombat. He was down in the main area outside of the vast acreage set aside for wombats (they like to roam) so that tourists could see him. Wombats are cool. Right above their butt they have a large, round piece of bone. When they run from a predator, they scurry into their burrows and push the area with the bone against the opening. The predator claws at the bone for a while but can't budge it, and eventually goes away. The park ranger encouraged us all to punch the wombat in the butt, and a lot of us did. It's a bizarre experience. "Punch the wombat in the butt" should be a euphemism for something. Any suggestions?
Finally, up in northern Victoria there is a town called Yarrawonga. These dead trees were in the lake near town. I just thought they were eerie.
Well, that's all for today! I hope you enjoy the pictures! Last week Scott mentioned that he likes the pictures, although they make him angry because he has never been there. I don't mean to piss anyone off! I swear! I just like to share!
posted by Greg | 3:23 PM
3 Comments:
I've always had a strange thing for the platypus. I just think they're cool.
In New Zealand, we got a chance to see a tuatara in a zoo, which is a weird not-quite-lizard thing that is equally odd and freaky as the platypus.
Ah, the tuatara. I read about those suckers when I was but a lad. I have never seen one, so you're one up on me.
Platypuses (platypi?) are very cool. Apparently they're pretty nasty, too.
That's awesome, N. I think it shall enter my vernacular.
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