WILDLIFE | EDUCATION
No, Kangaroos Don’t Bounce Down the Street — Yes You Can Have a Beer With Them
Welcome to Australia, where our animals are as strange as they are deadly.
Unfortunately, our kangaroos don't hop down the street on command (they are wild animals, not trained monkeys). But you can get up close and personal with them at various locations. A petting zoo will provide you with a vanilla Australian experience and lots of happy snaps. However, for a truly authentic Aussie experience, having a beer with a roo ticks all the boxes.
At John Forrest National Park Tavern, the kangaroos will hop on into the beer garden and pose for your happy snaps — while these roos tolerate people, they are still wild animals and should be approached with caution.
Out in the bush, coming eye-to-eye with a kangaroo can be a different kind of personal experience. Kangaroos will try to kill you if they feel threatened. Kangaroos are fond of disemboweling their prey — if you’re anything like me, you probably function better with your innards intact.
Despite their landlubber nature, kangaroos can use a body of water to their advantage. But don't let their water-loving hijinks fool you. Unlike frolicking with dolphins, a swim with a kangaroo is as far from synchronized swimming as you can get. A kangaroo’s hind legs can move independently when submerged, which gives them greater flexibility of movement. Having a kangaroo pop you into a headlock is never an ideal circumstance — and it’s somewhat less than ideal when they dunk you underwater.
Why use your lungs when you can breathe through your bum?
On land, the Mary River turtle breathes using its lungs. But breathing underwater is a whole different story. The Mary River turtle is a cloacal ventilator. That’s a fancy way to say they breathe using their bottom.
How does breathing through your bottom work? Part of the turtle’s tail has a cavity with structures that work in the same way as the gills on a fish. The gill-like structures take oxygen from the water. Breathing this way allows the turtles to stay underwater for days.
Bum-breathing isn't the only unusual feature of the Mary River Turtle.
A coat of green algae grows on the shell of a Mary River turtle allowing the turtle to blend the river’s background. Sometimes algae will sprout from the turtle’s head or neck, giving the appearance of spikey green hair. This funky hairstyle gives the Mary River turtle a punk rock star look.
The low-down on wombat poo
Our intrepid wombats use their sharp claws to dig themselves a fine house — their burrows can extend inwards around 20 meters. Once they’ve set up home, wombats need to mark their territory. They rub their scent around the trees and scrub nearby.
As a final marker of their property, wombats poo near their burrow opening. Poo can be tricky stuff. It likes to roll. And while poo is great to mark your territory, it's universally agreed that if you’re snuggled up, taking a nap, the last thing you want is for your poo to roll down and plop on your head.
Fortunately, rolling poo is not an issue for wombats. Because they poop cubes. That’s right. Square poo.
If wombat poo comes out a little circular around the edges, it indicates the wombat is feeling a bit off. It’s the same for wombats in captivity — their poop is not quite as square as their wild counterparts.
As a monotreme, the platypus only has one … what?
Our various species of echidnas and the platypus have their very own classification — monotreme. Many people assume that the unusual feature of the Australian monotremes is their ability as a mammal to lay eggs. And sure, that pretty unusual given one of the basic features of mammal classification is producing live offspring.
But mono means one … and both echidnas and the platypus lay eggs. Plural. So, where does their unique oneness fit in?
The Greek word τρῆμα/trêma translates as ‘hole.’ One hole. In the case of platypus and echidna, it's a reference to the cloaca. Yes, we’ve come full circle from our bum-breathing turtle and square pooing wombat back to more bottom talk.
A monotreme’s one hole is responsible for reproduction (including egg-laying) along with the elimination of waste. Giving a different meaning altogether for a hole in one.
Quokkas are the happiest animals on earth, but they will throw their children under a bus to survive
(Not an actual bus — there is only one public bus on Rottnest Island, and the drivers are very cautious.)
When a female quokka comes face-to-face with a predator, her poor joey gets the eject button. Flung from its cozy pouch to find itself out in the cold, the joey will start to hiss and cause a fuss. More often than not, the predator will choose the easy target.
Bye-bye joey.
Fortunately for the joeys on Rottnest Island, there are only two main predators — snakes and tourists. As the happiest animals on earth, the quokkas of Rottnest Island are a trusting bunch and unafraid of humans. This makes them prime targets for Quokka Soccer — but beware, we’re fond of the little creatures. You might score a goal, but it will be swiftly followed by a hefty fine and eviction from the island.
Our animals are weird and wonderful, and this is only a mere snapshot. Whether you have a vanilla Australian experience or a unique one remember to be aware of your surroundings when taking happy snaps — our animals are as wild as they are strange.
