Communing with the native Tasmanian wildlife

One of our great days out, despite some rain, has been to Wings Wildlife Park in Gunn's Plains, which is just over 30km from Penguin.  They take in lots of injured wildlife, especially ones that have been injured on the states roads, or are found in the pouch of animals that have been killed on the roads.

Mum being eaten by a devil

Our real highlight of the visit was that as soon as we arrived we were in time to pat a devil!!!  How wonderful!  It was a young devil that was being held by one of the staff, and because I was so excited at being able to pat it I haven't got any photographic evidence - I nearly cried at the experience, it was such a privilege.  The young devil's fur was really soft, not what I was expecting at all.

So now on with the rest of our visit.  The devil's had not long been fed, so they were getting ready to go to bed, but they were still incredibly cute - I've only shared a few photos during the blog, I actually took many more.

Tasmanian Devil - not at all like the cartoon character

Kookaburra - their call sounds like laughter

Wombat

Ying and Yang - I think they're pademelons.

Love the name - it's so fitting for an emu as they are a bit mad.

Gorgeous rabbit that I wished I could have picked up and cuddled as he looked so soft.

The next highlight of the visit was the chance to see the Koala's fed and to meet a young wombat that had been rescued from his dead mothers pouch.  Now just to give any non-Tasmanians reading this a naturalist lesson, koala's are not native to Tasmania, these ones are immigrants.

The koala's were doing what they do best, and sleeping soundly until just before the keeper came with their eucalyptus leaves, when suddenly they woke up and became very active - one even jumped off his tree and went for a little run - it was the most active I've ever seen a koala be.

The keeper with the young wombat.

Awake koala.

Me patting the male koala.

And then the female koala - she had much softer fur.

When Ken was moving into position to pat the male koala, the koala suddenly moved and turned his back on Ken with his bottom in the air (the koala, not Ken) which made Ken look very nervous, as you can see from the picture below.  You see, my beloved has a habit of having God's wonderful creatures deposit faeces on him - a pigeon pooed on his head in Dubrovnik, Croatia, and a parakeet pooed on him in the Glass House Mountains in Queensland.  Disappointingly there was no incident here, as that would have been a great story to tell.

My beloved successfully patting a koala

Patting the very cute wombat.

Very adorable devil

Sleepy time.

After we'd been through the smaller wildlife section we then went out to the farm part with the bigger beasts - just to point out that hardly any of these creatures are native Tasmanians but they're still lovely to look at.

Donkey

Shaggy sheep and an ostrich

Bison - I wish I could have stood next to him to show you how huge he was.

More cute, scruffy sheep.

I hope you all enjoyed the look at some of the lovely animals at Wings, it's definitely worth a visit, especially if you get to pat a lovely devil.  Just a reminder to anyone travelling on the states roads, watch out for wildlife, and if you hit anything please check it for babies, or if it's still alive give Wings a ring, or your nearest animal rescue.

That's it for today - be good, look after each other, and enjoy life.

Pamela & Ken
xxxxxxxxxxxxx

P.S:  Scruffy sheep's bottom to finish.