TASMANIAN CRITTERS
Sorry, no full sized kangaroos, but lots of very interesting rather weird critters, chiefly due to the island’s isolation.
The tough thing about trying to see them is that nearly all are nocturnal. But, if you count road kills along the road, I have probably seen all of them.
These shots are chiefly from Cradle Mountain Park, and the Tasmanian devil is a paid admission semi-zoo shot. There is a real crisis here over the devils as they have a cancer issue that is killing them off and there is yet to be a cure. Tasmania hunted the Tasmanian tiger into extinction in the 1930’s and they clearly do not want that happening again, so the entire island is behind the government efforts to isolate the sick ones, and try to find a cure for the cancer, I guess the only cancer that is contagious in mammals.
| That is about 30 mph on a highway. Some areas it was 55kmh, less than 30mph. Probably still too fast. On one 100 mile route through farms and forests I saw over 45 road kills! Over here, you just should NOT drive at night. |
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| A wombat, similar to a koala. Probably about 20 pounds. |
| A Bennet’s wallaby, pretty much a small kangaroo |
| Standing |
| The wombat and Bennet sharing a foraging area. |
| A pademelon with her young one. Probably the most common animal that you see here. |
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| This is an enchidna. sort of like an anteater, about 12″ long. one of only a few egg laying mammals. I stopped for a picnic and was treated to watching him eat in front of me the whole time. Nice. |
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| The Tasmanian devil, unfortunately caught begging, not natural. He is about 18 pounds, but can eat 1/3 of his weight in one sitting, see below. |
| Wrapping up a dinner of a pademelon leg. These guys eat everything, bones, fur, claws, you name it. And you can really hear the crunching of the bones as he goes at it. It went from a piece of meat that we would say was too large to eat to nothing in 20 minutes. |
The sign in the 1st photo looks like the Roo is lifting up the front of the car. They sure are strong critters