Taronga Zoo in Sydney

Unfortunately, my trip to Sydney was dampened by torrential downpours basically 24/7. Due to the crappy weather, I didn't get to see all of the wildlife that Taronga Zoo has to offer but I still learned plenty!

Little break in the rain to get a picture with the Sydney Opera House!

First we saw some Black Swans which are a species which breeds mainly in southeast and southwest regions of Australia. They are protected in New South Whales, Australia under the National Parks and Wildlife Act 1974 and is evaluated as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Under the NPWS, the Director-General is responsible for the care, control and management of all national parks, historic sites, nature reserves, Aboriginal areas and state game reserves, state conservation areas, and regional parks. That's a lot of responsibility but it is a much needed act!

Black Swan at Taronga Zoo

Taronga Zoo is also home to Australia's largest pelican! The Australian Pelican is found all throughout Australia and is definitely not endangered.

The world's largest Australian Pelican at Taronga Zoo

We also saw plenty of Wandering whistling duck in the same enclosure. They inhabit tropical and subtropical Australia, the Philippine, Borneo, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and the Pacific Islands. They live in deep lagoons, flooded grasslands or dams. They get their name because of their loud whistling calls and the whistling noise their wings make during flight.

Picture of all 3 birds aforementioned with the smallest ones being the  Wandering Whistling Duck

Up next is more information on the platypus. The platypus is a monotreme (as mentioned before) and the only other monotreme is the echidna. Each breeding season the female usually lays two soft-shelled eggs that hatch after 1-2 weeks. The young emerge from the burrow after about four months. The first platypus specimen sent back to England was thought to be a clever hoax, made up of different animal parts stitched together. It looked unlike anything scientists had ever seen before. To move through the water, the platypus uses its webbed feet. When moving land, the platypus folds up the webbing under its toes and walks using its claws. The male platypus has venomous spurs on its back legs. It is one of only a handful of venomous mammals in the world. With it's eyes and ears closed, the platypus uses its sensitive bill to find food underwater. It picks up electric pulses from any animal moving in the water. Fun fact; Taronga is only the second zoo in history to breed platypus! This is helpful because it has taught them a lot about the behavior this secretive and amazing animal. We can use this knowledge to ensure suitable habitats are protected for them in the wild. You can help too- find out and create the habitat that native animals in your local area need to survive. 

Picture of the venomous spur on the webbed foot of the male platypus

The Greater Stick-nest Rat is a hard-working rodent that builds communal nests that can be a meter high and have five separate entrances. The nest is home to ten to twenty rats with each generation adding their improvements to the design. Unfortunately, this species is extinct on mainland Australia but animals from islands off South Australia are being bred in Australian zoos as part of a re-introduction program. 

Greater Stick-nest Rat

I learned just some more generic information about the Common Wombat as well. Wombats have powerful claws and dig large burrows in which they stay cool during the heat of the day. They are solitary animals except during mating season. The female's pouch opens to the rear, not forward as with most other marsupials. A single young is born and leaves the pouch at around seven months of age. 

These are the ares the Common Wombat are native to

The Emu is Australia's tallest bird, standing up to 1.9 meters tall. They don't fly- their wings are very small but they run swiftly on their long legs. Emu's eat many foods- fruit, seeds, and insects. The female Emu lays up to twelve dark green eggs, but it's the male's job to hatch and raise the chicks. They are considered secure basically everywhere across Australia and there are plenty of them to go around. 

Emu

Another species of the wallaby is the Swamp (Black) Wallaby, which can live in damp areas of eastern Australia- they even hop through shallow water. Their dark, coarse fur makes them difficult to see and protects them in the thick wet bush. After dark they move into the open to feed on herbs, grasses and shrubs. 

Swamp Wallaby

Fun comparison; how can you tell the difference between a kangaroo and a wallaby? Wallabies have cone-shaped heads and narrow pointed snouts while kangaroos have square-shaped heads and broad square snouts. Wallabies are smaller and more maneuverable- they usually live in forested areas, while kangaroos are usually larger and more heavy-set - they mostly live on grassy plains.

Kangaroo on the left, Wallaby on the right

The Plains Rat was once widespread in inland arid Australia, but now this rodent is restricted to the gibber plains of the Lake Eyre Basin. It digs shallow burrows which are linked by surface runways to form colonies covering many square kilometers. Being nocturnal, they forage during the cool of the night and eat seeds, supplemented with plant matter and insects. Plain Rats are threatened by food competition with introduced stock and rabbits and predation from foxes and feral cats. 

Plains Rat

Feathertail Gliders are the world's smallest gliding marsupials. The fringe of stiff hairs on their tail helps them to maneuver as they glide from tree to tree. They are also great climbers, with serrated toe pads, they can cling onto trees and even vertical glass windows! Huddles of 20 or more have been found in a single spherical nest and groups gather to feed on nectar. The removal of remnant patches of forest and predation by foxes and cats have eliminated these tiny gliders from the suburbs.

Feathertail Glider

Gliders have a membrane of loose skin between their wrist and ankle allowing them to glide from tree to tree. Yellow-bellied Gliders are one of the largest gliders in Australia and can glide 100 meters in a single swoop. Pollen, insects and spiders are important sources of protein but tree sap, which this glider laps from oozing wounds it has chewed into the bark, is its main food. This glider needs large areas of forest to forage so habitat destruction and fragmentation is a threat to its long-term survival.

Yellow-bellied Glider

I talked about the Bettong's before when I was in Port Douglas, but here is some more information on them. They belong to the same group as kangaroos, potoroos and wallabies called Macropods. The Brush-tailed Bettong, or Woylie, feeds mainly on underground fungi, bulbs, tubers, seeds and insects. When Bettongs forage for food, they turn over an enormous amount of soil. This fulfills an important ecological role in its habitat, as it improves water absorption, recycles nutrients and spreads fungal spores.

Brush-tailed Bettong

A familiar marsupial in Eastern Australia, the Common Brushtail Possum is common in Sydney suburbs. It spends the day curled up in a convenient hollow, sometimes in the root of a house. At night Brustail Possums feed on leaves, flowers and fruits. They can tolerate plant toxins and browse on a wide range of plant species. 

Common Brushtail Possum

Echidna spines are actually long, hollow, tough hair follicles . These spines are their main forms of defense, when disturbed echidnas burrow into the ground leaving only the spines exposed or roll into a spiky ball. Echidnas are found in all habitats across Australia from desert, to forests and even alpine regions. Using its pointed snout and sharp claws, the Short-beaked Echidna breaks into ants and termite nests and catches its prey by flicking its long sticky tongue in and out. 

Short-beaked Echidna

The Black-footed Tree-rat is not a destructive, disease-carrying intruder like the Brown Rat but a true Australian native. A good climber, it eats fruit and insects and builds its nest in a tree hollow. It's also a fast runner. Mothers can speed through the forest with three young, clamped tightly on her teats, dragging along beside her. It is only found in a few places in the Northern Territory. 

Black-footed Tree-rat

The Red-tailed Phascogale is not a rat! These carnivorous marsupials live in trees and often come to the ground to feed on insects, small birds and mammals. Males invest so much in breeding that they all die at the end of their first mating season- though this isn't why they are endangered. Land clearing and introduced cats and foxes have greatly reduced their numbers in the wild.

Red-tailed Phascogale

The Greater Bilby's large ears pick up sounds of insects and their long nose sniffs out seeds and bulbs- very useful for a night feeder. They dig underground burrows where they spend the daylight hours. Bibles were once widespread in grassy woodlands but predation by foxes and cats, and competition from rabbits and livestock have driven them to the brink of extinction. 

Greater Bilby

The Ghost Bat is a pale night hunter that is the only carnivorous bat in Australia. It spends the dark hours hanging in trees, waiting and listening for its prey. It swoops down on a mouse or small bird and kills it with rapid bites. During the day Ghost Bats roost in caves, old mine tunnels and in deep cracks in rocks. They usually roost in colonies, but because many of their roosting sites are being destroyed by mining it is rare to find large colonies. 

Ghost Bat

A common owl found in an Australian backyard is the Tawny Frogmouth. With its perfectly patterned feathers the frogmouth looks like an old broken branch or stump. In the daytime they close their large orange eyes and sit very still to blend in with their surroundings, all but invisible on a tree branch. At night they hunt for insects, lizards and small mammals, dropping on their prey from some vantage point at the slightest sign of movement below.

Tawny Frogmouth

I already talked about the Tasmanian Devil, but I learned more about them here. Many of them develop Devil Facial Tumor Disease, which describes itself perfectly. Tumors grow around the face and muzzle of the devil. It is a highly contagious cancer that spreads between devils when they bite or scratch each other when eating or mating. It spreads rapidly and none survive! Contagious cancers are very rare and are not found in humans. They are so rare in fact that there are only two other forms known to science: one in dogs and the other in hamsters. In devils, active cancer cells are transferred easily because the newly infected devil doesn't recognize the cancer so the immune system doesn't try to fight the cancer at all. Facial tumors eventually grow massive and make it very difficult for them to feed. 

Tasmanian Devil Facial Tumor Disease

The Quokka was one of the first Australian mammals seen by Europeans. They thought it was a large rat- in fact it is a wallaby. There are large numbers on Rottnest Island but on the mainland they are threatened with extinction. Why? Rottnest Island has no introduced predators but on the mainland they are eaten by foxes. 

The Quokka always looks like it is smiling at you!

Scorpions are arachnids just like spiders and have been an important part of ecosystems for over 400 million years. During this time scorpions were among the first animals to have adapted to living on land and fossils from prehistoric marine scorpions have been found to be over one meter long! Scorpions use both their pincers and stinger to subdue prey. As a rule of thumb, the smaller the scorpion's pincers the more venomous it is. Australian scorpions can inflict a painful sting but there have been no confirmed deaths as a result of a sting. Did you know scorpions glow? No one really knows the purpose of why scorpions 'fluorescence' under UV light. One theory is that the scorpions skin can act like a UV light meter, allowing the scorpions to us UV from moonlight to navigate at night time. Scorpions can also see UV light so the ability to glow would allow them to see others easily, while remaining hidden from predators.

Australian Scorpion

The Lace Monitor is the second largest monitor lizard in Australia, and among the largest lizards on earth. Australia is home to more than half of all monitor lizard species, known to locals as goanna. 

Lace Monitor

Fun Facts:

Did you know Australia ships wool to 52 countries around the world? Well now you do!

Have you ever notices that some animals' eyes appear to 'glow' in the dark? Nocturnal animals have a mirror-like layer at the back of their eye to increase the amount of light they can see- the glow is just a reflection of your torch light!

This sums up my experiences in Australia! I am sad to leave because I absolutely fell in love with this country, but I will definitely be back in my lifetime. Now onto New Zealand to see what that beautiful country has to offer, wish me luck!