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(My) photo of the day


Here is a koala. Koalas are an Australian marsupial, but are not found in the wild in Tasmania (or Western Australia). This koala lives at ZooDoo, which is just outside Hobart in the town of Richmond. I managed to get right next to this little lady and snap off a picture. If you’ve got littlies, or just like animals, I’d heartily recommend a visit to ZooDoo. You can get in close to most of their animals, and the kids can touch and have their picture taken with pretty much anything there (although I don’t think they let you for a play with their new pair of Bengal Tigers!

The Koala is sort of like a Wombat that lives in a tree. Wombats are their closest living relatives, but koalas have a thicker coat, much larger ears and longer limbs. They also have large, sharp claws to assist with climbing tree trunks.

We have plenty of wombats in the wild down here in Tassie. But, please, don't get worried. I’ve never heard of wombats OR koalas acting out in the strange manner that one New Zealander has claimed that a particular wombat has recently. Indeed, the headline pretty much says it all:

“Man Claims to Speak 'Australian' After Allegedly Being Raped by Wombat”

Suffice to say, they are an odd mob, New Zealanders!
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Comments

Dina said…
Wombats and koalas look so loveable. And it's just fun to say wombat. About the Kiwis: no comment!
29 March 2008 at 23:00
Nathalie H.D. said…
No koalas in Tassie ? But they're all over the place in Victoria just across Bass Strait! I had no idea you had none.

Now for the kiwi raped by a wombat... all we need now is an Aussie starting to speak like a new zealander after having "six" with a kiwi bird!
30 March 2008 at 05:21
Kunterbunt said…
Oh, I'm astonished, they are in zoos now over there at your place. I thought they are wild animals that belong to 'down under'. I see, I know little about your place and have to learn a lot.
30 March 2008 at 05:27
Kris McCracken said…
Well, ZooDoo isn't so much like a zoo as you might expect. Very 'open plan'. As I said, koalas aren't native to Tasmania, so the only place that we can see them are in wildlife sanctuaries.

I don't know why we don't have koalas here, you'd think they would have made their way across when Bass Strait wasn't Bass Strait. But then again, there are no Tassie Devils on the mainland! I think that maybe they are just lazy.

Little kiwis wouldn't rape Australians, maybe take us out on a date for 'fesh und cheps', holding out for a little 'six' afterwards. It'd be 'choice'!
30 March 2008 at 10:19
Chuck Pefley said…
Excellent photo of the koala. Thanks for visiting my blog today. I agree ... staying in bed when there's snow flying is a tempting idea -:)
30 March 2008 at 17:25
smilnsigh said…
She is a pretty lady. And so very obliging for having her pic taken. :-)
31 March 2008 at 02:18
Kris McCracken said…
They can get cranky, but I've yet to see it.
31 March 2008 at 10:45
Political Umpire said…
That'd be 'sux' nathalie, with some bad connotations no doubt. Jeepers it's a bit rough when one of one's compatriots acts like a berk or, as Kris' uncompromising label says, fuckwit. Still every nation has then, doesn't it? What's the going epithet for Bob Hawke or John Howard these days?
4 April 2008 at 00:49
Kris McCracken said…
No-one seems to talk about John Howard much these days, embarrassed I think! Hawke's legacy has been revived a bit. He is still a silly old bastard, but given the fair run economically that Australia has had since 1994, I think that people may have realised that the Hawke-Keating reform agenda may have actually worked as well as could be expected. It certainly compares favorably to similar-sized nations.

I wouldn't get too worried about the fellow who got raped by the wombat. As he said, he withdrew the charge when the wombat withdrew, and his bum seems to be alright!
5 April 2008 at 21:52
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