Australia Zoo

When I think of Australia, I think of kangaroos, desert, and Steve Irwin. I have petted kangaroos, so that one is correct. It’s pretty much rained every day we’ve been in Brisbane so the desert part is definitely not true for all of Australia. Even though Steve Irwin isn’t here anymore, we do still have his zoo! I got to spend 8 hours there… in the rain… which didn’t stop… for 8 hours…

But in all seriousness, it was still pretty cool. We were able to hand feed some of the elephants! Since they were so muddy, the one I fed got mud on my white shorts which are now stained, but at least now if anyone ever points out that stain I get to blame it on an elephant. The Bengal tiger exhibit had a bunch of transparent walls, so we could see them extremely well. We got to pet the koalas again (didn’t hold them this time, even though apparently you could do that here too). We didn’t spend much time playing with the kangaroos this time because they looked incredibly unhappy in the rain. Like… miserable. I actually felt kind of bad for them, but I guess that’s the life of a non-domesticated animal. We also got to see wombats, which are one of the most ridiculous creatures I’ve ever seen. They’re like a cross between a pig, a gerbil, and I don’t even know what else. You just need to know that they’re goofy.

My absolute, hands-down favorite part of the day was the otter feeding. First of all, otters have been one of my favorite animals since I was in second grade and had to make a flip-book about an animal and I picked sea otters. To see them up close being adorable and complete trouble makers was even better. As the trainer was waiting to feed them, they kept making this weird squeaky/squakking noise (any other animal would have been doing some kind of grown, but these otters could really only squeak). They also kept trying to grab her feet as they were getting impatient. We got to watch them feast on crawfish and some smaller regular fish, and I don’t know how to describe it except by saying the 8 year old in me was just so happy. Otters just make you smile.

While it wasn’t my favorite part of the day, I did make sure I saw the “Wildlife Warriors” show that Steve Irwin created. This is the one where they bring out a crocodile and show you what not to do if one lives in your backyard. All of the pictures of him holding something up and the crocodile snapping its jaw as he jumps back were probably from shows like this. It was really cool and actually really informative, but the otters just stole my heart.