Trowunna Wildlife Park

Tasmanian Devil



Echidna-fascinating creatures!



I cuddle a harda$$ wombat.

Laughing Kookaburra-but it's not laughing.

After another delicious breakfast buffet at Freycinet National Park lodge, it was time for us to check out of our cabin and hit the road.  We weren't ready to leave this wonderful place.  There were many trails unexplored and beaches unenjoyed.  We could have easily stayed at least 2 more days here.  But we had a tour at Trowunna Wildlife Park at 1 p.m. and we had to hit the road. I was driving again since I had only driven inside the park and to one small town yesterday.  Our directions said it was about a 3 hour drive.  With our history of driving, we allowed 5 hours.  We barely made it there at 12:59 p.m.  We stopped for lunch but didn't take that long to eat.  We're not sure why we're so slow getting to places.  We found our way mostly OK. I drove and listened for directions.  In one very small town the roads were not well marked.  We came upon a rotary.  I drove on the left around the rotary.  "This one?" I asked as each of the four options came around the circle.  I drove around again.  I started to get dizzy driving around the rotary so I just chose one road at random.  Of course it was wrong and lead us to a highway where we had to drive 20 kilometers before we could turn around.  And I did make a U-turn on a four lane divided highway.  Was that wrong?  Eventually we found our way to Trowunna Wildlife Park where the main business is preserving Tasmanian Devils.  If you didn't know, Tasmanian Devils have been struck down by a transmittable cancer.  The media calls it a facial cancer but it can appear on any part of the devil's body.  This cancer has killed off 70% of the devil population.  Typically a disease will not make a species go extinct but Trowunna is raising a population of devils just in case because loss of habitat is also a factor for the poor devils.  After the tour I got to cuddle a wombat - a burrowing marsupial with the pouch on backwards so it doesn't fill with dirt.  This wombat I held was a juvenile and had not been burrowing yet.  She was clean and soft and, like all wombats, a harda$$.  Wombats have a bony plate covering their hindquarters to protect them from predators who enter their burrow.  The wombat can just block the entrance with their bottoms.  The bony plate and lack of nerve endings there protects them from harm.  If the predator does manage to get it's head inside the burrow above the wombat, the wombat can lift it's bottom forcibly and crush the predator's skull.  Now that is harda$$. I took my bony knuckles and knocked on this wombat's bottom like a door. Knock!  Knock!  It was so fun I did it four times.  She didn't mind. There are kangaroos and wallaby's wandering around this wildlife park.  And lest you think I have suddenly become an expert bird photographer, that kookaburra was inside an enclosure.