Tasmania Day 4 - Part 2 - Tasmanian Devil Unzoo
As you may have read on part one of our day 4, we spent the rest of the afternoon at the Unzoo, looking at various native animals.
The Unzoo began as the Tasmanian Devil Park that opened in 1979. A breeding program for Tasmanian Devils followed the next year. The major redevelopment of the park to turn it into the Unzoo began in 2007 and it was renamed to the Tasmanian Devil Unzoo in 2014.
The Feeding
We arrived just in time to view the Tasmanian Devil feeding. The staff member talked us through a bit of the life cycle of a Tasmanian Devil, and reinforced that if we kept our wits about us, we were unlikely to be injured by a Tasmanian Devil, on account of them being so slow and having such tiny brains.
We watched as he put a chunk of meat on an elastic cord, and let the Tasmanian Devil have at it. Bones, fur, organs - all would be eaten by the Devil.
Bird Show
After the Tasmanian Devil feeding, there was a free flight bird show featuring a Galah, a Little Corella, and a Tawny Frogmouth. I've always been a big fan of those free flight bird shows; my favourite thing to see at Sydney's Taronga Zoo is their free flight bird show.
Galah
The galah is a native Australian cockatoo that was introduced to Tasmania. They are a common sight, especially in country areas of NSW.
Little Corella
The Little Corella is another type of native cockatoo.
Tawny Frogmouth
The Tawny Frogmouth is also native to Australia, and is often mistaken for an owl. The lady giving the show explained that while this bird is nocturnal, it differs from owls in that its eyes are on the sides of its head, instead of the front. It also doesn't have the same size talons as owls would have; its talons are much smaller. It is also very good at camouflage!
Marsupials
The Kangaroos and Pademelons had an open area where they roamed around. The kangaroos were very tame and even let people pet them. They were described as Forrester Kangaroos, but Sydney-siders might better know them as the Eastern Grey Kangaroo. They are the largest marsupial in this state (Tasmania), and the second largest marsupial in the world - the largest being the Red Kangaroo. Marsupials are animals that give birth to mostly undeveloped young, and then carry them in a pouch. Koalas, kangaroos, wombats, and Tasmanian Devils are all examples of marsupials.
Eastern Grey/Forrester Kangaroo
Pademelon
Quoll
Birds
The Unzoo had plenty of Cape Baron Geese wandering freely. There were also sparrows, yellow rosellas,
Cape Baron Geese
Sparrows
Yellow Rosella
The Surrounds
The Unzoo was interesting beyond the animals, as the natural bushland scenery provided plenty to look at.
The End of the Day
We drove to our accommodation via a quick stop by the water -
The sunset from where we were staying was quite lovely -
Tired out from a big day, I fell asleep in front of the fire.
Click the below links to see our earlier days:
The drive from Launceston to Hobart
MONA, Salmon Ponds & Russell Falls
Tessellated Pavements, Tasman Arch & Devil's Kitchen
Stay tuned for Day 5, where we visit Wineglass Bay!
I'd love to read your comments, hear your thoughts or see your own photos, so please leave a comment below.
calathea | Steemit Blog
Photos, thoughts and ideas
from the garden of calathea.
Heya, just swinging by to let you know you're being featured in our Daily Travel Digest!
Wow. Real life Tasmanian devil! I want to see one in person too. Cool but wild creature. Haha.
It was impressive to see one in real life, but they're always smaller than I imagine. They certainly are wild - you should've heard the noises he was making, crunching into the bones in that bit of meat!
my first encounter with a frogmouth was on a school camp.
i was walking to the bathroom to brush my teeth at dusk.
on the walk there, i felt like i was being watched.
as it was getting dark, i couldn't see anything, but then I saw that one of the tree branches nearby had eyes!!
I was like - OMG so scared
and then the bird took off and flew away.
I told people what I had seen, but they all thought i was lying... pffft a bird that looks like a tree branch !
haha then when i heard of the frogmouth! It was all true! :)
They are super good at camouflage, especially when they have their beaks pointed up like that - they look just like a part of a tree!
I'm glad your story was proven true :)
Unzoo was really cool. Happy we got to see the Devil and Quoll up close. Something we’ll never see on the mainland as the locals like to say. 😂
The Tassie Devil looked cute, but the sound of bones crunching while it ate and the grunting noises as they squabbled with one another said otherwise!
I don't think we'll see either of those animals up close for a while. I'm also glad we caught that wombat and emu on the side of the road, I think we may have crossed off all the native animals now!
I was really bummed that we didn’t see a wombat at fat wombat farm. That’s now turned to being stoked that I didn’t run over this one on the side of the road!
Another gorgeous post. Please add this to steemit worldmap too.
Thank you! I have done so :)
The devil really has some nasty looking teeth! Don't want to be close to him while he is eating. The Yellow Rosella has to be one of my most favourite birds. Stunning colours.
I just can't get over the sound of that bone crunching. He was definitely made for eating meat!
I hadn't ever seen a Yellow Rosella, even though they're supposed to be common in areas of New South Wales (where I live). They are very beautiful.
I haven't seen one in the wild. Only in a bird sanctuary.
Congratulations, Your Post Has Been Added To The Steemit Worldmap!
Author link: http://steemitworldmap.com?author=calathea
Post link: http://steemitworldmap.com?post=tasmanian-travel-blog-day-4-part-2-tasmanian-devil-unzoo
Want to have your post on the map too?
Add the following inside your post:
!steemitworldmap xxx lat yyy long description d3scr
(replace xxx and yyy with latitude and longitude)
Awesome post! Would love to visit Tasmania, hopefully sometime this year! Is the UnZoo close to Hobart?
It's about an hour fifteen from Hobart, definitely worth seeing. When we went, the feeding of the Devils was at 3.00pm, with the bird flight show at 3.30. I recommend catching both.