Wilson's Promontory National Park
Victoria, Australia
27 February 2005
In the past four days I have seen koalas in trees, kangaroos in fields, wombats in a campground, and wallabies in the brush. Though two years ago I met these animals (during my first trip to Australia) in zoos and rescue facilities, there is a special thrill that comes with seeing them in the wild. Angela and I were tickled to hear a flock of laughing kookaburras making a racket in their pen in Featherdale Wildlife Park in 2003; today, when Chad and I recognized their distinctive sounds in the trees above us on the Mt. Bishop trail, it gave me chills. The highlight of my 2003 visit to Featherdale was getting to pet a wallaby in an enclosed facility; the highlight of this trip was getting to be 20 feet from a kangaroo in the high grasses of an abandoned airstrip. The difference was, today I had to earn the right to come that close: I approached her slowly, patiently, stopping every few feet and waiting until she was convinced that I was not a threat. At any moment, I expected her to bolt, hopping off to join the mob much further down the field. Ten or fifteen minutes into my approach, I was startled when a second, littler one popped his head up to watch me. He was much too big to be a joey who could still take refuge in her pouch, but his obliviousness to my presence (grass was far more yummy) indicated that he still needed his mum's protection. Even so, she let me watch, though she kept careful watch on me as well.
In general, kangaroos are considered pests, wombats are about as "special" as raccoons, and koalas have decimated entire stretches of manna gum trees along the southern coast of Victoria. Our tour guides take international visitors by the busload to see these animals, but there is a sense that the people here don't really see what all the fuss is about. Perhaps it is simply the exotic-ness of Australian wildlife that generates "the fuss"-- maybe it is just an accident of evolution that isolation that generates the mystique. Still, when I watch these animals from so close, even in the wild, there is something truly unique that draws me in. Many of the dominant mammal species in Australia-- especially the large and native species-- have very few natural predators, and so they have a gentleness that is unmatched in other species of wildlife elsewhere in the world. Koalas, we were told, are stressed by the near presence of humans, but in their trees just above they barely notice us ground-dwellers below. The wombat munching loudly on her grass seemed more bothered by the fact that the humans watching her had a bright light than by the humans themselves. And even a mum kangaroo with an oblivious little one to look after allowed me close, as long as I was respectful and considerate.
This material copyright D. Ross, 2005
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