Kangaroo IslandDec 13, 2010
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Australian Seal Lion
Echidna
Koala
| Hello again, Today was our first day on Kangaroo Island. We woke up early in Penneshaw and began our drive to Flinders Chase, where we would camp for the next two nights. We started our drive, and our first stop was at Seal Bay. Seal Bay lets people view a colony of seals that runs over 3 km and has about 1,000 Australian sea lions. There was a shortage of seals, and in the past, hunters almost hunted seals to extinction. We got to the visitors center and bought tickets to go down the boardwalk to the beach where we could see the Australian sea lions. We learned that seals were the same thing as sea lions. Seals are split into three different body shapes, ones with a big back flipper and small front ones, harbor seals, then there are sea lions and then there’s walruses. On our walk down to the beach, we saw a skeleton of a humpback whale, that died and washed up to the beach, it was huge! When we saw the beach there were at least two hundred laying on the beach, and a bull (dominant male) every thirty meters. We saw a ton of baby sea lions, they were adorable. They were right beneath the boardwalk and would walk right up and stare at you with their big brown eyes. We got so many great pictures. The young ones would play fight and the bulls would really fight. We were informed on the drama of the sea lions. So 10 days after the baby sea lion is born, the mom mates again. This is because sea lions are pregnant about 17 months before giving birth. There was this one cow (female) that had a baby eight days ago, and then there was this bull. This bull was waiting to mate with the female. He was fighting with other huge male sea lions for the mating rights. He hadn’t been out to eat in four days, just waiting for the one female. He was very grumpy, and it was hilarious seeing him fight with other sea lions, they are very aggressive! We also learned that the baby of that particular female was in danger. It is in danger because the bull might kill him, we don’t know why though. The sea lions go out to hunt for three days and they spend the entire time diving and catching Cray fish, squid, and octopus. They also have to be quick to out maneuverer sharks. Then they come back to shore, nurse their babies, and rest for three days to regain energy for their next hunt. I loved seeing the sea lions walk on the sand, especially the babies. They young seals were the most adorable things I have ever seen; they were so incredibly cute and innocent! After we were finished at Seal Bay, we continued driving to our campsite, KI Caravan Campground. As soon as we picked out our site, from inside the car we saw two koalas in the tree right by our site. We set up our tent and Claire, Dad, and I went on the Koala Walk. Greg and Mom stayed back because Greg fell and hit his head on a rock. The walk started right in our campground so we didn’t have to drive. As soon as we started the walk we saw about ten wallabies. They are very skittish and cute, almost like small kangaroos. As soon as you approach them though, they just hop away. We continued our walk and saw two koalas, both high up in the eucalyptus trees. When we returned from our walk, we met our neighbors. They were on vacation and from Australia. They had kids that were seven, nine, and eleven. We met Ben, Lucky, and Jess. They were very nice and we played Nook Um and volleyball with them. They had been on vacation for a while also. Since Greg, Mom, and our neighbors hadn’t been on the koala walk yet, we took them. We saw an echidna, which is like a porcupine. It was very cute, and we watched it as he ate ants. We were so engaged with the echidna we didn’t see a koala in the same tree. The koala was only about ten feet up the tree, and seven year old Ben climbed right up to touch him. He only touched its foot before the koala looked at him and scared him away. It was very funny, we saw many wallabies, they are like the Australian squirrel and we don’t get excited to see them anymore. After our walk we went to the camp kitchen to make dinner. Greg, Claire, and I played ping-pong while Mom and Dad made pasta with sauce. It was delicious and after dinner Claire, Mom, and I watched Twilight on the MacBook while Greg and Dad played ping-pong, Greg was determined to beat Dad. As we walked back to our tent, if you shined your flashlight you would see tons of kangaroos eating and hopping around. It was very cool to hear them from inside our tent. We are having an awesome time on Kangaroo Island! |
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