{"id":1301,"date":"2011-02-15T09:56:25","date_gmt":"2011-02-15T02:56:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lisaandtony.com\/?p=1301"},"modified":"2011-02-15T09:56:25","modified_gmt":"2011-02-15T02:56:25","slug":"bonorong-wildlife-park-home-of-the-tasmanian-devil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/lisaandtony.com\/travelblog\/2011\/02\/15\/bonorong-wildlife-park-home-of-the-tasmanian-devil\/","title":{"rendered":"Bonorong Wildlife Park -Home of the Tasmanian Devil"},"content":{"rendered":"

Total Miles Traveled:<\/strong> 56,296<\/p>\n

If you were born before the 80s, chances are you’ve heard of the Tasmanian Devil (or Taz) who is a loveable – if not slightly crazy – cartoon character by Looney Toons.<\/p>\n

We were very excited to see the actual Tasmanian Devils, who are not nearly so crazy (they actually sleep 18 hours a day), but who are equally lovable.<\/p>\n

Taz \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Real Tasmanian Devil <\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"\"Tasmanian<\/a><\/p>\n

The story of the Devil is actually quite sad. \u00a0The species is dying. \u00a0Since the late 1990s,\u00a0devil facial tumour disease<\/a> has drastically reduced the devil population and now threatens the survival of the species, which in May 2009 was declared to be\u00a0endangered<\/a>. \u00a0This type of cancer is viral and so there are programs in place to keep those not infected from becoming infected. \u00a0Bonorong is actively engaged in getting Taz off the endangered list, so we wanted to support the park and see the little devils in person. \u00a0In addition to the devils, they also have other native animals.<\/p>\n

This evil looking creature is an emu. \u00a0This bird emits a deep\u00a0guttural\u00a0sound – similar to slapping the end of a PVC pipe – and has teeth-like ridges on its beak… sharp ones too! \u00a0This emu reminded me of one of the evil dinosaurs from Jurassic Park! \u00a0 I think this one is thinking “I’ll get you my pretty!”<\/p>\n

\"Emu\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Emu\"<\/a><\/p>\n

We were very excited to see Kangaroos – or Roos – and we even more thrilled that we got to feed them. \u00a0We loved interacting with these marsupials! \u00a0Here’s Tony, and his new friend. \u00a0Look at the way the Roo cups Tony’s hand.<\/p>\n

\"Bonorong<\/a><\/p>\n

Here’s a little Roo inside her mom’s pouch!<\/p>\n

\"Bonorong<\/a><\/p>\n

Check out the long claws…<\/p>\n

\"Bonorong<\/a><\/p>\n

This little cutie is called an echidna (or, as I call them, ‘enchilada’) yet another marsupial. \u00a0They have very sharp spikes to fend off prey.<\/p>\n

\"Bonorong<\/a><\/p>\n

We were\u00a0surprised\u00a0how much we loved the wombat – Morris is the baby wombat pictured below. \u00a0 They too sleep about 18 hours a day. \u00a0Check out the mouth. \u00a0Later during our trip in Tassie, we got to see the wombat in the wild. \u00a0They’re adorable!!<\/p>\n

\"Morris,<\/a><\/p>\n

One cool thing about the wombat is that they have a “hard butt.” \u00a0What does that mean? \u00a0They’ve adapted such that when a predator tries to attack the wombat in its burrow, it turns around and shows its butt. \u00a0 Why? \u00a0Because the butt is hardened cartilage that when you hit it with your knuckles, it sounds like you’re hitting hard plastic! \u00a0Neat!<\/p>\n

Here’s a frog-mouthed owl awake during the day. \u00a0He’s a bit cross-eyed.<\/p>\n

\"Frog<\/a><\/p>\n

A koala bear awake – which is rare – since they sleep 20 hours a day.<\/p>\n

\"Bonorong<\/a><\/p>\n

This koala came out and started groaning repeatedly, which we were told is a way to show dominance over other koalas in the area. \u00a0He owns this tree, we are merely visitors.<\/p>\n

\"Bonorong<\/a><\/p>\n

We had a lot of fun with the roos. \u00a0This baby roo was adorable but quite skittish. I had to coax her to eat from my hand.<\/p>\n

\"Bonorong<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Bonorong<\/a><\/p>\n

After a while, the little roo had enough and wanted to jump back into mom’s pouch.<\/p>\n

\"Mom<\/a><\/p>\n

Final photos of the Devil… \u00a0we hope that all the programs underway will help bring them back from the being endangered!<\/p>\n

\"Tasmanian<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Tasmanian<\/a><\/p>\n

To see all our photos, check out our slideshow:<\/p>\n

[flickrslideshow acct_name=”tony-chen” id=”72157625999742509″]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Total Miles Traveled: 56,296 If you were born before the 80s, chances are you’ve heard of the Tasmanian Devil (or Taz) who is a loveable – if not slightly crazy – cartoon character by Looney Toons. We were very excited to see the actual Tasmanian Devils, who are not nearly so crazy (they actually sleep […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[28],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/lisaandtony.com\/travelblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1301"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/lisaandtony.com\/travelblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/lisaandtony.com\/travelblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lisaandtony.com\/travelblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lisaandtony.com\/travelblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1301"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/lisaandtony.com\/travelblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1301\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/lisaandtony.com\/travelblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lisaandtony.com\/travelblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lisaandtony.com\/travelblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}