Tassie Animals!

Another big day! Matt and I got up early and checked out of our airbnb and drove north to Cradle Mountain. We arrived shortly after noon and ate a picnic lunch before catching the shuttle to Lake Dove. Once there we did the Lake Dove circuit, which was about a 2 hour walk. It was a very pretty walk around the entire lake and through rain forest. Then we did a few other short walks around the area and saw some waterfalls and other pretty scenery.

We were getting ready to leave when we remembered that there was a Tasmanian Devil reserve there, too. So we decided to check out the tour times and discovered that we were right in time for the last one of the day, the feeding one, so we decided to check it out. I didn't really need to see the feeding part but I was excited to see the animals. And we got more than we thought we would! First we saw the Tasmanian devils, obviously, and they are very unique and rare creatures. They can be found in the wild only here in Tasmania, and they are the world's largest carnivorous marsupials. For those that don't know what marsupial means, it means they give birth to immature young that then grow to maturity in the mother's pouch, like a kangaroo. They are scavengers and tend to keep to themselves; they don't travel or live in packs. There used to be a lot more of them here but a form of facial cancer has wiped out 85% of their population in the last few decades. This is why they now have several protected areas where they have enough quarantined such that they could keep the species alive if all of the wild ones are wiped out by this disease. It sounds like the ones in the wild have started to naturally develop some resistance to the disease though so they are hoping they will bounce back. So anyway, we got to see them eat most of a dead possum. I'm not going to post those pictures but they are in the photo album, so beware.

Then we also got to see them feed quolls, which is an animal I was completely unaware of before today. They are similar to the devils in that they are carnivorous marsupials, but they are a bit smaller. They also do more hunting than scavenging, so they've earned a bad rep from farmer's in the area, since they are frequently found raiding the chicken coops and such. They are very intelligent hunters and can take down prey that are three times their size. We got to see two different kinds: spotted and eastern. The Easterns were a bit smaller yet, but the spotted ones move a bit more gracefully and almost reminiscent of cats.

These are the spotted ones:

These are the Eastern:

There were also two other animals that I've really wanted to see there just roaming around on the reserve. First we finally saw a wallaby! He hopped right behind us as we were standing watching the devils being fed. This particular one is clearly pretty comfortable being around humans because he jumped near the group a couple of times. I wasn't ever able to capture a video of him jumping because he's so fast, but here's a picture!

Then we also got to see a wombat! She was clearly not shy and she wandered between the whole group, sometimes trying to take a nibble on someone's shoes. She was so cute! I found her later and took a picture with her and she was not phased at all; she just kept munching on her grass. 

We finally got out of there and decided to grab food quickly on the way to our airbnb since our hostess had told us that most things tend to close up around 7:30 and it was getting to be that time. So we stopped at a pub in Moina and I had a pizza while Matt had a pork loin. I also got to try a glass of Tassie wine which was really good. 

It was dark when we left and on the short 15 minute drive to our airbnb we finally got to see wild animals roaming around! I've had my eyes peeled every time we drive anywhere for days, and then we saw a ton tonight! I guess we just needed to either go see them in captivity first, or we just needed to wait until nightfall to go drive around. But we saw between 4-5 devils roaming around and at least 4 wallabies! Three of the wallabies hopped right in front of us crossing the road. I never could get my camera out fast enough, but it was magical. I was so excited to finally see them out in the wild! We had been told that driving anywhere in Tasmania at night would take twice as long, and now we understand why!

We checked into our airbnb. Our hostess is very nice. She has a bakery here so she's given us all sorts of homemade bread. The place is nice, too. Other than the 3 spiders I found in the bathroom before showering but I'm trying not to think about that.