Daintree..Wildlife Habitat

<Kian>

After breakfast we looked around the rest of the Wildlife Habitat.

There were spoonbills flying around, with white and black bills.

 

They use their spoon shape bills to catch fish.

A great egret (looks like it's wearing a wedding dress)

and some black neck storks.  In the past these were called Jabiru's but not any more because there is another bird in other parts of the world called a jabiru. 

 

This is a pademelon (rainforest mini roo).  They are found in wet tropics areas (like here in the Daintree Rainforest)

Look at this giant Southern Cassowary.  
This one is over 1m tall (about the same size as Asha).  It is Australia's largest land animal and normally weighs between 35kg and 60kg.

 

They are a huge bird similar to an emu and are only found in coastal north Queensland (and Indonesia and New Guinea).  There are only about 1500 cassowaries left in the wild in Australia. 

I hope we can see one in the rainforest!

See the feet - very similar to an emu

  

Did you know?

Female cassowaries are much bigger than males.  The male cassowaries sit on the eggs and then look after the chicks when they hatch.

This is a magpie goose

Zeke got to feed it!

They had a Koala too.  Even though it is very hot here, the fury Koala is native to this area, but it does have thinner fur than the Koalas from colder places like Victoria. 

 

Did you know?
Koalas have adapted themselves for tree life?  they actually have 2 thumbs and curved claws on their front feet to give them good grip on the tree.

  

<Zeke>

We patted a carpet python.  Lucky it's not venomous.  These pythons can eat small mammals whole and can even swallow animals as big as a wallaby (watch out Asha!).

 

 

<Asha> 

I patted the snake too.

<Asha>
We also patted a salt water crocodile.  It was bumpy on top and smooth on its belly.

<Zeke>
Did you know?
If you end up close to snake, you must stop and freeze until it passes (even if it slithers over your feet).  If you end up near a salt water crocodile, run for your life!!!

<Asha>
The crocodile's mouth was sticky taped closed to hold it shut.

<Zeke>
They can just use sticky tape because a crocodile doesn't have much power to open its mouth so doesn't take much strength to keep it shut.

There are two types of crocodiles - salt water and fresh water crocodiles.  The wildlife habitat also had fresh water crocodiles which are smaller than salties.

 

Did you know?
Salt water crocodiles don't only live in salt water.  They also live happily in a mix of salt water and freshwater (called brackish water). This is a pretty big fresh water crocodile.  Fresh water crocs are normally smaller than salties.

Crocs open their mouths like this to let out the heat or take in the heat.

 

<Kian>

These are Royal Cuban Palms.

If you knock on them, they sound hollow.

 

Did you know?
Australia is not the only place where kangaroos and wallabies live.  They also live in Papua New Guinea.

This is a Lumholtz tree kangaroo