Bonorong

Outside Hobart is a sanctuary for rescued and injured animals. If someone finds an injured animal or hits one, they are encouraged to bring the animal in to the sanctuary or call one of its rescuers, and even if the animal is dead, they ask people to check the marsupial pockets because frequently there is a baby in it. Many of the animals they have have been brought in as babies, and they manage to raise them, letting some of them go back to the wild.

The first animal we saw was a baby wombat. She weighed about 15 pounds, but she was was quite big and fat. Wombats have square poop (scientists have not figured out how that happens), and they are pretty easy to release into the wild.

They have a number of birds, too, but most of them cannot go back to the wild. Parrots are a family-oriented species, and unless the correct family is found, the released bird will probably be killed. They also receive animals and birds that are not native to Australia, so of course they are not released either. We saw three tasmanian devils, and they are such an interesting critter. They have the strongest jaw strength of any animal, and soon a video will be posted here of one of them eating a piece of meat with a bone in it - crunch, crunch, crunch.

She doesn't look anything like the cartoon character. We saw a little pandemelon, which is a beautiful little creature but apparently very mean . . .

Look at those teeth in that first picture - yikes - but isn't the black and white little guy cute? And finally we were able to feed the kangaroos. That was pretty fun - there are many there, and Don asked how they manage to keep them. The ranger said it is such an easy life, why would they want to go elsewhere? It was a great way to end the day!