We saw many different kinds, everywhere we went, even in the wild. At Cradle Lake a couple of pademelons (a.k.a. rufous wallabies) were in our cabin's "back yard" and more often than not were nearby whenever we came in or out. At least one was carrying a joey, which made her even cuter. I thought we got some pictures, but I can't find them, so here's a picture of some other kind of wallaby at Lake St. Clair instead:
The mother looks kind of mean, doesn't she? The joey's still cute, though.
They don't move much, and they have a strong smell. I really can't think of much more to say.
Not all that interesting, really, except for one thing: cubic poop.
OK, sorry, I know that's kind of disgusting, but it's also pretty funny. How does a creature evolve to produce that? Wombats seem to like leaving their little treasures in highly-visible places, and it just so happens that the wooden walkways (amazingly common, even in remote sections of hiking trails) fit the bill.
We actually saw one of these crossing the road near Cradle Mountain Lodge, but couldn't get a picture. Pictures, postcards, and puppets of these critters were almost annoyingly omnipresent in Tasmania but - like koalas - we just didn't find them interesting enough to seek out.
We saw several around Cradle Mountain Lodge, and not really anywhere else. I picked up a leech getting a picture of this guy after he had boldly walked across a footpath in front of us minutes before. Yech.
Here's another picture, of one with a baby on its back. Sorry about the demonic eyes; red-eye reduction doesn't seem to've worked very well in this case.
Just not much more to say here. We saw one in the Taronga Zoo, then in the wild at Lake St. Clair, then three (one male, two females) at Healesville. Here's a bonus picture from Healesville, of one of the females "parking" under a rock to chew:
Echidnas are much cuter than we expected. Their awkward rolling gait, the way they sniff the air as though they can't see you from three feet away, their danger response of tucking their heads under their bodies and curling up into a ball - they all add up to a very endearing little creature.
It was definitely interesting seeing the different kinds of birds in Australia. At any given moment you might suddenly find yourself looking at a brightly-colored rozella or lorikeet, which is quite a treat for someone from another part of the world. Even the less dramatic birds - e.g. an ibis or a masked lapwing - are just "odd" enough to give you that feeling of otherness. The sounds are as different as the appearances.
We saw rozellas in several places, but they seemed shy and there was never a good photo op. We saw sulphur-crested cockatoos in both the Blue Mountains and the Grampians, and a pair of larger black cockatoos in the latter, but always pretty far off. The best pictures were of birds in zoos and sanctuaries, such as the following:
 Royal (?) Kingfisher (Taronga) |
 Peacock (Featherdale) |
 ??? Eagle (Featherdale) |
 Rainbow Lorikeets (Featherdale) |
 Black Currawong (Cradle Mountain) |