As we made our way down the two lane road we were questioning our decision, but we rounded a turn and off to the left, which is the passenger side over here, we saw a mob (what a group of kanagroos are called) of kangaroos grazing in the field. We quickly pulled over as did several others who happen to pass by. We stood by the road at first, but eventually made our way down to the field stomping our feet as we went to scare away any of those poisonous snakes we have heard so much about. We saw probably 75 kangaroos. I will let the pictures describe it for me.
Jake is not in this picture because he decided not to come along.
These particular kangaroos are Eastern Grey Kangaroos. They can weigh any where from 23kg (50lbs) to 66kg (145lbs). They eat shrubs and grass and feed early in the morning and just at dusk. The male kangaroo is called buck or boomer, the female is called a doe or flyer and a baby is called joey. Aussies sometimes also refer to a kangaroo as a “roo”.
After our kangaroo encounter, we drove further down the road and had our eyes peeled to the trees. Once again, we were not disappointed. Gab and I had so much fun spotting these adorable little creatures. We probably saw 30 different koalas perched up in the trees. As before I will let the pictures describe it for me.
The Aussies call koalas just that. We were told when we first arrived that they are not bears therefore; they do not call them koala bears. A male koala is called a buck, a female is called a doe and a baby is called a joey.They range in size from 4kg (9lbs) to 9kg (20lbs). They eat only eucalyptus leaves and consume 200 to 500 grams of leaves a day. The leaves are very fiberous and don’t contain a lot of energy. To conserve energy they sleep up to 16 hours a day. The eucalyptus leaves they eat are very poisionous, but the koala is one of a few animals that have a special digestive system that detoxifies the poisonous chemicals.
TO BE CONTINUED . . . Waterfalls and Rainforests; the last post for The Great Ocean Road.
