Sydney Zoo and Wildlife

Hello! Allison here, writing to you about wildlife in Australia! 

It's a well-known fact that there is plenty of wildlife around Australia. Prior to moving here, I didn't believe I would have much interaction have with wildlife, as we would be living in the beachy eastern suburbs of Sydney. I'll admit that I've been proven wrong. It seems that Australians don't mind sharing their space with the wildlife all around them (whereas I typically do).

First, some of the fun wildlife interactions. Two days in a row, we had lovely Rainbow Lorikeets visit my home office window. We'll constantly see these guys flying quickly overhead and their sharp chirps from the backyard trees. On two rainy afternoons, they stopped to say hello for a while and are absolutely gorgeous!

While cats and dogs aren't typically defined as wildlife, most of our cat encounters are from pet cats, that prowl the neighborhood.

Next, is wildlife in captivity. After several straight weekends of rain in Sydney and putting our outdoor-based plans on hold, we decided to take the train to the CBD and visit the Aquarium. Well, it turned out that everyone else decided to do so as well and tickets sold out. Next door was the Sydney Wildlife Zoo, featuring, amongst many others, the "Australian 5": Koalas, Kangaroos, Wombats, Platypus, and Crocodiles. Here are the pictures.

Cassowary

Platypus

Finally the not-so-fun wildlife. Yes, we've had many spider encounters. Most of them we've encountered from a distance, walking by someone's garden or front yard. However, we have had some not-so-pleasant spider encounters, including finding our first Huntsman spider in our apartment, right before going to bed. Huntsman spiders are non-threatening but they are BIG. Many Aussies like them, as they get rid of other pests including cockroaches. We (Ferg) promptly removed him from the apartment and I proceeded to check every square inch of the apartment for others. 

Another not-so-pleasant wildlife experience happened to me while swimming in Bondi Beach. Ferg went surfing and I went for a swim in the waves. It was not the calmest day but there were other swimmers, so I joined them for a swim between the flags. I was wading in the water, between waves crashing and felt a sharp sting on my leg. I look down and see what the Aussies call, a bluebottle with its tentacle wrapped around my left leg. I reach down to wipe it off, which gets my hand stung. I then see that the tentacles have wrapped completely around my leg. I manage to get all the tentacles off in the water and decided that my swim should be over. The sting wasn't excruciating so I sat on the beach until Ferg came back from surfing. A hot shower at home helped to remedy the pain. Lesson learned, if you see bluebottles washed up onshore, probably don't go swimming.

And perhaps my favorite wildlife I've seen in Australia is this beautiful butterfly.