Friends with a Numbat, Koalas, and a Kangaroos at Perth Zoo

by Xerraire · 4/27/2017

Perhaps making “friends” is a term being used loosely here, but, hey, it’s my blog and my day out, I am going with it.

I haven’t been to a lot of zoos, but I must say that I consider Perth Zoo to be friendly, intimate, and charming. Often I go to zoos and feel rather rushed to see everything, but in Perth Zoo, I feel like I can take my time and relax, I like that.

We usually start at the Reptile Encounter. Don’t ask me why, but this venomous Tiger snake always seems so friendly! I often ignore all the other animals in the encounter and just watch this one. More than once, I have watched it for a long time and then go back before we leave that area.

In the Australian Wetlands, the spoonbill is always a royal treat.

The Whistling Duck didn’t whistle for us like he did last year. but he put on a good show preening and splashing in the water.

I think these two were int he same position the last time we were here.

The Birds of the Southwest section is my favorite place. Mostly thanks to this not so friendly Blue Fairy Wren. They are just shy perhaps. They weren’t in color this visit to the zoo.

Also fun to watch is the Purple-crowned Lorikeets. I just had to get a shot when it was close to the red-capped yellow flowering gum tree branch the zoo had put there.

Over to the Australian Bushwalk, nothing is cuter than a kangaroo scratching itself.

Well I don’t really know if the Quokka is the happiest animal in the world, but they are so very cute, there is no denying it.

Here’s the little cutie munching on a leaf

Then it was time to spend with the Numbat. In the past we often wouldn’t see it in our visits, but lately, we’ve been able to see it for long periods of time. We stayed the whole time it was visible to us.

Not going to admit how many hundred photos I took of the numbat. But it was out there SO long!

This close up shows how messy it got looking in the ground for termites.

Numbats are insectivores and eat an exclusive diet of termites. An adult Numbat requires up to 20,000 termites each day. Since we were there that long, we saw people come in, look, and leave for quite a few rounds. I was surprised when a family came in and they were obviously Australian, and made the comment that it was nosing around looking for worms. Me, the American, had to correct them and tell them about the Numbat diet. I am not even sure they believed me.