Rainforestation Nature Park, Kuranda, 21 August 2008

On Thursday evening during the conference all guests were driven by bus about 1 hour up into the mountains, to the Rainforestation Nature Park in Kuranda. The conference organizers had rented the entire park for us, and we were free to wander around, eat the (mediocre) food they had prepared for us, and interact with the animals and the nature of the rainforest at night.We were all starving by the time we got to the park and headed directly toward the food tents. But the food was mediocre at best, so after eating enough to hold starvation in check, we ditched the tents in order to see what we came for - the flora and fauna.

I did pay $15 to have my picture taken with a koala, but as we don't have a scanner that print will have to be appended to this entry at a later date. The little guy we got to hold was a solid little man, smelled strongly of eucalyptus and certainly didn't seen to mind being "processed" on the conveyor belt of excited cuddlers! Subsisting on a diet of eucalyptus makes the koalas somewhat "high", explaining their lethargic behaviour. But those not having eaten for an hour or two had as much energy as any little monkey.

Take for example this little guy (gal?), cuddling nicely on his mum's belly. He looks shy in this picture, but in the few minutes we stood watching him, he literally climbed laps all over his poor mum, plainly expressing a keen desire to play play play. Such a cutie!

After the koala cuddle we wandered out into the outdoor portion of the park. The first thing we encountered was a very large kangaroo lounging on a bed of sand.

If she looks stressed (notice the outstretched front claws!), it's most likely because she was kept up past her bedtime to entertain 900 foreign tourists that insisted on touching and tripping all over her. Poor gal, say I. There were quite a few kangaroos and several smaller wallabies, all running around freely within the park. They were quite tame and passively accepted being petted. Paying $2.50 for date pieces with which to feed them managed to snatch their attention rather effectively, though.

One of my former colleagues from Tromsø, Norway, was also at the conference. Stein Magne, Trine (in the picture) and I spent the evening together at the park. Trine also had her picture taken with a koala and was immensely pleased with those $15. We were all impressed with how soft the fur of kangaroos is.

Among the other critters in the park was a bearded dragon

A sulphur-crested cockatoo (can't remember his name, something beginning with "M" I think...)

Wasn't of the loquacious persuasion, but certainly didn't mind having his picture taken.

This guy was the bad guy of the animal park - "Jack the Ripper" was his name.

He is an estuarine (saltwater) crocodile, about 5 meters long, that was transfered to the zoo after being rejected from numerous crocodile farms because of his anti-social behaviour. Rumour has it that he killed all of the 11 female crocodiles that the farms intended him to mate with. After the 11th, he was shipped to Rainforestation, where he will live out his remaining many years as a strict bachelor.

There was also a goanna, one of the large monitor-like poisonous lizards roaming the hot bits of Australia.

This one was tired (they are diurnal, after all) and didn't do much other than lay there. Note the reeeeeally long tail.

And finally, the last attraction to make an appearance was the wombat, a huge rodent that can weigh up to 70-90 lbs and run up to 35 kmh. They're equipped with powerful claws for digging up roots and grubs, and are nocturnal.

Their digging activity can cause quite a bit of destruction, and has earned them the nickname "bulldozer of the bush".

We did see a cassowary, safely tucked away in its pen, but taking pictures through the chicken-wire fence wasn't the easiest, particularly at night. Needless to say, the bird was large and not in the least intimidated by our presence. Pics and interesting reading about cassowaries can be found in Wikipedia's cassowary article.

We got the impression that most animals in the park were either asleep or well past their bedtimes, as many of them are diurnal. It would have been very fun to visit the park during the day, when perhaps there might have been more animal life.