Kangaroos, Koalas and Wombats- Oh My!

On my last day in Melbourne, we went out into the country (or bush) to the Healesville Sanctuary. They have every type of Australian animal there in large natural habitats. We even saw wallabies and lots of large birds roaming freely as we walked around.

But THIS was by far my favorite experience of the day, and one of my favs of the week for sure. Everyone goes to Australia hoping to catch a glimpse of a kangaroo--being able to feed and pet and snuggle them was so much better!


It might not sound that exciting, but believe me, it was SO much fun (and I'm not even a big animal person)! They were so cute...when I held out food, they'd hop right up, take my hand with both of their cute little paws, pull it down, and nibble the food. I was a little uneasy at first, but that quickly went away. Even after the food was gone, they'd sit there and let you pet them and just hang out. We loved every minute of it!


Look at her holding onto my thumb!

SO cute, holding the little carrot piece!






The females were the ones that would come up to eat,
the males stayed back and just watched.

I guess their tails make a nice seat when they want to sit and rest. :)

I loved watching them hop around, too.

Besides the awesome kangaroos, we also saw:


EMUS





WOMBATS

(taking a nap--they're nocturnal but so cute!)



DINGOES
(Australian wild dog/wolf-like animals)





ECHIDNA





PLATYPUS

(sorry, no pictures of the real platypus...they swim underwater and it was too hard to get a good picture, but they sure were fun to watch swimming and diving around!

Here's a stuffed one, though. :)





ENORMOUS IGUANAS

TASMANIAN DEVILS

another "stuffed" one...I didn't get a good picture of the little devils


and of course, more cuddly KOALAS!

one awake

and one asleep

The kangaroos were so much fun that we stopped back by
on our way out to feed and play with them again!

I'm amazed at all of the cool animals that Australia has that can't be found anywhere else. It was so fun to see all of them!