Photo/s of the day. Mammals and marsupials.

[moonvoice]

My hair is a lot shorter now.
Also, it's a dark brown-red.
I'm a fan.
Glen's a fan.
My cats were like 'what the fuck? Get that chemical shit away from us right now.'


I am the prettiest white tammar wallaby out of all the white tammar wallabies.





Bennett's wallaby.






Oh hai, I'm totally feral in Australia, and yet there are more of me in Melbourne city than there are in the entire UK. I like to eat native animals and birds, and I'm still awesome.





Fiiiiiiierce.





Fruit bats are like so cute, even if they do pass on horrendously fatal diseases.





They were also quite active!





I'm a koala. I'm stoned. My breath smells like lozenges.





Leucistic (NOT albino) red kangaroo. With a 'I'm probably too big to really adequately fit in here anymore' joey. It's probably reached that point where Mum is like, 'now, honey, you have a job and really are quite capable of getting around on your own now oh what the fuck, I'm taking a nap.)





Putu, Glen and I decided that this red kangaroos sleeps like Moet sleeps.





Another red kangaroo.





A whole trio of red kangaroos!





I quite liked these guys.





Swamp wallaby.





Also a swamp wallaby.





Aside from the fact that it looks like a giant white rat, the leucistic tammar wallabies are really quite beguiling.





OH YEAH, RIGHT THERE, RIGHT THERE, OH YEAH. (This, for the record, is a wombat)

Comments

[stormerider]

Amazing photos! I've never seen a wombat or a wallaby before... I didn't realize that wallabies had hands like that. They remind me of rat hands... very articulated. Cool :) Thanks for sharing :)

[moonvoice]

Their paws are adorable and very agile (and in some cases brutal, if they need to be). But having little kangaroo paws resting against your legs while they look at you searchingly is quite something else. There are over 40 species of wallaby in Australia, and many different species of kangaroo too. :)

[stormerider]

Yeah, I think rat hands are cute, actually :) I don't really get why people are squicked out by them, but a friend of mine had a pet rat and I thought it was as cool as the ferrets another friend had. And I would not want to be scratched by a ferret or a rat... their paws may be tiny but their claws are sharp! I imagine the same is true of wallabies.

Kangaroos have always fascinated me. I'd love to have a chance to see one in person some day.

[moonvoice]

And I would not want to be scratched by a ferret or a rat... their paws may be tiny but their claws are sharp! I imagine the same is true of wallabies.

Especially considering the massive size difference with most of them! Can be very nasty.

I hope you get to see them in person one day too. They're quite something else. We see them in the wild regularly, and even though I've lived here all my life; it's still awesome.

[frith]

You want razor sharp? Try the thumb claws on those flying foxes. If they don't like you and can't get away they can slash with those claws.

[stormerider]

... flying foxes? *blinks* I've heard of flying squirrels (which one of our cats took great pride in catching) but never flying foxes. *goes off to Google*

Edit: Oh, ok, I've heard of fruit bats, but never heard them called flying foxes before. Learn something new every day :)

[moonvoice]

Yeah, I prefer fruit bats myself, but flying foxes is a pretty common term here; esp. in the Eastern states and elsewhere in the world. I stick with fruit bats, since it's a more accurate term.

[moonvoice]

Try the thumb claws on those flying foxes. If they don't like you and can't get away they can slash with those claws.

Oh, I never said wallaby/kangaroo claws are razor sharp! That's taking it a bit far. Only that they can do some damage if they want to.

[frith]

Beautiful white (leucistic) tammar. ^_^ The cute wallaby just below the tammar is a swamp wallaby, not a Bennetts's.

[moonvoice]

Then the sign must have been wrong; since the sign in that enclosure was for the bennett's wallaby.

[frith]

Sometimes the signs are far apart or the people switching the signs are slow to catch up with animals changing enclosures. In our walk-through marsupial exhibit we have 5 eastern greys and 16 Bennett's. At the gate it says "kangaroo" and has a picture of a wallaby. If you hunt around inside the exhibit eventually you can find signs for kangaroo and for wallaby. Naturally people are confused and everything that hops gets labeled "kangaroo". Or "Skippy".

[moonvoice]

the people switching the signs are slow to catch up with animals changing enclosures.

I'd say it's this one. There was only one sign on the enclosure after all, and I'm very familiar with the wildlife park in general and that specific enclosure usually does have bennett wallabies within. It's not like me to make mistakes, but I was more concerned with getting the photos up while tired; my mistake.

Naturally people are confused and everything that hops gets labeled "kangaroo". Or "Skippy".

Thankfully = less of a hazard here!

[skyfiery]

Oh man. I'm so dead from all the cute!

[moonvoice]

There was definitely a lot of adorableness!

[skyfiery]

Oh, definitely! Especially the wallabies. They're so fuzzy and they have pouches! Lol.

[moonvoice]

A great deal had joeys as well. I didn't get too many photos because I was too busy enjoying myself, but so many joeys! Must've been about 10 individual leucistic red kangaroo joeys around the place.

[skyfiery]

Wow...

But it's good about putting your enjoyment over taking pictures (sometimes, at least?). I know that I have a habit of losing the appreciation of a moment because I'm too busy trying to capture it instead of just feeling it. So...nice. =)

[moonvoice]

I sometimes find that the hardest part, actually, about enjoying photography is that it often takes away my ability to be 'in the moment.' And sometimes if I don't bring my camera, the feeling of 'oh if only I could capture that shot' actually can weigh me down. I try and practice not taking my camera with me everywhere as a result.

[skyfiery]

I agree. It can be quite contradictory sometimes. Great pictures still, though, and it's nice to know that you enjoyed it.

[white_rabbit]

LOL. The last photo made me laugh really hard. HAHA.

I love the white leucistic tammar wallaby. :D So cute! I actually don't mind it looks like a giant rat, because I happen to love rats.

[moonvoice]

I'm a big fan of rats too, actually.

Alas, the only rats this park had are the ones that that pilfer the feed. Heh.

[silverjackal]

These are all great, but I particularly like the swamp wallaby. He or she has enormous presence for what is likely a very cryptic species in the wild. My other favorite is of course the wombat! :D Who doesn't love wombats (cross and fearsome with the claws though they may be)?

[adeliej]

Wombats are wonderful creatures.
Friends of mine, who live on a 40 acre property in the middle of a national park, look after orphaned native animals. One wombat they looked after came back every week or so for years after they released her into the wild, and it was very hard to convince her to leave - she would sit on your feet if you opened the door. She was very friendly.

[moonvoice]

Yeah, I've heard that wombats can be hard to rehabilitate because they attach and bond really strongly (same with some of the macropods). I'm glad that the wombat still went off into the wild though!

[moonvoice]

That wombat was adorable, and quite active. Glen and Putu actually got to interact with him (while I was off in another exhibit). As far as wombats go, he's had a lot of handling, and is quite docile.

[ariestess]

These are all so cute. ESPECIALLY the wombat! Ahaha!

[moonvoice]

Aren't wombats adorbz? :D

[ariestess]

Beyond words!