With CARLA ANDERSON
Mark Twain once noted that Australia had "a climate which nothing can stand except a few of the hardier kinds of rocks."
A few times in the 105-degree heat, we were inclined to agree. But most of the time we found the weather tolerable and were fascinated by the animals - a triumph in adaptation on this driest and most-isolated continent. We understand why Aussies refer to their land as Oz.
In Alice Springs, in the Outback, we visited a $24 million desert park. The most amazing building had a nocturnal area of semi-darkness, the largest indoor zoo we have ever seen. We stumbled around as our eyes adjusted to the dim light.
The mammals in central Australia are mostly nocturnal because of the extreme daytime heat. Some burrow, some have hard skins, and some rarely need to drink. With powerful legs, blind marsupial moles "swim" through sand searching for insects. The tails of mouse-sized dunnarts are longer than their bodies and are often swollen with fat stored for hard times.
Outside the building was a series of covered, screened areas, featuring birds and animals from desert regions, including emus and large red kangaroos. If not for zoos, the visitors would not see either because they avoid places where people live. Even Aboriginal hunters must be well-trained to track and kill them.
The second-tallest bird after the ostrich, the emu is unable to fly but can sprint at speeds up to 30 mph. The female lays eight to 10 eggs, each about 5 inches long and weighing more than a pound, which the male incubates.
The red kangaroo is the largest living marsupial and has the longest hind legs. Making a clucking sound or a loud cough alarm call, it hops with its body almost horizontal, with the tail held in a U shape. Kangaroos have a lower metabolic rate than other mammals and, with their hopping gait, can cover more ground with less expenditure of energy in an unpredictable environment.
A resting Kangaroo
Marsupials are living production lines, often with one joey at heel, another in the pouch and a third in the uterus. Embryos can be kept in suspended animation and stall development until weather conditions are favorable.
Because Australia is isolated, marsupials thrived, while on other continents they were replaced by mammals with placentas. When the amazed Capt. James Cook wanted a specimen, he set greyhounds after a kangaroo. Aided by the tall grass, the "roo" got away.
Australia is the only country with road signs warning of camels, wombats and kangaroos. On the front of trucks in those areas are protective "roobars." Another distinctive desert sign reads, "Do not spit. You might need it."
Wombats - with a bear-like form, button nose and no tail, weighing up to 60 pounds - bulldoze huge burrows. The burrows annoy farmers, as they can cause broken legs for cattle and breach fences that are rabbit- and dingo-proof. The female carries her one baby a year in a pouch that opens backward.
We stopped at a camel farm, mostly so our group could ride and take pictures. Australia is the only place in the world where camels still run wild. Temporarily herded by a bull, cows live together in groups that can number in the hundreds. Genetically healthy, they are bred and exported to the Middle East and Africa and also sold for meat. We feasted on camel, emu and crocodile for dinner one night.
You can still ride a camel in Australia
Although the average tourist rarely sees kangaroos in the wild, their smaller cousins, the wallabies, are commonly sighted. But this takes some climbing up canyons and ravines, where fallen rock and split stone walls make hiking somewhat challenging. `At Simpson’s Gap near Alice Springs, we saw black-footed rock wallabies. They have roughly textured foot pads that help them grip the rocks and a heavy tail for balancing when they jump. Their brownish-gray bodies blend in with the rocks, but we could spot them when they moved. Most active at night, they also come out on sunny mornings and late afternoons.
Wallibies are hard to spot amid the rocks.
Every major place we stayed in Australia had an animal park with knowledgeable guides. We particularly enjoyed Sydney’s koalas, which we and other tourists cuddled. Koalas dwell in eucalyptus trees and live on their leaves, and they are inactive 20 hours out of 24. A young koala stays in the pouch for six months and is carried by the mother until it is 12 months old and the mother gives birth again.
Koalas are shy. Almost wiped out by hunters,
they are now fully protected.
In Sydney, we also saw the spectacularly weird platypus. It has the beak and webbed feet of a duck with a beaver-like body and lays eggs like a reptile, but it provides milk for its offspring by oozing it from pores. Biologists in the 19th century declared stuffed specimens a hoax made from pieces of other animals.
We came away from Australia with was a strong awareness of how environment shapes animal characteristics and the steps nature takes to ensure survival. Like one of the Australian poets, we loved this "sunburnt country."
The emu is said to be the stupidest of birds.
It is almost impossible to teach one to do a trick.
