Wildlife on Phillip Island, Victoria

A koala wakes up after 20 hours of beauty sleep.

Today we saw lots of Australian wildlife.  We took a bus to Phillip Island, southeast of Melbourne where there are many animal conservation areas.  We saw lots of wallabies, koalas and various birds such as penguins, magpies, cape barren geese and masked lapwings.

Here are some interesting things most people don't know about koalas.  Only 60% of the space inside their skull is brain tissue; the rest of the space is fluid.  This helps them conserve energy, because brains use a lot.  In other words, the koala conserves energy by thinking less.  They eat a pound of eucalyptus leaves each day which are 50% water, so they don't have to drink.  Eucalyptus leaves are low in nutrients, so even though this is the only food that koalas have evolved to eat, it does it give them much energy.  So, koalas have to sleep 20 hours a day, almost always in the crook of tree branches.

A chicken very proud of its topknot.

This bird is a kind of chicken, even though it is black and has a giant topknot. I thought it looked kind of funny, but I'm sure that it got respected by its friends.  My experiences today gave me a good taste of Australian wildlife.

Tomorrow, I'll write about the penguin parade we saw.