 G'Day
Mates! We are developing an online Animals Down Under Resource Center with
the help of our mates from Palm Beach Zoo. They have some of our best
friends from Australia living at their Zoo. We would love to bring these
guys to the Festival but most of our animal mates really do their best in
natural surroundings and you would never put your mate in an environment
that they would not be comfortable in...
 Of
course we will have an Animals Down Under Education Exhibit at the
Festival and that will be great place to start to get to know these guys.
And once you get to learn about these cute Aussie Animals maybe one day
you will be able to hop on
over to Palm Beach Zoo and visit their Australian region and have a laugh with red kangaroos, yellow-footed rock wallabies and nature’s happiest birds, the kookaburras...
Hey - our mates from Palm Beach Zoo even gave us a map so you can check
out the places where the Aussie Animals live at the Zoo - simply clicking
on the map above...
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Red Kangaroo
(Macropus rufus)
 The red kangaroo is the largest living marsupial, with large males standing over 6 feet tall.
As a resident of the dry open plains of central Australia, the red kangaroo most commonly forages for food during dawn and dusk when the temperatures are cooler.
An underdeveloped joey, about the size of a kidney bean, is born after a gestation of 33 days at which point it climbs up its mother’s fur and attaches to a nipple inside the pouch where it remains until it reaches 6-8 months of age.
Fairly common through out central Australia, red kangaroos are often viewed as pests to farmers and ranchers and are very often hunted and eaten.
Males are red where as females are more gray. These guys are
located at Palm Beach Zoo is in the Kangaroo Yard on the west side of the Zoo! |
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Tawny frogmouth
(Podargus strigoides)
 Frogmouths occur in Australia, Tasmania, and New Caledonia and are most closely related to nightjars.
They use their camouflage for a sit-and-wait approach to feeding, patiently waiting for unsuspecting prey to come too close.
They feed on mice, rats, frogs, cicadas, and various other small prey that they catch with their beaks.
They are monogamous, only changing mates upon death of their partner, laying 2-3 eggs every year in the same nest.
These guys are located at Palm Beach Zoo Australasia Exhibit on the west side of the Zoo.
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Emu
(Dromaius novaehollandiae)
 The emu is a tall, flightless bird with a flat breastbone and very muscular legs, second in size only to the ostrich.
The feathers of an emu are double shafted, giving the birds a loose, shaggy look. Their feathers serve as insulation and not for lift.
Emus live in eucalyptus forests, woodlands, shrub lands and open, semi-arid plains of Australia.
Their diet consists of fruits, berries, insects and caterpillars. After a female lays 9-14 dark green eggs that weigh up to 1 ½ pounds, nest preparation, incubation and raising young are the male’s task.
Our interesting looking mate the Emu is located at Palm Beach Zoo
in the Austral-Asia exhibits, next to the Red kangaroos. |
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Yellow-footed rock wallaby
(Petrogale xanthopus xanthopus)
 Yellow-footed rock wallabies weigh between 6 to 20 pounds and have light brown-grayish face and head, a dark brown streak starting on it’s back and a long, ringed tail.
They are found on mountain tops and rocky ramparts leaping up to 4 yards from rock to rock in South Australia, Western New
South Wales & Southwestern Queensland. These acrobats are able to climb cliffs and tree trunks.
Wallabies graze on grass, plants and shrubs. To help digest their food they have a complex stomach consisting of many compartments.
One month after mating, a hairless and blind baby, about the size of a kidney bean, will find its way to its mother’s pouch, where it will stay for up to 6 months.
The Yellow-footed Rock Wallaby Reintroduction Project sponsored in part by the Palm Beach Zoo is gaining insight into how captive-bred rock wallabies adjust upon release to the wild.
This cute little fella is located located at Palm Beach Zoo near the contact yard and Burmese python.
** Photograph by Keith Lovett |
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Dingo
(Canis lupus dingo)
 Dingos are found in forests, plains and mountainous areas of Australia and some parts of Southeast Asia.
Males are generally larger than females, weighing between 20 and 40 pounds and are ginger-colored with some white spots.
Dingos produce one litter of pups a year. The common litter size is 1-10 pups.
Their life expectancy is generally 10 years. Dingos travel in packs of 3-12 with little interaction with other packs, and males are dominant over the females of the pack.
Our mate the Dingo is a bit of a quite chap and is an Off-Exhibit Animal used in Educational Programs
only. |
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