A Roo Awakening

No country owns an animal like Australia owns the kangaroo. OK, China and the panda play in the same league. But China and its one-trick panda can’t match Australia’s array of exclusives: koalas, platypuses, echidnas, wallabies, wombats, emus, Tasmanian devils, and more. Australia’s geographic isolation has created a mix of species that techies would call “proprietary” and scientists call a high level of endemic fauna. You and I just say, “OMG that’s a lot of cool animals!” You can’t call a trip to Australia complete until you put eyes on kangaroos, koalas, and other animals you won’t see anywhere else. We spent portions of three different days in zoos, and got an eyeful of everything but echidnas. The lone, bashful echidna we had the chance to see, a resident of the Melbourne Zoo, stayed hidden. Something else we didn’t see at the zoo: Jhett. By the time we went to the zoo in our second week in Australia, he’d left for a week-long work placement assignment for school. We missed having him with us!