121.) Lone Pine - that's Queensland, not CA!

Male platypus skeleton (see below for how we know it's a male)

It's been a rather rainy summer, so we decided we needed a break from playing with the leeches in the rainforest, and headed to Brisbane for an overnight stay with our friends Steve and Judy. They live in Fig Tree Pocket, a 'burb in Brisbane in the 'pocket' of a bend in the Brisbane River (that was quite flooded recently). Within walking distance of their home is the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. Nancy finds the koalas adorable.

This beautiful bird is a Barking Owl. Everybody had been given names, but we can't remember them. Her head swivels 270 degrees, believe it or not! Regretfully, these birds are one of the "losers" in urban development and habitat loss frenzy. They nest in tree hollows of old trees (which are being cut down). Unfortunately, their population is shrinking precipitously and they do not appear adaptable to artificial hollows.

The call of these owls is like a barking dog, and they're obviously nocturnal hunters, given those huge eyes! We were lucky to hear (and see) a barking owl in Darwin, Northern Territory.

At the sanctuary, it was raining quite strongly during the "Birds in Flight" show. All the birds were itching to fly, but weren't allowed because it was too wet. Instead, we got to look at them quite closely and this owl demonstrated how she swallows a mouse all in one gulp, with just the tail hanging out, 'til she slurps it in, too.













Another stately bird-of-prey, a white-bellied sea eagle. How'd you like that beak ripping at your flesh, if you happened to be a hapless fish???











Barn owls appear a bit more adaptable, they seem to be widespread.

















our good buddies, the boisterous lories looking beautiful and bold despite the downpour!




















A 4 year -old border collie named Mary - she represented AU last year in the International sheep trials. With just a few whistle calls and some body language, her handler directs her to roundup and move a herd of sheep across a field, through a gate and up a ramp into the pen. She looked like she was having a ball, dashing hither and fro!


















Here is Nick the border collie, he could barely contain himself while Mary was giving her demo, he was so eager to work the sheep.











Nick is the pen dog - he moves the sheep around inside a pen and gets them to go through the chutes. It some sheep is causing a bottle neck, he just walks across the backs ofthe sheep to get to the front and get it squared away. Then he jumps back up and walks across the sheep to get back to end!






Then, we saw a demo of how sheep are shorn--I think the guy did the whole sheep in about two minutes, and what was left was a naked sheep and a pile of fur.
















Lone Pine is the World's first and largest koala sanctuary, with over 130 koalas. Their motto is "the earth is not only for humans." During the floods, everybody at the sanctuary was moved to high ground, and food was airlifted in. Some animals are getting new "digs" (including the wombats) after the flooding.








Maybe not your first thought about how to make your kid feel comfortable and secure, but this little guy looks perfectly contented, being wedged between a crook in the tree and his mom's bum!


















It was pretty funny, seeing all these koalas perched about in the tree displays. There was the group of "oldies" in retirement, the nursery with mums and babes, the glamour gals (who would pose for pics), etc. The "trees" were trunks and limbs of trees, with little holders for cut branches, which they replenish at least once a day with freshly-cut fodder (Eucalyptus leaves). Koalas sleep so much because they don't get much nutrition from the leaves and it's hard to digest, and they have to digest it slowly because there are so many "toxins" in the leaves they have to filter out. But talk about being able to sleep anywhere, how about this guy perched on top of the end of a stick?!





A "free-range" curlew walking about at Lone Pine. The birds in the cage were quite racous when a pair of these arrived and just sauntered about...

Look carefully at the skeleton to see the spurs on the heels of the back feet. These spurs are connected to a venom gland, and "this is most likely used in territory defense during breeding season and can inflict excruciating pain and incapacitation or death of a rival." Dirk took some photos of, but even at max ISO they are blurs.

Here's the url to the "platypuscam," so you can check out Barak the platypus! (no relation to Barack Obama)
http://www.koala.net/index.php/platypus-web-camera.html