My Dream Came True: Australian Animals

Author:  Avery 

I’ve always dreamed of holding a koala, they are so cute and can only be found in Australia. Friends of ours, Tim and Sarah Barrett, live in Australia and we were staying with them. They were so nice and found a place for me to hold one (The Gorge Wildlife Centre). When I was standing in line I felt happy because my dream was coming true.  I felt excited and scared at the same time because a lot of people say ‘beware of the claws they can really hurt you’ and someone said that they also pee on you. YUCK!!!!!!

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At the Gorge, before they bring the koalas out to hold, they don’t feed them eucalyptus leaves because the leaves make them sleepy.  The leaves are also poisonous to humans and can make you very sick and you can die!  When I was holding the koala I felt like I was in a dream and I had a real baby.  Her name was Leah and she was soft and very fluffy.  Did you know koala’s have two thumbs so they can stay on trees without falling off?  I was surprised when I first held her.  Because she was mostly just hair I thought she would be light, but she was heavy because she was a living thing.  Leah’s claws were resting on my hip and left a mark but that didn’t really hurt.

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I was also excited to come to Australia to see a lot of different animals like kangaroos and dingos.  When we were at the Gorge Wildlife Centre we saw some kangaroos, dingos, wallabies, crocs and native birds.  I liked seeing the kangaroos because one of my favourite Christmas songs is ‘Six White Boomers’.  We got to go into an area where we could pet some kangaroos. We  also got to see joeys (baby kangaroos) which I wasn’t expecting.  In the pen right next door there was also a native bird called the emu.  It is a big bird that looks like a ostrich and peacock combined.  We also saw a couple of Wedge-tailed eagles that were so big their wing span was bigger than my arm-span. There were also ‘Little Penguins’ that were blue and black that I’d never seen those before.  We saw some dingos that were smaller than I expected and they are like the colour of a fox and the size of a baby wolf. In its enclosure there was an old car in it for a toy. There is a show called ’72 Most Dangerous Animals of Australia’ and the dingo is rated as one of the most dangerous.  Watching them be so calm made think they weren’t that dangerous.

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Other animals we saw included wallabies and crocodiles.  Wallabies are related to kangaroos but are smaller.  There are a different colours of wallabies like white or orange.  The ones we saw were the size of puppies and were orangy-brown.  The crocodiles are cool because there are saltwater crocs and freshwater crocs.  They can grow up to the size of a long table and are brownish or greenish. Looking at their teeth they can be dangerous but were just sitting in the water.​

I was sad to leave the wildlife centre and all the koalas but that doesn’t mean we can’t have more adventures with other animals.

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