Tasmanian Tiger

 

Everyone's heard of the Tasmanian devil, thanks to Looney Tunes, but if you're not from down under, you've probably never heard of the Tasmanian tiger. This is neither myth nor legend. The Tasmanian tiger really did exist and not so long ago. We'd never heard of this animal before coming to Tasmania. The thylacine, commonly known as the Tasmanian Tiger because of its striped back, was the largest carnivorous marsupial. Think meat-eater that looks like a striped dog with a pouch for its young.

Originally thought to be widespread in Australia and New Guinea, they became extinct in those areas long before European settlement. Archeological evidence in the form of rock paintings indicates that they might have been hunted by the early humans that inhabited the continent. Thylacines did pretty well in Tasmania for awhile. In 1803 when Europeans first arrived here, they were quite common and it's thought the Aboriginals here used them for meat.

It didn't take long, however, until settlers decided the these critters were harmful to humans, attacked stock and needed to be killed off (sound familiar?). Government bounties were offered and contributed significantly to the hunting and eradication of the beast, but disease and human intrusion impacted them as well, not to mention the introduction of dogs.

By 1910, the animal was considered a rarity and zoos around the world sought them. They didn't fare well in zoos though. The last known thylacine killed in the wild was shot in 1930. The last known Tasmanian Tiger was captured in 1933 and the species became extinct when it died at the Beaumarais Zoo in Hobart in 1936. The last of its kind gone. An entire species became extinct at that moment. When I read this and shared it with David, it made both of our hearts heavy.

The thylacine was an unusual critter. Both males and females had pouches: the female to nurture and protect the young joeys and the male to protect his external reproductive organs when he ran.

Observers noted that the animal ran awkwardly, wasn't very fast (more of a trot) and sometimes hopped on its rear feet, using its tail for balance, very much like a kangaroo. Though they were considered vicious predators, it was thought that their sense of smell and dogged persistence in running down and tiring their prey played a major role in their hunting ability. They were very shy and when captured, they rarely struggled, but rather just surrendered to their captors.

It's closest relative was thought to be the Tasmanian devil, but recent research indicates that the numbat, a striped anteater native to Western Australia, might be more closely related. Despite its official classification as extinct, sightings are still reported, though none have been conclusively proven. There are all sorts of rumors and stories associated with this shy guy which contributes to its mystery. In 1999, the Australian Museum began a project in an effort to bring life to an extinct species through cloning.

A bit of trivia: According to the Parks Tasmania website, mainland Australia has the worst record of mammalian extinctions of any country on Earth, with nearly 50% of its native mammals becoming extinct in the past 200 years. Of course, prior to that, who was really keeping track?

It took us awhile to figure out that the image on the Tasmanian coat of arms and car license plates is that of the elusive Tasmanian Tiger.

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In Search of the White Wallaby

We rose with the sun, packed our picnic lunch and headed in the marina's courtesy van to the ferry dock. We caught the 0745 car ferry to Bruny Island and began my day late, but not forgotten, birthday celebration. First and foremost today, I wished to see and photograph a Bruny Island white wallaby. Previously, we'd only walked a few kilometers from the ferry dock on our mini on-foot excursion. We hoped today to cover all the roads, paved and gravel, that criss-cross the island. It actually looks like two islands on the map, separated by a narrow isthmus called The Neck. We headed there first.

This area is a blue penguin aka fairy penguin rookery with blinds for watching the penguins go to and from the sea each day at dawn and dusk. The timing was wrong to see the bluies, but we did climb the wooden stairs to the top of the hill for spectacular views of both sides of the Neck...D'Entrecasteaux Channel on one side and the Tasman Sea on the other. There is also a memorial to Truganini, the last Tasmanian Aborigine who died in 1876 after a miserable life at the hands of the violent white settlers.

We headed down the east side of south Bruny to Adventure Bay. We had read about the Bligh Museum and stopped in for a look. If you're interested in early explorers of Tasmania, this is the place to visit. All manner of information and memorabilia about Tasman, Furneaux, Bligh, D'Entrecasteaux, Flinders and of course, our hero, Captain James Cook. All of these early navigators found refuge here in Adventure Bay. There's a very lackluster monument to Captain Cook in an overgrown nook beside the road and a stone marker where he supposedly left a copper plaque on tree showing he visited. We had hoped to take some hikes during the course of the day, but high winds, cold temps and frequent showers thwarted our plans a bit. We were glad we were in the van.

The road ends at Adventure Bay, so we backtracked a bit and took a quick 15 minute walk through the Mavista Reserve. This area is rain forest and true to its name, it did rain about every 10 minutes or so. The trees were dripping; the trail was muddy; thick foliage and ferns were glistening with raindrops.

Across the island, we traveled through scenic little villages like Lunawanna and Alonnah … together those town names are what the Aborigines originally called Bruny Island. We headed south to Cape Bruny Lighthouse which is part of South Bruny National Park. The views along the way, especially at Mabel Bay, were stunning.

At the Cape Bruny Lighthouse, we wimped out when greeted by 40 knot cold winds blowing and rain pelting down. We waited for nearly an hour while picnicking on cheese and apples in the van. The sun would peek out for a minute or two, but the wind and cold did not abate and thus the lighthouse was not given any closer inspection.

Our birdwatching netted us superb fairy wrens, New Holland honeyeaters, eastern rosellas, a flame robin and a spotted pardalote plus innumerable Tasmanian native hens which roamed about the island like feral chickens.

The island is about 100 km from the northern point to the southern tip. Though the coastal areas are mostly rugged, the interior is rich and verdant. Farms, fruit orchards and grazing stock abound. We saw Australia's southernmost vineyard, cheese shops, berry farms, an oyster shack and a smoked salmon outlet. The Bruny Islanders are an ambitious lot.

We retraced our route and headed to Dennes Point on the very northern tip of North Bruny. This was an especially pretty little place with lots of little coves and possible anchorages along the protected channel side of the island. We checked out Barnes Bay which looked to be a very protected anchorage for our impending visit.

An absolutely lovely day, despite wind and rain. Oh, and did I forget to mention? I got my birthday wish. Just in case, you're wondering. This guy was NOT penned up. He had jumped INTO a farmer's paddock with a couple of buddies and was munching some lunch.

More Bonorong

Birds were everywhere at Bonorong...not all in cages. Lorikeets, galahs and cockatoos squawked in the trees. Injured birds, like a blind tawny frogmouth, were caged, but the rest just stayed around of their own volition evidently appreciating a safe haven and a good food supply. A family of Cape Barren geese (labeled a “vulnerable” species) with five fluffy goslings waddled around, complaining a bit when we got too close. A wood duck couple tended their own flock of downy ducklings. A peacock (definitely not a native, but previously abandoned) wandered the grounds and regaled us with a full 360º tail feather display.

Mac, a staff member on his day off, chatted with us amiably as we approached the spotted quoll area. We'd never heard of quolls (other than a Scrabble word) before arriving in Australia. Another endangered species, these furry little marsupials are pretty amazing. About the size of a small, short-haired house cat with a long tail, they're very fierce predators and and can take down an animal the size of a wallaby by biting it in the back of the neck. We spotted three in the cage and Mac let us get some good photos since he was there. They looked cute enough from a distance. We had no urge to go into their cage after we saw one snarl.

A staff-led tour introduced us to Digger the wombat. His mum was killed by a car. He survived in her pouch until he was rescued a few days later and brought to the sanctuary. He was bottle-fed, thrived and is now nearly a year old. I petted him. His fur is coarse like horsehair. He snuggled in the arms of the handler. As snuggly as he is now, we learned that when wombats reach maturity they are solitary and use their strong, cartilage-plated, armor-like back and sharp teeth to defend themselves against any would-be interlopers including sibs, parents and handlers.

Next we visited a koala. We'd seen them in the wild in great numbers at Raymond Island, but always up a tree and we'd never touched one. They look so cute, soft and fuzzy … and they are. They have little tufts of fur on the tips of their ears and even their long-clawed paws are thickly furred. They look absolutely huggable, but I saw this apparently docile koala nip when the handler tried to remove her from a branch on which she clearly wanted to remain.

A koala is not a bear, by the way, and we've been corrected several times on that misnomer. Koala is an aboriginal word meaning no water”. Since they're tree-dwellers and their diets consists of only eucalyptus leaves, they descend to land infrequently. They receive all of the water they need from the large quantities of these leaves they eat daily. Because the leaves lack nourishment, koalas eat lots and do not expend much energy. In fact, they spend 80% of their time sleeping. The males sound like snorting pigs when they vocalize which really spoils their whole fluffy, cuddly image.

The potoroos look ever so much like rats including a long, fur-less tail tipped in white. In actuality, they're the smallest member of the wallaby family and they definitely hop when they locomote. We saw one with her joey and another potoroo shadowed us around the perimeter of the cage. He followed every move we made and had that hang-dog look of a beggar ostensibly looking for a hand-out.

We hand-fed Forester kangaroos and wallabies in a large enclosed paddock with the kanga-chow provided. We spotted a small shed with a terrarium outside of it. A lounge of lizards (yes, that's the correct collective noun unfortunately) crawling all over each other stared up at us with their yellow-brown reptilian eyes. They were blue-tongued lizards to be precise and other than seeing their eyes and blue tongues, it was hard to tell where one scaly lizard began and another left off. We did not request any petting time.

Not all animals are available all the time at Bonorong. When injured animals are well, they're released. When the young are old enough to fend for themselves, they're released. So it was we did not see bandicoots or pandemelons, but I guess that's good. It means most of them are out there having fun in the bush.