Today we visited the Koala hospital in Port Macquarie. Most of the koalas that the hospital looks after have either had the misfortune of being hit by a car or contracted a koala disease.
A koala's diet of eucalyptus leaves doesn't provide much in the way of energy. Rather than get around this problem by simply eating more leaves, koalas choose to conserve what energy they do have by doing as little as possible for most of the day and night. Occasionally they stretch or scratch or even chew on a couple of leaves, but generally they just sit in the most uncomfortable looking positions clinging to the trunk of their tree.
Whilst we were at the hospital a new patient was brought in and we saw him being examined in the treatment room. He seemed totally unflustered by the whole thing, probably wondering when the vet would leave him alone so he could get on with his next nap.
Later in the day we visited the Billabong Koala Park (can you spot the trend here?). As well as koalas the park is also home to a range of other native species. You can buy food to give to the kangaroos but rather than biting your hand off, as say a goat would do, they simply sniff at the food and eat it extremely slowly. Either the grass is more tasty or they are so full that they can't eat anymore sweetcorn.
The most interesting bird at the park was the huge (i.e. human size) cassowary. Apparently you can come face to face with these monsters in the rainforest in the north of the country. They have rhino like big horns on their heads and if you encounter one the general advice is not to run -- I think this might be difficult to put into practice.
