Sterling’s Blog

In Australia, they eat kangaroo and wallaby a lot.  I didn’t try any.  It looked like steak and I thought it would be disgusting.

They also call Rice Krispies “Rice Bubbles.”  They taste the same.  Their bacon is really fried ham.  It comes in pieces instead of long strips.

In the dessert they drill into the ground to get tap water but you should not drink it there.  We drink bottled water even for brushing our teeth.  In Tasmania and the Outback they drink rain water.  People get it from their roof when it rains and store it in water tanks.

Echidnas are monotremes.  Monotremes mean one hole for laying eggs and going to the bathroom.  Other monotremes are platypuses.

When echidnas are threatened, they either dig a hole and burrow, or roll up in a ball and stick out their spikes.  (In the picture on the left, I’m feeling Edwina’s spikes at the Platypus and Echidna House on Kangaroo Island in Australia.)  Echidnas often get hit by cars because they roll up in a ball on the road instead of running away from the car. 

Echidnas eats ants and termites.  They stick their snout into an anthill and lick up ants with their long tongue.  In the wild, we saw an echidna eating ants (picture right).  Not a lot of things eat echidnas because of their spikes, but mostly cars run over them.

Echidnas mate between June and September.  Up to eight males follow the female echidna in a train.  Then, the female chooses a mate.  Fourteen days after mating, the echidna lays one egg.  When the egg hatches, she carries her baby around in her pouch for ten days.  Then, they put their baby into their burrow.  They come back to give their baby milk every five to ten days. 

Echidnas are my favorite animal, and that’s why I did a report on them.

Platypuses are interesting animals.  They have bills, webbed feet, lay eggs, and have poisonous spurs on their ankles.  When people in England saw platypus furs, they thought it was a mix of different animals that someone had glued together. 

Platypuses use their webbed feet for swimming.  They use their front feet for paddling and their back feet for stopping and steering.  They spend most of their life in water.  They eat things they find at the bottom of ponds and rivers, such as crayfish, little minnows, tadpoles, worms, and insects.  When they go under water, they close their eyes, nostrils, and ears, and then they use their sensitive bill to sense things.  Their bill uses electrical pulses to “feel” food.

Platypuses don’t have belly buttons because they lay eggs.  They don’t have toes, because their feet are webbed.  They don’t have fingernails, but have claws — a type of fingernail. 

Platypuses have different fur on their back than on their tail.  Their tail is hard and scratchy so when an enemy bites it, it will go “Ooh, hard, scratchy tail.  I don’t want to eat a platypus.” 

Platypuses are mammals ,even though they have a bill, webbed feet and  swim in the water.  Australia is the only place you can see a platypus,but we never got to see one in the wild.   Even though we didn’t see a platypus in the wild, I still think they are cool and interesting!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

When we went to the Nature Center, we saw many cool animals.  We got to pet koalas and hold wombats (see left).  Then, we got to look at Tasmanian Devils and feed kangaroos from our hand.  The Nature Center studies animals to try and help them do better in the wild.  It was really fun.

When we went to the Platypus House, we saw platypuses and echidnas.  Platypuses are mammals that live in the water, have a bill, have webbed feet, and lay eggs.  The Platypuses had a little box that they slept in every night covered in blankets.  One of the platypuses wouldn’t wake up in the morning unless someone scratched its back.  We went to the echidna room.  The echidnas were walking all around our feet.  An  echidna is a really cute marsupial that looks like a hedgehog (to the right).  Echidnas are my favorite animal.

At Seahorse World, we saw lots of seahorses.  We weren’t allowed to take pictures because it would bother the seahorses.  Lots of seahorses live at the Great Barrier Reef.  We’ll go the Great Barrier Reef in a week and one-half.  We saw the Leafy Sea Dragon.  The Leafy Sea Dragon camouflages just like a leaf. 

I went mountain biking with Gibson and my parents.  We went biking down Ben Lomond, a mountain in Tasmania, Australia.  We had a lot of fun.  I saw a wallaby, a wombat, and a dead possum on the way down.   It was really exciting.