Tidbinbilla natural reserve

Hi again!! It's me from 'down under'!! As I said in my last entry, last weekend we went to the Tidbinbilla natural reserve and visited the NASA Space Centre. I think you had enough of space science in that entry, so today's entry will be focused on the natural reserve itself, and the kind of animals that we were able to see. Needless to say, this was the first time that I saw these animals in their natural habitat!! But first of all, I would like to thank Tiantian for organising this great excursion and the pictures I am going to show you and Mimmo, what two great photographers!!

The day started as it should, no clouds in the sky, sun shining, and early (I am becoming a morning person in Australia). And we learnt a valuable lesson, that I think we will need to re-learn in not a long time... Do not trust GPS!! They will lead you to the place... but maybe the path is not worth it!! So we got lost, but fortunately we decided to go back and follow the signals!!! ;)

The natural reserve is a vast space of nature, very well preserved but you can tell the action of the human being... and this is something that really annoys me. Although I should say that we saw the amount of animals that we saw because this natural reserve is organised as a very, very big 'zoo'... not as artificial as a zoo... but with fences, paved paths... not completely natural... But, even taking that into account, a great place to have a great day!!!

We were focused on finding koalas, but other animals came to our visit such as wallabies, dark swans, red-bellied black snakes (a bit dangerous, but really impressive from such a close distance), platypus, and a bunch of different kind of birds... Below you can find some nice pictures as an example of what you can see there!!

Koala. God, it was hard to find him/her!!!

A wallaby, it was so close to us...

A pelican and a turtle... it seems like if they were speaking to each other ;)

A platypus, it was focused on hunting, this was all we could see :(

A black swan... So elegant

A red-bellied black snake... Thank God it was not interested in us!!

This region was partially devastated during 2003 Canberra bushfires, but they are doing a great job recovering the area and they have left (on purpose) some black logs to show the next generations how harmful a fire can be... Something we should learn sooner rather than later. Bushfires are one of the main natural problems that Australians have to face every year. However, although we might think that this has just negative side effects, nature has been able to take advantage of such harmful event. Native flora in Australia is used to this kind of fires, so it uses bushfires as a means of reproduction (see this link for further information).

And, as I am not a biologist, and I have no idea about animals, I think that's it for today's entry!! See you!!!!