Cleland Wildlife and More

Update

Hi all, I am going to spend a few moments talking about my classes here in Adelaide. I am taking three classes which include Introduction to International Business, Fire and Society, and Business Independent Study. You may be wondering, what in the world is Independent Study? Basically, that class is designed in such a way that students participate in an online cross-functional business based computer game. Students form a fictional bicycle company and compete against each other by trying to accumulate the most share holder value. It is actually quite complicated and I am still trying to get a feel for the game. So far my other classes are relatively easy and only require that I go to class 9 hours a week! The good thing about studying abroad with foreign professors is that they want to spend time on the beach and not in classroom just as much as we do.

A typical school day involves taking a 20 minute walk between my apartment and the University of Adelaide Campus (the aussies call it the Uni of Adee). On my walk I cross through a beautiful park with Eucalyptus tress lining the outside, with Magpies and Parrots flying overhead. I then cross a major river (don’t know the name) and arrive on campus. Across the street from the University, there is a large outdoor shopping center called Rundle Mall. There are numerous food courts in which I can have lunch. A nice thing about the food courts is that they sell all types of foods including Indian, Thai, Chinese…etc and not just your average American burgers.

Moving on…

This past Thursday I had the opportunity to visit Cleland Wildlife Park with my Cal Poly peers. I can honestly say that it was one of the most thrilling days of my life and probably ranks in the top 10 experiences I have ever had. Anyone who really knows me, knows I love Zoos. Basically, this park was a giant interactive Zoo where you could actually approach and spend time with the animals. On arrival, the park let you purchase food to feed most of the animals. The first animal I interacted with was the Australian Bilby. It is this weird mouse looking thing that is actually a Marsupial (for those of you who don’t know, marsupials are animals that carry their young in a pouch). It had a funny looking nose and was about the cutest little thing I had ever seen… until I found the Kangaroos.

One thing I learned was that there are many different kinds of Kangaroos with many different personalities. The Red Kangaroos and Western Grey Kangaroos were by far friendliest. They approached you on arrival and seemed to like interacting with humans. We fed the animals right off of our hands and some kangaroos even let us spoon with them while they slept. We just hung out in a shade in a circle for a long time with the roos and enjoyed each others company. The Wallabies and Kangaroo Island Kangaroos were a lot more timid. It was rare that they would let you get too close to them and were very protective. On a side note, American Zoos and Wildlife parks are so stingy… they don’t let you get anywhere close to animals and there is no way you would get to feed them. The Adelaide Zoo let you get right up close to the animals and Cleland Wildlife park lets you interact with them while being unsupervised.

The next thing I learned was that Koalas are by far overrated. Don’t get me wrong, they are cute little buggers but they don’t do anything. They sleep 20 hours and day and just kind of sit there for the most part. I got to pet their legs but we was unable to hold them because we arrived during the wrong part of the day. Some other interesting animals I saw during my visit included wombats, Tasmanian devils, and Echidnas. You can see pictures of all the animals I encountered on my facebook.

P.S. I fed ducks by hand for the first time. It was weird, their beaks feel like little suction cups gripping your hand. Some of those little guys are aggressive!

Also, Kangaroos are now my new favorite animals.