We were of course dying to see kangaroos or anything exotic when we first landed in Australia and were disappointed that they weren't always visible.  For one thing, most marsupials are nocturnal.   Kangaroos and wallabies (small kangaroos) don't have sweat glands so they're not sitting around in the daylight sun.  But they do often move around in the daytime in certain areas and we learned where to look and when.  There are lots of wallabies where we live.  We may go a week without seeing any, then see them several days in a row.  Just today, I saw a 3'-high wallaby casually leap a 20' ditch to hide in the woods.  It still gives me a thrill to watch them bounce.  Koalas are just as cute and cuddly as you might imagine, but they are very seldom seen except in sanctuaries.  They are very shy.

And there really are the biggest, meanest, man-eating crocodiles in the world in tropical Australia.  We see them every once in a while - from a distance, hopefully.  But they're slow out of the water and seldom leave the water.  No one in Queensland has died from a croc since 1997 (update - a man fishing from a small boat was killed in 2006 in an area clearly marked as "dangerous") so you're not really defying death by visiting us.  Duck-billed platypuses are actually very common but most Aussies have never seen one in the wild because they are very shy.  Still, a determined person can eventually see one.  We've seen them several times now.  They are so cute and so cool.  And, yes, we do run into the super-poisonous snakes every once in a while when we're hiking.  But they're shy, too, thank goodness.  Only one or two Aussies per year die from snake bites and I think there's only been one death from spider bites in the last ten years.

So the dangerous aspect of Aussie animals is exaggerated.  They are dangerous, but with reasonable precautions you don't need to worry about it.  Once we got over that, we have enjoyed ourselves a lot more!

Then we learned about wombats, absolutely amazing animals.  And the giant monitor lizards and the giant pythons, up to 30' long!  And cassowaries and other exotic bird-life.  Parrots and cockatoos flying around right in your neighborhood.  It is just too too cool.  We never tire of animal and bird-watching.

In 2006, we finally met another super-exotic animal - a tree kangaroo.  We had never heard of them before we came here.  Like the cassowary, they are rare and only found in the Australian Wet Tropics and part of New Guinea.  They are nocturnal and VERY shy.  We found an animal-carer (phenomenal people who volunteer to raise orphaned baby animals and return them to the wild) who specializes in tree kangaroos.  She runs a small B&B where we spent the night surrounded by rainforest and had one of our most magical experiences, seeing them in the wild and even having them climb on us.  Beautiful wonderful creatures.

We hope you enjoy our Aussie Animals Photo Gallery.  We also have one for Aussie Birds.  We took all these photos.  Believe me, this is only a small sample.  Come to Australia and see for yourself.