Last night, the college hired a professional animal handler to show us some cool Australian animals. Like most "Australian Animal Handlers," this guy was crazy and I was scared for his safety. Since I do not remember his name, I will call him Mr. Crazy Adventure Man. The animals that Mr. CAM showed us were amazing and totally deserve a post of their own. One of the animals that Mr. CAM let me hold (around my neck and put on my shoulders) was a python. While I thought that it was so cool, I honestly was questioning how he knew that the snake was not about to eat me. In fact, I probably looked like a pretty good meal- I had a cool Australia flag tattoo on my face (yes, on my face- I am that cooool! ha!) But I was also very tense which is definitely how you are not supposed to be in that situation. Being tense causes the snake to also be tense and squeeze harder. And I am not sure if this is true or not, but I feel like being tense also causes the snake to want to get VERY close to my face.
Holding the python was a thrilling experience in itself. I do not know what I would do if I saw one of these in the "bush." Also, I had the chance to hold some of the other animals that Mr. Crazy Adventure Man brought to our campus. I held a large lizard, another small snake, and a crocodile! Very exciting!
I saw more animals today on my hike. Lauren and I went on a 13.4 mile hike through Sydney National Park and saw a million Bearded Dragons. When we saw the first Bearded Dragon, we took a ton of pictures because we thought that they were rare. Once we found a lot more on the trail, I realized why hikers who passed were staring at us like we were tourists or something, haha.
Yesterday as I was walking back from the beach, a car pulled over and people quickly got out of the car. Wondering what they were going to see, I walked over and saw a hedgehog! It looked like a porcupine. The Australians told me that hedgehogs are very rare to see in the city.
And last- but CERTAINLY not least- I have seen 3 bandicoots. Yes, bandicoots! Why have you not heard of them? Because they are endangered animals. In fact, the only place in the world that bandicoots are found is on ICMS campus and a very tiny part of Manly. There are signs for drivers that say "Endangered Bandicoots" when cars enter the ICMS campus. And here is the thing: bandicoots look like rats with long noses- I am not kidding!
Some other animals that I have seen recently are: spiders (that are HUGE!), kangaroos, koalas, large bats, *birds that sound like monkeys that like to wake me up in the morning, and several ocean animals! Australia is the perfect place to be for wildlife!!!
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