It’s Road Scholar’s standard operating procedure to have each site coordinator distribute a paper with a summary of each day’s activities while the group is under their purview. I’ve found these helpful in reconstructing the trip for this blog. I recall looking with some relief at the schedule S had given us for Thursday 7 November because the first agenda item read 09:00 Coach departs for Raptor Domain and it felt like a blissfully late start to the morning. Of course, it wasn’t until this morning that we learned of the four people who were too sick to join us.
With that extra bit of free time in the morning, I walked to the beach adjacent to our hotel, stripped my feet bare,
and waded into the Great Southern Ocean. I know it’s all one ocean as the Oceanario in Lisbon reminds us but humans have named five oceans on the earth and I’ve now had my feet in all but the Arctic.
As for RS, the tour must go on and so we did – arriving at Raptor Domain at our appointed time of 10:00. Raptor Domain is, perhaps, a bit of a misnomer since the facility also has reptiles and birds of prey such as laughing kookaburras that are not raptors. (The three primary traits that identify raptors are strong sharp talons used to grab their prey, a hooked upper beak for tearing flesh, and eyes that allow them to spot prey from long distances. Most, such as hawks, eagles, falcons, kites, and vultures are diurnal. Owls are the most prominent nocturnal raptor.)
Like all the sanctuaries we’d visit, nearly all of the non-human population at Raptor Domain are orphaned, injured, or sick. Those that can be rehabilitated are returned to the wild. Those that can’t be rehabilitated (mostly the gangster raptors) remain at Raptor Domain where, according to their website, “they are ambassadors to help create awareness and appreciation for their species and their habitats.” The site also bills itself as being “home to the only free-flight Birds of Prey presentation in South Australia.” And this aspect of their show is rather cool. Unlike the other sanctuaries I’d visited and would visit, there was no netting enclosing any space. The birds could have flown off (and apparently some do). The trainers would release the birds and have them swoop down for their supper (breakfast?). Everyone in our group had the chance to interact with at least one of the birds who are fully habituated to humans. Mine was (I think) a kingfisher.
Fortunately, another animal experience awaited later in the morning and I’ll have no trouble identifying that fellow.
More than just raptors
(Tonight our fires are burning all across the plain)
Essentially adjacent to Raptor Domain is the Kangaroo Island Wildlife Park. Here you can see 150 species of native Australian fauna represented by more than 600 individuals. I don’t know how their numbers have fluctuated since the massive and devastating wildfires in 2019-2020. Many in our group remembered those (and we’ll see some remaining evidence later when we ride through Flinders Chase National Park) and we learned a bit about how some number of the Park’s current residents came to be there because of those fires. For those who don’t recall the wildfires on Kangaroo Island (and I suspect many of you reading this don’t), here’s a short video from Channel News Asia.
RS had arranged for a guided tour of this family owned operation that included the opportunity to feed kangaroos and wallabies – something I’d done at Caversham Wildlife Park in WA. In addition to those marsupials, we were able to see (among others) the ever fascinating echidna,
a surprisingly active monitor lizard,
some (more) non-baby eating dingoes,
and, of course,
koalas which actually aren’t native to Kangaroo Island.
Concerns about the possible extinction of koalas on the mainland led to the introduction of 18 disease-free koalas to Kangaroo Island between 1923 and 1925. Kangaroo Island was chosen for this early effort at conservation because its habitat was similar to koala habitat on the mainland but it was free of most diseases that impact koalas and the species faces no natural predators there. At the time of the wildfire, the population had grown to approximately 60,000. After the fires, which burned nearly half the island’s 440,000 hectares, an estimated 12,000 remained.
Following a brief opportunity to peek at and walk past a sleeping wombat, several of us decided to break off from our tour and pay a little extra for the opportunity to get very much up close and personal with one of the park’s koalas. He was slightly agitated when the keeper brought him out and was grunting quite loudly. Apparently he sensed another male nearby and was announcing his presence with authority.
As long as he was able to munch on the eucalyptus leaves the keeper provided, he was quite content to cuddle – even with yours truly.
We had another picnic lunch that was, like so many other meals, consumed and forgotten quickly. After lunch we set out on our ride through Flinders Chase National Park where we’d make two stops on the west coast of the island before turning around to close the day with dinner at Emu Ridge Distillery. I’ll get to those activities in the next post. Meanwhile, here are some additional pictures from the day. (If you’re wondering why the park is named Flinders Chase or what sorts of chases Flinders might have engaged in, I fear I’m about to disappoint you. The answer is that it doesn’t refer to any action at all. It was a commonplace British colonial naming convention to use terms like this in their designation of geographical areas. That it would bear the name Flinders should be no surprise since it was he who gave the island its current common name.)