For a bit of fun. Healesville Sanctuary keepers have introduced the wombats, echidnas and koalas to kaleidoscope colour in the form of hundreds of thousands of bubbles.
Mammal keeper Craig McQueen said they offered the bubbles as something novel into their environment to see how it might stimulate their senses.
“We try to offer different types of enrichment and we often offer new experiences for the animals, so they use all of their incredible natural behaviors,” Mr McQueen said.
It was a mixed bag of responses from the marsupials and monotremes with some creatures nonplussed and other intrigued individuals keen to investigate.
“As expected, the echidnas were super inquisitive. They always explore new things approaching the bubbles, sniffing them out and letting some of them pop in their faces.
“I expected the bubbles to pop on their spikey quills but the bubbles did hang around and linger on there for a little while as the echidnas made their way around their habitat.”
Wombats don’t have the strongest eyesight as they are mostly nocturnal mammals, so they merely sniffed the bubbles once they landed on the ground.
Whereas the koalas watched on with curiosity from their eucalyptus branch perches.
“Bubbles create joy for everyone. It certainly created joy for the keepers and some of the visitors who watched what we were doing,” Mr McQueen said.
Zoos Victoria encourages everyone to Blow Bubbles and Not Balloons because when balloons fly, seabirds die.
When balloons are used outdoors, they can escape into the environment and end up in our oceans or waterways, harming and even killing precious wildlife.
To learn more, visit zoo.org.au/balloons
Koalas and wombats are closely related.
They both like to sleep a lot, koalas in particular sleep for 18-20 hours a day.
Echidnas are interesting because they are one of the few monotreme species in the world, meaning that they are mammals, but they also lay eggs rather than give birth to live young.
Visitors can pop into Healesville Sanctuary 365 days a year.
The beautiful bushland haven in the Yarra Valley is open from 9am until 5pm each day.
