Australia: Healesville Sanctuary
Healesville Sanctuary is one of the largest animal reserves in Australia and also with the most diverse representation of native animals and birds. The reserve covers over 28 acres of native bushland with areas for different animals. You can easily spend a day here going from place to place – wallabies, dingoes, kangaroos, koalas, echidnas, frogs, snakes, skinks. A special nocturnal area houses platoons and quolls and bigbys. But the area you will undoubtedly spend the most time at is the Tasmanian devil pen – these stocky little guys look so adorable and are super endangered. There are 220 bird species at the Healesville Sanctuary in Victoria. Most are part of the reserve, while some just come here from the wild. We saw eagles, helmeted honeyeater (a very rare species bred here), cockatoos, lorikeets, parrots, cuckoos, magpie geese, black swans, purple swamphen, glossy ibis, spoonbills, darters, cormorants, ducks, a bunch of egrets, another bunch of finches and pigeons and doves, emus, and much more.
