When the sun made a brief appearance, they unfurled themselves and began munching the leaves with impressive determination.įor more predictable encounters with koalas on Kangaroo Island, head to Hanson Bay Wildlife Sanctuary, where you can take a guided koala walk to maximise your chances of spotting one. When we came back to the tree later, we saw what she was guarding – an equally wet but fluffy baby.

The fluffy dude turned out to be a wet koala that had wedged its fluffy bum into the fork of the tree and tucked its chin into its knees. “There’s a fluffy dude up the tree, but I can’t see what it is”, she offered in terms of explanation. I jogged towards her getting my camera ready for action. Whatever it was that she was so excited about, it had to be good enough to stay out in the rain for. I poked my head out and noticed her gesticulating excitedly next to a large tree under which we parked our car. I got out of the car and dashed for cover at the reception. Looking for a cozy place to escape the deluge, we came to Seal Bay Cottages and Café. My most memorable encounter with a koala on Kangaroo Island happened during an Armageddon-like period of heavy rains a couple of years before the fires. The remaining population of Koalas on Kangaroo Island is estimated at around 8500 individuals. But in the wake of the devastating fires of the 2019-2020 Black Summer that ravaged the island, almost 40,000 koalas are thought to have perished. Simply because there were so many of them on the island that conservationists believed they were negatively affecting the vegetation. Kangaroo Island koalas were once considered a pest. Another well-known seal hotspot in Australia – Narooma, is also home to some very interesting rocks, like the famous Glasshouse Rocks on Narooma surf beach. Seals and dramatic coastal rock formations seem to go hand in hand. Admiral’s Archīy the way, the stalactite-looking formations are the top of the arch are actually fossilised roots. The waves and the wind are responsible for creating one of the island’s well-known geological attractions – a rock arch known as the ‘Admiral’s Arch’ down below where the rocks meet the ocean. The fur seals live at the bottom of wind-swept cliffs where the waves crash into the rocks with relentless ferocity. But since there is already a species named Australian fur seal, these guys were renamed the long-nosed fur seals.Ĭape du Couedic is a far less hospitable spot than Seal Bay. Their common name used to be the New Zealand fur seal, which was a misnomer because these seals are native to Australia. Not far from Seal Bay is Cape du Couedic – home to Kangaroo Island seals. Amazingly, it belonged to a juvenile humpback whale, not a fully grown one. There is a huge whale carcass half-buried in the sand. The lions don’t come as close to the path here, but you get fantastic vistas of the broader landscape and get a good sense of the lions’ world. Once the formal tour is finished, you can take a self-guided walk along an elevated wooden walkway. During my last visit in September, we were treated to the sight of two chocolate-brown pups giving themselves a swimming lesson in the surf. The best time to visit Kangaroo Island sea lions is around July-September when the pups are born.

This enables them to easily move on land, unlike the seals that appear quite clumsy out of the water. Sea lions have extremely flexible hind flippers that can be rotated forward and beneath the body. They often chase one another, practising their moves for when the time comes to make their mark in the seal society. When it’s cold on the beach, the sea lions come up to the shrubs, where it’s much warmer than on the sand.ĭown on the beach, you can watch the sea lions doing what they do best (on land) – snoozing. The tour starts at the Visitor Center and meanders through the wind-blown coastal bush crisscrossed with tunnels made by sea lions. The colony is protected by the National Parks and Wildlife Services Department, and to meet Kangaroo Island sea lions, you have to take a ranger-guided tour ( check the times here). The colony on KI is the third-largest in Australia.

Seal lions have been living on the island for thousands of years, much longer than our species. Probably the best-known Kangaroo Island wildlife attraction is the colony of Australian sea lions at the Seal Bay Conservation Park. More nature adventures in South Australia Australian Sea Lion

Dolphin cockatoo