We’ve spent the day on Maria Island. An island off the east cost of Tasmania.

I’ll write about it later but I wanted to share these photos of wombats. Wild wombats on the island that are very healthy and very tolerant of walkers with cameras. In total we saw 21 wombats, on grass, in a barn, crossing the footpath, one with a youngster.

“Since the late 1960s Maria Island has become a kind of Noah’s Ark, as a number of threatened species have been introduced here in a bid to protect their kind. The very things that made the island a convict settlement, now make it an ideal refuge for plant and animal species that are elsewhere under threat.”

It is always a pleasure to have visitors and show them some of our favourite places in Tasmania.

My cousin arrived yesterday so I met her at Hobart airport and introduced her to this delightful sculpture of Tasmanian Devils, by local artist Ruth Waterhouse.

Later in the day we met real live Devils at Bonorong Wildlife Sanctuary. We also saw wombats, koalas, echidna, blue tongue lizards, birds, kangaroos.

“All of our animals at Bonorong are survivors and have a story. We operate a 24 hour rescue service. Our army of hundreds of volunteers brings aid to thousands of suffering animals every year. The service is funded entirely by entry fees. Bonorong is not a zoo. All of our animals are with us for a reason. All of them undergo meticulous assessment to ensure they are happy and healthy. We never compromise on this. Many other animals are released back into the wild after their recovery.”

Since my last visit, Bonorong has opened a unique wildlife hospital, with vets on hand to operate as needed.

There are a few animal parks and sanctuary’s in Tasmania, at the weekend we visited ZooDoo for the first time.

It was easy to get up close to a variety of creatures, both Aussie locals and some from other continents. Meerkats, marmosets, emus, parrots, peacocks, wallabies and quolls were happy to pose for photos.

A safari bus took us into the enclosures of emu, camels, zebras.

I was conflicted about seeing lions in a confined enclosure, but there are no white lions left in the wild. The current population are all in captivity with active breeding programmes in place. Four cubs were born here in 2014, the second litter to these adult lions. The cubs were moved to zoos across Australia, to share the gene pool.

Animal Encounters take place each day, so I was able to see blue tongue lizards and touch a snake. A good reminder that these reptiles are waking from their winter hibernation now that it is spring here.

It was a fun day out.