Where can you go to meet an animal that poops cube shapes? Or look up in the trees and find a rock wallaby? Why, the Ipswich Nature Centre of course.
Nestled in the centre of Queens Park, you can check out any one of the 45 native animals species that they care for. It is one of Ipswich’s most popular attractions with more than 230,000 visitors during the last financial year. There are many more non-natives You can also get up close and personal with the barn yard animals. The centre is open from Tuesday to Sunday from 9.30am to 4pm. Check out our videos of five natives you can see there and take a crack at our animal quiz.
The Eastern Quoll is listed as endangered by the Australian Government. The species was once widespread across south-eastern Australia. It disappeared from the mainland in the 1960s. Today it is only found in the wild in Tasmania, but does exist in a mainland safe haven in Victoria. It is mostly solitary and is active at night: hunting for prey such as insects, small mammals, birds and reptiles. Eastern quolls have a thick coat, which can be either fawn or black, with white spots. Both fawn and black young can be born in the same litter. Fawn quolls are much more common. This little lady at the Ipswich Nature Centre is named Darla.
Bilbies are active at night, sheltering in their burrows during the day. As members of a group of ground-dwelling marsupials known as Bandicoots, Bilbies have long pointed snouts and compact bodies. Bilbies measure between 29cm and 55cm in length and differ from other Bandicoots by their larger ears, long silky fur and longer tails. Bilbies are remarkable burrowers, using their strong forelimbs and claws to build extensive tunnels. One Bilby may make up to 12 burrows within its home range to use for shelter. They have long slender tongues that they use to eat a specialised diet of seeds, insects, bulbs, fruit and fungi. They are listed nationally as vulnerable. They now occur in fragmented populations in mulga shrublands and spinifex grasslands in the Tanami Desert of the Northern Territory; in the Gibson and Great Sandy Deserts and the Pilbara and Kimberley regions of Western Australia; and the Mitchell Grasslands of southwest Queensland.
These are the birds that make that eerie wailing after dark. The bush stone-curlew has long legs, knobbly ‘knees’ (actually ankles) and a small black bill. It has grey-brown feathers with black streaks, a white forehead and eyebrows, a broad, dark-brown eye stripe and golden eyes. Unlike most birds, this species hides during the day and feeds at night, looking for seeds, insects, spiders and small frogs and reptiles. During the day it squats on the grass, either alone or in a small group. When threatened, it will stay still or walk slowly away.
5