I was thoroughly impressed with the Australia exhibit at the Living Desert Zoo and Gardens in Palm Desert, CA. It had an automated double-door system and staff to let you know the rules and keep eye on things. Once inside, you are treated to a walk-in aviary style exhibit that had free flight birds as well as free roaming wallabies. Bennett’s Wallaby (Notamacropus rufogriseus) are medium sized macropods found in Eastern Australia into Tasmania.

Again, I am intrigued by the whole Sharing the Planet thing. My own North American perspective skews what I think are urban animals. In many cities in the West, the commensal mammals that have found some success in novel urban habitats typically have been things like muridae (rats, mice, squirrels, etc) canidae (coyotes, foxes), procyonidae (raccoons), lagomorphs (rabbits) and cervidae (deer). Even North America’s lone marsupial (opossum) have carved out a niche in urban habitat.

The native mammal guild of Australia is far different from North America. Many of their unique mammals have not fared well against the onslaught of the expanding human footprint. Yet, as I look at these free roaming wallabies in albeit a controlled environment, I wonder at the possibility of an urban fauna looking far different from what my eyes are used to. While we shouldn’t use it as an excuse to bulldoze pristine habitat, let’s do what we can to ensure the peaceful coexistence of man and, in this case, wallaby.