During my trip to Australia in April of this year (2013), I had visions of animal encounters during my limited amount of free time. Surely I could see exemplars of taxa that aren’t found anywhere else on earth – monotremes, macropods etc. It couldn’t be that hard to see a duck billed platypus, could it? Surely giant red kangaroos would hop in front of my taxi, right? As things turned out, spotting mammals during my visit proved much more difficult than I thought (I had much better luck with birds but will cover that separately).
Well, as things would work out I was fortunate to see three species of mammal during my trip.
The first, swamp wallabies (Wallabia bicolor), would be the only non-captive macropods that I saw. On my one full day for sight seeing, I visited Philip Island south of Melbourne. The primary purpose of that trip was to see the amazing Penguin Parade. On the way, the tour bus stopped at an animal reserve/petting zoo which had a nice variety of kangaroos, a family of koalas and even a Tasmanian devil. But because they were captive, I didn’t count these toward my life list.
After that stop, the driver continued to Philip Island. From my research, I had read that swamp wallabies were 
“guaranteed” and indeed, they were easily spotted throughout the park. The wallabies are considerably smaller than the kangaroos that we often see in zoos, but it was really exciting to see them hopping across the grassy island.
I had high hopes of seeing the Australian sea lions which populate a small rock island south of Philip Island. Unfortunately, I could not distinguish them using my binoculars even though I’m sure that I viewed a beach that was full of them. Strike my hopes of a new marine mammal sighting.
My other two mammalian sightings occurred during a nighttime visit to the Brisbane Botanical gardens. Most Australian mammals are nocturnal, so I had hopes of successful sightings. I did not arrive at my hotel until 9pm, but immediately stowed my bags and ventured out to the gardens, three blocks away. After walking midway into the park, I heard loud rustling in the tree tops. It turned out that the source of the noise were black-headed flying foxes (Pteropus alecto), climbing through the fruit trees. While I was fine with them in the trees, it was quite disconcerting to have the sense that they were also flying very close above my head; their wingspan is more than three feet.
I then wandered a little further and successfully found the other animal that I hoped to spot – a common brushtail possum (Trichosurus vulpecula). This cat-sized animal clung to the trunk of a tree and watched me for awhile, before deciding to move on. My Australian friends view these possums as pests, they are known for running across rooftops and rummaging through trash, but I was happy to have a brief view of this marsupial.
Summary:
Firsts:
Macropod, mega-bat
Total mammal species on life list: 44
