Animals

Lately I've been worried that, when my 50th birthday comes along, I'll be tempted to go to Cardiff and London instead of Australia. But then I tell myself, don't worry. You'll be way over Doctor Who by then. It will be easy to choose Australia.

Who knows, though. What if Doctor Who is still on the air, and I continue to be really into it? What if I become a total Whovian?  If I still love Australia, there might be some tough choices there.

Then as I was washing our water bottles, I started thinking I'll probably end up choosing Australia.

Why?

The wildlife.

Australia has awesome animals, and that's important to me.

The UK is kind of lacking in that area. Is there anything besides squirrels, foxes, and rabbits? And don't get me wrong. Those are lovely animals. But we have them here. Squirrels are very commonplace. Foxes and rabbits are rare enough to be exciting.  I love all those animals. But if I was going to travel internationally, I think I'd want something more.

I thought about zoos. Are there ones that showcase British and/or North American animals? In the zoos I've experienced, there are often Asian sections, African sections, and Australian sections. I don't think I've ever seen a British animal display. Maybe the London zoo has one—a local showcase type thing. Our zoo has a section called Texas Wild. 

I'm going to look at the Taronga Zoo. What continents do they focus on?  

Here's their map. They have an African area, an Australian area, and then the rest of the zoo is divided by animal types.  There's some South American animals. I don't see any major European or North American displays. 

How about the Melbourne zoo? 

I don't see any North American or British mammals.

How about birds?

Well, I just looked at the whole list of animals and didn't see anything from my country or the UK.

Lord Wiki says UK's wildlife is not too impressive.  He says it has something to do with the ice age...ice bridge.

Whatever. At least I know it's not my imagination.

But then when I look at his long list of animals that ARE in the UK, it's kind of mean that I'm negative about British wildlife. Even if Lord Wiki agrees with me.

There are things besides foxes, rabbits, and squirrels.

There are bats, beavers, otters, mice. 

There's a St. Kilda mouse in Scotland.

There are hedgehogs, moles, and shrews.

There are goats and deer.

Walruses!  

Really, though. Shouldn't I appreciate beavers and hedgehogs as much as koalas and kangaroos? Well, maybe not. Since I have all this Aussie love. But how about beavers and hedgehogs vs giraffes and elephants?

Why do some animals make us more excited than others?

Why are gorillas a star attraction at the zoo but not badgers and foxes?

You know...I don't know if I saw squirrels on the Lord Wiki's list of British animals.

Maybe I'm wrong about them having squirrels there?  

No. They have squirrels. Just found a whole website about squirrels in the UK. Red squirrels have been around for thousands of years. The grey squirrel was brought over from my lovely land.  

So...anyway.

For now it's Australia, because if I had a choice between seeing an Ood in a museum or the chance of seeing a Tassie devil in the wild, I think I'd be a bit more excited about the latter. 

Then again...if we go to Cardiff, we can see the Face of Boe. That's actually quite tempting.

There might be some tough choices after all.