4 unexpected baby animals you might see at Cleland Wildlife Park this spring

Koala and kan­ga­roo joeys are cute and in abun­dance at Cle­land Wildlife Park dur­ing spring-time, so if you make the trip up to this Ade­laide Hills park soon you’re like­ly to spot one.

But did you know there are some less well-known species that have also been get­ting busy dur­ing Covid lockdown?

Unlike some of the ani­mals in the park, these ones may be a lit­tle more elu­sive, so you’ll need to switch on your stealth mode if you want to grab the per­fect pho­to of these baby animals.

Here are four to look for:

1. Yel­low-foot­ed rock wallaby

Yel­low-foot­ed rock wal­la­bies are mas­ters of dis­guise, blend­ing seam­less­ly into the rocky out­crops they call home.

Con­sid­ered a vul­ner­a­ble species in the wild, Cle­land is home to 29 yel­low-foot­ed rock wal­la­bies, with the lat­est edi­tion cur­rent­ly still in mum’s pouch.

You might have to be patient before get­ting a glimpse of this joey, but it’s sure to pay off when you final­ly spot the elu­sive and shy creature.

You’ll find them in the north-west cor­ner of the park, near the lookout.

2. Scor­pi­on

A gravid (which means full of eggs!) female black rock scor­pi­on was found in the park in May, so the park’s keep­ers are patient­ly await­ing the arrival of scor­pi­on babies.

Black rock scor­pi­ons are com­mon in the east and south of Aus­tralia, and females can live for sev­er­al years.

They live under rocks in a short bur­row, which keep­ers have pro­vid­ed for her to ensure mum’s comfortable.

She will give birth to live young that will sit on her back until they are ready to fend for them­selves. Once born, they’ll reside in the ​‘Oceans to Out­back’ Inter­pre­tive Centre.

3. Stick insect

Giv­en stick insect eggs can take up to two years to hatch, keep­ers have been lucky enough to wel­come 33 to the Cle­land fam­i­ly in recent months.

Mea­sur­ing almost the same size as their par­ents when born, young stick insects shed their skin around 6 – 9 times before reach­ing adult­hood. This helps them to look like the leaves and sticks they are named after.

You can find Cleland’s stick insects in the ​‘Oceans to Out­back’ Inter­pre­tive Cen­tre too.

4. Bandi­coot

Bandi­coots have the short­est ges­ta­tion­al peri­od of any mar­su­pi­al – only 12 – 14 days!

Giv­en babies stay in their mother’s pouch for three months after birth, this means she can breed up to four times a year.

The Cle­land team has spot­ted one baby bandi­coot in its mum’s pouch (which faces back­wards to pre­vent dirt get­ting in when mum is dig­ging in the ground) but more are expect­ed as the weath­er warms up.

Bandi­coots roam free through-out the park, so this lit­tle guy might be the most elu­sive of all.

Afford­able ways to vis­it Cleland

Cle­land is cur­rent­ly offer­ing 30 per cent off the price of fam­i­ly mem­ber­ships, mak­ing your vis­its even more affordable. 

By becom­ing a mem­ber you can have 12 months of unlim­it­ed access to the park all year round, as well as a num­ber of oth­er ben­e­fits includ­ing on-site dis­counts, a mem­ber newslet­ter and spe­cial one-off offers. 

Use the code 30OFF2020 to redeem 30 per cent off the nor­mal cost of annu­al mem­ber­ship. Offer ends Fri­day 18 Sep­tem­ber 2020. 

Learn more about some of the species that call SA home by check­ing out ourAni­mal Encoun­ters library.