All posts by Priscilla Fuentes

Final Post: Australia

Australia (Vet Tech), Study Abroad

After coming back from Australia, I can honestly say that I’ve had one of the most beautiful experiences there. The people, food, activities, and overall culture vastly differed from the United States in many ways. I do have to say that I missed American food while being in Australia because a lot of their cuisines or ingredients just didn’t appeal to me as much. There were a select few places that had amazing food but at the end of the day, I yearned for American food the most.

Besides the food, the culture and people were much different than Americans. Most of the Australians seemed to be taller and leaner than Americans (besides the Aboriginals) which helped many of the native Australians distinguish us from their own. And with that, we became major targets for advertisement. Ever corner that we turned, a worker that would be working at a travel agency wouldn’t say “Hello”, but instead would say “Where are you from?”.

My adventures while being in Australia for almost two weeks included a visit to the rain forest, koala gardens, crocodile farm, two different turtle rehabilitation centers; one on land and one on an island called Fitzroy, a marine life rehabilitation center, and the great barrier reef. Each experience was breathtaking as well as amazing. I can say that I learned a lot from each of the activities that I did whether they were educational or recreational activities.

Learning about the animals of Australia

Australia (Vet Tech), Study Abroad

Today our whole group was able to pay a visit to Hartley’s Crocodile Farm which was maybe 45 minutes to an hour away from our hostel. I must say that the crocodile farm was one of my favorite places that I was able to experience on this trip. At first, I was skeptical only because I thought it was just solely a crocodile farm. Since I’m from Florida, I’m used to seeing alligators every so often so to see something fairly similar such as a crocodile, I assumed it wouldn’t be the greatest trip ever.

When we arrived, we saw that not only were there crocodile information centers along with boat/land tours, but also a bird sanctuary which also included a private area for cassowaries and emus, koala area where you can observe them as well as cuddle and take a picture with them, and a field of kangaroos and wallabies!

The crocodile tours were very interesting. They informed us on how they bred the crocodiles, how they are raised, and what they end up being used for. They mostly are used commercially and are used for their leather but they also informed us that every part of the crocodile is used and nothing is gone to waste. The cassowaries and emus were larger than life. The cassowaries had beautiful color patterns and large dinosaur looking legs and the emus had this death stare that could kill if you were looking straight at it. The koalas were extremely sleepy as they should be due to their “extremely tiresome” life and the kangaroos and wallabies were amazing!

The kangaroos that I saw were mostly just resting in their resting area in the field but the wallabies that we encountered were extremely friendly and came up to us to take a nibble of our fruit. The wallabies had to be my favorite to spend time with. They were soft and lovable and one of the best things to watch was when they hopped away on their big hoppers!

Australia: working with sea turtles

Australia (Vet Tech), Study Abroad

My first experience in Australia was visiting Fitzroy island’s sea turtle rehabilitation center. We were able to assist in food preparations as well as cleaning and maintaining the sea turtle tanks. The turtles had similar diets that consisted of prawns, cuddle fish, shrimp, bait fish, and lettuce heads but each turtle had it’s unique preparation for it’s meal. For instance, one turtle preferred only cuddle fish tentacles rather than the whole fish itself. Another turtle ate all of the protein that it was offered but mostly preferred the prawns as it’s main meal. The main volunteers of the rehab center also showed us how to clean the filter bags for the turtle tanks as well as how to siphon the dirty water out of the bottom of the tanks.

So far, I was able to experience working with the turtles for two days. I really enjoyed learning how to care for them as well as learn their story on why they are in the rehab center and when they will be released. My two favorite turtles at the Fitzroy rehab center were Ella and Margaret. Ella is a green sea turtle that was struck by a boat and had her shell split right open down the middle. With a little help from the rehab crew, they were able to patch her up and she is actually ready to be released back into the wild in a few days. She has a very spunky personality and enjoyed getting her shell scratched. Margaret is also a green sea turtle and is the biggest as well as the oldest one they have at the center. She is about 100 years old and still kicking. While I was there on the second day, I was able to feed her and she happened to hit an impressive record of 150 cuddle fish! Even after her feeding, she was given a whole head of lettuce and chomped that right up. Margaret was admitted to the rehab because she was found very underweight and overall wasn’t stable. After seeing her at the rehab on Monday and Tuesday, she looks healthier than ever but still has a bit of rehabilitation to go before she is released.

I have one more day to go back to the island before leaving and am excited to assist with their everyday feedings and maintenance one last time. The experience alone of just working with these turtles has really opened my eyes about marine life and shows me how precious each individual life is.

Working with Sea Turtles in Australia

Australia (Vet Tech)

My first experience in Australia was visiting Fitzroy island’s sea turtle rehabilitation center.

We were able to assist in food preparations as well as cleaning and maintaining the sea turtle tanks. All of the turtles had similar diets that consisted of prawns, cuttlefish, shrimp, bait fish, and lettuce heads, but each turtle had its unique preparation for its meal. For instance, one turtle preferred only cuttlefish tentacles rather than the whole fish itself. Another turtle ate all of the protein that it was offered but mostly preferred the prawns as its main meal.

The main volunteers of the rehab center also showed us how to clean the filter bags for the turtle tanks and how to siphon the dirty water out of the bottom of the tanks.
So far, I was able to experience working with the turtles for two days. I really enjoyed learning how to care for them!