I am writing about the animals of the Whitsunday Islands. There are 74 islands on the Whitsunday Island chain. The Whitsunday Islands are in Australia. Before I tell you about the animals of Australia I want to tell you about the Australian flag. To me the Australian flag is, well, at the top it looks like the England flag then it has three stars on the right of the flag. Under the 3rd star there is a small star then diagonal from the small star is another normal size star. Under the England flag there is a really big star! Each star has 7 points. I think the Australian flag is really interesting! Well I think all of Australia is interesting!

Fun fact: In Australia their summer is December!

The animals are very interesting in Australia. There are a lot of types of animals here! My favorite is the Cockatoo. The Cockatoos are very smart. It has a yellow Mohawk on its head. When the Cockatoo lands from flying its Mohawk stands up. I thought that was really cool! The kind of Cockatoo that I saw is called the Sulpher-Crested Cockatoo. I read that the cockatoo is probably Australia's best, known parrot. They are very good at learning to talk but they can be very loud and I even had the experience myself! They make a sound like screech. They can also be very mischievous. Like one day I was eating breakfast and there were Cockatoos and they were looking down at me staring at the food then they charged at the food! That was funny! Here is another little story. One day my family and me just finished eating and the Cockatoos came and we were feeding them our leftover French fries and things like that. Cockatoos can live for 70 years! I also read that they have a diet. In the morning the cockatoos usually feed on seeds. I never knew they eat seeds. To me it is strange because I have only seen them eat bread.

Fun fact: Kangaroos have pouches on the front but Koalas have pouches on their back!

I have not seen them but you bet I heard them, they are called Cane Toads! I saw a pic on the Internet and they are huge! This is how the Cane Toads got here (I got this off the internet.) They were released into the Australian ecology in 1935 with the hope that they would control the destructive cane beetle population. They turned out to be failures at controlling beetles. I still have a question, my question is what happened to the beetles?

Fun fact: Koalas are marsupials not bears

One of the most amazing things I saw was Flying Foxes. They look like bats but they are actually not bats! Their full name is Little Red Flying Foxes.

I like the Flying Foxes so much that my whole family went on a hike to try to find them and we were in luck!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We saw them and my sis Captain O found the all time amazing Flying Foxes! They have very hairy faces and wings like a bat. They are not big but not small they are a good size. In Australia they are called Little Red Flying Foxes but in other places they are called fruit bats (like in England.) I read that they are excellent flyers. They are excellent. Every night I saw them all coming out flying in a line then making a circle around the island looking for food. But I don't think you can keep them as pets. If you do then I am guessing you will need to get a huge bird cage! When we were going on a hike we saw the red headed Flying Foxes but yesterday we saw some grey headed ones.

That's all I have to say bye.

Bibliography

Hayman island field guide

Interview with Mr Doug, Hayman Island Landscape Manager

http://www.australiazoo.com.au/our-animals/amazing-animals/birds/?bird=native_parrots&animal=sulphur-crested_cockatoo

http://animals.nationalgeographic.com.au/animals/amphibians/cane-toad/

http://animals.nationalgeographic.com.au/animals/mammals/little-red-flying-fox/