RP127 Wild Tasmania

RP127 Wild Tasmania

Where can you find wombats, eagles, devils, and 10,000-year-old trees? It's an island that goes by many names: Van Diemen's Land, Dervon, and Tassie. Have you guessed Tasmania yet? If you haven't, don't feel bad. Tasmania is still pretty unknown, even though it's the 26th biggest island in the world.

Tasmania sits below Australia. It looks like a miniature Australia, turned upside down. It is a state of the country of Australia, but it is separated from the rest of the country by the Bass Strait.

Can it really be so far from the real world that devils live there? Well, the Tasmanian devil does. The Tasmanian devil is a marsupial—an animal with a pouch, like a kangaroo. It looks a little bit like a very small bear. It's called a devil because it has a frightening growl that scared early Tasmanians. These animals also tend to be very mean, which makes the name Tasmanian devil even more appropriate.

Tasmania is home to lots of unusual animals. There are wombats, which look like furry little pigs and live in burrows underground. There are wallabies, which look just like little kangaroos. And then there are birds and frogs of all shapes and sizes, and strange little mammals that lay eggs! Tasmania also has amazing flora, or plant life. It has huge temperate rain forests and huge eucalyptus forests. Some Tasmanian eucalyptus trees are some of the tallest in the world—more than 300 feet tall and still growing! Tasmania also has a tree called the Huon pine that lives to be very, very old. There are Huon pines in Tasmania from 2,000 to 10,000 years old!

Tasmania is truly unlike anywhere else.