We took our children to visit Tasmania Zoo in Launceston, Tasmania.

The zoo has a large variety of wildlife — apparently the largest collection of native and exotic animals in Tasmania. While my photos do not show it, birds are a large part of the zoo’s collection of animals.

Tasmania Zoo

The animals of interest to my family were the Tasmanian Devils. The zoo has a breeding program aimed at combating the Devil Facial Tumour Disease (DFTD), which has been killing Tasmanian Devils.

Make sure you stop by the Tasmanian Devil enclosure during feeding time. Apparently they have a bite three times more powerful than a pit bull terrier! The handlers threw in a couple of kangaroo tails, which the Tasmanian Devil’s fought over and then proceeded to much and crunch their way through the bone and gristle.

One of the young Tasmanian Devils was held so that people could touch and pat the animal, and take photographs. They were also accepting donations for further research into the Devil Facial Tumour Disease.

Tasmanian Devils

A young Tasmanian Devil, which people got to pat

While the highlight of the Tasmania Zoo visit was the Tasmanian Devils, my children took great pleasure in exploring the many other animals, including kangaroos, goats, penguins and emus. Feed was available for purchase, which gave you the opportunity to hand feed many of the animals. I seem to recall that there was also a snake display, a very loud talking parrot, as well as some wedge tail eagles that had taken up residence in the dam at the bottom of the zoo’s property.

Petting a kangaroo

Feeding the goats

Penguins

Emus

This article is part of my road trip from Brisbane to Tasmania and back — further stories about my road trip can be found by following the Tasmania trip tag.