Kangaroo Island Wildlife Drive
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Kangaroo Island Wildlife Drive

Drive Kangaroo Island's wildlife circuit — a day of encountering koalas, echidnas, kangaroos, and wallabies in a landscape where native animals have no predators and little fear of humans, creating wildlife encounters impossible on the mainland.

  1. 1

    Hanson Bay Wildlife Sanctuary

    Hanson Bay Wildlife Sanctuary is the best place on Kangaroo Island to see koalas — the dense Manna Gum forest holds a high density of koalas introduced to the island in the 1920s, now the healthiest koala population in Australia free from chlamydia.

  2. 2

    Flinders Chase Echidna Search

    Flinders Chase National Park has one of Australia's highest densities of short-beaked echidnas — the spiny monotremes trundle through the heath on foraging expeditions, entirely unafraid of humans, making close observation straightforward on any walk.

  3. 3

    Cygnet River Koala Walk

    The Cygnet River valley contains koala in riverside eucalyptus — local landowners have developed a reputation for knowing individual koala territories, and the island's farming community coexists with the native wildlife in a way that has made KI a wildlife tourism model.

  4. 4

    American River Pelican Feeding

    American River is a sheltered estuary on Kangaroo Island's north coast where Australian pelicans gather in large numbers — the evening pelican congregation in the estuary, sometimes hundreds of birds, is a wildlife spectacle unique to this sheltered inlet.

  5. 5

    Lathami Conservation Park

    Lathami Conservation Park in western KI protects Kangaroo Island Western Grey kangaroos — the island subspecies is darker and more distinct than mainland grey kangaroos, and the park's mallee scrub in the evening is the best place to observe them feeding.

  6. 6

    Kelly Hill Caves

    Kelly Hill Caves are a network of limestone caves with stalactites and stalagmites formed over millions of years — the cave system was discovered in 1880 when a horse fell into the entrance, and the guided cave tour contrasts dramatically with the open-air wildlife day above.

#nature#wildlife