On Australia's Kangaroo Island, the animals rule

By Jason Szep

KANGAROO ISLAND, Australia (Reuters) - If all of Australia's wildlife were stranded in one place, chances are it would look like Kangaroo Island, the tranquil and unspoiled sanctuary named after the country's best-known animal.

The 1,700-sq. mile island, only 7.5 miles off the coast of South Australia state, is a showcase for Australia's weird and wonderful fauna and one of the country's largest natural sanctuaries.

Teeming native wildlife -- kangaroos, koalas, wallabies, exotic birds, sea lions, the strange-looking platypus, emu and penguins -- share the island with more than a million sheep, brought into Australia with European settlement.

The rugged terrain is a strange echo of the vast and untamed land of continental Australia -- thick bush, sweeping desert plains, ghost-white beaches, rocky estuaries and the country's famous rusty sandstone.

But it is by no means a zoo. Here, the animals virtually control the island. The only cages are around the picnic benches -- to keep out curious kangaroos and emus from a quick feed.

"It's natural environment. It's a place to go if you're willing to accept the terms set by the environment," said Craig Wickham, who grew up on the island and operates Adventure Charters of Kangaroo Island, a tour guide company.

Many accept those terms. Tourism is growing by about 15 percent a year with 80,000 people visiting the island last year. Foreign tourists looking for their first encounter with a kangaroo or koala account for much of this increase.

With few predators such as foxes or dingoes and no regular hunting, a docile and relatively gregarious species of kangaroo has developed on the island -- so bold it seeks and hops around tourists who feed them food pellets.

"It's very exciting," said Judy Williams, an American nurse from Oakland, California, as a female kangaroo with a baby in its pouch nuzzled into the pellets of food in her hand. "But I was under the impression their fur would be softer."

The benign and docile nature of the island's kangaroos, a sub-species of the mainland's western grey, with thicker, darker fur and a wider jaw, prompted English explorer Matthew Flinders to give the island its name in 1804.

Flinders and his crew, hungry from days at sea, felt thankful after killing 31 of the animals for dinner. "In gratitude for so seasonable a supply (of food), I name this southern land Kanguroo (sic) Island," Flinders wrote in 1804.

The same conditions which allowed the kangaroo to flourish have turned the island into a breeding ground for many of the country's vulnerable species, such as the koala and the Australian sea lion.

Tourists walking around the island's Rocky River reserve, part of the Flinders Chase National Park, usually see sleepy koalas wrapped around gum trees, rare Cape Barren geese, emus and many of the 243 species of birds.

Not far away from Rocky River is Seal Bay, where seals allow humans close without appearing even faintly concerned.

The colony of 600 Australian sea lions, whose pale sandy coloring blends into the beach, sleep and play listlessly as small bands of onlookers gather nearby.

The island, 90 miles from east to west and 34 miles wide, was separated from the mainland about 10,000 years ago and remained largely unsettled until the 1950s when sheep farmers began raising stock on the island's open fields.

Its human population is now a mere 4,500. But with about 30 percent of the island protected by wildlife parks and only about 10 percent of its 1,500 roads paved, it retains a rustic pioneer feel usually associated with Australia's outback.

Like the outback, there are dunes in an area called Little Sahara, where camels are found, and a 550-million-year-old volcanic rock formation known as Remarkable Rocks which pierces the sky and draws parallels with Australia's famous Ayers Rock.

But the rise in tourism, especially in the number of one-day visitors who are shuttled around in buses which race along the dirt roads, has prompted a rethink on how to balance tourism with an otherwise natural habitat.

Many wildlife officials and tour guides complain that the one-day visitors are not given the proper education to explore and respect the natural environment.

Robert Ellis, ranger for South Australia's Department of Environment and Natural Resources, said Flinders Chase plans to introduce new laws over the next year allowing only certified tour guides into the area to limit day trips.

"We need the infrastructure to be one step ahead of the population increase. At the moment, we're not really coping with that increase," he said.

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