Respecting Pinguins

During the Easter holiday, we went to Philip island. It takes around two hours from the city of Melbourne to Philip island. There is a 2 km brigde which connect Melbourne to philip island. The island is small and located southern part of Victoria. Philip island beaches are not so special for swimmers and surfers. Big waves rom the ocean have been impeded by Tasmania, left small waves to hit these beaches. At least it is very safe for children to play in the beaches.

Before we crossed the bridge to the Philip island, we went to a farm that breeds typical Australian animals: crocodiles, caccatoos, wombats, koalas, emus, sheeps, and, of course, kangaroos.

We and a wombat.

In the farm, kangaroos are the most favourite animals. Children loved to feed kangaroos. And they are friendly too. Other animals are quite friendly, but we could not stand with them. Emus and sheeps are smell bad; koalas sleep allmost 22 hours in a day on ecalypus trees. And no one wanted to be friend with crocodiles, for sure.

Farhan and giant koala. .. Feeding kanggurus.

We continued our journey to philip island. I almost got boring with the island until we saw pinguins. Yes! Philip island is famous with its pinguins. When it is dark, thousands of pinguins swim from the sea to philip island to stay a night. This tradition started from around thousand years ago and now becomes a one of favourite tourist attractions. For sure, you do not need to be freezing to see these Philip island's pinguins.

However, in this Philip island visitors are required to respect pinguins because this island is their home. As good visitors, we are required to be as quite as possible so these pinguins do not afraid. Visitors are not allowed to take pictures, not even to speak loadly. I did not imagine before, that around a thousand of visitors sit down on the sand, waiting quitely in the cold, sometimes in the rain, for about an hour, only to watch these small species of pinguins swim to the island in the dark.

Respecting pinguins is very special message to us. Many times we forget that animals are also God's creatures that have rights to live with their own ways. Human tends to torture, make use of, and exploit animals. Giving respects to pinguins -- for various reasons -- teach visitors about respecting other humans. If we can respects rights of animals, we must have respected rights of other humans.