Inside the Territory's Nocturnal House

On one of our days on the Northern Territory we visited the Territory Wildlife Park in Berry Springs (50kms south of Darwin) expecting something similar to the three wildlife parks we visited recently in Sydney. This place, aside from being huge (40+ hectares) was quite an experience. The entrance is nothing special, as are the immediate grounds, which are mostly typical NT bushland. The exhibits are sprinkled along a sealed access road - to check out the exhibits you can take the half hourly bus or walk - most of the displays are discretely hidden in the bushland. Rather than wait for the bus, we did walk some of the way between exhibits as there was a bit of shade. Exhibits include an excellent aquarium, a spacious billabong, numerous walk-through aviaries, a monsoon forest walk, a buffalo trail, a goose lagoon, a dingo exhibit and of course, a nocturnal house.  

Ghost bats snoozing in the nocturnal house. Not surprisingly the enclosure is quite dark so to get an acceptable shutter speed, I had to boost the ISO to 25,600 - then spend time removing the hideous noise artefacts using DXO PhotoLab5.

Pygmy Nightjar snoozing in a hollow log, as you do if you are nocturnal!

A rather cute-looking Possum. Exposure: 1/20s @ f2.8, ISO12800

Although other wildlife sparks also have Northern Quolls, this exhibit provided the best views I have seen so far. Very cute, quite active, but, in this example, I was lucky enough to snap the critter when it was stationary - the slow shutter speed still produced a sharpish result. Exposure: 1/20s @ f3.2, ISO12800. 

Action in the Sugar glider enclosure.
I don't know what the keeper was up to here - measuring their health or perhaps checking their microchips? Either way it made a great snap as the keeper knelt down to check her gear, she appeared to be covered with became sugar gliders (I think it was only 4) crawling up and down her arms as she set up her tests. Exposure: 1/125s @ f2.8, ISO12800.

A bit more sugar glider action in the exhibit. The contrast range between the dark, unlit cage and the intensely bright head torch caused my OM meting to go a bit haywire - but in the end it was fixable once the RAW files had been edited (i.e. Highlights set to the maximum negative position).

A very cute Common Dunnert (We think?).
Exposure: 1/80s @ f2.8, ISO10000 

A very cute Common Dunnert (We think?). Pics by Natalie Hitchens.
Exposure: 1/80s @ f2.8, ISO10000 

A very cute Common Dunnert. Pic by Natalie Hitchens.
Exposure: 1/80s @ f2.8, ISO10000 

Green tree frog, Pic by Natalie Hitchens.
Exposure: 1/125s @ f2.8 ISO1000 

Another shot of the cute Northern Quoll. (Pic by Natalie Hitchens).
Exposure: 1/20s @ f2.8, ISO16000 

Like a statue - the Beach Stone Curlew has a very superior look to it.
Pic by Natalie Hitchens. Exposure:1/25s @ f2.8, ISO10000

I think this is a rare Nabarlek - a type of small wallaby. Apparently quite rare and extremely shy - even when housed in an enclosure, it was hard to spot these small critters. Pic by Natalie Hitchens. Exposure: 1/25s @ f2.8, ISO8000

A lighter, brighter glimpse of the rare Nabarlek. Pic by Natalie Hitchens.
Exposure: 1/25s @ f2.8, ISO10000