kangaroo island vs tasmania
 

We're travelling to Adelaide and Tasmania. We'd like to see a bit of wildlife on our trip, but are limited on our time in Adelaide. We'd like also to spend a bit of time in the Barossa Valley. Will we see as much wildlife in Tasmania that we would see on Kangaroo Island? Thanks.

I suspect not. KI has the seals, and sealions and penguins and koalas. It advertises itself as a place to see wildlife. And it delivers.

I enjoyed them all - but I travelled to KI on a tour and wandered around Tassie on bus and hire car.

This might make a difference, but honestly I don't think you go to Tassie for the wildlife.

Tasmania, is, though, IMHO, a far more interesting destination.

No, I don't think you will see as much wildlife in Tasmania as you will on Kangaroo Island. I have been to both places (KI twice) and I really don't remember seeing much, if any, wildlife in Tasmania. On the other hand, you can't help but see lots of different kinds of animals on KI. Since your time is limited in Adelaide, I would suggest you do a one-day trip to KI. (This is what we did on our first visit.) You fly over in the early morning, spend all day on a tour and then fly back to Adelaide in the late afternoon/early evening. I'm not a big fan of organized tours, but this one was excellent. The tour operators are good in making sure that you see lots of wildlife since they know that's one main reason you came to KI.

Of all the best places in Australia where you can see wildlife free it would be Tasmania. Take a flashlight with you and drive on any country road at night and you are bound to see lots and lots of wildlife. In one mile in a period of 1/2 hour I saw about 10 different animals in a nice country road in the Huon Valley one night, the following day I was held up by a big wombat. There are many areas where you can see penguins and there are seals on Bruny Island. Depending on the time of year there may also be whales around as well.
The trick in seeing Australian animals is to go look for them when they will be around and seeing that most of our unique wildlife are nocturnal then it is at night that you will see them. If you are in Tasmania and plan to go to Cradle Mountain then you will be able to play with some of them as well. They have some very good wildlife tours but some of the natives just roam around anyway.