The Australia Zoo

One thing we really wanted to do while we were in the area was head to the Australia Zoo and check out what kind of legacy Steve Irwin had created. The zoo basically focuses on animals that are native to Australia but then also has a couple of extra species (such as Tigers) that are endangered and they use the exhibits as a form of awareness as to the trouble these animals are in. They also use them to help raise money towards the animals cause hoping to save these species.

Of course the highlight of the zoo for us was walking around with the kangaroo's and koala bears where you can walk up to them and pet them or feed them. I was surprised at how soft the Kangaroo's were and how matted the Koala's fur felt. It was the opposite from what I expected. It was amazing though the huge exhibits they had for these animals where they are free to roam, lay around in the shade or play in some rocky mountains. They had a fenced area where the kangaroo's go when they don't want to interact with the zoo visitors and can be left alone. The koala exhibit was a bunch of trees with koalas literally hanging in the trees.

We also saw 6 Tiger cubs (around 18 months old) walking around, a couple playing with a log and swimming in the water. Ryan was able to see one tiger pounce a Keeper when he entered the exhibit, playing with him. They mentioned that most of the keepers have raised these Tigers since they were cubs!

Of course the Crocs were the main event at the Zoo since Steve Irwin was fascinated with them. They had in the center of the zoo this huge Croc coliseum where they will bring out a Croc swimming in clear water so you can see exactly how they move and stalk. They then entice the Croc to get a little aggressive, jumping out of the water and onto the grass throwing raw meat into his mouth. For part of the demonstration they had the Croc jump vertically out of the water using his tail to push him up into the air. Monty, the Croc, was huge and definitely not something i'd want to run into!

They offered a lot of opportunities for people to hang out with animals for a fee, play with the tortoise, rhinos, wombats and a lot of other animals. They also had a line you could wait in and feed the elephants but since we've done that before on the streets of Bangkok we didn't have to waste our time but we were able to see the 3 elephants walking back to their exhibit according to size tail in tusk.

It was a great zoo and the keepers did a great job of educating you while you were looking at the exhibits. An example would be that I learned you can tell the sex of a Cockatoo by the colour of it's eyes or a tortoise reaches it's sexual prime around the age of 50 years old or by the amount of sunlight they are in; because the sunlight is prime at the zoo their tortoises are in their prime at the age of 35.

The animals would be taken on walks around the zoo so you would see a wombat on a leash waddling on the paths or a pack of young goats from the children's petting zoo. Birds and lizards were wandering around looking for crumbs left by the visitors and waiting in the bushes. We were able to get quite a bit of quality zoo time in before leaving just after lunch!