Whilst standing waiting at the gates we were pleasantly surprised to bump into Zara and Tim again who we thought we may not meet again in Oz. They had decided that they too wanted to check out the zoo and informed us that Chris and Nichola were also coming. A few minutes later we were all reunited again just like on Fraser Island.
When we first entered the zoo it was quite eerie as there were pictures everywhere of Steve Irwin and the Highway outside had even been renamed the Steve Irwin Highway. The whole place was a shrine to him but it was quite cool as we were able to pose for some pictures beside a cardboard cutout of him and a bronze statue of the Irwin family.
The zoo mainly focuses on Australian animals with only a select few from overseas, therefore there is not as great a variety of animals as other zoos. The first animal we came across in the zoo were 2 giant turtles which we were able to reach over and touch their shells as well as seeing them get fed.
After this we came across some Tasmanian Devils which were quite cool to see and looked nothing like Taz from the Looney Tunes cartoons.
It was then time to go and see the elephants where we got a chance to feed them! Unlike Singapore zoo these elephants trunks were so slimy and it was filthy trying to feed them. It was still cool to get up close to these massive animals and get to hand feed them. Luckily Chris was on hand to get a few photos of us.
Next on the list was a visit to the famous Crocoseum to see the first crocodile show of the day. It was bizarre to walk in here and sit in the stand that you see all the time on the TV, however it was even more bizarre to see a video of Steve Irwin being played across the big screen before it started. We all expected this show to be just like what you seen on the TV however it wasn't. It started with the staff bringing out several snakes and parading them about the auditorium. This was followed by several exoctic birds being brought in including parrots and eagles. After the birds were away the zookeepers finally brought out a crocodile called Graham. He was one of the largest crocodiles that they have there at 12ft/3.6m long and weighed over 300 kilos. They paraded him about the water and managed to bait him out before getting him to leap out of the water to get fed. We thought that this was ok as it was just the start but it turned out that this was the only crocodile that they were bringing out. The show came to an end and we were left dissapointed as we had seen so much better at other zoos on the trip.
We then took a walk into the rainforest section of the zoo where we came across Cassowaries and Koala Bears. Here we got to get up close to the Koalas and we were allowed to clap them.
From here we moved onto the desert section where we learned that Australia has foxes. Most of the animals in this section had been brought here by foreigners and these included the fox, camels and dingos.
One of the cool things about the zoo was the many lizards that ran freely among the park. Some of them would be timid and run away but others would stay and we managed to get up close and touch them. As soon as you tried to grab it though they were off like a shot.
A few of the other animals we seen were the komodo dragon, red pandas and Asian Small-Clawed Otters. The komodo dragon is the largest lizard in the world and can grow up to 3m in
length and weigh over 100k. The otters are a very sociable group and can co-habit with up to 20 other family members. In this pen there were however only 2 sisters that had been together since birth. Here we learned that they cannot breed these 2 as to seperate them would upset them so much it could result in death from heartbreak. What is funny though is that the otters are extremely competitive over mates and if they were to introduce a male into the pen then they would fight to the death over him!
As you would expect there was a large section with kangaroos and we were able to pay for some food to go and feed them. Kangaroos are nocturnal animals by nature and a lot of them were sleeping during the day as it was too warm. We were still able to find a lot who were keen to get fed though and pose for some pics.
From here we went into the snake house which was great to see all of Australias most deadly snakes. The most deadly snake in the world is the Fierce Snake which they had as soon as you walked in the door. Some of the other snakes that were on display were the Taipan, various brown snakes and pythons. Within the snake house they also have a skeleton of the biggest snake in the world - the reticulated python. The skeleton is that of a 5.82m snake that lived in the zoo until it died in 1995. The reticulated python can grow much larger than this though and the longest recorded snake is 10.1m.
The best thing of the day was saved for last. This was the tiger show at the end. We had actually missed the proper show during the day as it clashed with the croc show. Luckily for us there was a cool zookeeper there who asked us if we had seen the show earlier. when us and another couple said no he said he would be back in 10 minutes. True enough he appeared in the enclosure with another keeper and a small carton of milk. Here the head zookeeper brought the tiger up to the viewing glass and began to feed the tiger milk and it couldn't get enough of this incredibly small carton. It was bizzare to see such a large animal go crazy over such small treat. There must of been an incredible trust between the keeper and animal as they seemed both at ease with each other. This was emphasised by the fact that he was able to lift up the tigers lips to show us it enormous teeth and also allowed it to stand up against him. This allowed us to see exactly how big a tiger is as the keeper was well built and must have been at least 6ft himself. However with the tiger's large paws resting on his shoulders made him look more like a dwarf.
As mentioned before we were looking forward to coming here but in the end it wasn't that great. It was ok but we have been spoiled by Singapore zoo and Hartleys Creek Crocodile Farm in Cairns which are far superior. We did find out however that the zoo plans to expand 4 & 1/2 times its current size within the next 5 years so I would imagine that it will soon be up to the same standard as Singapore.
There was a really nice shrine to Steve Irwin in the zoo that we passed several times throughout the day. In addition they also had a massive crocodile that we posed for some pics with.
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