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[morpheus21]

Hi,
went to Australia zoo today and had a really good day. Last time I went was the 2nd of February last year and it was so incredibly busy,we heard on one of the staffs walkie talkies that 6000 people had visited, while today we heard about 2000 people.

I'll start with the negatives. I don't think they have enough reptiles . They haven't seemed to have gotten that many extra species since when i was there about 6 or 7 years ago when I was a kid. They should have more snakes and lizards, while there are still a few there I really think they need much more. The only other bad thing is that there are too many pictures of Steve and his family around the park and pictures of his daughter holding nearly every sort of animal :roll: , plus there are 3 gift shops .

Now with the good. I got to pat the tiger cubs and have pictures with them. They were really cute and they made really interesting noises. Had to pay $55 but all proceeds go to the tiger foundation and in reality I don't think I would ever have the chance to pat a tiger again, as it is we were lucky as only 30 people a day can pat the tigers and it was nearly booked out. So now if anyone asks me if I've touched a tiger I could say yes, I've touched 3.

Only 1 rhinocerous iguana was in the iguana inclosure but he looked really cool, a nice greeny colour, a cool looking head and such a large bulky looking body. A bell's phase lace monitor was up a palm tree in its enclosure all day and at one time was sleeping on the part that bears the fruit and was just laying there and kind of reminded me of a koala. Watched the colony of cunnigham skinks eat and it was really amusing to watch them eat on mass as the little babies sit all over the adults . The komodo dragon was just lying around like he was last year. They have more cassowaries and koalas now and i think more jabirus.

What I think has always been one of the best features of the park is the kangaroo and wallaby areas where you can sit with and pat the roos and wallabies. They are such amazing and beautiful animals and have such beautiful soft fur. What surprises me about them is how tolerant they are of us. I was sitting next to and feeding a wallaby (not sure what species but it had really nice facial markings) when a kid came over aswell and when he went to go over to another one he accidently stepped on its tail, all it did was looked rather shocked but just walked away. I would have thought it would have been a bit more pissed off. One thing that was odd was that most of the female red roos had either a joey out of the pouch or one inside, so I guess for some reason they are breeding them up.

Another thing that I really love about the park is the rainforest bird aviary. It's just really cool walking and sitting in there just watching the birds just doing what they do. They have quite a few species in there like stone curlews (really cool looking birds), rose crowned fruit doves, some really large pigeons, emerald fruit doves, colourful finches, re-collarred lorikeets, elcectus, princess and king parrots, crimson rosellas, teal duck ,a really nice looking black and white duck, regent bower bird and many others.One thing that I found rather stupid was how some people looked at the eclectus and said "look a king parrot" or "look at the crimson rosellas". I know they might not know what species of bird they are but surely they don't look anything like the other 2 parrots.

Saw the elephants but have never really liked elephants, they really, really stink. My parents got to feed them. Touched 2 different types of tortoises when no-one was looking and they were close to the fence. I think they were the african and aldabran ones. One had really soft skin while the other had relatively leathery skin. Wanted to touch Harriet but she wasn't close to the fence. At one stage she was sleeping on her grass pile and she looked really cute. Also caught a EWD for the first time. There are so many of the buggers running around. I think it was a juvenile. I tried to catch one last year but couldn't manage so I was really happy that I got him. Put him down straight away though and he ran off on his back legs holding his front legs kinda like that of a roo and just off the ground, really an amusing sight.

Saw the crocoseum, was very big but did not bother to watch a show there except at about 3:30 they had the dingoes running around and watched them for a few minutes.

All in all it was an excellent day and I highly reccomend you go, especially at this time of year when its not so busy as less "showy" if you know what I mean and with no ********s running around (last year saw Steve) .

ps. sorry bout the long post but just had a lot to say.

pss. really reccomend you go while the tigers are there as it is a once in a lifetime opportunity