Yesterday I received the final part of my Christmas present when my missus took me the Australian Reptile Park for their VIP Tour. On arrival we met our Tour Keeper Lauren, and the six of us went behind the Staff Only door. I’ve got to say one thing to start with, yesterday was pretty busy for behind the scenes tours, there was us, a birthday party and I think a Kids 2 Keeper group. I think the keepers did an awesome job making sure that we were all in different parts of the park and weren’t bunching up in the same area.
We started our tour in the Spider Room where Lauren explained the different spiders they keep at the park and how they milk the venom from the Funnel Webs for the spider anti-venom. She gave up a quick display of how to milk a spider and showed us how it takes roughly 25 spiders for a half vial.
We then went up to the Venomous Snake Shed and met Phil (I think, the same guy that had his mower stolen by the croc last month), he explained what venomous snakes they keep at the park and the roster they use for milking. He quickly explained how they milk the snake, freeze it and send it off to be made into anti-venom. After that he got a Tiger Snake out and milked for us to see, and because one of the mothers asked how big a King Brown gets he brought one out of us to look at. Because he had to do the Ven Snake Show, he left us with Lauren where she showed us the Cobra’s and Rattle Snakes which were nice enough to do a show and song (once the rattles start up the sound is unreal).
From there we went down to non-venomous snakes room where got to handle the friendly BHP, and an extra friendly Burmese Python. One of the keepers brought out a cranky Scrub Python for us to see, before more handling of some Dragons and Geckos. We then got to pat a South American Tegu, which was beautiful to see, followed up by being able to feed some baby Alligators. We then took a quick walk up to the Orphanage where we were shown some young Possums, Owls, Kookaburra’s. I've got to mention though, as some people here know there isn't a lot of native pythons on display for public viewing, but there is alot more behind the scenes that are used for school education programs and breeding programs too.
After that we were taken outside into the park. First up we went into one of the Koala pens and Lauren explained the breeding program and how they trade with other parks and zoos around Australia. Apparently Koala’s are worth 4 Burmese Pythons, 6 baby Alligators and some other exotic on the zoo trading post. Lauren then took us down to the Tasmanian Devil breeding area, where we also got the chance to play with the wombats. I’m a big fan of Wombats, probably because I look and feel a bit like them some days (pics to follow). We then finished the tour by hand feeding the Cassowary and watching Elvis the croc being fed in one of his shows.
All up the 90 minute tour took nearly 2 ½ hours, being a small group we were able to get a lot of hands on with different animals plus Lauren did rush us even when answering all of the groups questions. I would seriously recommend this tour to anyone that loves wildlife parks/zoos, it was an awesome experience that my partner and I would do again any day.
Once I sort out my pics I’ll put them up here for viewing
Cheers
Sutto
We started our tour in the Spider Room where Lauren explained the different spiders they keep at the park and how they milk the venom from the Funnel Webs for the spider anti-venom. She gave up a quick display of how to milk a spider and showed us how it takes roughly 25 spiders for a half vial.
We then went up to the Venomous Snake Shed and met Phil (I think, the same guy that had his mower stolen by the croc last month), he explained what venomous snakes they keep at the park and the roster they use for milking. He quickly explained how they milk the snake, freeze it and send it off to be made into anti-venom. After that he got a Tiger Snake out and milked for us to see, and because one of the mothers asked how big a King Brown gets he brought one out of us to look at. Because he had to do the Ven Snake Show, he left us with Lauren where she showed us the Cobra’s and Rattle Snakes which were nice enough to do a show and song (once the rattles start up the sound is unreal).
From there we went down to non-venomous snakes room where got to handle the friendly BHP, and an extra friendly Burmese Python. One of the keepers brought out a cranky Scrub Python for us to see, before more handling of some Dragons and Geckos. We then got to pat a South American Tegu, which was beautiful to see, followed up by being able to feed some baby Alligators. We then took a quick walk up to the Orphanage where we were shown some young Possums, Owls, Kookaburra’s. I've got to mention though, as some people here know there isn't a lot of native pythons on display for public viewing, but there is alot more behind the scenes that are used for school education programs and breeding programs too.
After that we were taken outside into the park. First up we went into one of the Koala pens and Lauren explained the breeding program and how they trade with other parks and zoos around Australia. Apparently Koala’s are worth 4 Burmese Pythons, 6 baby Alligators and some other exotic on the zoo trading post. Lauren then took us down to the Tasmanian Devil breeding area, where we also got the chance to play with the wombats. I’m a big fan of Wombats, probably because I look and feel a bit like them some days (pics to follow). We then finished the tour by hand feeding the Cassowary and watching Elvis the croc being fed in one of his shows.
All up the 90 minute tour took nearly 2 ½ hours, being a small group we were able to get a lot of hands on with different animals plus Lauren did rush us even when answering all of the groups questions. I would seriously recommend this tour to anyone that loves wildlife parks/zoos, it was an awesome experience that my partner and I would do again any day.
Once I sort out my pics I’ll put them up here for viewing
Cheers
Sutto
