Australian Reptile Park

[mysnakesau]

Took the kids to Australian Reptile Park today. Will put up some pix when I get back home early next week but for now want to spruke how great I thought it was. Shows going all day long, I enjoyed a great day out. Well worth going there. The guy that hosted the shows was such a character, great entertainer. I would like to know his secret with his salty that he sits on his shoulders. Then he let it walk around the pit, and said "Rose 1, Rose 2, Rose 3" on the rose 3, the animal laid down and didn't move. How cool is that? I wasn't overly flash with money so couldn't help grizzling at the cost of 6 cartons of chips and 2 drinks but pulled the credit card out to get pictures with the big python, tassie devil and the baby wombat. How cute The baby devil so gorgeous. Smelt like a ferret but soft and cuddly I didn't want to give him back. Even the baby wombat was soft...cute little things.

My 3 girls, sister and I all past the "stupid test" when we put our hands up wanting to touch Elvis the crocodile, but we did get to pat a baby alligator. Even the guy looked warey of the big salty and the girl took off over the fence :lol:

Terrific day out. Worse part was, I haven't renewed my membership with my local herp club and didn't get in for free....lol.

Will get some pix up next week sometime, and a video of the well trained "Rose".

 

[Touchstone]

Theres a park just for reptiles???
Where??

 

[tomc1992]

www.reptilepark.com.au

Pacific Hwy
Somersby NSW 2250, Australia
(02) 4340 1022

 

[DonnB]

Since she mentioned tassie devils and wombats...I dont think its just for reptiles...

 

[mysnakesau]

There are other animals there, too, but the park is one of Australia's biggest research centres for reptiles. Probably two-thirds of the reptile park is reptiles. To get there, it is sign posted from the freeway right to the gate so you can't miss it. I recommend Australia Reptile Park for anyone to see.

I was jealous of my kids getting their photo with the burmese. I really wanted to hold the snake but not get my picture taken. BUT, too many ppl waiting for pics. But to get a cuddle of the devil, i had to get my photo. He was gorgeous.

 

[mysnakesau]

I don't have many decent pictures and certainly nothing nobody's seen before but I think this bloke here deserves a good plug. He is a fantastic exhibitor and kept his audience enthused all the time with his sense of humour. Also got a couple of short videos to share - one of Rosie the trained Alligator and Elvis the crocodile not really behaving but he still gave everyone a great show..

Rosie was an amazingly quiet animal and everyone thought she was really cute, specially how she dropped on command...
[video=youtube;S-KII3MNaL8]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-KII3MNaL8[/video]

Elvis...I just turned off my video a bit too early. He took so long to move then suddenly snapped up the chook. Always the way....
[video=youtube;FnIsIeP8a00]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnIsIeP8a00[/video]

 

[mysnakesau]

And a few photos of Mick's shows..

 

[mysnakesau]

The Bridgestone lizard...

 

[lizardjasper]

When I was there, it wasn't nearly as good as it is now. I love the giant frill neck above the entry gate! And the giant tree frog fountain in the gift shop.
I love the spider section, especially the huge sydney funnel web and redback dunny scenes! You know that when you find the wandering funnels that you can take them to the park and they do all the milking there? It's pretty cool.
The owls are gorgeous, they didn't have devils when I was there, but they had a baby koala to cuddle.
Eric the crocodile, who was almost 70 when I visited, died when he was 71 by contracting phnemonia. ?Is that how you spell it? In my opinion, they really should have known how to prevent such a thing happening. I mean, duh, don't leave them out in freezing conditions!

 

[GSXR_Boy]

Eric the crocodile, who was almost 70 when I visited, died when he was 71 by contracting phnemonia. ?Is that how you spell it? In my opinion, they really should have known how to prevent such a thing happening. I mean, duh, don't leave them out in freezing conditions!

The park was flooded so his heated pond wasn't heated anymore.

 

[dtulip10]

sorry dont mean to be a stiffler.
thats not a salty around his neck its a american alligator i pretty sure.

and yeah the ARP is brilliant and they do awesome work especially there venom extraction and research facilities.

 

[ShnakeyGirl]

I too fell in love with Rosie while I was there, shes just gorgeous. ARP is fantastic, my fiancee hasn't been yet so I'm really looking forward to us going later this year

 

[GeckoJosh]

Eric died because of systemic infection, he was doing ok until a massive storm knocked out the power on the central coast for over a week in some areas, the park also got flooded, as a result of this he succumbed because of his age despite the best efforts of park staff and reptile vets
Australian Reptile Park - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[GeckoJosh]

Did you see the Pygmy monitors inside the reptile room, next to the Central netted dragon enclosure?
How cool are they!

 

[herptrader]

Looks like one of the New Zealand Day Geckos to me :lol:

The Bridgestone lizard...

 

[GeckoJosh]

Yeah its a Madagascan giant day gecko

 

[mysnakesau]

dtulip - I think you're right. I get crocs and alligators mixed up all the time. They look the same. I put pics up on another site, too, and ppl suggested he couldn't do that with a croc. I can't wait to go back. But I want to take more time not to miss anything next time. I missed the spider milking but did see them milking a tiger snake. Looked like barely a teaspoon of venom and they said that much venom could kill 3 or 4 adults.

Lizardjasper here ya go Just for you..
That's my 8yr old daughter reluctuntly standing in front of that giant spider

It was sad about Eric. I am sure the ppl at ARP did their best to save him. In such circumstances it was beyond their control. They said he'd been at the park for 18 years, and its been 15yrs since my last visit so I am pretty sure it was him I saw them feeding way back then.

Geckoman I did see the pygmies. Very cute little guys. Couldn't get a decent photo but the videos always do better sometimes. Here is a short video of them.... [video=youtube;qFCe8HS70QE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFCe8HS70QE[/video]

 

[GeckoJosh]

Yeah nice one, great pics and vid
I forgot my camera when i went there recently:evil:
Those pygmy's are amazing- only 23cm full grown, i want one so bad

 

[Slytherin]

Great pics! That loo with the fake redbacks gives me the creeps. :lol: I wonder how many kids refuse to go to the loo :lol:

 

[lizardjasper]

Still, poor Eric. It's terrible when things like that happen.
Whether alligator, freshie or salty, it's still pretty awesome! I mean, wouldn't that be cool to walk around with one of those on your shoulders?