Paddy
Not so new Member
i am just back from a quick holiday to sydney and the red centre, and wanted to give a report on the wildlife parks i visited there.
firstly i spent a day at taronga zoo, something i love doing anytime i go to sydney. made it in time for the reptile talk and spent about 2 hours looking through the reptile displays about a dozen times during the day! i can't wait to go back again when all their construction is finished, it will be absolutely amazing. seeing all those lovely herps has re-inspired me to look at expanding my collection again.
then we had a half day visit to featherdale wildlife park, near blacklock or blackwood apparently - meant nothing to a paddy from north queensland!
my initial impression was that it couldn't be that good as it was in a semi built up suburb area of sydney - how wrong could i have been. i reckon it would rate as one of the best wildlife parks i have seen in years (which is a pretty good comparison as i have visited a lot throughout australia, asia and europe). as much as i love seeing all the native animals displayed it was, as always, the reptiles where i spent most of my time daydreaming. once again i was not dissapointed, the displays were absolutely brilliant, well presented and imaculatley cleaned!
next stop was out to the red centre for a few days. while there we did the tourist thing and went for a sunrise breakfast with a view of uluru. it was a really spectacular sight and experience, with the possible exception of the freezing cold temperatures! (and coming from someone born and raised in a cold place i reckon that is saying something!) whilst the breakfat and the scenery were great the wildlife presentation afterwards was the best nit for me. a local demonstration company brought out some examples of the local wildlife for show and tell. we got to see and touch many of the animals including stimsons pythons, a beautiful woma python, blue tongue skink, a thorny devil which was so cool (weren't allowed touch this little fella!) and a couple of beautiful dingoes as well.
our last stop on the way home was to alice springs for a day, so again my itinerary had to include the alice springs reptile park. initially i was surprised at how small an area the park covered, however again it was proven to me that quantity is not better than quality. the displays were all quite effective and clearly and easily presented, labelled etc. the enclosures were spotless and the animals were all in excellent health, obviously well looked after, and all this for the bargain price of $8 per person. amongst my favourites are always the olive pythons and frill necked lizards, both of which looked great. they also had a large enclosure with 20 or 30 little thorny devils to look at. unfortunately the perenties didn't want to come out to play as it was a wee bit chilly again, but hopefully i can get a chance to do some herping up there in summer sometime, would be so much better!
well thank you for taking the time to read my ramblings, i just wanted to give these places a bit of a pat on the back and say well done. if any of you guys work at, or volunteer at, any of these parks you can say well done to yourselves. if you ever get the chance to visit any of these places make sure you take the time to drop in for a look, you will not be dissapointed, i definitely wasn't.
firstly i spent a day at taronga zoo, something i love doing anytime i go to sydney. made it in time for the reptile talk and spent about 2 hours looking through the reptile displays about a dozen times during the day! i can't wait to go back again when all their construction is finished, it will be absolutely amazing. seeing all those lovely herps has re-inspired me to look at expanding my collection again.
then we had a half day visit to featherdale wildlife park, near blacklock or blackwood apparently - meant nothing to a paddy from north queensland!
my initial impression was that it couldn't be that good as it was in a semi built up suburb area of sydney - how wrong could i have been. i reckon it would rate as one of the best wildlife parks i have seen in years (which is a pretty good comparison as i have visited a lot throughout australia, asia and europe). as much as i love seeing all the native animals displayed it was, as always, the reptiles where i spent most of my time daydreaming. once again i was not dissapointed, the displays were absolutely brilliant, well presented and imaculatley cleaned!
next stop was out to the red centre for a few days. while there we did the tourist thing and went for a sunrise breakfast with a view of uluru. it was a really spectacular sight and experience, with the possible exception of the freezing cold temperatures! (and coming from someone born and raised in a cold place i reckon that is saying something!) whilst the breakfat and the scenery were great the wildlife presentation afterwards was the best nit for me. a local demonstration company brought out some examples of the local wildlife for show and tell. we got to see and touch many of the animals including stimsons pythons, a beautiful woma python, blue tongue skink, a thorny devil which was so cool (weren't allowed touch this little fella!) and a couple of beautiful dingoes as well.
our last stop on the way home was to alice springs for a day, so again my itinerary had to include the alice springs reptile park. initially i was surprised at how small an area the park covered, however again it was proven to me that quantity is not better than quality. the displays were all quite effective and clearly and easily presented, labelled etc. the enclosures were spotless and the animals were all in excellent health, obviously well looked after, and all this for the bargain price of $8 per person. amongst my favourites are always the olive pythons and frill necked lizards, both of which looked great. they also had a large enclosure with 20 or 30 little thorny devils to look at. unfortunately the perenties didn't want to come out to play as it was a wee bit chilly again, but hopefully i can get a chance to do some herping up there in summer sometime, would be so much better!
well thank you for taking the time to read my ramblings, i just wanted to give these places a bit of a pat on the back and say well done. if any of you guys work at, or volunteer at, any of these parks you can say well done to yourselves. if you ever get the chance to visit any of these places make sure you take the time to drop in for a look, you will not be dissapointed, i definitely wasn't.
