Australia Zoo Day!! Whooo hooo! The whole day- we were up super early for our pickup at 7:35 from the hotel (Mike loves these early morning wake ups!). We were the only people headed out to the zoo on this particular day which was awesome- we chatted with our drivers for about an hour and they took us to a lookout to hang out for a bit because we were running ahead of schedule. Traffic was light due to the long Labor Day holiday weekend- those Aussies love their holidays... ;) Labor Day in Queensland fell on Monday May 1st this year.
Anyway, we got to the zoo when it opened and I promptly booked an Australia Zoo Hospital tour for the afternoon. We looked around and then headed to the tortoise feeding show. The tortoise lady had alot of energy and relayed Steve Irwin's conservation message well.
These guys were awesome!
Next we stood in line and fed the elephants fruit. Everybody formed long lines and were basically a "conveyor belt" of food for the 3 female elephants at the zoo. You stood on a mat, a trunks length away from one of them, held out your hand and they elephant would take the food from you- a bit slimy, but a cool thing to do.
I wanted to do an elephant encounter and get up close to the girls, but it conflicted with our hospital tour, so we set up a wombat encounter (which was alot cheaper anyway). Then off to the Crocoseum for the Wildlife Warriors show. It was a small stadium where they showcased a bunch of animals- a condor, elephants, more birds, and of course a croc...the best part of the show- he was awesome...
After the show (and lunch), we walked around the zoo for a while, marvelling at how nice and clean the animal enclosures were and how great the animals all looked. I fed more kangaroos. Then off to the "Elephants Live" show where we learned how the keepers train the elephants and check them every day for health issues...
Showing where the tusks would be if she were a "he".
We took the hospital tour and while we were there, the nurses had a flying fox (large fruit bat) and joey kangaroo on the exam tables. Pretty much any procedure they need to do on any of the zoo animals or any wildlife brought in to them could be done at this hospital. They received many donations- large exam lights and an x-ray machine...very cool tour. A hospital where any type of injured wildlife could be brought for treatment was a dream of Steve Irwin's mom who was an animal rehabber.
Right after the hospital tour was our wombat encounter. The keepers lined these cheeky creatures all up and set a food bowl in from of them and we were allowed to come up behind them and pat them and talk to the keepers about them. It was an awesome experience! (I'll have to scan the photos when I get home.) We got to feel the differences in fur texture between Common and Southern Hairy Nose wombats. It was so cute to watch Mike pet them and they were very chill while they ate (aren't we all?). A few of them were bred there at the zoo....
Anyway, after our encounter we made one more circle of the zoo. Mike especially loved the tigers. The trainers would pet and hug them in their enclosures and they rotated tigers in the display area during the day and made sure they had plenty of mental stimulation...One of the male tigers was bugging a couple of the smaller ones so he was tranferred to another area. The trainers always are around and are very in tune with the tigers moods. Amazing the trainers have not become dinner (yet).
The tiger came up to the trainers for attention.
The tigers were the last animals we saw before we left. As a parting goodbye, a tiger came right up to where Mike was standing (there was glass/plexiglass between them), looked at Mike, turned around and sprayed!!! Good tiger!! ;D
I asked a couple of the trainers if they had a college education and they said "no". Steve Irwin firmly believed that "hands-on" experience was the best teacher, so if someone volunteered regularly and showed dedication to a certain animal, that was enough to make them a keeper. Very cool!
Anyway- after a full day at the zoo, we were brought back to our hotel and we ate on Queen Street at Jojos and collapsed...
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