Australia Zoo was set up and made famous by the Crocodile Hunter, a cross between David Attenborough and Chuck Norris this guy was an absolute hero of mine and had me glued to the TV as a kid. The zoo itself is unlike any other, trainers stand in a pen feeding young and boisterous tigers with milk bottles. We fed elephants and hung out with koalas, we crouched low in the kangaroo enclosure and fed the roos admiring their razor sharp claws. It’s really cool because everything here is so hands on. The main attraction of course is the Crocotorium and you’ve probably seen clips of it before, It’s a clear water pool about 4 feet in depth and has gentle slopes onto land. The show begins with Elephants standing to attention whilst macaws and birds of prey swoop around the audience, then Terri and her two children burst into the arena, they soon entices Monty onto land, he’s a 12ft long, 600kg Salt Water croc and he swallows rats whole and devours chunks of pig, death-rolling to tear apart the flesh. Once outstretched on land you really appreciate the sheer scale of this reptilian titan, he dwarfs everyone and everything, a present day dinosaur. The trainers dangle meat from an overhang and he rises up on his powerful tail waiting patiently until the morsel drops and the jaws snap shut with a satisfying thud. Because the water is so clear you can see exactly where Monty is, but imagine in the wild murky waters he would remain completely undetected, every time a trainer walks to the water’s edge or enters it Monty responds by immediately and effortlessly moving towards the vibrations with impressive speed, the water directly above him isn’t agitated in the slightest, in the wild you would never see him coming.
The final part of the zoo, the wildlife hospital left the most lasting impression on me; when you walk through the spotless corridors there are walls of glass where you can see the inner workings of the care units. There are many incubators and injured animals but the first thing that caught my eye was what appeared to be someones tatty old umbrella that had been left in a request, however on closer inspection you see the ragged umbrella move and a face pops out, it's an orphaned baby fruitbat that clings to its creche with talon like claws and nuzzling close to a hot water bottle, his jet black eyes blink up at me. Venturing further into the hospital and there is a operating table that wouldn’t look out of place in a episode of E.R. The only difference is the operating table is a little smaller. Glancing past a sedated dove there are injured koala on the road to recovery, some of them had fallen victim to dog attacks and car strikes, some had even been purposely shot out of trees. Many were still hooked up to IV’s. I remember reading a quote on the operating table that summed up the zoo’s message better than I can.
For our wildlife "we are both their greatest enemy and their only hope.
These wonderful creatures will not argue their case.
They will not put up a fight.
They will not beg for reprieve.
They will not say goodbye.
They will not cry out.
They will just vanish.
And after they are gone there will be silence.
And there will be stillness.
And there will be empty places.
And nothing you can say will change this.
Nothing you can do will bring them back.
Their future is entirely in our hands"
Bradley Trevor Greive
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