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Published: February 14th 2006
After two weeks settling into teaching at CCGS, we were ready for a day out. We decided to head out to the Australian Reptile Park - about 30 minutes away from Copa. The park isn't big - but it has a lot of wildlife - both in cages and free-ranging. It was a perfect day - only 24 degrees with a nice breeze.
We still needed to sleep in, so didn't get there until after noon... just in time to catch the end of the show on Funnel Web spiders. Now at least we know what we're supposed to be looking for in our shoes!
After the spider show came Eric's feeding time. Eric is a 5.5m long "salty" crocodile. They only feed him little bits at a time so that he'll always perform when needed. He took a lot of poking and proding before he came out of his pool at full speed for his chicken (no marinade or BBQ sauce needed).
We decided to sit down for lunch and were promptly joined by three very tame but pushy emus! Once we started to pack everything up, they clued in and left us alone. After lunch, we
found the free-ranging Eastern Grey Kangaroos. We purchased food for the animals with our own lunch and the kangaroos were more than eager to eat out of our hands. The largest of the kangaroos was about 1m high - and it was incredible to see how they use their tail like a 5th leg! When they walk slowly, they put down front feet - then tail - then back feet!
Next on the itinerary... Koala feeding time. They had a variety of Koalas in several enclosures. The youngest ones wanted out of their enclosures and would follow the keepers right to the door. They were then picked up and placed back on their branches before the keeper could leave... just like a 2 year-old!
There was a huge American Alligator lake - filled with 15 or more alligators.
We also found the flying fox enclosure very interesting. Flying Foxes are bats with bodies the size of large squirrels and a wing span of a metre or so! The bats were all sleeping (or trying to) - hanging upside down in the enclosure. Many of the bats had babies with them - half-size or smaller - all wrapped
up in the wings of their mothers. We even saw one baby clearly nursing!
The indoor display of reptiles was impressive - but considering the animals we keep in Toronto, this was just like home 😊 They actually had a snow corn snake - just like ours! No beardies though... I guess we'll have to wait to see them in the wild.
It was a fun outing. Now we have to find something to do next weekend 😊
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Polly
non-member comment
Excellent Entertainment!
Thanks for sharing all of your experiences. Such a good read and the photos are fantastic too -- makes me want to pack up and move down there immediately.