Armadale Reptile and Wildlife Park Review

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The next zoo that I visited is a much smaller place called the Armadale Reptile and Wildlife Centre (formerly just the Armadale Reptile Centre) which is in the City of Armadale, south east of Perth. It is actually located very near to the next two places I will be writing about in this thread, the Cohunu Koala Park, and Wungong Dam (a birding site) and the three could very easily be done together if you wanted to (though I did them on three separate trips because they aren’t too far from where I stayed in Perth).

The Reptile and Wildlife Centre is a very small place with mostly very cheaply built enclosures. As well as being a zoo open to visitors, it also functions as a rescue and rehabilitation centre for native wildlife. As far as a I know, there is no map of the place, but it is very small anyway, and is divided up into three sections. A first small outdoor area, a large indoor area which contains most of the reptile collection (what I have called the 'reptile barn' in the titles of the pictures), and then a much larger outdoor area at the back, with a one-way set of walkthrough aviaries connecting the larger outdoor area to the smaller first outdoor area.

The zoo isn’t particularly noticeable from the road apart from a sign advertising its presence off a highway, and from the car park it is still not so obviously a zoo apart from a faded sign saying 'Armadale Reptile and Wildlife Centre' with a few pictures of reptiles and information about calling the Wildcare Helpline for sick and injured wildlife. The zoo itself is on the other side of a chain link fence from the car park and from there it is obvious that it is a zoo. The first enclosure is a fairly nice aviary with a variety of small birds including several waxbill species, King and Stubble Quail, Peaceful Doves, and Bourke’s and Scarlet-chested Parrots.

It wasn’t a particularly fancy aviary but seemed good enough, and I was told by a keeper that pairs of several of the waxbill species had chicks in the nest boxes.

Next to this large aviary were two much smaller and much less nice aviaries. The first was for a single Long-billed Corella which was obviously very much a pet saying 'hello' and being friendly (though a sign warned that it would bite) in a typical pet parrot cage with toys and things but of course unacceptably small. Next to this was an even smaller cage with two Tawny Frogmouths that just had a perch. A terrible enclosure of course, but there were two much larger aviaries for Tawny Frogmouths in other parts of the zoo so I suspect these were temporarily removed from those aviaries for some reason or rescue animals that had recently been brought in. I didn’t have the opportunity to confirm that with a keeper though, so I will reserve judgement on those. At this point I bought a ticket from the counter just inside the main reptile barn before continuing with the exhibits in this first outdoor area.

Along the side of the reptile building was a small seating area of tables and chairs, and the exit to a walkthrough aviary that was one-way with the entrance on the other side. Most of this side however was taken up by a path running away from the building with enclosures on either side.
On the left were several aviaries with various birds, mostly native to the area, and mostly rescues , in many cases of common species that don't seem to be usually kept in zoos (Magpie-lark, Common Bronzewing, etc.). They were mostly larger species ranging from about the smallest species being a Laughing Dove to some large Baudin’s Black Cockatoos and other large parrots. The species list held in this row of aviaries is everything in the bird section of the species list from Tawny Frogmouth to Eclectus. Most of the aviaries here were just about large enough, though none were particularly big and they all had a very similar appearance with a sandy floor and a few large sticks as perches.

On the opposite side of the path, most of the space was taken up by an enclosure for two Dingoes. The sides of the enclosure were chain link fence and inside the enclosure was a fairly ugly looking rock structure allowing the Dingoes to sit inside as well as on top as well as a couple of trees including one very big Eucalyptus providing shade for most of the enclosure which wasn't huge. It is also worth noting that both of these Dingoes are rescues and would otherwise have been euthanised after being abandoned. Also on the same side of the path as the Dingo enclosure was one aviary separate from the row of aviaries on the other side was a larger aviary with a large number (at least eight) of Boobook Owls are also rescued animals.

After looking at this first outdoor area, I then continued through to the indoor area where most of the zoo’s reptile collection is kept as well as containing a small gift shop. The reptile enclosures in this building are mostly standard glass-fronted terrariums, though generally on the larger end for their inhabitants and they are arranged in rows, filling the building with quite a high density of enclosures. As well as there being quite a large number of species in here with 51 species held (all of the reptiles except the large monitors and crocodile), there were many species held in multiple enclosures such as Oblong Turtles, Bobtails, and South-western Carpet Pythons (all species that they are likely to get lots of rescues of). As you would guess with a place that is also a rescue centre, a lot of the species held were species native to the local area leading there to be a large number of unusual South-western Australian species like the four species of Legless Lizards, Crowned Snake, Dugite, and the particularly unusual Bardick, amongst others. As well as a variety of reptiles in terrariums dotted around, there were a few other things worth noting in this large building. These were a fish tank with a few tropical fish, a few enclosures with amphibians, some quite nice open-topped enclosures for Bobtail Skinks and Blue-tongued Skink, an open-topped pond with several turtle species and an Eastern Water Dragon, and, rather interestingly, a small nocturnal house with some small reptiles such as geckos and a, so far unidentified, frog species.
I won’t go into detail for each enclosure in this reptile house because there were just two many of them, but I have uploaded pictures of a sample of enclosures to the gallery, and have also uploaded pictures of a few of the inhabitants of the enclosures.

I then continued out of the indoor area to the main outdoor section that takes up most of the area of the zoo. The first bit of the outdoor area is a large lawn with enclosures all around it.

On one side are two paddocks for domestic donkeys and ponies with two very friendly individuals of each, as well as an area behind those that is part of the zoo’s land but is currently unused. The other sides of the lawn have more interesting species however. There is quite a nice outdoor pond for Oblong Turtles, as well as several enclosures for several monitor species (Perentie, Gould’s Sand Monitor, Rosenberg’s Monitor, and Lace Monitor). There are larger enclosures for the larger monitors with the adult Lace Monitors and Perentie getting particularly large enclosures (compared to the others, but no bigger than would be expected in a major zoo). There is also a row of slightly smaller circular enclosures that are partially shaded for a rescued Gould’s Sand Monitor that is missing a limb. as well as smaller individuals of the other monitors, and for larger individuals of some of the skinks that are also held inside. These monitor enclosures all seemed very nice with lots of logs and some vegetation allowing the monitors to hide, and didn’t seem too small. On the same side as the monitors though was an enclosure that did seem too small that was for a Saltwater Crocodile.

Around this same area of lawn were two further enclosures with non-reptilian inhabitants. One was for a Common Wombat that seemed like it was too small, though I didn’t see the wombat use the enclosure as it was sleeping in its indoor area but visible through glass, and the second was an aviary with Australian Bustards shared with Barn Owls which seemed to be quite good.

Around the other side of the row of monitor enclosures was a continuation of this outdoor area

with a row of grass and some picnic tables and an enclosure with Red and Grey Kangaroos, Common Wallaroos, and Emus. Not a huge enclosure or a particularly nice looking one, but I didn’t think it was terrible, and next to that enclosure was a nice large aviary housing a Wedge-tailed Eagle along with some Australian Magpies and a Pied Butcherbird.

From here was the entrance to the walkthrough aviary that I mentioned earlier that leads back around to the other outdoor area near the entrance of the zoo. Rather than being one large walkthrough aviary, it is separated into a few smaller sections. The first section held two Nankeen Kestrels, a Grey Butcherbird, and two Laughing Kookaburras and wasn’t huge but wasn’t too bad. The next section wasn’t actually a walkthrough, and had mesh separating the visitor path (which runs along one side of the aviary) from the animal area, With the species in this section being Tawny Frogmouth, Common Brushtail Possum, and Grey-headed Flying-fox. The latter of which was signed as Black Flying Fox (and this was in fact the only part of the walkthrough aviary that was signed).

I then entered the final section of the walkthrough aviary which had the most interesting bird species, and was also the largest section.

A low rope fence separated the visitor pathway from the rest of the aviary which seemed to discourage the single Australian Bustard that was in here from going into the visitor area, and I wondered if there was a possible safety hazard about having it in here. There were a few smaller birds in this aviary too though, and as I mentioned nothing was signed so I made sure to see everything. Species in here were Common Bronzewing, Princess Parrot, Grey Butcherbird, Cockatiel, and most interestingly both Sacred and Red-rumped Kingfishers, and Dusky and Black-faced Woodswallows, as well as the aforementioned Australian Bustard. With the latter four species all being found locally and there being only one individual of each (except the Dusky Woodswallow which there were two of), I think they were probably rescued birds.

I exited this section back next to the Dingo enclosure, and that was the end of my visit to the Armadale Reptile and Wildlife Centre.

So overall thoughts then. There aren’t really any particularly fancy enclosures, and most of the enclosures are on the small side with some that are just too small. A few of the enclosures are fairly good though, and there is a wide range of unusual species. When considering the collection though, one needs to remember that it is a rescue centre so there are many rescued animals. Despite its faults, I really liked the Armadale Reptile and Wildlife Centre, and it is definitely worth a visit.

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