Cairns Tropical Zoo

---

We flew up to Cairns from Sydney a few days ago. The flight was about 3 hours which is about the same as flying from London to Kingussie three times. We have been relaxing and swimming a lot in our hotel. It has great slide and I have met lots of nice children to play with. Cairns is very very hot and sunny with a tropical climate.
There are lots and lots of insects and other wild beasts. On our first night we saw lots of spiders and cockroaches, a Kangaroo jumped out of the bush in front of us and there was a big warning not to swim in the sea or the crocodiles would eat you.

Cairns tropical Zoo
Today was one of the most exciting days ever. This morning we went to Cairns Tropical Zoo, The first thing that we did was have breakfast with the animals. We went to a cafe for breakfast. There were animals all around us like koalas, snakes and monkeys. I got to stroke the Koala. It was really soft and fluffy.

After breakfast we went to a talk on Pelicans. The pelican is native to Australia. The man said that you can see them if you walk down the beach. They have huge beaks. They don’t just eat fish they can swallow just about anything that fits in their beak. The males weigh about 5Kg and the females weigh about 3-4kg. They can fly for 24 hours without having a rest. I was asked if I wanted to feed the Pelicans. I had to pick up a fish from a bucket and under arm throw to the Pelican. Sometimes he caught the fish sometimes he didn’t. The fish were very smelly and we had to wear special gloves.

After feeding the pelicans we went to the Free Flight Bird Show. We sat in a big outdoor theatre and there were lots of frogs jumping around on the grass. All of a sudden a big black and red cockatoo flew right over our head and sat on the keepers arm. Cockatoos are also native to Australia and there are even wild ones.

There were lots of other birds to see like the magpie that attacks people by pecking them on the head. The keeper dropped some rubbish on the ground and the magpie picked it up and put it in the bin. This was very clever.

There was a trained white Cockatoo called Harry who could do all sorts of tricks and gave cuddles. He even took a coin from you and was able to put in in the slit of a money box. I wanted to buy one but mum said no.

Next we went to see the Koala bears. There was a maternity wing where there was a baby Koala and three other mummy Koalas that had babies in their pouches that you could not see. I got to hold a Koala bear. It was not very heavy and you hold it by putting out you left hand and putting your other hand at your waist. The Koala sits on your right hand and you use your left hand to cuddle round him. I really enjoyed it and got a great photo taken of me and my Koala called Kayto.

We went and saw a talk about snakes. It was all about if you got bitten by a snake what to do. 9 out of 10 of the most poisonous snakes live in Australia. The venom from a brown snake could kill 50,000 mice. It is one of the most venomous in the world and there are lots of them here in North Australia. The keeper said not to worry because they are more scared of you than you are of them. I still think they are really scary.
If you are bitten it is important to call immediately 000 for an ambulance. You then apply a pressure bandage and splint your arm and then most important do nothing so the venom cannot spread. All Australian hospital has anti venom that makes you better. Only 1.8 people die per year in Australia from snake bites.. I hope that is not me!

Next was one of my favourite bits. I got to get some Kangaroo food and feed some kangaroos. I also got to feed a baby kangaroo. All the Kangaroos run about free and they live in big packs. You can walk among them and they come up to you looking for food. One of them wanted me to scratch his ears and neck. It was really good being so close and not scary when they stood up and boinged away.

Before we left we also saw all the Australian Birds like the cassowaries, Wallabies, Dingoes, Reptiles, wombats, American Alligators, Salt water crocodiles, Lemurs and Cotton Top Tamarind Monkeys.

---

Comments

[Zeth]

Wow!
Hey! This looks amazing! I've always wanted to go to Cairns Zoo. Nice! Keep uploading photo's... Zeth http://www.alicanteferieboligspanien.dk

[Mollie]

It look's like your having a fantastic time Nia i'm missing you so much. Love from Mollie xxxx