Australia Zoo

This weekend Mary and I went up to Beerwah to go to the Australia Zoo, the zoo run by the Irwin family. It was a long trip up and back, but it was definitely worth it. The zoo is really well run, with lots of handlers, big pens for the animals, and a very strong overarching theme of conservation and research.

Here's us out front:



Our first stop was with the small clawed asian otters. We got there in time to see the two sisters begging and whining for one of their daily feeds from the handlers. It reminded us of the various cats we've had as they beg for treats.



With a snack:



After that we saw a handful of injured kookaburras who could no longer fly.



This crocodile weighed well over a ton. I can't remember if he was a saltie or a freshwater croc. He had a little friend on his back, hitching a ride.





They had several beautiful cassowaries. Looking at these birds that are part of a family that is 20 million years old, it's hard not to see the dinosaur genes in them.



Of course, being Australia zoo, there were also a good number of koalas. This one was good enough to come into the sun for a photo.



We also enjoyed the trundling echidnas.



The common but still cool water dragon, popping up out of a hole in a stump.



There was a kangaroo/wallaby enclosure where you could pet and feed the docile animals, so of course we spent a bit of time there.







This red panda was fairly active, climbing around his enclosure while his mate slept in the trees.



This bird was in the underbrush so I decided to use the flash to illuminate him more, only to find that he was actually demonic.



At the end of the day we went to the tiger enclosure. This was really neat, because at the Australia Zoo they do an incredible job of acclimatizing the tigers to their handlers as cubs. As a result, the trainers and handlers can get right in the cage to interact with the tigers directly. Unfortunately the photos I got were from behind glass, so there was a lot of interference from reflections, but you can still get the idea.

This is one of the tigers jumping for a piece of meat thrown in the air.



And this is them acting like big kitties, enjoying a carton of milk. It was really funny watching the 3 of them swarm over the handler trying to get at the carton.





All in all a great day.