Here are some pictures from my recent trip to Australia... for those of you that don't know, I went to Australia for 6 weeks, 4 of which I was volunteering at the Australia Zoo. Here's a few pictures from the zoo... Trust me this is the WAY WAY cut down version, as I took over 700 pictures from my entire trip.
Aldabran tortoises - I fell in love with these guys... seriously... they were the first animals I really worked with. I spent most of the day "playing" with them... they'd follow me just to make me give them a scratch under their shell. Then they'd bite my shoes if I stopped to get back to work. Absolute sweethearts and the best characters! They're about 25-30 years old.
American Alligators - I don't remember which one this is... but the enclosure is very nice! The closest I got to working with these guys was washing their fences, haha.. oh well!
Aviary- This is a picture of a waterfall in the rainforest aviary... very beautiful and a great place to go when the temperatures reached 42 degrees celsius! Sprinklers were always running in there.
Bearded dragons - You can't see them in here, but this is their enclosure. It's huge! Imagine having this as your beardies' enclosure!! Beats an aquarium, eh?
BrianO feeding a croc- This is "BrianO", he's the curator of crocs at the zoo. (Head keeper of croc guys). In this picture, he'd just finished giving the crocodile demonstration, and had brought out a second, new crocodile that was just learning how to do demos. He's feeding him in this picture, and if I recall correctly, the croc ate the food, then instead of swimming along to the other side of the pond where there was MORE food, he turned around and went back to his "home". Oh well, better luck next time!
Dromedary Camel- This is me walking DJ the dromedary camel in an area behind the zoo... Just as this picture was being taken, the keeper just out of the frame said to me "Uh oh... she just chewed a cud." Needless to say, as soon as the picture was taken, DJ was back with the regular keepers... no way was I getting projectile vomitted on...!
Dromedary Camels again- Their names are DJ and Teela... DJ's the one with the longer eyelashes if you can see...!
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Cassowary - COOL! This guy was EVIL... He was so awesome. I'm pretty sure he spends his life waiting for some little kid to come up and stick his arm through the fence or something... He air-attacks everything that walks by. I remember seeing the keepers in there cleaning out the enclosure, and it so seemed as though they needed the same amount of people as when they were cleaning out the crocs... It was awesome, they had to fight it off with the end of a rake!
Collett's snake - Apparently very rare!
DINGO! - OH MAN! One of my favourite animals at the zoo. I got this picture while cleaning out their enclosure. I also got to play and swim with dingo puppies because they were training for doing demos. When I was cleaning out the adult dingo pond, I slipped right into the water because of the algae, and of course... Murphy's Law... a group of tourists just HAPPENED to be walking by and got the whole thing on tape. I told the friends I made in Australia to let me know if I'm ever on "Australia's funniest home videos".
Asian Small-Eared Elephants - These are on loan to the zoo until they get the permanent elephants. They are so beautiful... The public were allowed to feed them 1 piece of fruit. Twice a week I'd help out with the feeding, and would get to feed off the rest of the bucket when there was nobody left. They were so gentle and sweet... until they spat into their trunks then went to spray themselves to cool off... Normally they'd miss and hit the feeding helpers (me)... Nonetheless, definitely an awesome experience!
Green Tree Python - Very familiar to you guys I'm sure! These guys never once moved in the 4 weeks I was there... well maybe they moved to eat, but still... They had a HUGE enclosure, too! Oh well! Aren't they gorgeous?
Hannah - She's the white red kangaroo. She's actually leucistic, and she's very friendly. Everybody loved her! This was taken in "red roo heaven", a little park where you could walk through and pet/feed the kangaroos. It was beautiful!
Koala - Another of my favourites... I got the pleasure of holding/carrying a few of these guys.. I also have a picture of me holding them, I'll have to scan that though. They're so soft and amazing... I wish I could sleep as much as they do!
Komodo Dragon - "Slim" ... Every day he was let out into his outdoor enclosure he runs right to this same spot!
Kookaburra - hmm... cool birds! I never worked with birds, so I don't really have much to say.
Long Neck Turtle - Oh these guys are rascals. Their enclosure was attached to the tortoise enclosure, and they'd find their way through the most MINISCULE cracks and get all the way to the other end of the tortoise enclosure. I'd pick them up and put them back at least 3 times a week. One of the tortoises, Igloo, then decided it was his turn, so he climbed over all the rocks and fences and in the morning, they found him floating in the turtle pond. I was then put on tortoise watch until they could put in a brand new fence to keep them apart!
Saltwater croc - This girl was defending her nest cuz she recently laid eggs. Some loser visitors were jumping and shaking the fence to make her come out of the water, and she did. Losers.
Saltwater croc enclosure- They all pretty much looked like this, they were big and beautiful. I'd love to be a crocodile at this zoo, it was just amazing. Very very well kept!
Black Tiger Snake - I think.... Maybe.... perhaps.... Correct me if I'm wrong!
Triples ponds- 3 crocodile ponds in a row... Charlie & Amy, then Bluey an aggressive juvi, and Casper the leucistic croc. All clearwater ponds so you can see their behaviour and stuff... Very neat!
Water dragon- These water dragons were EVERYwhere in the zoo... they'd sneak up on the tortoises ' food and steal the tomatoes and watermelons. It was super cute but pesky! Anyway I took this picture because a bunch of tourists kept walking by and going "LOOK! It's a baby alligator!" ... they were serious...
Water monitor - Don't have any stories for this one...
AND THE LAST ONE!!
Haha I edited me out
Anyways , I have at least 700 more... when I sort through them maybe I'll post more, but I don't htink your guyses' computers could like.. NOT explode with all of them.
THANKS FOR LOOKIN!
Kate
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