Australia Zoo

Today was an AMAZING day!  We went to the Australia Zoo, which is the home of Steve Irwin the Crocodile Hunter.  This is the zoo that you have probably seen multiple times on Steve’s show The Crocodile Hunter.  To be able to watch Steve on television for many years and to now be able to travel to his famous zoo was a dream come true.  The zoo was absolutely amazing and an experience I will never forget.  This is the home to over 1,000 animals and I’m pretty sure we saw almost all of them today.  They have kangaroos, wallabies, koalas, tropical birds, wombats, echidnas, elephants, tigers, red pandas, dingoes, Tasmanian devils, tortoises, camels, otters, lizards, snakes, and of course many species of alligators and crocodiles just to name a few.  I really enjoyed this zoo because it was so hands on, and allowed you to get up close and personal with many animals.  We were able to feed and pet kangaroos and wallabies, feed elephants, pet and cuddle koalas, and pet and take pictures with many other animals.  Saying the zoo was amazing doesn’t even begin to describe how fantastic it really was. 

Kangaroos!



Wallaby!



Elephant!



Koala!

All day we discovered new animals and had fun interacting with them.  One of the best parts of the day was of course the Wildlife Warriors Show in the world famous Crocoseum.  The Crocoseum is the location where you would always see Steve performing with the giant crocodiles on his TV show.  The Wildlife Warriors Show started off with elephants parading through and colorful and tropical birds flying through the air.  Afterwards, other birds were introduced as they beautifully filled the air.  Then the staff brought out many different species of snakes to show off to the crowd.  And of course the grand finale of the show came when they brought out the huge crocodile.  This is the part you would usually see on TV.  A staff member would hold meat in the air and play with the crocodile as we all watched in awe as this gigantic beast lunged for the meat putting the staff member in danger every second that the show went on.  The entire time I felt like I was watching Steve on TV and I could not believe that I was actually here watching this live.  It was crazy!



CRIKEY!



We finished off the day by taking a trip to the Australia Zoo Wildlife Hospital.  Here we learned all about the wonderful work people like Steve Irwin are doing to help save many species of animals.  We learned about the hardships that many species are going through because of human recklessness.  We were even able to witness some of the animals the hospital is treating because of injuries or sicknesses.  Most of the animals we were able to see were koalas, but the hospital also helps many other animals.  The koalas were all in the hospital for many different reasons, but most of the koalas were in the hospital because of domestic animal attacks or car accidents.  It was sad to see the koalas wrapped in blankets with casts on or breathing from respirators.  But the hospital wasn’t all sad news, there were many videos, pictures, and posters of many success stories, which gave us all hope for the future.