Not having seen a single kangaroo or koala when my stay in Australia was almost over, I turned to cheating in order to get a view of some specimen of these. Rather than finding them in the wilderness I paid a visit to the zoo. THE zoo. Australia Zoo near Beerwah, home of “Crocodile Hunter” Steve Irwin, the great Australian idol who was tragically stingrayed to death in 2006. Once again, my workmate AS was with me. We could have been a larger group, but HS was ill and MS had left Australia (no, not because of us).
The zoo’s layout was all right. Though some animals lacked space I felt that most of them were treated as good as is possible in caption. Not only did we see the most famous Australian animals but also some Asian and American species.
Kangaroos and koalas were free for padding, as were the tiny little piggies in the kid’s zoo (yes, that’s my hand in the picture). Koala fur is actually quite soft and fluffy, as opposed to that of most wild animals. Plus, the underlying tissue seems to be soft as well, so padding them was a real joy. The keepers take care of the animals not being harrassed too much by the visitors. There was one koala on a tree branch with a sign on the branch saying (rewritten from memory): “I’m having a rest. Please leave me in peace.”
This is the zoo’s largest crocodile, measuring 4.8 m in length. Further iconic Aussie animals are the kookaburra and the wombat. The more obscure creatures we got to see on this day were a komodo dragon, a black-necked stork and an echnida. The latter one was, despite its spikey appearance, a total cutie due to its funny way of walking. If you ever get the chance to see one yourself you will understand.
Australia zoo seems to be quite professionally managed, “professional” meaning “business-orineted”. From the first step we took onto the premises the marketing machinery kept following us. Public feeding would be normal but here they have animal shows in the “crocoseum”, accompanied by huge souvenir shops full of useless crap on several locations throughout the zoo. You may have your photo taken with a python around your neck for an insane price and the food court in the crocoseum rivals that of a small stadium. All this is completed by a bronze statue of the Irwin family holding a crocodile at the entrance. Yuck! But well, zoos need to make a living as well. Furthermore, their intention is to raise the conciousness of their visitors – especially that of children – for nature conservation “by exciting education”. Not a bad goal at all, although I think that environmentalism in Australia still has a LONG way to go. Most people think that environmentalism equals nature concervation. The idea that there is such a thing as industrial ecology is not yet rooted in Australian society.
