The bronze statue of the Irwin Family.
The grounds are beautifully maintained and the animal enclosures are huge. All of the Australian icons like the koalas, kangaroos, and wombats are there, as well as many of the standard zoo animals.
sleeping koala
The main attraction is the live crocodile show at the Crocoseum. Here they have built large streams and ponds so the crocs can swim from their enclosures and the crowd can see every move the wild crocodile makes because the water is clear.
The Animal Planet Crocoseum
The stands are starting to fill.
Before the main event, there was a free flight bird show. I have acquired a new love for the beautiful, feathery friends of Australia (which will be an entire blog post to itself), but there were some new ones that I hadn't seen before. Two of the standouts for me were the condor and Major Mitchell's Cockatoo.
Andean Condor's have an 11 foot wingspan!
This cockatoo landed just long enough for me to snap this picture. Gorgeous!
Then it was time for the crocodile! It is really amazing to see the handlers dance around the giant crocs to keep from becoming their snack.
Crikey!
She's a real beauty! (said in my best Steve Irwin impression)
There are three elephants which you can hand feed. Unfortunately, we were unable to make it to the feeding, but saw the "day-in-the-life" show.
Hand feeding her a grape.
We saw a great demonstration at the Tiger Temple. Here the tiger is chilling out after the show.
The newest addition to the zoo is the African Savannah exhibit where the giraffes, rhinos, and zebras roam about.
In the visitor guide it states, "You may even catch a glimpse of our gorgeous cheetahs as they walk by." Little did we know that could mean they would be on leashes walking the grounds.
The one thing that would have made the trip better would have been an Irwin sighting. "Steve Irwin Day" is later this week, so Terri, Bindi, and Bob will be there then. We settled for this....
A Bindi cut-out in Bindi's Boot Camp where the girls played games and did challenges to replicate the television show.
As we were leaving we walked passed the crocodile enclosures where they were getting fed their weekly meal. Yes, they get fed once a week since they are not extremely active. This caretaker jumped over the fence between each enclosure and hand fed each one. This one gave him quite a bit of trouble and kept coming after him even after he was fed.
It was a wonderful day at the zoo!
