Crikey, We Haven’t seen half of it yet!

Our only afternoon commitment was the Tigers Live Show and on our way there we wandered slowly through the kangaroo and wallaby enclosure and inspected Bindi’s childhood tree house. At the show the one tiger showed us how he could sit on his haunches and how tall he could stand. He does this leaning up against a tree in the wild and then slides his claws down the trunk so as to leave a marker of his territory and to sharpen his claws. His reward was a quick squirt of milk from a carton and the show lasted only twenty minutes or so and gave him something to do in an otherwise restful day.

There was barely any standing room left as this show was so popular, an indication of people’s admiration for these beautiful beasts. I respected the zoos efforts to protect these magnificent creatures in the wild too.

With over 100 bush fires burning throughout Queensland and New South Wales at the moment and the devastation that will inevitably cause to wildlife, especially the animals that cannot escape the inferno like koalas, the role of this zoo in protecting indigenous species is as vital as its work in protecting foreign species. One known colony of over 300 koalas has succumbed to the fires already and they are predicted to get worse. Today (11.11.19) the air quality in Brisbane is worse than Beijing; it was deteriorating when we left Brisbane 3 days ago.

Back to the zoo. The photos of the lake are taken from Bindi’s Island where snakes, tortoises, lemurs, parrots and red-eared sliders (turtles) turn in at around 4.30pm; and looking out from there we watched the keeper pull herself across the lake to the lemurs exclusive island enclave to give them their dinner we noticed beyond another large enclosure which we would otherwise have missed.

The afternoon may have been very hot but seeing the animals so relaxed and contented was a relaxing experience for us too. Rob loves giraffes so we hung around there and enjoyed their elegant movements; that was except when the youngster disapproved of the keepers near proximity and chased him away. They can move very quickly when they need to.

Seeing adults with their babies is always a good sign since they are obviously relaxed enough to breed and especially the white rhino with her baby gave us some hope for their avoiding extinction. Even the quite long hot walk to the far end of this enclosure did not put people off making the effort to visit the endearing meerkats, how often do their lookout movements remind Rob and me of our watch keeping 360’ horizon checks when we’re on passage.

We have recently visited the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary a few miles up-river from Brisbane (more about that later) and last time we were in Aussie as you know we went to the Reptile Sanctuary with Jane and Greg; so while places like this exist as stalwarts against extinction and are supported by the many ordinary people like us who love animals I feel there is Hope.