The Australian Zoo

This is the first of four journal entries that I've accumulated. Make sure your read all four.

May 6
Brisbane
Sunny and mild

We are on the way to the Australian Zoo, for a day of more sightseeing. It's already been an interesting trip, and we just started. The arrival and departure messages at the train station were a little messed up, and the express train platform was switched at the last moment. But, we're on our way. The trip will take a little over an hour, and then we will be picked up by a coach at Beerwah to take us over to the zoo. Since I have some time now, I thought I'd write a little more about Lone Pine, and then about some of the other things that are going on in Australia.

One of the things that I did not mention about Lone Pine was the children. There were several school groups visiting the sanctuary yesterday, so I had a bit of a chance to watch the children and their teachers. Of course, they all wear uniforms -- it's a look, but I always liken it to gang colors (I know, I know; I shouldn't). I think children are probably the same everywhere, before their culture begins shaping them (and, sadly, sometimes twisting them). Their behavior has no affectation; when they are happy they laugh; when they need us they cry; when they're learning something they care about they're intense. I was standing near the cassowary enclosure while a sanctuary worker was speaking to them, and was struck by the level of questions from the children about the bird.

But it's easy to imagine why they'd be so interested; the cassowary is such a striking animal: red, blue, and black, with a large horn on its head. I'll see if any of my photos of it turned out, and post them on Flickr if they did. The cassowary is another animal that is very endangered. The estimate is that there are fewer than 2500 left in the wild. The cassowary is a keystone species, too, in that the basic trees of the tropical rainforest depend upon the cassowary for their propagation. Seeds of the trees must pass through the gut of the cassowary before they can germinate. If the cassowary goes extinct, the tropical rainforest of Queensland will eventually pass away.

After we returned to the hotel, we took the students to the South Bank Parklands for a dinner at Kapsali's, a Greek restaurant in the park. The meal was okay, and some of the students said theirs was very good. I had fried ricotta and grilled vegetables with panini bread. The atmosphere was pleasant, and a good time was had by all.

Brisbane is celebrating the birth of the Buddha this weekend. It's a very happy affair; lots of red lanterns are hung throughout the park, there's a carnival ride area for the children, and there were Asian acrobats performing in a big arena. There will be fireworks tonight and tomorrow night. There are several statues of the Buddha set up all around that good Buddhists can wash. And a lot of information for the curious who want to learn more about Buddhism.

There was a Queensland Police booth set up, primarily for children. My colleague has been expressing interest for a few yearn now in getting a police hat, and they had color-and-cut-out hats that I think are the closest he'll come to getting one. Now all I need are some crayons ...

. . .

Now we are on the train on our way back from the Australian Zoo. The zoo is very well appointed; Steve has marketed himself well.Steve is, of course, Steve Irwin, the Crocodiles Hunter. The Australian Zoo began as a reptile park owned by Irwin's parents, where he spent his youth learning the business and rescuing crocodiles and other animals. He's parleyed the success of the television show into much more land for the zoo. It's currently 70 acres, with plans to expand to 315 over the next several years, including exhibits on Asia, Africa, Madagascar, and the Americas.

It compares favorably with most of what we've seen as far as exhibit quality goes. I found the 'Crocoseum' shows to be a little disappointing, though. A little too slick, with less substance than I would have liked. But, I'm probably just being snooty. The Crocoseum is a 5000 seat outdoor theatre designed for live interactive animal shows. The show lasted about 80 minutes, consisting of four smaller shows. The first was on snakes and included a somewhat hokey skit on snakebite. The second was on tigers and was pretty good. I was surprised to see tigers playing like kittens with toys their handlers tossed about. The third show was a free fight bird show that was okay (Taronga's is better). The last show was the crocodile show, and was nice. We haven't had that sort of experience since the first year at the Johnson Creek Crocodile farm, and I must say that this was much more civilized -- no beating the crocs with a leaf rake. The Crocoseum has a large video screen that captures the performance from a variety of angles, a refreshment concourse, and a food court nearby. It's quite a little setup. The zoo stresses interaction with the animals. One has opportunities to pet and hold many animals, including koalas and baby crocs, as well as opportunities to feed kangaroos and elephants. The enclosures for koalas and kangaroos have 'rest areas' -- for the animals, not for the people. These are portions of the enclosure with little wooden barricades with signs saying "Rest Area, Please Keep Out" or some variation on that. I guess the premise is that the animals will learn that when they are in those areas they are less likely to be bothered by people.

Though they are not Australian, of course, I found the exhibits on the cheetahs and elephants, along with the tiger show, to be very illuminating about Australians in general and about Irwin in particular. As a part of the show and exhibits, the animal handlers suggested that Australia, due to its wealth and stable government, has an obligation to act to protect not only its own wildlife, but to help to protect the wildlife in other countries as well, particularly those that are not wealthy or stable enough to do so. As far as I know, this is not official government policy, but rather the principles that guide Steve and the Australian zoo.

. . .

It is now May 7, at about 10:30am. We have been on the Sunlander train just under two hours, having made one stop at Caboolture. The ride is pleasant, and I hope it will be a time for relaxation for the students. I'll write more about the train in my next post. I wanted to finish my thoughts about yesterday.

Once Australians hear our accent and mark us as Americans, they will sometimes approach one of us and engage in conversation. I am sometimes surprised at the ease with which they'll do this. I had two such conversations yesterday. While we were waiting for the train that would tack us to the Zoo, an older woman came up to me and said "So you're the American group going to the zoo?" as though our presence was common knowledge throughout the land. But she was very nice, and eager to tell me about her trip to Colorado. On the way back from the zoo, a man in a waiter's uniform talked to me about sports.

I'll wrap this up for now and explore the train a bit. I'll write more about it later.