Goooood day Homeedders it's the weekend here and we were out for a home-schooling excursion to a place I didn't realise existed or knew we had! The Ballarat Wildlife Park located about an hours drive from home in a small country town.
However, the park is almost as old as me first opening in 1987 on 37 acres and has interactive exhibitions which kids can get up and personal with both native and non native animals. The park is quite unique in Victoria has it has two major draw cards Crunch the crocodile which puts on a show and more recently a Sumatran Tiger and by the looks of the enclosure they maybe planning on getting another one.
Quite different to the Werribee Zoo and Melbourne Zoo this tiger must be quite young as it was very keen to stalk most it's lunch (us) outside the cage and even growled quite often. Something which scared little miss but excited Little Bloke who thought it was funny.
Crunch the crocodile was quite the large bloke who the keepers were quite informative and explained the animals habitat and behaviours and Crunch gave us a show walking out onto the bank.
Even jumping out of the water really high and giving us all a wave.
Crunch is also joined by his girlfriend who the keepers told us was alot more aggressive than Crunch and due to her smaller size was more agile and dangerous.
Ballarat Wildlife Park also has a Tasmanian section where we met Nevil the Devil which was quite the fitting name. Lil Miss had never seen one before and was confused when I spoke about the Tazzie Devil cartoon. Apparently kids aren't into that anymore.
The remains of a Tasmanian Tiger which were made extinct upon English settlement were on display with little miss learning a whole new world about carnivorous and the different kinds of animals Australia has and had..
Little bloke got up close and personal with a Kangaroo and I wanted to show you how dangerous these beautiful creatures can be as tourists do get attacked by roos in the wild.
Check out Skippies claws, those things do serious damage and can claw you apart if they feel threatened. Obviously these roos bred in captivity are used to human interaction but animals in the wild are another ball game. So please be careful if you come across a roo in the wild. They're not nice.
The other Apex preditor we have is the Eagle much larger than the American Bold Eagle these bad boys can take pet cats and dogs for lunch and make a quick meal of them.
Little miss got to test her arm length against the wingspan of an Eagle, impressive.
Also on site are giant turtles, penguins and plenty of reptiles and meetcats as you walk in. You can also purchase special roo food to feed the roos as well as for an additional cost get one on one experience with any of the animals except obviously the tiger. He might eat you for lunch.
Definitely one of the better wild life parks we've been to in Vic and we will definitely be going again!
