It’s all hands-on at the Australian Reptile Park these days with the introduction of Snappy Hour, when visitors to the park are invited to get up close, pat and even hold a wide selection of the animals on view here.
In fact on busy days throughout the school holidays Snappy Hour lasts pretty much all day as keepers wander throughout the park and keep visitors entertained while they queue to get in or wait for shows to start. The crowds here this Summer are the biggest the Reptile Park has seen in some time and general manager Mary Raynor couldn’t be happier.
“We haven’t seen crowds this big since the park reopened after the fire back in 2000 and for the late Eric the crocodile’s 60th birthday in 2006. We’ve had about 1800 people through the gates today and our record is 2300. It’s great because our staff are really excited about it and everyone’s out there helping each other.
“In quieter times Snappy Hour goes from 11am till 230pm when we have park staff and volunteers come out to help but during school holidays we have animal interaction from 9am till 4pm in the afternoon.
So what has inspired this hands-on approach?
“I’ve been looking for ways to make the zoo’s experience more personal and it fits because we are in the Australian bush, we are nice and small and to make the experience greater we thought, let’s bring the animals to the visitors. So you can now have photos with the animals, hold them, pat them and get really close to them.
“I think people are really appreciative that we all make a real effort to ensure everyone is happy. As soon as a queue appears the keepers appear with animals to show visitors, walking the line giving them animal experiences. All our staff and volunteers have been trained to understand that the visitors are the most important people in the zoo.”
The reptile park has been setting standards in innovation and conservation for many years. They have been supplying snake and funnel-web spider venom to the Commonwealth Serum Laboratories (CSL) for 60 years and recently undertook their biggest ever breeding program to help conserve the Tasmanian devil population.
“Working with the CSL for 60 years now we have probably saved at least 16,000 lives in Australia and probably the same again in New Guinea.”
The Reptile Park has had its share of misfortune over the years, not least being the storms that lashed the central coast in 2007 taking away a large part of the old Pacific Highway and the park’s main access point as well as contributing to the death of its major attraction, Eric the crocodile. With the world economic crisis following in 2009, it’s great to see the park bounce back again.
And all this has been achieved with no big international backer. The Reptile Park is completely independent and reliant entirely on people through the gate to survive.
The animals here are a mix of domestic and exotic reptiles, including a Galapagos tortoise who goes for a walkabout every day, a giant snapping turtle found in a Sydney stormwater drain (yes, just like the Teenage Mutant variety) and a new addition, Libby, a 55cm long 25kg African spur tortoise.
And there are plenty of furry babies too, including wombats, koalas and of course, Tassie devils.
www.reptilepark.com.au
