The Australian Reptile Park was founded by a fella by the name of Eric Worrel and
he did a tonne of work developing antivenom in the early days. Today the park has a huge collection of American alligators, a big croc named Elvis, heaps of cuddly koala's, kangaroos, wallabies and of course a grand collection of reptiles! We were even lucky enough to spot a water dragon riding a triceratops.


One lizard in particular I found really interesting was the Black and White Tegu. This beauty was one of four that live in Australia. Originally found in Argentina these guys get knocked off by farmers due to the fact they quite enjoy chomping down on chickens. A breeding plan is in action, however the other three that call Australia home are female and like to beat up the much larger male. Women!

The Tasmanian Devil is a rather interesting critter from the south, a carnivorous marsupial with a population in decline. The Australian Reptile Park have a few of these li'l guys on display and if you time it right you can watch them feed. There is a contagious cancer which is killing them in the wild, however an initiative of the park is "Devil Ark". It's exactly as it sounds, they have a big property with a bunch of devils living in contained wild enclosures. If they do go extinct in the wild, the devils from the ark will be strategically released for repopulation. If you would like to read more about the issues facing the devils, Devil Ark or would like to donate, check out the Devil Ark page here.

The Australian Reptile Park also have several behind the scenes tours you can do for a bit extra. On this particular trip we didn't get involved as Evelyn and Charlotte wanted the beach, but if you got a bit of extra cash and want to see some snake/spider milking and some extra reptiles it is definitely worth enquiring about.
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