

Polly want a cracker?
Today's adventure for you to read about is at
the Bunbury Wildlife Park, and just in time for the school holidays.
Last year we found ourselves visiting many places to do with animals
such as the
Australian Zoo, and the
Australian Reptile Park but
towards the end of the year we were starting to get a bit tired of
them. We've now taken enough of a break from them to be ready to go
again.

Bunbury Wildlife Park
is a great place for families to visit. It is highly interactive, and
big enough to spend anywhere from an hour to a couple of hours there,
making it a great place to take the kids. There is a wide variety of
Australian native birds, mammals, and marsupials, as well as some
international parrots too. It is spacious and flat with plenty of shade. It is also a nice
place for a picnic, either bring a rug, to lay it out on the grass or find yourself seated at the picnic tables. There's even a BBQ provided for your convenience. If you are
feeling like a coffee before or after your adventure with the children there is
a cafe near the entrance. As mentioned in our
Bunbury blog there is a
big wheelchair inclusive playground next door, and the big swamp walk
across the road, for afterwards if you and the children still have energy
to burn.

As I mentioned Bunbury Wildlife Park is highly interactive for the young and younger. Upon entering the the park
you are given the opportunity to buy some animal feed for the
kangaroos and some of the birds. It turns out you don't really
need this for great interaction with the animals but children certainly get a buzz out of it. Within a minute of
entering our first aviary for the day a beautiful, green Eclectus
Parrot flew down and landed on Cameron's shoulder. We read on the
information sign that once they choose a spot for their nests they
can become quite protective of it. He was wearing a hoodie so thought
it may have decided to go in there, but it didn't actually go in the
hoodie part, it just sat on the outside. Not really sure what was actually happening, but it
seemed like it was doing some sort of mating ritual with him. The best I can do to describe it is that it was humping and dancing
on Cameron's shoulder. Quite strange to watch, and fairly strange for
Cameron to experience. It didn't even seem to notice when I patted
it. This happened in the smaller aviary. There is a beautiful
collection of many varieties of parrots in this aviary with
information on all of them.

What happened in the
large aviary was coming across some territorial ducks. Having had
family friends in the past who had pet ducks, I don't underestimate
them when they become territorial. They chase you, make angry
sounding quacks, and if they get close enough peck you, so we got
away from them quickly. Apart from the ducks there were some other
beautiful birds in here.


There were quite a few
enclosures around the park that had warning signs about the animals
biting fingers. Most Australian adults have at one time, (or more),
in their lives, probably as a child, stuck their fingers in the cage
of a cockatoo or galah and gotten their fingers bitten, and needless
to say most will never do it again as the pain is one that would rather be forgotten. These birds are an example
of look but don't touch. They are not meat eaters, but their beaks are powerful and sharp. There are many other interactive parts in
the park to pat and feed the animals but take heed
of the warnings. DON'T STICK YOUR FINGERS IN ANY COCKATOO CAGE EVER!
It hurts.
The day we visited the park the sun
was partially shining, (by this I mean it wasn't raining which is why we took
the opportunity to get out of the house), and the kangaroos were
happy to laze around sunning themselves. For food all they had to do was
wait until a child came in and force fed it, (I mean this in the nicest possible way), while parents stood back
and took photos. All parties happy. Seriously though, even if you
are an adult, patting the kangaroos is nice as their fur is soft, and
you wouldn't get that opportunity in the wild, as you run the risk of
them kicking you, if they didn't bounce away first. The kangaroos at
the Bunbury Wildlife Park are tame and used to people, just like the
parrots.

We had a lovely day as
we meandered through the park. Our favourite bird was Ruby, another
Eclectus Parrot that was bright red instead of green. We
picked up quickly that one of her carers must be a smoker, because
she did the perfect imitation of a smokers cough. It was hilarious,
and made our day.
- Happy travels, Jeni.
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