This is obviously the highlight show for Australia Zoo, given the founders penchant for pulling the tails on wild crocs for fun (and for TV) so I wasn’t sure what I was going to see here, but I was pleasantly surprised. It came with a strong environmental message, and a lot of “leave them alone and they will leave you alone” safety tips (that I found a little ironic)
But it was a good show and I enjoyed it. The end where they bought around some snakes for us to see up close (and photograph) was very cool (its the closest I have ever been to a snake before – we don’t have then in NZ), I did ask if we were allowed to touch, but not this time. Given the number in the audience, was quite understandable.
On with the Show!
In the background while they were introducing the show came a guy with a large snake wrapped around his torso. To my surprise, fully dressed he walked into the pool with the snake
And then he and the snake swam under water back into the stadium! Check out how long it is and he was about 6 foot tall!
My up close snake encounter – I was surprised how beautiful the markings were and how shiny it was
The croc show was quite interesting, it was very educational, and I was surprised HOW BIG the animal was
They talked a lot about behaviour and how they attack – this is the big POUNCE out of the water
And gulping down the fish reward for the pounce
Now it started to rain and was getting darker, so action shots were a bit more problematic – esp as I was quite some distance away from the action. It was the kind of shot that required you to have good understanding of the benefits of faster ISO, and the right kind of shutterspeed required to capture the frozen image. Im pleased I managed to capture this in the circumstances. Showing how they use their tails to leap frighteningly high out of the water
Shot taken at 100% crop post waterline pounce – the water is streaming off the top of his head and jaw
Amazingly cute babies for such a fearsome creature!
So that ends the stories of my Zoo trips to Australia, hope you enjoyed the photos. If you are in the area I recommend going for a visit to either venue, I greatly enjoyed both venues and would happily go back again. Thanks to my Dad for patiently driving me all over the place even though the holiday kinda lost the plot after the earthquake. I will come back and have a proper one, promise 🙂
Learning to See Light 