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May 2011 Outing to Hunter Valley Zoo
After an early 8.30am start, we were glad to make a brief stop at Cooranbong Park where we enjoyed our picnic morning tea, as cattle grazed nearby on lush green grass. Hunter Valley Zoo is at Nulkaba in the Cessnock area and we arrived there just in time to pat a 20kg wombat ‘baby’ which was held by one of the friendly keepers. What an armful!
The
koala show was next with many photos taken as we patted 2 of the koalas
which were lazily & sleepily chewing the freshly-picked gum tips. A
large group of volunteers from Newcastle’s Blackbutt Reserve was
visiting the Zoo on a field trip. Some of them were pleased to see, once
again, the male koala which had originally lived at Blackbutt.
We had other close-up, hands-on encounters as we wandered around feeding kangaroos, wallabies, peacocks, parrots and very agile, greedy goats, deer & sheep. The exotic species at the zoo include 4 types of monkeys and American alligators….. the feeding of them is left to the keepers. There were many other species to see including dingoes, emus, reptiles large & small, venomous & non-venomous, as well as countless varieties of birds of all colours.
Not long after we set off on our return trip to Alloura Waters, the newest star exhibits arrived…..3 more American alligators. They, with their keepers, had endured a 3 day, 4000km journey by truck from a Darwin crocodile farm which is closing down. A video clip on NBN TV showed that the alligators were still very aggressive when they arrived at their new home. Let’s hope that Horse, a 3.6 metre, 250kg male and his female companions, Esky & Rolly get on well with the other 4 alligators at Hunter Valley Zoo.