59) Fleay's Wildlife Park - more critters!

Some things in OZ just wait for you.....

Some things continue to look at you long after you think they are gone (a python snake skin)

David Fleay was a remarkable naturalist conservationist and an early proponent of helping out Australia's threatened species. He has the 'fame' of being the last one to photograph the (now extinct) thylacine (Tasmanian tiger) (and was bitten in the but in the process!). He established a conservation park in the Tallebudgera Estuary (just down the street) in 1958. He wrote numerous books and articles and was famous for major success in breeding programs including the first breeding in captivity of the Emu, and the only success with the platypus, several bird species including the Tawny Frogmouth, and marsupials including the Koala, the first taipan (Fierce Snake). Possibly his best known successes at Fleays Wildlife Park were with owls and other birds of prey. His was the first known captive breeding of the powerful owl (1968), sooty owl (1969), grey goshawk (1971), mainland masked owl (1971), grass owl (1972), Pacific baza (1975) and the wedge-tailed eagle (1977). In 1988 Fleay successfully bred the yellow-bellied glider Petaurus australis after 60 years of attempting to do so — the first bred in captivity. He also bred snakes and provided venom from death adders, brown snakes, king brown snakes and tiger snakes. (http://www.epa.qld.gov.au/nature_conservation/wildlife/david_fleay_wildlife_park/50_years_wild/david_fleays_achievements/)



A Diamond Python














A cassowary - truly a prehistoric looking critter!












*MORE* stuff you don't want to meet in the wild - or in your house!




















This video is from the platypus tank – they are nocturnal so the light is quite low (it may help to turn the lites in your room low). But they end up squabbling over a crayfish one of them caught – very entertaining (and surprisingly small) critters – one more of AU’s oddities that caused a stir in both the world of biology and in philosophy.