Species kept at the Australian Reptile Park

steveroberts

steveroberts

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5+ year member
With special thanks to Zooboy28 and all the other people who have archived the species of animals that are held/kept in zoos/wildlifeparks/aquariums/private facilities etc. I have wanted for so long to find a comprehensive list of all species kept at the Australian Reptile Park. I read a species inventory from the Eric Worrell days in the 60s and 70s from his 2010 published biography 'Snake Bitten' by the talented Nancy Cushing and Kevin Markwell (very worth reading anyone who hasnt already). But from the information on Zooboy28's list of exotic reptiles and amphibians in Australian facilities aswell as the Aus Reptile Park website, I made a list today of the species I could determine that are kept at the park. Please any assistance in adding or removing species would be amazing.

Australian Repitle Park, Somersby, NSW.

Assumed species list as of 10/11/2020.

REPTILES (approx 66 species)

American Alligator
Saltwater Crocodile
Freshwater Crocodile
Alligator Snapping Turtle
Broad-Shelled Long-Necked Turtle
Eastern Long-Neck Turtle
Manning River Turtle
Murray River Turtle
Galapagos Giant Tortoise
Star Tortoise
Leopard Tortoise
Philippine Sailfin Lizard
Frilled Neck Lizard
Eastern Water Dragon
Eastern Bearded Dragon
Southern Forest Dragon
Central Netted Dragon
Schetopusik
Veiled Chameleon
Bavay's Giant Geckp
Madagascan Giant Day Gecko
Cuvier's Caledonian Gecko
Reticulated Gila Monster
Fijian Banded Iguana
Fijian Crested Iguana
Rhinoceros Iguana
Green Iguana
Solomon Island Skink
Blotched Blue-Tongue Lizard
Eastern Blue-Tongue Lizard
Shingleback Lizard
Land Mullet
Cunningham's Skink
Hosmer's Skink
Eastern Water Skink
Black and White Tegu
Komodo Dragon
Perentie
Lace Monitor
Merten's Water Monitor
Freckled Monitor
Short-Tailed Pygmy Monitor
Green Anaconda
Burmese Python
Ball Python
Reticulated Python
Diamond Python & Jungle Carpet Python
Green Tree Python
Spotted Python
Rough Scaled Python
Black-Headed Python
Stimson's Python
Woma Python
Olive Python
Corn Snake
King Cobra
Brown Tree Snake
Common Death Adder
Fierce Snake
Coastal Taipan
Eastern Brown Snake
King Brown Snake
Mainland Tiger Snake
Red Bellied Black Snake
Lowland Copperhead Snake
Western Diamondback Rattlesnake


AMPHIBIANS: (approx 8 species)

Cane Toad
Green and Golden Bell Frog
Green Tree Frog
Magnificent Tree Frog
Peron's Tree Frog
Striped Marsh Frog
Blue-Poison-Arrow Frog & Dyeing-Poison-Arrow Frog

MAMMALS (approx 18 species)

Platypus
Short-Beaked Echidna
Grey Headed Flying Fox
Dingo
Tasmanian Devil
Eastern Quoll
Ringtail Possum
Mountain Pygmy Possum
Feathertail Glider
Greater Bilby
Bare-Nosed Wombat
Koala
Red Kangaroo
Eastern Grey Kangaroo
Kangaroo Island Kangaroo (Western Grey)
Yellow-Footed Rock Wallaby
Parma Wallaby
Quokka


BIRDS (approx 27 species)

Emu
Double-Wattle Cassowary
Bookbook Owl
Barn Owl
Tawny Frogmouth
Laughing Kookaburra
Blue-Winged Kookaburra
Major Mitchell Cockatoo
King Parrot
Rainbow Lorikeet
Scaly-Breasted Lorikeet
Cape Barren Geese
Australian Bustard
Black-Winged Stilt
Banded Lapwing
Bush-Stone Curlew
Green Catbird
White Browed Woodswallow
Satin Bowerbird
Brown Cuckoo Dove
Common Bronzewing
Wonga Pigeon
Torresian Imperial Pigeon
White Headed Pigeon
Topknot Pigeon
Regent Honeyeater
Blue Faced Honeyeater

Spiders (11 species)

Mexican Red-Kneed Tarantula
Peruvian Pink-Toed Tarantula
Brazilian Salmon Pink Bird Eating Spider
Australian Bird Eating Spider
Sydney Funnel Web Spider
Trapdoor Spider
Mouse Spider
Wolf Spider
Red-Backed Spider
White Tailed Spider
Huntsman Spider

Approx 130 species at the Australian Reptile Park
 
Sorry should also mention I'm sure theres more reptile, amphibian, mammal, bird, arachnids and possibly insect and fish species kept here I just wanted to possibly open a discussion thread about the current and past species that have lived here. I find it a shame that species of Tree Kangaroo, New Guinean Singing Dogs, Marsupial Gliders, Cuscus, Mambas, Vipers, Dragons Lizards, Terrapins, Newt/Salamanders to name a few I know of have been housed here in the past and are no longer.
 
Here are some additions to the list from the park's Facebook page over the past year. I have added scientific names for the lesser-known species:

Mammals:
*Fat-tailed Dunnart [most recent mention was June 2020]
*Tiger Quoll [most recent mention was June 2020]
*Rufous Bettong [most recent mention was November 2020]
*Goodfellow’s Tree Kangaroo – 1.1 pair [last mentioned in September 2020]

Note: They also received Red-tailed Phascogales (Phascogale calura) a few years ago but it seems like they are no longer at the park probably because they are such a short-lived species.

Birds:
*Red-browed Fig Parrot [mentioned in October 2020]
*Eclectus Parrot [bred in August 2020]
*Sacred Kingfisher [mentioned in June 2020]
*Eastern Grass Owl [their pair had a chick which was announced in July 2020]

Reptiles:
*Pig-nosed Turtle [mentioned in June 2020]
*Red-faced Turtle (Emydura victoriae) [mentioned in May 2020, on-display in Lost World of Reptiles area]
*Worrells’s Turtle (Emydura subglobosa worrelli) [on-display in Lost World of Reptiles area]
*Midline Knob-tailed Gecko (Nephrurus vertebralis) [mentioned in April 2020]
*Night Skink (Liopholis striata ) [on-display in Lost World of Reptiles area]
*Pygmy Bearded Dragon (Pogona minor) [on-display in Lost World of Reptiles area]
*Pygmy Mulga Snake (Pseudechis weigeli) [on-display in Lost World of Reptiles area]

Amphibians:
*Northern Corroboree Frog (Pseudophryne pengilleyi) [mentioned in April 2020]
 
While it's an impressive collection, they have possibly got a bigger range of herps offshow. I remember post-fire that they received donations from collections around the world. I once saw some Boelen's pythons (never seen them anywhere else), which never went on display. Massive collection of venomous stock - spiders and snakes. For example, I'd imagine they would have a number of the different death adder species.
 
Yeah that makes total sense come to think of it considering their iextemely mpressive venom milking work in supplying the serum anti-venom labs (wow more than 70 years now I realise while typing this, having started at Mr Worrell's first facility 'Ocean Beach Aquarium' at Umina in '48 or '49.

Even though this next comment is a bit of a tangent from the thread subject itself I just wanted to share it. Have been curious for ages about the specific location of the original park and found when looking it up the archived brochures always said to just turn right before the 'Ploddy the Dinosaur' model and Pacific Hwy, Wyoming. Found an archived map from 1970s (tried uploading it but got reminded of copyright) from a Gosford history flickr site. But the map shows Wingello Creek running through the western portion of the park. So when looking on googleearth/googlemaps, found the spot and found that sometime after 1996 it became the site of new streets and houses (not surprising) but was nice to see they named a crescent street after Eric Worrell (Worrell Circuit) and on the side of the street Wingello Crescent that borders the creek there is a crocodile statue and benches as a memorial to the park and I assume Eric Worrell himself. It almost seems like the current location of Aldi Wyoming at 489 Pacific Hwy would have been the original main entrance building.

Btw it was really sad to hear about that fire, the poor animals that died.

P.S I believe the address of Mr Worrell's Ocean Beach Aquarium betwen '49 and '58
was 198 West Street, Umina Beach (now a real estate agency). Oh and I just found out apparently he started milking snake venom for the serum lab in 1951 and by mid 1954 had milked 10,000 snakes.
 
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steveroberts said:
Found an archived map from 1970s (tried uploading it but got reminded of copyright) from a Gosford history flickr site.
Click to expand...
Bit cheeky being hauled up for copyright violation when there is no way the owner of the flickr site could be the copyright holder.
 
Its a great map (in terms of a small wildlife facility in Australia in 1970s). I was thinking of posting link to it here but I might get in trouble for that too.
 
Hey this is the Reptile Park's snake and lizard species inventory list from January 1979. The list provided by Nancy Cushing and Kevin Markwell from their brilliant biography of Eric Worrell and the Park 'Snake Bitten' (2010)
I counted approx' 64 names on the species inventory list though some are
specific subspecies of species like multiple Tiger Snakes subspecies for example. I
noticed it doesn't include the testudinidaes or crocodilians the park would have had like a large number of American Alligators, Freshwater and Saltwater Crocodiles, and I think maybe New Guinean Crocodiles and False Gharials still. Obviously too the inventorywasnt meant to list the various mammals, birds and fish the park kept. Its a cool list Imust say and again its from 1979 still during Eric Worrell's proprietorship and when the park was still located at its Wyoming/North Gosford site. It does list bullfrogs on list even though it seems to be specifically about lizards and snakes:

SINGLE ANIMALS
1 frilled lizard 1 Bengal monitor 1 tegu 1 mangrove monitor 1 western rattlesnake
1 western diamondback rattlesnake 1 black mamba 1 sidewinder 1 speckled rattlesnake 1 rhinoceros viper 1 Gaboon viper 1 tuatara 1 black head python 1 carpet python 1 boa constrictor 1 Indian python 1 amethystine python 1 Haitian boa 1 tokay gecko 1 red blacksnake 1 juvenile brown tree snake 1 Gould’s monitor 1 Gippsland water dragon
PAIRS
2 taipans 2 king browns 2 blue-bellied black snakes 2 King Island tiger snakes 2 Flinders tiger snakes 2 kraits 2 wagglers pit vipers 2 black mambas 2 monocled cobras 2 speckled rattlesnakes 2 western diamondback rattlesnakes 2 red rattlesnakes 2 Gila monsters 2 anacondas 2 prehensile-tailed skinks
2 pink-tongue skinks 2 death adders 2 Burtons legless lizards 2 swamp snakes 2 bullfrogs 2 green iguanas
MULTIPLE 3 king cobras 3 water moccasins 3 Chappell Island tiger snakes 3 western brown snakes 3 puff adders 3 reticulated pythons 3 boa constrictors 3 mangrove snakes 3 carpet pythons 4 African pythons
4 southern blotched blue-tongues 4 Children’s pythons 5 sand monitors 5 diamond pythons 5 Gillen’s pygmy monitors 5–6 shinglebacks 9 lace monitor 5 brown snakes 25 tiger snakes 30 black snakes
 
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& sorry should have mentioned that the Tuatara mentioned is not a lizard. Apparently two were given to the park as a gift from the NZ government in 1965.
 
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