Australian Reptile Park Australian Reptile Park News

Australian Reptile Park updates:

From socials:

New Dingo pup (Chilli)

Three Tasmanian devils joeys are being hand reared by keepers (Shaggy, Scooby and Daphne)

Two Koala joeys being hand reared by keepers (Edgar and Honey); with another five emerging from their mother’s pouches.
 
Hello!

I will be visiting Australia for the first time in a couple months time now, and hope to get a visit in to the reptile park.

My main question for this zoo is roughly how long I should expect a visit to be? Due to some time constraints, I'm having to combine a few collections into one day, but I'm not sure if I'm being too ambitious. Having an idea of roughly how long this park takes to visit might help me with that.

I'm also curious if the park has the phascogales, Broad-Headed Snake, endangered turtles, and corroboree frogs on-display?

As many on ZC may know, I'm someone who's interested in pretty much any and all wildlife, so if anyone has any advice on the best methods to see certain species or tips on particularly hard to see animals at the zoo, I'm all ears!

Thank you in advance!

~Thylo
 
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ThylacineAlive said:
Hello!

I will be visiting Australia for the first time in a couple months time now, and hope to get a visit in to the reptile park.

My main question for this zoo is roughly how long I should expect a visit to be? Due to some time constraints, I'm having to combine a few collections into one day, but I'm not sure if I'm being too ambitious. Having an idea of roughly how long this park takes to visit might help me with that.

I'm also curious if the park has the phascogales, Broad-Headed Snake, endangered turtles, and corroboree frogs on-display?

As many on ZC may know, I'm someone who's interested in pretty much any and all wildlife, so if anyone has any advice on the best methods to see certain species or tips on particularly hard to see animals at the zoo, I'm all ears!

Thank you in advance!

~Thylo
Click to expand...


The park isnt overly big, easily done in a few hours (2 to 3), depending on how much time you spend at exhibits. I have walked around the whole thing in about an hour before, I was there for uni and a quick look nothing to extensive with trying to see things. I havent been in 12 months or so. im not sure if those species are still on display. The reptile park is probably a 1 1/2 hour drive from Sydney. They say its an hour drive, which it is at the dead of night, with no traffic.
 
@Osedax

Thanks, was glad to find it.

Yeah the owner of the park got some (I think from Taronga) and had them until some point in the late 1970s or the 1980s (the park had a number of New Guinean species like Tree Kangaroos (Goodfellow's I think) and Cuscuses and might of been Dorcopsis Wallabies during that era (and Cassowary but they were sourced from north Queensland).

Map 1972 (source: Australian Reptile Park, Wyoming map, 1972)

2or21X2.jpg
 
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WhistlingKite24 said:
In a few weeks, the Australian Reptile Park will be opening a new venom facility with a visitor section including new enclosures for snakes and spiders along with holding space for 200 snakes to be milked for venom to supply the creation of antivenom - reported on social media.
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That has been a long haul to get this finished.
 
@Tiger91

Private facility, very very very limited government funding (and only a handful of times have even gotten that) pretty much everything financial is from visitors entry admissions, park friends annual memberships, getting lucky with sponsorships on the occasional 'blue moon' and their venom supply to the Commonwealth Serum Laboratories and Seqiris their subsidiary (and they deliberately set a very low price for their venom supply yield invoices to the CSL as part of good working relationship with them and not to monopolise on a national (and international a lot like Papua New Guinea) health and safety venture they're proud to be involved in). The park's owners, management individuals and keepers etc variously have collectively over decades had a long history of patience and 'holding the fort' through adverse time periods of little financial stability but still doing its thing awesomely after 65+ years. Fair few of their projects and upgrades have taken a lot longer than had hoped for in completing because of those reasons.
 
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steveroberts said:
@Tiger91

Private facility, very very very limited government funding (and only a handful of times have even gotten that) pretty much everything financial is from visitors entry admissions, park friends annual memberships, getting lucky with sponsorships on the occasional 'blue moon' and their venom supply to the Commonwealth Serum Laboratories and Seqiris their subsidiary (and they deliberately set a very low price for their venom supply yield invoices to the CSL as part of good working relationship with them and not to monopolise on a national (and international a lot like Papua New Guinea) health and safety venture they're proud to be involved in). The park's owners, management individuals and keepers etc variously have collectively over decades had a long history of patience and 'holding the fort' through adverse time periods of little financial stability but still doing its thing awesomely after 65+ years. Fair few of their projects and upgrades have taken a lot longer than had hoped for in completing because of those reasons.
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They did get funding of the federal government for it 580,000. and 300,000 from NSW health and the state government. Of memory they are the only facility doing it now, while they may not charge as extravagantly as they could. I doubt the park would have financial issues with it happening in the background. Antivnom doesn't have the longest shelf life. All emergency departments have to have x amount on hand at any given time.
 
Does anyone know what frog species are actually on-exhibit in the frog ark? I found their signage vs what seemed to be in the few tanks I found frogs in to be very confusing. The tadpole tanks seemed to be entirely unsigned as well. I'm sure it would be a lot of upkeep to constantly change signed around for the tadpoles but it would be nice to know which endangered species I saw.

Similar situation with the turtle hatchlings but at least the adults are properly labeled.

Also, I had no idea they had a Lumholtz Tree-Kangaroo!! That was a fantastic surprise.

~Thylo
 
WhistlingKite24 said:
Neither did I! Thanks for posting it here. Any Goodfellow’s Tree-Kangaroos still at the park?
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I didn't see any, no. Has the news been posted here about them acquiring Barrington population Broad-Toothed Rats? I wasn't aware of them either and the building they're in isn't marked on the map. They're impossible to actually see of course, but still neat they have them!

~Thylo
 
ThylacineAlive said:
I didn't see any, no. Has the news been posted here about them acquiring Barrington population Broad-Toothed Rats? I wasn't aware of them either and the building they're in isn't marked on the map. They're impossible to actually see of course, but still neat they have them!

~Thylo
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It was posted that Aussie Ark (their sister conservation site) got them but not the actual reptile park itself - very cool.
 
Other 2024 News:
On August 13th, the zoo announced that they transferred a (1.0) common wombat named Wilbur to Cedar Creek Wombat Rescue in New South Wales to be eventually released into the wild.

259K views · 14K reactions | Goodbye Wilbur After being found on the side of the road when his mum was hit by a car, Wilbur was tiny when we welcomed him to the park. He was then... | By Australian Reptile Park | Facebook

On November 29th, the zoo announced they transferred 2 Tasmanian devils named Charlie and Lola to Aussie Ark in New South Wales to be eventually released into the wild.

15K views · 764 reactions | Shaggy, Scooby & Daphne are now on display! These little devils were so excited to explore their new enclosure and are even more excited to see all of you everyday! ✨️ Our other Tasmanian devils Charlie & Lola have now returned back to @aussieark where they will live life to the fullest! #tasmaniandevils #tassiedevils #aussieanimals #cuteanimals #lovecentralcoast | Australian Reptile Park

On March 20th, the zoo announced that (1.1) Tasmanian devils named Stich and Lilo were born.

14K views · 620 reactions | Adorable Baby Tassie Devils - Lilo & Stitch! | We've teamed up with Aussie Ark to hand-raise two adorable Tasmanian Devil joeys - Lilo & Stitch! Aussie Ark’s fabled ‘Devil Whisperer’, Dean Reid, is... | By Australian Reptile Park | Facebook

On June 12th, the zoo announced that a (0.1) eastern grey kangaroo named Hopscotch was born which is on exhibit.

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=424238433919377

On June 19th, the zoo announced that a koala named Pedro was born.

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=492749853281679

On July 3rd, the zoo announced that 2 dingos named Bandit and Bluey were born.

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=1016374546551651

On November 20th, the zoo announced that a common wombat named Bucky was born.

55K views · 3.4K reactions | Meet Bucky, our newest and cutest wombat joey! #wombat #wombatwednesday #aussieanimals #cuteanimals #lovecentralcoast | Australian Reptile Park

WhistlingKite24 said:
In a few weeks, the Australian Reptile Park will be opening a new venom facility with a visitor section including new enclosures for snakes and spiders along with holding space for 200 snakes to be milked for venom to supply the creation of antivenom - reported on social media.
Click to expand...

On December 12th, the zoo opened the Weignel Venom Centre to the public.

11K views · 462 reactions | The brand-new Weigel Venom Centre is now open!! This state-of-the-art venom facility will help us save around 300 lives each and every year, plus help educate the public on venomous snakes for years to come! Come check it out for yourself right now at the Australian Reptile Park #australianreptilepark #snakes #snake #australiansnake #aussiesnakes #venomoussnakes #savinglives | Australian Reptile Park
Australian Reptile Park
 
Four Broad-headed snakes have arrived:

From Aussie Ark newsletter:

We've done it! We've successfully bred the endangered Broad-headed Snake! One of our wild-born females has given birth to four exquisite baby snakes.

This represents success for Aussie Ark's world-first wild-sourced breeding and re-wilding program, and hope for the species which otherwise faces imminent extinction in the wild.

The baby snakes are now growing and thriving in Aussie Ark's Conservation Ark facility in the grounds of the Australian Reptile Park.
 
Zoofan15 said:
Four Broad-headed snakes have arrived:

From Aussie Ark newsletter:

We've done it! We've successfully bred the endangered Broad-headed Snake! One of our wild-born females has given birth to four exquisite baby snakes.

This represents success for Aussie Ark's world-first wild-sourced breeding and re-wilding program, and hope for the species which otherwise faces imminent extinction in the wild.

The baby snakes are now growing and thriving in Aussie Ark's Conservation Ark facility in the grounds of the Australian Reptile Park.
Click to expand...

As someone less familiar with this program, can someone explain what is meant by "world-first wild-sourced breeding"? When I was in Australia, I saw Broad-Headed Snakes at several collections, including the reptile park. I thought (perhaps assumed) there was an active breeding program for this species participated by a number of zoos. Is this actually the first captive breeding of this species? And all others I saw in zoos were wild-born?

~Thylo
 
ThylacineAlive said:
As someone less familiar with this program, can someone explain what is meant by "world-first wild-sourced breeding"? When I was in Australia, I saw Broad-Headed Snakes at several collections, including the reptile park. I thought (perhaps assumed) there was an active breeding program for this species participated by a number of zoos. Is this actually the first captive breeding of this species? And all others I saw in zoos were wild-born?

~Thylo
Click to expand...
Yes they are the first successful hatching in captivity for this species.

All individuals in captivity would therefore be wild caught - Australian Zoos do receive a lot of snakes that come in for a multitude of reasons as rescues, however I think in this case, a specific breeding program has been set up for this species who are one of the most endangered snakes in the country (ie. snakes would've been sourced from the wild to create an insurance population).
 
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