Australian Reptile Park Australian Reptile Park News

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Senior Curator Liz Vella with a Veiled Chameleon which is similar to some of the stolen reptiles.
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Both native and exotic species were taken including snakes, iguanas, dragons, geckos, tortoises and American alligator hatchlings.
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I heard a radio interview just now with the senior keeper and she said the reptiles stolen were dragons, iguanas, geckoes, tortoises, pythons and one or more baby alligators. No mention of chameleons.
 
Police have charged three men over the raid, and recovered two Solomon Island Skinks, but the remaining 21 reptiles are still missing.

Story here: No Cookies | thetelegraph.com.au

Three men have been charged over a brazen break-in at a New South Wales reptile park earlier this year, but a baby alligator stolen during the raid, plus many lizards and snakes, have still not been found.

Thieves broke into the Australian Reptile Park on the Central Coast on July 15 and stole 23 animals during a night raid.

The alligator is yet to be found.

There were concerns following the theft that some of the animals would not survive, and that the creatures were destined for sale on the black market.

On Friday detectives arrested three men in a car park near a boat ramp at Brooklyn on the Central Coast, following investigations by police from the Brisbane Water Local Area Command.

Police were able to recover two Solomon Island skinks which had been stolen during the raid, which have now been returned to the reptile park.

‘‘It will be alleged the men were in the process of selling the reptiles for $5,000 each,’’ NSW police said in a statement.

However, no other reptiles stolen during the raid have been located.

"The alligator is yet to be found," said a police spokeswoman.

The Australian Reptile Park's operations manager Tim Faulkner said the two returned reptiles were in poor health.

“The skinks are in poor health right now; they were returned to us suffering malnutrition and dehydration."

"Their body temperature was cold and one had sustained some burns. We are hoping that with the appropriate medical treatment and care, they will recover."

But he said staff held "grave fears" for the safety of the other reptiles.

Three young men, from Berala, Chester Hill and Lidcombe, have been charged in relation to the incident.

One of them, aged 18, has been charged with receiving stolen property and was refused bail to appear at Gosford Local Court on Saturday, according to police.

The other two, both aged 19, were granted conditional bail to appear at Gosford Local Court on October 22.

Police are still urging anyone with knowledge of the raid or the location of the other reptiles to call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

Read more: Men charged over reptile park raid
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NSW reptile park calls for funnel webs

A NSW reptile park wants the public to catch deadly funnel web spiders to help make antivenom. Funnel web season has started, and the Australian Reptile Park has put the call out because of a shortage of spiders to milk. But as eager as the Central Coast park is for the arachnids, curator Liz Vella does not want people to put themselves in danger while trying to catch them. The park says it is the sole supplier of funnel web poison for antivenom production. 'Our milking technique extracts more venom than before, and last season our team of five milkers completed 1500 milkings,' Ms Vella said. She said the park was aiming for 3000 milkings this season. NSW recorded 13 deaths from funnel webs before the antivenom was developed 33 years ago, and there have been none since it was introduced in 1981. The spiders can be found across southeastern Australia, but the only known killer is the Sydney funnel web, which is found from Newcastle to the Illawarra. The Australian Reptile Park website features a video with instructions on how to catch the spiders safely, along with a list of drop-off points in Sydney.
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Twin bilbies born:

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There will be double the celebrations at the Australian Reptile Park this Easter weekend, with a rare sighting of twin baby bilbies.

Little Adoni and Alkina will be the star attractions at the park’s Easter Bilby Show when they make a very rare appearance out of their burrows.

Taking place from Friday to Easter Monday, the show is in recognition of the iconic Aussie Easter Bilby, one of Australia’s most endangered marsupials.

“We’re proud to surface our baby bilbies and their parents to be on show at a time when Australians pay attention to them over Easter, it’s a very rare sighting considering today’s populations are isolated to arid areas in WA, Northern Territory and Queensland, where they are considered endangered,” Australian Reptile Park general manager Tim Faulkner said.

The twin bilbies, who are now six months’ old, were born at the park as part of its breeding program and in partnership with the Save the Bilby Fund.

Mr Faulkner said there were now fewer than 1000 bilbies in the wild with numbers decreasing.

“There are many recovery projects in progress to save the bilby.

“The Australian Reptile Park may only have a small breeding program, but it’s a successful one, where they are free from feral foxes and cats which are the main cause for reducing the species to such low numbers,” he said.

See the Easter Bilby at the Australian Reptile Park in Somersby from this Friday to Easter Monday both in the nocturnal house and in the Easter Bilby Show. Details: reptilepark.com.au

BILBY BASICS

In recent years the bilby has been put forward as a new Easter symbol for Australia

The bilby is a small marsupial with a long nose and tail, however it shares one feature with the Easter Bunny, and that is its huge ears. In fact, bilbies are also known as rabbit-eared bandicoots

Bilbies have long ears so when they’re digging, a portion of them remains above ground level so they can hear predator danger

They have approximately 28 teeth

Bilbies are solitary and nocturnal

Their burrows can be 3m in length and 1.8m deep

The bilby is part of the bandicoot family. It has one of the shortest gestation periods of any Australian marsupial – 14 days
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Australian Reptile Park breaks record for most king brown snake venom taken in one milking:

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HE’s a king by name and Chewie today proved he was worthy of the regal title as he helped the Australian Reptile Park break its own record for the most king brown snake venom taken from a single milking.

Two reptile handlers using nothing more than their bare hands and a shot glass were able to extract 1.5g of venom from Chewie, breaking the previous record of the most king brown snake venom taken from a single milking by 0.2g.

A king brown snake commonly delivers 0.8g in one bite.

“Chewie has smashed the average,” head of reptiles at the park, Billy Collett, said.

After milking, the venom is freeze dried and used to produce anti-venom.
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"Petition attracts 16,000 signatures to save reptile park’s snapping turtle":

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THE Australian Reptile Park has come under fire after an online petition attracted* more than 16,000 signatures to save the zoo’s alligator snapping turtle named Leonardo.

Melinda Sheldon, of Bateau Bay, started the “Save Leonardo, the Largest Alligator Snapping Turtle in Australia” petition on change.org in a bid to force the zoo to build it a larger tank.

She said she visited the park in November and was “horrified” by his enclosure after learning he had been in it for more than 15 years and was only released once a year for his annual health check.

“During this time, he has nearly doubled in size, and now weighs more than 45 kilos (100 pounds),” she wrote on the petition.

“In the wild, Leonardo could walk along the bottom of a stream, able to forage over a large territory, and to breed.

“Instead he is stuck in a tiny barren enclosure, with nothing but rocks and concrete, where he has barely enough room to even turn around.”

Leonardo was smuggled illegally* into Australia and was found, Ninja Turtle style, in a Sydney drain in 2000 before he was adopted by the reptile park.

“I’m sure it’s all legally compliant but is it morally right?” Ms Sheldon said.

Australian Reptile Park chief executive Tim Faulkner, who was named Australian National Geographic Society’s conservationist of the year in 2015, said alligator snapping turtles were sedentary by nature.

He said the RSPCA had inspected* Leonardo’s enclosure and was satisfied he was “healthy, happy and well cared for”.

However, Mr Faulkner said “considerations are in place” and he may be moved to a new enclosure when the zoo builds a new aquatic display* next year.

Ms Sheldon said “that’s great news”.
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