Featherdale Wildlife Park First visit to Featherdale

Simon Hampel

Simon Hampel

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20+ year member
On the recommendation of some of our ZooChat members at our last Sydney ZooChat meetup, I took the family to Featherdale Wildlife Park on the weekend.

I must say, I was pleasantly surprised at the park - they have a lot of animals for what looks like a relatively small park, and I can understand why the birders love it with an extensive collection of aviaries.

I did find it interesting that they have a kangaroo/wallaby feeding area where you can purchase a small ice-cream cone filled with food for them - which makes it quite easy to feed the animals.

We were debating the pros/cons of using ice-cream cones, which are probably quite high in sugar content - not sure how that would impact on the animals, but I figure the benefits of no rubbish left behind and the ease of delivery of the food for visitors, must outweigh the negatives.

I was very impressed by their wombat collection - there were at least three large wombat enclosures with different species, all of which were clearly visible. It can be quite difficult for visitors to get a good look at wombats in your typical zoo - especially if they don't have many of them.

I'll certainly be visiting Featherdale again in the future!

Will try and upload some photos when I get a chance.
 
Sim said:
I did find it interesting that they have a kangaroo/wallaby feeding area where you can purchase a small ice-cream cone filled with food for them - which makes it quite easy to feed the animals.

We were debating the pros/cons of using ice-cream cones, which are probably quite high in sugar content - not sure how that would impact on the animals, but I figure the benefits of no rubbish left behind and the ease of delivery of the food for visitors, must outweigh the negatives.
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one of the odder animal-foods that I've seen for sale is at Natureland in NZ where you can buy little bags of rice bubbles (a breakfast cereal for those not familiar).

Actually, considering that macropods suffer from lumpy-jaw when fed on processed foods like bread (or at least so the National Parks say when asking visitors not to feed the wild animals), wouldn't ice-cream cones have much the same effect?
 
Sim said:
must say, I was pleasantly surprised at the park
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Told you that you'd like it!

Incidentally, I think those ice cream cones (unless they are 'waffle cones') are either very low or completely lacking in sugar.

:p

Hix
 
Crikey!As a famous Aussie would have once said.You live in Sydney..how come it took you so long to get there? Ive been and i live in Yorkshire!
 
Tim Brown said:
Crikey!As a famous Aussie would have once said.You live in Sydney..how come it took you so long to get there? Ive been and i live in Yorkshire!
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We get in to Taronga for free - and it's only 15 minutes from where we live, so we've always tended to go there instead.
 
An extensive collection of aviaries. I wonder if they have a variety of fairywrens. I love these beautiful little birds with their cocked tails and cheeky behavior. I love to see the rare redbacked wren.
Whenever I look at stuff about Australian birds all I see are bigger birds especially parrots. Why can't they info about where to see little birds like fantails finches and fairywrens.
 
Featherdale was started by a keen aviculturist and while the place has a wonderful collection of marsupials and other mammals, birds are their speciality.

Species of small birds to be seen here include Chiming Wedgebills, Grey Crowned Babblers, White Browed and White Breasted Wood Swallows, Rainbow Bee-eaters, New Holland, Brown and White Cheeked Honey-eaters. There are also all the usual bigger birds such as Channel-billed cuckoos, not to mention birds of prey and the whole nine species of Australian owls.
 
They've also got Rock Parrots and Beach Stone-curlews - both very unusual in a wildlife park.

:p

Hix
 
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