Animal Diaries Archive

Garry lives the wild life

24 February 2006

Working at Australia Zoo, everyone deserves to have a spell. Holidays are the chance to pack up the swag and get away from it all. In the Reptile Department, our work involves a lot of handling, observing and identifying of snakes and lizards. So what else would you think we'd like to do outside work hours? That's right, we hit up some more reptile action around this great country of ours.

I just recently travelled north to hopefully spot some critters in their natural habitat. My oath, it was exciting times being in luscious rainforests of the far north! There is a huge diversity of wildlife in those areas. Up in an area called Mossman, I managed to see and photograph the majestic Boyd’s Forest Dragon and an 11.5-foot Scrub Python; my goodness, I was over the moon! The Scrub Python can grow to over six metres in length. Unfortunately, finding Scrub Pythons bigger than 3.5 metres is getting quite rare.

Land clearing is much to blame for this, and also it's hard to swerve and miss a snake that takes up the whole road. Taking the time to look at species such as the Scrub Python, which we have here at Australia Zoo, in their natural environment was a thrill to say the least. As a keeper, this can even benefit our understanding of the critters we care for.