A Visit to Peel Zoo

April 23, 2010
by Rodney Olsen
6 Comments

KangarooOne of the most memorable parts of our family holiday last week was visiting Peel Zoo which is just an hour south of Perth in Pinjarra. We were staying at Fairbridge Village for the week so we were much closer.

Peel Zoo is located 10 minutes from Mandurah and 60 minutes from Perth Zoo. The zoo provides a hands on experience for its visitors. It is a privately funded zoo, focusing on education and conservation, and a wonderful place to spend a day. The zoo is constantly expanding, taking on more animals, and working with the community to protect and conserve local wildlife.

I must admit that I wasn’t totally convinced that the visit would be worthwhile. We’ve got a family membership to Perth Zoo which is a much bigger zoo with a far wider diversity of animals. There’s always so much to see at Perth Zoo that I felt I’d be disappointed by the very much smaller Peel Zoo. I needn’t have worried.

The big difference with Peel Zoo is the fact that you can get up close and personal with the lodgers. I can’t describe how wonderful it is to stroke a kangaroo. They really are the most beautiful animal and the roos at Peel Zoo are so incredibly tame. Their fur is so soft and I could sit around feeding them all day.

As well as patting kangaroos we got to feed and stroke an emu, some deer, and several other beasts.

While walking through the giant aviary I ended up with a bird on each shoulder. Neither of them were keen on going anywhere. They were quite content to use me as a perch for the rest of the day. Maybe they were hoping I’d just walk out so that they could escape.

At the end of our visit one of the zoo keepers very kindly introduced Emily, James and their cousins to one of the resident snakes. It was a delight to see how much she enjoyed sharing her friends with the children.

If you’re ever in the Pinjarra area I can heartily recommend a visit to the Peel Zoo. If you’re in the Perth area, make a day of it. Head down to the Pinjarra Bakery & Patisserie and enjoy some of their award winning goodies, then spend the afternoon meeting the locals at Peel Zoo.



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Cotton Top Tamarin

November 14, 2008
by Rodney Olsen
1 Comment

CottonTopTamarin.jpgIf I’d clicked a couple of seconds earlier he would have been looking right at me.

In last week’s post, Zootopia, I wrote about the incredible experience of going behind the scenes at Perth Zoo.

We managed to get some great photos during our close encounter. This is one of my favourites. Even thought I didn’t quite capture the Cotton Top Tamarin looking at the camera, I reckon it’s a great shot. I wonder what would happen if I started wearing my hair like that.

I’ll dig out some of the other pictures for you to see in the coming days.

Perth Zoo offers several Close Encounters with the animals and if you enjoy spending time with animals I’d encourage you to look at the packages they have available.

Of course the attractions of the Perth Zoo may only really interest you if you’re in Western Australia but how long has it been since you visited your local zoo? Are you an animal lover? What kind of zoo animals are your favourites? Do you make a point of visiting other zoos if you’re visiting another city?



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Zootopia

November 7, 2008
by Rodney Olsen
7 Comments

boaconstrictor.JPGI stared down a lion, patted a penguin, fed a 2.2 tonne rhino and made a Galápagos tortoise very happy by giving him a neck rub.

Words can’t really convey what an amazing day Pauline and I had yesterday. As guests of the Perth Zoo we were given a behind the scenes look at the life of a modern zoo. Perth Zoo offers several Close Encounters with the animals and if you’re an animal lover I’d encourage you to look at the packages they have available. We were in a small group of just six people taking in the sights, sounds and smells behind the scenes.

We love visiting the zoo but when you get to meet the animals it’s so much more special. As you can see from the photo I even got up close and personal with a boa constrictor. He was a very friendly chap. Boa constrictors are non-venemous and humans are too big for them to consider us as food so it was a very safe meeting.

One of the highlights, and there were many, was getting very close to the two male and one female lions at the zoo. We weren’t quite close enough to pat the big kitty cats but we were less than a metre away from them, just separated by some steel bars. Thankfully the lions were chewing on a few kilograms of horse meat at the time so they were a little distracted. Hearing all three lions giving a little growl was impressive. I can only guess at how loud it would be if they decided to let out a real roar.

We fed a couple of orang-utans, got inside the cage with two ring-tailed lemurs, gave Tricia the elephant some bread and a rub, watched the sun bears feeding and did so much more. It was a very full day.

As well as all the animal experiences, we were given a magnificent hamper for lunch and spent over an hour having drinks and nibbles with the zoo staff at the end of the day once the zoo had closed. It was all part of a prize Pauline won through The Sunday Times.



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