Australia Zoo is situated in the small rural area of Landsborough in the hinterland behind the Sunshine Coast. Most famously, the zoo was the home of Steve Irwin, the Crocodile Hunter. Whatever your take on his personality, the boy did know what he was talking about when it came to reptiles and his wife Terri, daughter Bindi and son Bob are carrying on the business. This picture shows Terri organising a photo shoot for the kids to appear in the Australian Women's Weekly. We just happened to be there that day.
Living in Queensland presents the resident with some exciting challenges in regard to wildlife. The amount of bugs and reptiles I encountered was amazing, scary and often!
Our visits to the Zoo taught us a lot of the latest methods for handling situations involving reptiles (mostly snakes) and we were able to use that knowledge a few times. We also learned what to do if you are bitten. If possible, splint and wrap the wound very tightly. Identify the snake if you can and then calmly get help. Do not run or panic, it sends the venom around your body and blood quicker and can sometimes lead to unconsciousnous (which is not very helpful if you don't have a phone or you are miles up the backyard). Also helpful was a book published by the Queensland Museum "The Wildlife of Greater Brisbane", which was very precise in its descriptions of animals.
Living in Queensland presents the resident with some exciting challenges in regard to wildlife. The amount of bugs and reptiles I encountered was amazing, scary and often!
Our visits to the Zoo taught us a lot of the latest methods for handling situations involving reptiles (mostly snakes) and we were able to use that knowledge a few times. We also learned what to do if you are bitten. If possible, splint and wrap the wound very tightly. Identify the snake if you can and then calmly get help. Do not run or panic, it sends the venom around your body and blood quicker and can sometimes lead to unconsciousnous (which is not very helpful if you don't have a phone or you are miles up the backyard). Also helpful was a book published by the Queensland Museum "The Wildlife of Greater Brisbane", which was very precise in its descriptions of animals.
In the 30 or so years I lived there I encountered a lot of snakes but I remember two that gave me a bit of a scare.
Following a very long dry spell, a taipan was forced to come down closer to our house just to get a drink from the water in the hens' run. At the time we had a large holding of 40 acres and there was a lot of bush and wildlife around us. This snake has been known to be aggressive .. oh, and it's extremely venomous. When I realised it was near the water containers, the hair on the back of my neck stood up and I felt a cold fear. But, I did what I was supposed to do and stood very still, still holding the hose with the water going into the containers. I did not look at the snake or annoy it so eventually it just sort of slithered away. It was a pumpkin orange colour with very shiny flat scales and it looked to be almost one and a half metres long. Its eyes are very small and very dark black, you can feel it looking at you.
The other one was just a carpet snake (python), but it was quite a big . They aren't a problem usually, but they can bite. They're non-venomous and usually non-agressive. But, they can swallow their prey whole by disclocating their jaw and contracting their muscles. The problem I had was that this particular snake was up in the huge old mango tree that had a cubby house and sandpit for our son who at the time was about 5 years old. He was playing there and I saw something move down the tree. Yep, the snake! I knew snakes reptiles do not like the cold, so I slowly grabbed my son and told him we were going to water the garden, walked away and got the garden hose going. I came back and basically hosed the poor snake until it was so cold it just dropped out of the tree. He obviously didn't live there, as we watched him go down the paddock, very slowly looking for a warm safe spot away from us.
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