Bindi, Bob and Terri Irwin Show Australia Zoo
April 9th 2010 04:04
The bird show featured colourful Macaws, Lorikeets and various Cockatoos that circled the stadium and alighted amongst the patrons, and a friendly Jabiru that waded into the pond for a couple of fish.
After changing into her khakis Bindi, and her little brother Robert, joined their mum at centre stage. On the big screen, Terri showed us the trailer for Bindi’s silver screen debut in ‘Free Willy 4’. Bob was cute and funny, and seems to revel in the attention, hamming it up for the crowd, and handling the microphone like a pro.
While handlers brought a variety of harmless pythons amongst the patrons, a very large Reticulated Python was released into the pond and it was beautiful to see how gracefully the gigantic snake swims. Wes got into the water to retrieve the python, and then a huge saltwater crocodile named Mossman was released.
Terri reminded Bob that when he was very little his dad, Steve Irwin, let him help feed a croc.
“But there was a lot of negative publicity around the world, and some media went too far…” Terri said, “… there are some media here today, so you have to keep away from…”
“…Channel Seven!” Bob yelled, and ran to Bindi at the fence.
“I was going to say; the croc,” Terri laughed.
Terri hand fed the enormous Estuarine Crocodile (Crocodylus porosus) with strips of meat before Wes thrilled the crowd by jumping into the water with it, and wrestling over a bait on a rope. Terri also enticed the croc to jump out of the water for food a number of times.
“Vertical leaping is a behaviour that crocs naturally use to catch birds or animals on overhanging branches,” she said.
Bindi, who turns 12 in July, took a turn at tossing the prehistoric reptile some meat but she didn’t get too close. Bob, now aged 6, kept well clear but continued to entertain the crowd, clowning around, cracking jokes and chatting with his family and the audience as the show wrapped up.
Terri, Bindi and Bob are performing at the zoo until Sunday 11th April, and each day one very lucky punter wins an exclusive encounter with Terri, Bindi and Robert, by bidding in their silent auction to raise funds for turtle conservation.
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