{"id":13039,"date":"2018-08-26T22:18:56","date_gmt":"2018-08-26T22:18:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/zo-zo.com\/?p=13039"},"modified":"2018-08-27T03:16:57","modified_gmt":"2018-08-27T03:16:57","slug":"reptile-central","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zo-zo.com\/?p=13039","title":{"rendered":"reptile central."},"content":{"rendered":"

natalie has finally found her most favourite place in australia. sure, it’s really hot here: even in winter (right now) the daytime temperature is a serious 33-34 degrees, we don’t even want to think about what it would be like in summer. at least it is not as humid as it would be during the build-up, which everyone agrees is the worst time of year.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

but only slightly worse than the wet, apparently. the consensus among the locals is that during the build-up you stay inside with the aircon on and during the wet you may be able to venture outside for an hour or two after the rain. reassuring.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

darwin has a great beach and the most amazing turquoise bay … but there is no way anyone in their right mind would go anywhere near the water. while the freshies we saw in the kimberley are (mostly) small enough to not be scary you would not want to mess with salties.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

or be anywhere near them, which practically means one has to avoid any local waterway. it has been illegal to hunt salties since the 1970ies and as a result their numbers have recovered nicely. because they are very territorial younger males migrate during the wet and try to find a bit of water they can own. as a result any puddle could (and after the wet probably does) contain a croc.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

these things even freak out natalie, but not quite enough to not pat one of the little guys. as she found out yesterday it is apparently legal in the territory to own baby crocs up to 60cm in length. once they get bigger than that they become too dangerous and need to be returned to the pet shop.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

but until then people here can cuddle them as much as they like.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

nat would have loved to cuddle those, too, but those turtles didn’t want to play. i love the way they grow a mane on their backs. maybe that’s a winter coat.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

archer fish hunt insects by spitting little water jets at them. they are apparently very good shots and if the rangers don’t hand over their prey quickly enough they spit in their faces to hurry things along.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

meet larry potter; he performs magic tricks at the night markets in darwin. first time we went there natalie paid 10 dollars of her own pocket money to go and pet larry and his mates.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

the second time nat went (luckily there are night markets on thursdays and sundays; needless to say we had to go both times) the owners of the zoo hired nat as a junior snake wrangler and assistant reptile demonstrator.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

does my butt look big in this snake?<\/p>\n

nat is currently trying to convince us we need to stay another week so she can go again and help out. that carpet python by the name of nagini (with than name she immediately became nat’s friend) was not a small snake and did not want to stay in her pen.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

so while we were in darwin we had to see the territory wildlife park (in berry springs about half an hour south of darwin). they also have emus, which are actually not\u00a0native to the territory.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

but the sugargliders are. nat said they were like tiny fluffy furballs with needle-sharp claws. i guess they need them to hold on to trees.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

then there was crocodylus, the main croc park and tourist croc safety training center here in darwin. taking selfies with these guys will definitely get you a shot at the darwin awards (1).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

then there is the croc cove. no way nat would want to miss that either, not when there is a rare black blue tongue lizard to be held. we are not sure if nat will be allowed back there, though: she spoilt the presenter’s fun by knowing all the answers to the tricky questions …<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

we are unsure how this can be topped in any way. so many reptiles to hold, snakes to cuddle. and nat’s already planning her reptile enclosure when we get back home …<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

lucky us.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

(1) th darwin awards have nothing to do with the city but are instead awarded to humans who through their actions permanently take themselves out of the gene pool, saving everyone else a lot of trouble.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

natalie has finally found her most favourite place in australia. sure, it’s really hot here: even in winter (right now) the daytime temperature is a serious 33-34 degrees, we don’t even want to think about what it would be like in summer. at least it is not as humid as it would be during the… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13026,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13039","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-our-blog","category-the-long-way-round"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/zo-zo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/oz_trip_87-1-15.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7MvER-3oj","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zo-zo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13039","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zo-zo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zo-zo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zo-zo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zo-zo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13039"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/zo-zo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13039\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13049,"href":"https:\/\/zo-zo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13039\/revisions\/13049"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zo-zo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13026"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zo-zo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zo-zo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zo-zo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}