We attended both the birds of prey show and the fang-tastic at Raptor Domain.
First up, the tickets we were issued with made me very happy. Instead of printing out reams of paper they gave us all a laminated feather as our entry for the birds of prey and a piece of laminated snake skin (the ones they shed) for the reptiles. Then of course they collect them in so they can be used again and again. Top marks for interesting and environmentally friendly I thought.
We were there on what was probably their busiest day of the year so both shows were rather packed and the staff (who there was only one of doing tickets and shop!) were a little frazzled - but still friendly and polite.
There were obviously other staff for the shows, these have a huge hands on element and had we been there on a less busy day I think both the boys would have had a chance to wear a glove and have a bird land on them.
As it was Flip had a wonderful opportunity to have a Kestral on his arm and the 2 bird keepers (if that is what they are called) made a huge effort to get the birds nice and close to the audience members, including posing very patiently again and again for a rather elderly audience member who didn't have the best camera/skills but wanted a photo of everything. (!!)
The presenters/keepers for the birds had a genuine rapport with the birds and just seemed to absolutely love their job. In both presentations you could really tell that the message of conservation and care rather than fear was a real message they wanted to convey.
In fang-tastic we got to handle lizards, of several kinds and snakes. Again the quantity of people there made it a little tricky and some people seemed to be less aware of sharing them around than others but it was still pretty amazing to be up so close to these 'foreign' creatures and able to touch them.
The boys really enjoyed these and I think they were worth the investment for them as a true Aussie experience. Personally I found the birds more interesting but as a non-creepy crawly kind of person that was no surprise to me.
Sorry about all the photos it was so hard to pick just a couple!
love you more than an audience member who wants to contribute more than the presenters at a show xxx
