Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Katie Woolf spoke with Crocosaurus Cove Animal Manager Charlotte Price on their new addition

Transcript

Katie Woolf spoke with Crocosaurus Cove Animal Manager Charlotte Price on their new addition · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Three sixty with Katie Wolf. Join the conversation with Katie Wolf.
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: You are our eyes and ears in the Territory Mix
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: one oh four point nine. We're in our second week
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: of school holidays.
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: No plenty of people struggling to make sure the kids
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: were entertained last week in lockdown, but now is everything
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: reopens back up, even though there are restrictions still in.
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: Place a little bit more for us to be able
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: to do now.
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: One location which is always a favorite with the kids
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: is Crocodilu's Cove and joining us on the line right
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: now is Animal manager Charlotte Price.
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: Good morning to you, Charlotte. Hi, how are you really well?
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: Thanks so much for having a chat with us this morning.
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: Charlotte, I understand you guys have got a new display
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: there something a bit interactive.
• 0:48
  Speaker 3: Yes, so we at curt Cove, We've always had fish aquarium,
• 0:54
  Speaker 3: but we believe it to be kind of an appreciated
• 0:57
  Speaker 3: part of the park, so we started doing hands on
• 1:01
  Speaker 3: interactions with our freshwater Whipraise.
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: This is awesome. I reckon. Kids love being able to
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: like O well sodo adults.
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: But they like being able to interact with the different
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: animals and that is something that croc Cove does really well.
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: But you know, for the little aies being able to
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: sort of you know, to touch the whip rays and
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: things like that, it's pretty cool.
• 1:23
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's very cool. I personally, I'm really excited about
• 1:27
  Speaker 3: this product. This is an animal that we discovered in
• 1:31
  Speaker 3: my lifetime and it was only described as own species
• 1:34
  Speaker 3: in two thousand and eight and it's systemic to the
• 1:37
  Speaker 3: top end of Australia or we believe it to be endemic.
• 1:39
  Speaker 3: So it's a really really unique animal.
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: So how many of them are in the you know,
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: in this area where you're able to interact with.
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: Them now and we have three three of them? And
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: how big are they?
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: Like?
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: What can people expect?
• 1:54
  Speaker 3: So with our whip praise we measure them from wing
• 1:57
  Speaker 3: tip to wink. It biggest is about one point five
• 2:01
  Speaker 3: meters in terms of length. We've put her over probably
• 2:04
  Speaker 3: two meters, so they are quite big animals.
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: Do what's the reaction been for from you know, like
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: so far? How long has it been that you know
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: that people have been able to interact with them? For now?
• 2:18
  Speaker 3: So our keepers have been interacting with them since we opened. Yeah,
• 2:21
  Speaker 3: so it's been our kind of It's one of the
• 2:24
  Speaker 3: favorite jobs of everyone because they're like big labradors. They
• 2:27
  Speaker 3: are so friendly, slightly smooth, motivated, but that's okay. But yeah,
• 2:34
  Speaker 3: getting the public in and interacting them. So I'm really
• 2:38
  Speaker 3: excited by it.
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah, And so is it just is it something that
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: really is just kicking off this week or have you
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: had a couple of weeks to sort of slowly ease
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: into it.
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: Yeah, we have.
• 2:48
  Speaker 3: We've had a couple of weeks and we did lots
• 2:50
  Speaker 3: of practice friends with kind of families and friends. But
• 2:54
  Speaker 3: obviously last week wasn't it quiet? Yeap, So it's really
• 2:59
  Speaker 3: only started to off this week.
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: And so you know, because for some kids they would
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: actually look at these whip rays and think, oh my goodness,
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: that is massive, you know, and potentially be a little
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: bit scared. But what kind of I mean you said
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: they're like the family laborador what you know? What are
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: they like these whipbreys.
• 3:17
  Speaker 3: They are big personalities that we don't shay away from
• 3:20
  Speaker 3: that fact. But they so in the wild, a freshwater
• 3:25
  Speaker 3: whip bray will drive it's prey up to a sand
• 3:28
  Speaker 3: bank and then kind of stuck up fish off the bank.
• 3:32
  Speaker 3: So them coming up and interacting with the public is
• 3:35
  Speaker 3: a natural behavior for them, and it's something that they're
• 3:38
  Speaker 3: very used to doing. Something they're very used to doing
• 3:39
  Speaker 3: with our keepers. They know that we have two fish
• 3:43
  Speaker 3: shows a day, and they know what time they're kind
• 3:46
  Speaker 3: of feeding is, so they come up, get ready and
• 3:49
  Speaker 3: their customers cut stand at the back of the aquarium
• 3:53
  Speaker 3: and have time to kind of get used to them
• 3:55
  Speaker 3: being around, and you will let you pat them and
• 3:58
  Speaker 3: tickle them, because they're like sun paper on top and
• 4:01
  Speaker 3: then really smooth underneath. So it's a really kind of
• 4:04
  Speaker 3: interesting animal to interact with.
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: How cool and do they enjoy it?
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: Like do the whip brays seem to enjoy that that
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: interaction with with people, I.
• 4:16
  Speaker 3: Believe, so they obviously have a choice whether or not
• 4:19
  Speaker 3: they interact with us, and they seem to do it
• 4:23
  Speaker 3: even when so to clean the achuarme we have to
• 4:26
  Speaker 3: scuba dize, and obviously someone has to watch the person diving.
• 4:31
  Speaker 3: And even when we watch the dives, if you sit
• 4:34
  Speaker 3: in the quarum, they come up and you give them
• 4:35
  Speaker 3: scratches and then those and they repetitively, like repetitively come
• 4:41
  Speaker 3: up to interact. I do think that they choose to.
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: Oh, that's very cool. I always think it's you know,
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: it's really cool to be able to go in there anyway,
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: you know, feed the watch the crocodiles being fed, and
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: and then for some people, you know, getting in in
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: the big the big cage and having a swim with
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: the crocodile. I love the way that it's interactive. And
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: now to add this, you know, for the kids to
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: be able to interact to I think it's fantastic.
• 5:07
  Speaker 3: Yeah. I believe quite strongly that as humans, we the
• 5:11
  Speaker 3: more we interact with our wildlife, the more appreciation we
• 5:14
  Speaker 3: have for them. So I'm all about it.
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: Yeah, good on you, Charlotte. Lovely to speak to you
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: this morning. I really appreciate you letting us know about
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: these whipbrays and the fact that you know, you're now
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: able to sort of interact with them there at crock Cove.
• 5:28
  Speaker 3: Awesome.
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much, Thank you, thanks for having a
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: chat this morning.