Peel Zoo, Western Australia

The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated - Mahatma Gandhi

There are many zoos in Western Australia but the exceptional one is Peel zoo. Peel zoo comes with a catchy slogan "Hands On Experience" so do not expect yourself just walk on the path and go home. On Friday 3, June 2016 I planned to visit Peel zoo. It was a sunny day so I thought to myself "it is a good sign!" Peel zoo located at Pinjarra, Mandurah. I am not good with routes so I let the GPS do its job, however, the GPS doesn't love me. It took me to a fancy village which a lot of houses are bigger than any Motel 6 in America. Luckily, I saw a man that I can ask for help and for the love of God, he has American accent!

I finally arrived at Peel zoo. I still don't know how I got lost because there is a big sign of Peel zoo at the main road. Well, I am Thai, not Aussie thereby I can use that as an excuse. I paid 23AUD to get in plus 3AUD for animal food. Just for the record, only certain animals you can feed with that food. To be honest, that's very good price compare to the goshwow inside the zoo. When I first step in to the zoo, I saw the number stick on the cages so I followed the number. Number 1 is ferrets. That was my first time seeing ferrets. They weren't stop moving. From this log to another log. From this place to that place. It's contrast what I found online, ferret love their sleep! Maybe ferrets at Peel zoo were excited at that time.

Next, it is guinea pigs. I have seen them from the film called G-Force so, again, that was my first time seeing guinea pigs. Guinea pigs are not naturally exist in the wild and they are not related to any pig family at all. Anywise, they are absolutely adorable! I don't remember when I started to lost track of the number. Have to blame it on emu because I saw it. I am quite scared of emus because they can be harmful. I walked pass emu section, pretend like I didn't care. Emu didn't care too. Sweet!! then I changed my mind. I walked back to emu. When it saw me, it ran to me like this.

My heart dropped on the floor with this animal. I had to surrender my fear to get this photo. Two minutes after I figured out why it did that because I had the food! not human food, i mean animal food. I gave them some food, hoping we could be friend but emu got greedy, want more food, thereby, I walked away.

I walked to quokka section with a full hope that I gonna see them hopping. Turned out it was sleeping. I didn't wanna bother it so I took some photos and checked out another animals. On the path, I saw turkeys. YES! real turkeys. I only ate a turkey on Thanksgiving in America. Taste like chicken to me. I have seen alive turkeys at Pueblo zoo but I didn't remember what they look like so this time I didn't forget to click some photos. I went quite close to turkeys. In my mind, I was so scared they will peck at me. I quickly pressed on the shutter button several time then I step back from them. Mission complete!

Now, it's time for Australia iconic animal, kangaroos or roos. At Peel zoo, it is the first hands on experience section. You can feed them with animal food you bought. If they are not full, they will eat it. I wanted the roos to eat food from my hand so i poured some food on my hand then I reached out my hand near roos' mouth, hoping they will eat it. Guess what, nobody ate my food :( That wasn't enough. I looked at a man, who did exact same thing like i did, feed the roos. They ate it!!! Shame on me. Next to the roos, there is a koala, but zookeepers were checking on it hence I didn't wanna bother them. Another hands on experience is sheep section. Oooooh I love it so much. At least they ate food from my hands. There are so many sheep. One of em tried to jump on me to get food. The rest was like "baaaaaaaa"

When I left the sheep, they didn't want me to go. They put their head into the gap between each woods and said "baaaaaa" Aww, Am I gonna break their heart if I left? I expect myself to runaway and cry but it wasn't that drama. I pet them one last time and left.

There are some birds section between sheep and deer section. Yes, there is a deer section but hold on, let me tell you about the birds first. I am not a bird person but man! Australian birds are so pretty! I walked pass Eclectus parrot while it had eaten flower seed. I grabbed the camera, getting ready to take some photos but parrot stop eating. Aw, my good photo moment has been ruined... It's ok, I still have pretty photos of that parrot. I continue checked out another cage. I'm not sure it's a corella so I stared at it, tried to recall all of my knowledge about birds, still, I couldn't comprehend it. I kept thinking, suddenly, the deer head popped up from the fence. I said to myself "Screwed it! I gonna pet the deer!" ...Hold on human! there is a walk-through bird trail on the left side plus you can feed the birds using your bare hands! Alright, I let the birds win this time. I went to the entrance, took some fruits and got in. If you are appalled of birds, this place is not for you because they will cling on your shoulder and then ask for fruits. I love it! Especially, the variety of birds, Sun Conure parakeets, Eclectus parrots, Alexandrine parrots etc. I never saw those type of birds before. It made me think of Charles Darwin's theory "Natural selection can change a species in small ways, causing a population to change colour or size over the course of several generations"

When the birds got bored of me, I immediately went to deer section. Guess what! alpacas and emu are here as well. I wasn't afraid of deer, in contrast, I was afraid of alpacas because they can spit. I don't wanna get spit on my face. I fed the deer, almost all of the package. One of alpaca knew that I had food. It came to my back and sniffed my hair. I felt itchy on my head, as I turned, I saw a big face of alpaca try to lick me. I was shocked!! The rest of the food I gave to that alpaca. The others noticed so they followed me. That was a thrill moment of my life. I wanted to shout "mom! help me!" but my mom wasn't here. She's at Bangkok so I walked to the exit. Do you know the idiom "out of the frying pan into the fire"? The emu was guarding the exit! Oh heck no...what am I gonna do!.......Suddenly, I saw my hero. The deer I fed at the beginning came up to me and asked more food. Every single animals seems to leave me. I pet the deer then quickly got to of this section. Today, when I think about it, I shouldn't be that afraid of them. Youtube video made me scared. I won't be so scared next time. I will be brave like Wonder Woman!

I had to take a seat from that situation. Drank some water, took some fresh air, later on, I continued to check the rest of the zoo again. From now on, it will be Australian animal collection. I met wombat. This creature live only in Australia. When I saw wombat for the first time, I thought it was a small pig. Next to the wombat, I met tasmanian devils. Well, i'm pretty sure, if you are from Thailand, you probably wonder "What the heck is that animal" This animal has bad-temper, that's why the early European settlers in Hobart called it The Devil. Even if only the size of a small dog, it can sound and look incredibly fierce. Keep on to the next down under animal. Do you know dingo? It is Australia's wild dog. Pretty much like wolf but not exactly. Most dingos are usually a reddish-orange colour. Some black and white or black and tan dingos do exist, though rare. One of my favourite Australian animal is laughing kookaburra. Again, this animal does not exist in Thailand, even in the zoo. I am not good at explain the "laughing sound" they make so I attached video from Youtube for you guys. Click here to watch it.

I arrived at the entrance/exit then I saw albino peacock. I have never seen anything like that before. Pure white, I have to say. I think that peacock tried to find some food. Anyway they still have some reptile animals that I haven't checked them out yet. This is the first time I heard of Eastern blue-tougued skink. The head is similar to snake and it comes with legs! From what I read, skinks have blue tongue just like their name. Another fact I really like is though it looks like snake but there is no venom yet a bite from an adult blue-tongue can cause pain, break the skin and leave a bruise.

Have you even seen Jurassic Park? If yes then you will know what I gonna talk about. Not dinosaurs, it is frilled dragon. They live in the tropical and warm temperate forests and savanna woodlands of northern Australia. When frilled dragon get attacked by predators, the frill will open then it will run nonstop till it reaches to safe area. Before I left, I asked the staff if I could hold a snake. She didn't haw to bright the snake and then put it around my neck. To be honest, I felt like that snake was mischievous, I don't know. Anywho I confirm that this is the zoo you shouldn't miss if you are in WA. I give 3 syllables for this; A-MA-ZING!

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