Orana Park Trip 2019

Orana Wildlife Park 2019

Te Ara Takitini had an amazing animal adventure.  Two buses took us to Orana Wildlife Park and as we made our way there, we chatted about what we might see.

We were greeted by Elizabeth our educator who took us around the park and shared her expertise with us.  

Here are a few of our highlights.  There were so many exciting and informative parts of our day so these are just a few. 

This beautifully coloured peacock showed us his feathers but I missed the shot.

The Tasmanian Devil is a nocturnal animal so was sleeping in its little hut.  The keepers were cleaning their enclosure and checking in on them.

A friendly young springbok made its way over to say hello to us.  Springboks can jump straight up in the air, higher than their own height.

One of the absolute highlights of our day was seeing the lions up close while they were waiting for their enclosure to be cleaned.  One pride was outside while the other pride lingered in the cage.  
We learned that male lions that have been fixed, don't have manes because they don't have the right hormones.  Their energy then goes into their bodies which then makes them bigger than they might usually have been.

One of my all-time favourite farm animals is the kunekune pig.  When we wandered through the farmyard animal section, we stopped by to chat with the grunty and friendly kunekune pig.  Ethan got to pat him which made the kunekune grunt even more.

For us to see the cheetahs, we had to head uphill.  They were hiding in the long grass but luckily Kirty's mum had spotted them so we went to higher ground.

Some of the funniest animals we saw were the orangutans.  One of the females was ambling around with a sheet that she used to cover herself.  She even did a rolly polly and then the male looked like he was biting her.

An absolute highlight of the day was seeing the great gorillas.  Three of them were resting on the nests they had made from shredded paper.  We sat and watched them and could quite easily have stayed and watched them for ages.  They are our closest cousins and we could see similarities between the gorillas and us.

We had a really good day and are grateful to have had the opportunity to visit Orana Park and learn some interesting facts about different animals.  One very important thing we heard about was the impact of humans on many of the species of the animal kingdom and how these are struggling for survival and many are endangered.  

It would be a huge loss if these animals were to become extinct, so our next step would be to make sure we use products that have not impacted on forests and these special creatures.  We need to make sure that we don't support the killing of our animal kingdom.