Fauna Park offers wild adventure for young animal lovers
KYABRAM Fauna Park has made this school holidays a totally wild adventure with the `Zookeeper for a Day’ program.
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The program provides children aged eight to 12 with a fun and educational Christmas break activity, where they come and experience what the park’s zookeepers do on a daily basis.
This includes cleaning various enclosures, getting up close and personal with the animals and even bottle-feeding a baby kangaroo.
The $70 fee also includes morning tea and lunch.
Kyabram Fauna Park general manager Lachlan Gordon said the response from the public had been huge and the program will now be held through the consecutive school holidays for the foreseeable future.
“It’s been incredible to see such enthusiasm and interest from the general community. We started out having seven sessions available and all of them were booked within a few days,” he said.
“A few kids leaving from the first couple of days of the program said that it was one of the best days of their lives ever and that they really enjoyed engaging with the animals and the environment.
“When the kids are here they learn all sorts of skills and learn lots of different facts and information about the animals ... and also the importance of ecological sustainability and habitat conservation.”
One of the little zookeepers-in-training Jamison O’Dwyer said she got a lot out of her trip to the park.
“My favourite part was cleaning the bird enclosures. I learned that female bower birds are a different colour to the males,” she said.
“I will definitely be telling my friends about it when I get back to school.”
The final session for these school holidays is Friday.