With more than 100 animals and birds at the Ipswich Nature Centre, you never know what you might see.
Ipswich First spoke to senior zoologist Nicole Richards for the latest update on what’s been happening around the thriving Ipswich Nature Centre.
“If you haven’t visited the Ipswich Nature Centre recently, now is the time to go,” Ms Richards said.
It is open from Tuesday to Sunday from 9.30am to 4pm in Queens Park.
Dingo pups
All the talk around the displays are about the new dingoes Lola and Moose. They are settling in nicely and are now on display between 10am and 2pm each day. Word on the street is they are massive water babies and love a good frolic under the hose.
Not content to just jump in muddy puddles, they like to go the extra mile and have a good roll around in them too. Ipswich Nature Centre staff love this, as washing animals is one of their favourite tasks.
Like all good children, they know when to knuckle down with classes, they have doggie training every day. They are learning good manners and how to sit, drop and stay.
Retirees Min Min and Pindari are enjoying the quiet life with lots of time to snooze in the shade or dig in their new sandpit.
All the dingoes, both young and old, enjoy regular walks around the nature centre.
Spring has sprung
There are many busy parents building and preparing nests in the free flight aviary. A pair of princess parrots, Wingding and Scabbers (how about those names), currently have six eggs in their nest.
Little squawks can be heard all around the aviary as the first chicks of the season emerge. A lot of the nests can be seen from the boardwalk.
Put the coats away
Looking good and a maintaining a stringent beauty routine is important to the animals in the farmyard. They all require daily brushing and with all the shedding that is going on this month, the groomers have their hands full.
Dexter the steer, Buttercup and Elsa the goats and all the dingoes are shedding their winter coats. Not to be outdone, Tyrone the sheep is insisting on a professional shearer who comes to visit him each year at the start of spring.
His precious fleece is kept at the zoo and used for environmental enrichment for the other animals. The quolls, wombat, lace monitor, dingoes and macropods all get to play. It helps with mental stimulation as it requires them to use their senses to find the hidden wool in their enclosures.
All grown up
The time has come for the black swan cygnets to fly the coop, er, pond.
Gumby, the male, will be packing his case and setting of on a grand adventure, transferring to another zoo. Pokey, the female, feels content at home and will just be taking a short journey down to the bottom pond in a kind of arranged marriage type situation.
The nature centre staff are hoping Pokey and Swansie, an original Ipswich Nature Centre swan, will fall in love and make more cygnets.
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