The Australian Reptile Park has heard the pitter patter of little chick feet this week as they welcomed the arrival of two new emu chicks! The park is calling upon the public to help name the new cheeky arrivals, who can’t sit still and are incredibly friendly.
Keepers at the Central Coast wildlife sanctuary have already fallen in love with the new arrivals. They follow keepers around the yard they reside in and peck curiously at anything they find interesting. For the time being, while they grow slightly larger, the emus are being held in both the yellow-footed rock-wallaby and parma wallaby yards as they learn how to navigate life on their wobbly legs!
Friendly yellow-footed rock-wallaby joey, Alinta, has taken it as her task to welcome the emus in a friendly way. The wallaby seen often hanging out with the pair and even shares lunch with them. Eventually, once the emus grow slightly larger in the coming weeks, they will be moved into the main park area where visitors will be able to interact with them.
Park Director Tim Faulkner says “We are so excited by our gorgeous new additions to our Australian Reptile Park family. These emu chicks are cheeky little buggers that we cannot wait to unleash into the main park area for our guests to get up close and personal with. They love doing their afternoon ‘zoomies’, as the keepers call it and are a complete bundle of fun!
“At the Australian Reptile Park, we are all about getting the community involved and what better way than getting them to help name the emu chicks! Whenever we’ve held naming competitions in the past for new arrivals, they always come up with the best, and sometimes hilarious, ideas for names. We can’t wait to see what they put forward for these two!”
Mr Faulkner goes on to say “Of course, it’s also so fantastic that we have such incredible native wildlife that we can showcase to our visitors. Emus are impossible not to love, even if they’re sneaky and steal the odd hot chip or too from unsuspecting families! It is important that guests leave the Australian Reptile Park feeling connected to our wildlife and wanting to do what they can to help. Even if it stops just one family from speeding this holiday season and accidentally hitting an emu, or any other Australian native species for that matter, we have done our job!”