Alice Springs Desert Park » Alice Springs Desert Park

Alice Springs Desert Park
16-03-2008

I get the feeling like I'm raving about this place too much for being the one to start it's own thread lol but anyway I'm curious as to how many of you have visited the Desert Park and if so what are your oppinions on it?

16-03-2008

Hope to get there some time, I have a big interest in the Desert skinks

16-03-2008

Please elaborate. Unfamiliar with the NT fauna to really have an opinion. I know the widgety grubs, worrals, lots of brown snake (eek), Aboriginal myths and Uluru bit ... but regarding what is intrinsically NT fauna I am not. I hope you will get us out of that predicament pretty soonish!

17-03-2008

I've been... can't remember too much about it now but it was very impressive. Do you still have the Bilbies and Sticknest Rats?

17-03-2008

When we visited Australia in May and June of 2007 my wife and I visited the Alice Springs Desert Park and were enormously impressed. The free audio guide was a wonderful addition to the exhibits, as by pressing a button that corresponded with a number on the walking trail there would be a massive amount of information given to us.

The park is split into three large areas: Desert Rivers Habitat, Sand Country Habitat, and Woodland Habitat. There are many different bird and reptile species that are native to the central Australian desert, and if I remember correctly only the emus and kangaroos were representative of large mammals.

The true highlight of the park is the nocturnal house, which is one of the best I've ever seen. The spacious walkway inside allows visitors a lot of room to move, and the beautiful exhibits were nothing short of brilliant. The overall presentation of the entire collection was simply wonderfully done, and I think that the Alice Springs Desert Park is a hidden jewel in the middle of Australia. Anyone who visits the center should make a mandatory stop there.

@Pertinax: we saw bilbies and sticknest rats last year.

17-03-2008

Ooh well then it might be worth checking out the reptile center while your up here because they have a bigger range of reptiles than the Desert Park, I haven't been there in a while though but I'm planning on going next week so I'll have a look if they have more skinks. As far as I know the Desert Park currently has around 7 species of skinks including the centralian blue tongue.

@Jelle we don’t have too many of the iconic Australian animals such as Koalas, platypuses, wombats and tassie devils for obvious reasons but we do have Red Kangaroos, Emus, Echidnas, brush tail possums, bettongs, wallibes and spotted quolls. We also have a large range of birds (wedge-tailed eagles, brown falcons, black breasted buzzards, Australian bustards and my personal favs rainbow bee-eaters and tawny frogmouths) and herps (Spencer’s burrowing frogs, death adders, thorny devils, shingle backs, bearded dragons ect). The Desert Park used to have numbats and golden bandicoots as well but I’m not sure what happened to them. Anyway I hope that answers your question unless you were asking for fauna of the entire NT and not just the ones at the DP because there’s a pretty long list…

@Pertinax like snowleopard said yep they’ve still got them and more have been brought in recently and have been kept in the holding unit for future plans.

18-03-2008

Thanx Jusinbuzz,

This has been most helpful. I love the desert, so your neck of the woods would suit me fine! Iconoclastic mammals like echidnas, bettongs and quolls, wow!

Being a reptile man myself (with a friend I keep Uromastyx) I like the blue tongues, shinglebacks and thorny devils too. Wedge-tailed eagles also look quite impressive.

Is Uluru and around not also numbat, bilby and stick-nest rat country or am I mistaken here?

Is the Alice Springs Desert Parks also involved in in situ conservation or release projects? And what about your mysterious Reptile Park around Alice Springs ... please tell us more!

18-03-2008

Hope I got what you meant here. All the species you've listed used to be found commonly in the deserts of the NT but are now considered endangered so it would be unlikely to come across one in the region of Uluru these days. From what I've read numbats have been spotted in the south-western region of the NT so compared to the other ones you'd have a better chance of seeing one in that area but only where there's pleanty of vegetation. Bilbies and stick-nest rats used to be very diverse but due to the introduction of feral animals and other issues, bilbies are now only found north of Alice Springs and in some regions of Queensland and stick-nest rats have become extinct off mainland Australia with the only known wild population being in the Frankland Islands.

Yep the Desert Park has been involved in many conservation programs for desert or used-to-be desert fauna. Currently as far as I know they are focusing on the conservation of bilbies, malas, central rock rats and slater's skink.

As for the Reptile Center it's pretty much the size of a house but they've upgraded it from last time I went there with the new fossil cave so it could be a lot bigger. They have all kinds of australian reptiles such as a Perentie (Australia's largest lizard), pythons, frilled-necked lizards and even a saltwater crocodile. Here's their website Alice Springs Reptile Centre - Australia

And here's the one for the Desert Park if anyone is interested Alice Springs Desert Park -