Michael: So we have over 100 animals, from all over Australia.
My daughters help me out sometimes
I try to get them as involved as possible.
And do you hold the snakes?
Yeah.
Here hold this end, hold him.
Come on Winnie.
Good girl, come on.
That's it,
onto the tree,
jump at the tree, good girl. And jump up,
My name is Michael
I'm from the Rookeepers Mobile Zoo, and I run educational programs,
educating kids on Australian animals.
So we have over 100 animals from
all over Australia, we've got dingos, crocodiles, snakes, koalas, turtles, frogs,
lizard, anything you name Australia can throw at us we've got it.
Listen to the noise that these guys make.
When you you to put your hand in there,
and they get really like they're creating noise,
That's mamma, you can film her in there,
whenever I keep popping a hand into a box of wild [inaudible].
Come on
Come on.
How cute is that?
This is a little girl,
you can tell she's a girl,
because she doesn't have a big [inaudible] gland on her
on her head,
hey girlie?
What are you doing?
And off she goes.
Zoo is home to a few endangered animals,
so we're pretty lucky to have him,
we try and breed them and
ensure there's a population for
future generations. It's not uncommon to having endangered animals here,
given, what's happening to the world
you know, everything's disappearing
Australia has one of the worst extinction rates so,
yeah it's quite sad.
Big bully aren't you?
Eh? What are you doing?
She never stops eating, this thing.
Don't you?
Want some more?
One of our most special animals in the zoo is Winnie the koala.
There used to be 8 million of these guys
now there's only about 80,000 left.
So their numbers are dropping it's expected in the next 30 years,
you won't see these guys,
so it's quite a shame.
She's three years old,
we've had her since she was a little joey
I thinks she loves me,
if I popped her on the floor,
maybe it would be cool if I put her on the floor she might walk outside with me,
just got to get her off me that's the hard part.
jump down, good girl.
come on
no, not up a tree.
we're going outside Winnie
not up there,
we're going outside, ready?
she follows me inside.
This way, Windines
Winnie, this way.
when she was a joey she used to sleep on my chest in bed with me at night so,
I'd come in and sit on the couch.
My partner she was
she was into snakes and reptiles before we sort of met,
I don't think any normal sane woman would want
date a bloke like me with 100 animals.
Tegan: So I didn't imagine my life to be
like this.
I'm not the biggest fan of birds, so give me reptiles or kangaroos,
but when it comes to the owls and crocodiles,
I'm really scared of them.
Michael: The strangest animals I've got here is
the scrub python.
So I'm going to bring him out, and say good day.
Real jumpy around this bloke.
For great reasons.
Would have bit me there if he could have,
yeah he's pretty
pretty big.
So he's pretty dangerous.
given he's size that he will get to as well,
as he gets older he'll be an absolute monster.
he's actually a little calm today.
he generally wants to kill me.
There he goes.
this guys is pretty good now but,
you do have to watch him
he's going to bite for no reason,
most snakes bite for food ...
my daughters help me out sometimes they come out to shows.
Did you help daddy at a show yesterday?
Daughter: Yeah.
Michael: And do you hold the snakes?
Daughter: Yeah.
Michael: Standing nice and still so you don't step on his tail,
Michael: Ready?
Good girl try to hold the head
here hold this end
hold him, let's see it, good job.
Got it?
Wow.
Michael: Is he heavy?
Daughter: Yes.
Michael: You think?
Where is he going Yarra.
Wow look at that,
is he going to give you a kiss?
Michael: What's your favourite part about living at a zoo?
Erm... being with puppy and jo jo.
Micheal: Puppy and jojo you get to wake up and see them in the morning?
Daughter: Possums.
Michale: The possums, I thought it was the dingos?
Daughter: Dingos.
Michael: The dingo, which dingo is your favourite?
Daughter: Elba
Michael: Elba, he's the smelly one.
Daughter: I love Molly
Michael: Do you? I think we all love molly don't we?
She's really cute
can she come and live in your room?
Michael: She's licking you?
Michael: Can she come live in your room?
Daughter: Yeah
Can she sleep in your bed?
Daughter: Yeah.
Michael: She does really smelly farts though is that all right?
Daughter: No.
Michale: So we're a private sanctuary
we don't have any one coming here the public,
coming into our zoo, but we go out
we're a mobile program,
so we go out into schools and kinders,
doing all sorts of outreach work.
Tegan: Michael's really good with animals,
he is very caring towards them,
he just loves them adores them.
Every little step that he takes is going to make a difference.
Michael: I love Aussie animals they're my passion
wildlife means the world to me,
wildlife as a whole is important to me,
Australian animals are really dear to me,
and it's my mission to wake up every day and educate people
just so they are aware and know the threats they face.