Here at Australia Zoo, we have an amazing art department that is super talented
in sculpting animals and wildlife from prehistory.
I thought today I'd show you some of those.
And here is the first one.
So this was actually a 10th birthday present for me.
And what this depicts is one of the largest crocodilians ever,
the Deinosuchus.
This guy here. Which lived millions and millions and millions of years ago.
And as you can see, hunted dinosaurs.
Kids can come in and climb all over it and get a photo.
being eaten by the Deinosuchus.
It's pretty fun, and it sort of showcases
the incredible history that crocodilians have had.
This is number one.
We've got a lot of sculptures to get to.
So let's get to it.
So this guy here
is Cameron the Crocodile and Cameron was one of the first sculptures
that was ever put in to Australia Zoo, and he's definitely one of our favourites.
Now Cameron is named after Cameron,
the artist who designed and created this amazing sculpture.
The coolest thing about this, though.
This looks like a pretty massive croc.
But crocs used to get this big not that long ago.
This is actually based off of a croc many, many, many
decades ago before they were hunted almost to extinction.
Cameron, he is 27 foot.
He would have weighed over a tonne.
And the amazing thing is, is it's still possible for a croc to get this big.
It is possible.
I couldn't imagine catching a croc like this. It'd be no easy feat.
Definitely has a very long history at the zoo and we love him.
This is a life size replica of the Sarcasukous,
the largest crocodilian on the planet.
Quite interesting, different to modern day crocodiles.
They had that sort of tapered snout that looks a bit more like a freshwater
croc, except 40 feet long.
They were huge, massive teeth, a big mouth.
You can literally stand right in his mouth.
Pretty cool.
Welcome to the Australia Zoo Wetlands.
Not only do we have a lot of beautiful birds housed in this area,
but we also have not one, not two, but three sculptures
of the birds' distant relatives, the dinosaurs.
This is the Allosaurus here, a theropod
meaning a three-toed dinosaur.
And these guys are the direct relatives to birds.
It's kind of hard to believe that this fearsome predator
would end up as a chicken or an ibis, but they did.
It's pretty cool. This was actually my sixth birthday gift, and we thought that it'd be great to
build something
because I was absolutely obsessed with dinosaurs and then put it in the zoo
as a bit of a reminder of where birds came from.
Onto the Spinosaurus.
Now, this is a really special one.
This is the largest theropod dinosaur, the largest
terrestrial carnivore to ever walk the Earth.
And they had a head kind of like a crocodile.
It's pretty cool.
And Cameron, our artist, did a great job. Sort of an artist's rendition of how
he thought these guys would be really colourful and bright.
He actually took a bit of inspiration from the local water dragons around here.
And as you can see, this is a protective mother taking care of her eggs.
It's pretty special.
Alright, next one.
And this guy is a Pterosaur.
Pterosaurs were not actually technically dinosaurs.
They were flying reptiles that lived
alongside the dinosaurs and mostly fed on pretty much any little animal.
They could find: fish, small reptiles, maybe even small dinosaurs.
And they're pretty incredible.
They're a bird you don't want to mess with,
and they've got some pretty serious beaks on them as well.
Pretty cool.
The last sculpture that we're looking at today
is actually the first sculpture you see when you come into Australia Zoo.
In fact, Dad made this by hand
with a chainsaw decades ago and it's been
one of our favorite sculptures from day one.
It's pretty incredible.
That he just saw an old log and managed to turn it into a pretty cool crocodile,
and it's definitely
my favorite sculpture here, so I think it's the perfect one to end on.
But thank you so much for joining me today and looking at how our artists
and construction team create the amazing aesthetics of Australia Zoo.
So thanks so much, guys. We'll see you next time.